TO PRESERVE IS TO DESTROY...
image [https://i.imgur.com/qT0TzO6.png]
...TO DESTROY IS TO PRESERVE.
Art by the very talented Syd Mills.
Hi everyone,
First, thank you for, alternatively, your patience and/or your messages. This has taken a little longer than I'd like, but the next part of this series -- IN SEKHMET'S WAKE -- is now complete. I anticipated making this announcement back in March, but my continual drive for perfection led me to throw that draft out and start over. The good news is that I'm (finally) satisfied with this version of the next part of the series, and I hope you will be, too.
Here's the prospective blurb.
> The year is 2061 and the world is ending. In the city of Geneva, Sabra Kasembe, one-time savior of the world, hones her body and mind for her prophesied apocalypse, unsure whether her dreams paint her as a humane champion of the oppressed or a blood-soaked harbinger of the end. When an explosion rips through central Geneva, her investigation brings her face-to-face with her one-time nemesis-turned-ally Jack Harper.
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> But Jack comes with a warning—that is, if Sabra can trust him. There's a darkness in the heart of Geneva, a web of corporate interests, vicious paramilitaries, and superheroes both living and dead, and Jack doesn't know who he can trust. As Sabra seeks out clues and chases down premonitions, she suspects that the conspiracy is aimed at the heart of her lover, the super-powered robot Revenant—and that letting it come to pass may be Sabra's final chance at averting the greater cataclysm.
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> To avert both ends and defy her own prophecies, Sabra must hone her soul against the line between slaughter and justice, where flinching risks unleashing both herself and Jack against an unsuspecting Geneva. Because she must save Revenant's life, no matter the cost, or Sekhmet will light her love a funeral pyre that will consume not just Geneva but the rest of the Functioning World...
So, where to from here?
Well, presently, my cover artist, Tommy Arnold, is preparing to begin work on the cover for Wake, and I'm still pondering nailing down an editor as my own delay knocked out the choice I had penciled in (if you know any good ones, drop me a line), so, I do not have an ETA just yet. The good news is, I have some other things for you to read while you wait. Some by me, some by friends.
First, two works by myself...
SINGULARIS
> Caleb Cross wanted to get through his senior year as quietly as possible—in the shadow of his best friend Vince and maybe, just maybe, finally, work up the courage to make something out of his neutron star grade crush on his pal Emma.
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> Then, he died. Returned to life as an immortal [Incarnate], Caleb finds himself the latest initiate of an ancient order of warriors whose Pax Systematica grants them abilities that transcend time and space, caught in the middle of an ancient interstellar conflict with the fate of the Earth in the balance. And, perhaps something beyond that, too, a piece in a greater puzzle. Because at the edges of spacetime, the universe is beginning to fray, causality no longer has any meaning, and reality is starting to slip...
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> There are some levels you shouldn’t push beyond, and everyone—and everything—has a limit.
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> A cosmic horror LitRPG inspired by Disco Elysium, Chronicle, and the World of Darkness.
Singularis is a story I've been sitting on for a while. It's an unconventional LitRPG written in homage to a lot of the stories that were influential to me. It is very much a work in progress, and work on it was delayed while I was finishing Wake. Whether I will continue it will probably depend on whether it catches on with people.
TRANSFORMERS: PROMETHEUS
> The year is 2007, and we are not alone. Three months after an unfathomable attack on his military base leaves him as the only survivor, Sergeant Jack Darby struggles to re-acclimatize to civilian life, only for an alien motorcycle to drag him into an aeons-old conflict between two factions of warring alien robots. Their war, our world. My own personal take on the Transformers mythos, built around a spine of the Michael Bay films and a particular reading thereof.
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> Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Transformers: Prometheus is the end result of an idea I had banging around that was sort of this Transformers meets Assassin's Creed thriller, but I could never really get it feeling distinct enough from Transformers to feel good writing it. So, I ended up just doing it as fanfiction, albeit missing some of the wilder ideas from the manuscript outline. The first part is about halfway complete, and I may begin porting it over to Royal Road soon.
...and three works by friends of mine...
A FRACTION OF HIS POWER by eonmikey
> He was the greatest superhero of all time. All that's left now is his shadow.
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> The Affect changed everything. It toppled the old world by granting humans fantastic powers fueled by the collective's emotions. Capes, styled after the superheroes of old, rose to rule over the post-apocalyptic landscape. For nearly a century the Vanguard National, a government of superheroes, has held onto power, led by mythical figures like their founder Metis and the greatest hero of all time, Megajoule. But in the wake of Megajoule's death, their power has become brittle - and might shatter.
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> They desperately attempt to avert their own downfall by clinging to the icons of the past.
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> Book 1 of the Megajoule Series, A Fraction of His Power, follows Gabe, a clone of Megajoule forced to live the life of a criminal mask in Houston. When he stumbles on a senseless massacre, he sets out to discover who's responsible and help the one survivor – the young Mateo – in finding justice. But as he fights for what he believes is right, he starts to unravel a mystery that could topple the capes forever.
Some of you may have read Inheritors, back in the day. A Fraction of His Power is eonmikey's rewrite of that serial into a novel, similar to what I've been doing with the Sekhmet novels. eonmikey is a good friend of mine, and we actually began our weirdly thematically-related but philosophically distinct web serials at the same time. I had the honor of beta reading AFoHP and providing feedback. It is similar to Not All Heroes in a few ways, but also very different. i think the best way of looking at it is that we'd have long discussions about whether Gabe and Sabra would be best friends or hated enemies.
REMARK OF RUIN by Maw_Worm
> After the Great Deluge, a war that flooded the world, violence is the only currency.
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> In small settlements and crumbling ruins people fight for status with Remarks, psychic weapons innate to all humans with powers and appearances as unique as fingerprints.
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> Devon Near is a woman with a problem. She wants to kill the man who killed her father. She wants to leave her backwater town and find somewhere that isn’t governed by “might make right”. But with a Remark so weak that it’s only power is attracting flies, what option does she have other than to rot?
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> Things change, however, when a stranger named Adam comes to town. Adam is powerful. Adam has a mission. And Adam… has a secret.
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> When he reveals that secret to Devon, she suddenly finds herself with the strength (and Remark) necessary to fight. Together, the two of them set out to right the wrongs of this world and destroy the forces that caused the Great Deluge. But power can be intoxicating, and Devon will learn if it’s possible to reach heaven through violence.
I've only just started Remark of Ruin, so I don't have too much to say, but I'm struck by the similar interests Maw_Worm and I have. The idea of whether it's possible to "reach heaven through violence" is a core part of Sabra's journey in the next novel, so, I suspect Remark of Ruin might be dealing with similar ideas, thoughts, and concepts. I've read the first ten chapters and it's interesting and weird.
ALLISON ZERO by Swolle
> Patryk was a skiver, a layabout, a rat living in a squat on the massive space station. After a party he slept somewhere risky, the journey to his temporary home too long. Then Patryk was woken by an open, charitable man named One. A man who gave Patryk a smoke unlike those he saw in the movies.
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> Now Patryk is Allison, the only of her kind on this deep-space welcoming station. And he, or she, is flouting laws in becoming a woman — by imitating.
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> Patryk is Allison. She knows it, fully. And One wants her to take on a job. He wants her to be who she is; to be Allison Zero.
I don't know Swolle very well and, in fact, we've had disagreements in the past -- but I think Allison Zero is an unusual story compared to most of what you'd find on Royal Road, and I think some of my readers might enjoy it, so, hey, give it a look.
And, lastly, as something of a teaser, enjoy a selection of the sonic landscape that helped WAKE cohere.
Zack Hemsey - Soothsayer
Motionless in White - Sign of Life
Bear McCreary - Heeding the Call
The Rescues - Don't Dream It's Over
Halsey - Nightmare
I hope you all find something to enjoy in here! I imagine my next announcement will be when the first chapter of WAKE goes up, which will be as a continuation of this entry, to ensure all of you get notified. Hope life is treating you well, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.