Saint Soldier hound [Fantasy, 100,000 words] - Editing Draft 3
After fifty years of mysterious decline, magic in the Kingdom of Desheval is on the brink of extinction. Political unrest and a burgeoning industrial revolution threaten the conrol of the noble class. In a desperate attempt to hold onto power, and prolong her own life, the ailing queen sends three young people on a mission to bring magic back. Arnelie, the queen’s granddaughter and member of an elite squad of Royal Messengers, was forced into early retirement after an injury. She is determined to bring magic back to Desheval, save her grandmother’s life, and prove that she is still fit for duty, even if it means making a deal with one of the Deshevali death gods. Koen is an ambitious and sociable foot-soldier. He emigrated from the north as a child to escape a famine, but his feathery wings make it impossible for him to blend into a crowd. Attempting to raise his family out of poverty, he enlisted in the Royal Guard, betraying his culture and leaving his community behind. As the queen’s mission takes him back to his homeland, he finds himself with complicated loyalties, caught between his new friends, a family who no longer speak to him, two cultures and two nations. Miga, a scrappy young mage with an incredible talent for shapeshifting, was one of the last to attend the mage university, or he would have been if he wasn't expelled for helping revolutionaries steal from the school. On the run from the authorities, and now without any magic left, he is stuck in the form of a dog. A chance meeting presents his only opportunity to become human again, or else be treated as nothing more than an animal for the rest of his life. All three have their reasons for wanting to bring magic back to Desheval, but as they embark on their journey they start to realize that some things are beyond individual human control and begin to ask what could a world without magic look like?
Untitled Sequel to Saint Soldier Hound - [Fantasy, 90,000 words] Draft 1 Complete
Arn, Koen and Miga have begun their journey back to Desheval, alongside the wisened mage, Aevin. They hope to use water from the magical spring to save the Queen of Desheval and ease the kingdom into a new less magically-dependent era. Shakri, a Deshevali god of death and unwelcome guest in Arn's head, has other ideas. In the remote north of Ikeiloa, a Deshevali demigod has been born and has fallen gravely ill. What was a Deshevali god doing so far beyond the kingdom's borders? Can Arn, Koen, and Shakri find and save the child before ze dies and the whole of the northern continent suffers the devastation wreaked by a grieving god? Now traveling south alone, Miga and Aevin intend to complete their mission. However, as they board the ship that will take them and the magical spring water back to Desheval, Miga spots a friend on the dock. The strange Ikeiloan child-prophet known only as The Divine has captured Miga's attention since they met at a party in the capital. Now, they finally have an opportunity to actually speak. Unfortunately for both adolescents, they quickly find themselves captured by mercenaries and locked in a ship's storage closet heading far out to sea, away from either of their home nations. The mercenaries are looking for visions of the future and will stop and very little to force the information they need from The Divine. Can Miga and The Divine escape their captors? Why does it seem that the western islands are preparing for war? And what exactly happened back in Desheval while they were gone?
Wauberden College of Integrated Magical Studies, located in Washington State, prepares its students for the AMSAs (Advanced Magical Skills Assessments) while also educating them in related non-magical subjects of their choice, better preparing them to enter the work force as knowledgeable, skilled, and well-rounded members of society.
Course Registration WZR 490- Large Scale Castings: Theory and Applications Instructor: Mage Professor Laurence Sawyer, DSo, Wz, Wc MWF 10:00-10:50AM R 3:00-4:50PM Credits: 5 Mage Professor Laurence Sawyer (co-creator of the Sawyer-Leven Theory of Magical Residue, discoverer of Sawyer’s Law of Magical Energy Decay and inventor of the first Shilling-transport spell) is teaching his first class at Wauberden in three years. This course will cover the theory and safe practice of upper limit scale castings. Students may be from any faculty and any major but must have an in-depth knowledge of and competency in at least one area of magic. They must be familiar with safe casting practices and be prepared for challenging practical and theoretical course work. See instructor for details. Pre-requisites: professor recommendation
In a world where doctors are witches, wizards run the post office, and prophets predict the next turn of the stock market on Wall Street, everyone know that there are only six types of magic: witchcraft, wizardry, sorcery, enchantry, prophesy, and warding. Everyone also knows that there are some things magic simply cannot do, like bring back the dead. At Wauberden College a small group of students, invited to join a special seminar, are about to learn that everything they thought they knew about magic was wrong. There is a seventh magic, one more powerful and more dangerous than the rest. Across the world, it's few practitioners work in secret, nudging the planet and humanity gently from the brink of destruction. For Mage-Professor Laurence Sawyer teaching the next generation of seventh magic practitioners will be greatest challenge of his illustrious career. They must learn to bring back the dead, map the clouds, and hear the memories of an old-growth forest, but more importantly, they must learn to work together. If they fail to learn, well, the tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean are shifting and an earthquake is long overdue.
Recording in Progress [Queer romance]- Draft 1 in progress
After the tour of their third album fell apart in a monumental way, the pop band GHOST is under immense pressure to fix their reputation and generate some good publicity. Bassist Soren Wilkinson is determined not to to rock the boat. He gets to write music and perform with his best friend, GHOST’s lead singer Isla Conner, and if their fans assume that the love songs written about men are based on her experiences and not his, well, now is definitely not the time to correct them.
When their opening act for the east coast leg of their new tour drops out at the last second, Isla calls in a favor in the form of Drew, a virtually unknown singer-songwriter out of Toronto. Drew is aggressively Canadian, painfully genuine, and despite Soren’s initial doubts, a talented musician.
The tour launches Drew into overnight stardom and Soren steps in to help him to navigate the treachery of celebrity life and public scrutiny. Even openhearted, honest-to-a-fault, Drew has secrets he doesn’t want the world to know. As Drew and Soren’s friendship develops into romance, both must decide how much of themselves, and each other, they’re willing to share with the world, and what they’re going to do if they have different answers to the question.
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