web novels and illustrations
The girls who met Jon and the Professor at the rendezvous point looked upset, though not about the eight small children and the unconscious girl their guests had brought home. They ushered everyone down the rope ladder, making a harness for the girl and the smallest two boys just as they did for food baskets, without a word.
The kickstarter to print The Germhacht Episode is live! Click to make it happen!
Even really tiny donations will make a print run possible. There are all sorts of nifty rewards up there, so please check it out.
We made the video ourselves this afternoon, and I think I may post the outtakes close to the end of the 30 day kickstarter campaign. There was a lot more in outtakes than in useable content.
I’ll be at New York Comic Con, in the Artist’s Alley this weekend, in booth 06. Please do stop by and say hello! I’d love to meet more of you.
Djaren and the prince began their detention by scraping barnacles in the boat house while the rest of their class practiced calisthenics and archery. The boat house, sadly, was not even down by the water, and the work was sweaty and smelly.
“Your face says you are planning something. Stop,” the prince said.
Continue reading “Chapter Seventeen — Detention and Other Adventures”
So despite the website server getting hacked (what did I ever do to you, Bangledeshi hackers?) and my laptop dying, and having a generally difficult week, the most recent chapter is up! Woo! And the second half is ready too, for next week, so even though I’ll be away at Anime Weekend Atlanta next weekend (come say hi!) that week’s installment will be on time too. Maybe I’ll even build my buffer back a little. Madness. I’m also working on the cover for Germhacht, and am planning a kickstarter campaign to help defray publishing costs. Are there any particular Kickstarter rewards you would like to see offered? Want to have a chance to name a character, or even create one? Just want books? Custom art? An original? T-shirts? Now is the time to suggest stuff you’ve always wanted. So go read the chapter half below and think it over. I’ll be over here painting.
Djaren stood in the boys’ dormitory, surrounded by strangers who were mostly taller than him. They were all staring. A moment of silence stretched, and then a light rap came at the window. It was dark outside, but Djaren could see Kara well enough. He jogged over to the next window down, and opened it. “Hello, Karo! That one is another gentleman’s window, and I gather he’s territorial about it. How about this one for us?”
It was just growing light, and the cave was already abuzz with girls preparing for another day of school when the Professor rose and cleared his throat. “I believe,” he said, wrapping his blanket about himself and addressing Temanava carefully, “that I may need to borrow some sort of shirt. I should like to go into town, I think.”
Continue reading “Chapter Fifteen — The Dark Port of Tairoru”
Gencon was great, other things not so much. We lost a very loved cat, our Tortoiseshell Nuncie, in St. Clairsville Ohio. She escaped the hotel room and ran away without her collar. She was wearing a black harness, but she’s probably escaped that too. If anyone comes by any information on a small female tortie with a half dark half orange face near St. Clairsville, let me know. There is certainly a reward. There is also no way I can get the chapter up this week. We’ve been on the road since last Monday, and the two remaining cats do not like hotels and let us hear about it all night.
I am very tired and looking forward to seeing our new place tomorrow. I miss sleep and I miss my favorite fuzzy distraction from writing more.
Kara hit the ground hard and lost her breath but not her wits. She rolled, avoiding the next hit. She was recognizing her opponent’s tells better, now. Bulo hadn’t been this hard to fight. He’d been strong and slow, and Kara had knocked him down in a swift and insulting defeat that the Red Ropes judged unfair. She hadn’t even crippled him. They were being babies about this. Perhaps it had been unwise, though, to go on and challenge the lot of them to combat in turns.
Continue reading “Chapter Fourteen — Kara and the Red Ropes”
Djaren’s first real qualms began at the heavy, iron-bound school gates. The walls, reasonably tall and fortifiable, were guarded by a single gatekeeper, who closed and locked the doors behind them. The world inside the walls wasn’t terrible. Across a broad lawn, neat paths led uphill to a coral-colored stucco building with two wings, and east and west to stables, vegetable gardens, a banana grove, chicken coops, and low barns. Everything looked orderly, boring, and very neatly kept up. At the distant end of the main building, two boys stood guard under a tree, while a third one climbed lightly up into a school window. Once he’d ascended, the other two took the door in the normal way. Djaren frowned, collecting the memory. Kara should be able to get in here without any trouble. What else did?
Continue reading “Chapter Thirteen — The Mission School and Its Inhabitants”
For a long while it was hard for Jon to tell waking from dreaming, clinging to cold hands and rough plank, terrified of losing the Professor or Tam. The first time he opened his stinging eyes it was dark, and the second blink brought him a world of colorless gray. The ocean spoke, or it didn’t. He was in his bed at home with a fever, then buried in wet snow in the mountains, then fallen into a well. He reached out to find the sides and was on the plank in the sea again, grabbing frantically for the hands of his companions. He found them. The Professor, still lying lifeless, was looking at him with sad, empty eyes.
Continue reading “Chapter Ten — All Are Washed to New Shores”