Arcana Imperii

     Hand-carved obsidian and ivory chess pieces battled across solid silver and gold fields on a board detailed with blazing phoenixes. The intricate board held plenty of fascination for young Archel, who gawked over it hungrily. However, Archel’s true interest lay in understanding the movements of each magnificent piece.

     “Wait. Why did you do that? I thought that prawns could only move forward or take diagonally,” Archel said.

     “En passé,” Fintan answered.

     “An pass, say what?” Archel asked.

     “‘En passant’ is the name of the move,” the Kaiser corrected.

     “Potatoes,” the old bard replied.

     “Fintan. I had the impression you were teaching the boy.”

Caveat Cadaver

     Private Richard Machine came out of the latrine thankful he’d made it in time. The 20 minute ride back to Camp Polkner had been bumpy; at times he’d cursed his luck certain he’d explode. Machine swore he’d lay off the hard liquors; it always soured his stomach the next day. Since the crisis was over, he decided to stop at Geedunk to pick up some hangover foods. There was no telling how long it’d take the commander to get on site and they’d missed both breakfast and lunch. Besides, the chow hall wouldn’t open again until 6pm and that was too long to wait. Fortunately, Geedunk was on the way off base, which meant he could hit it up and be back before West killed the prisoner. 

Author's Note

Blink.
In that split second of darkness nothing changed.
Blink.
A billion seconds equals 31.69 years. I'm 35. I'm over a billion seconds old. Great. Now, I feel old.
Blink.

Announcing Terra Damnata

The next adventure? It starts 31 October 2015!

After years of work, my first novel is nearly ready. Terra Damnata will be blogged weekly, beginning 31 October 2015, in honor of all the bloggers around the world who have died speaking out against injustices.

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Terra Damnata follows the struggle of Archel, a servant to the Antigone Courts, who is thrust into the political maelstrom of a changing kingdom. Sent to Kaiser Rudolpho Imler, Archel finds his life is about to become more interesting than ever before imagined. With werecats, teleporters, and genetically mutating Gryphon Kings this post-apocalyptic fantasy series delves into civilization centuries after the nuclear fallout settles.

Terra Damnata is Book 1 of The Pu'Shing Bhu'Tons Series.