This content is for tier 3+ patrons only.
If you've reached this page by any other means, then taking what's here is no different than visiting a pirate site. The stories here are on sale on Amazon.
I will be adding new material here on a semi-regular basis.
These .mobi files can be read on Kindle or on your phone/PC using the free Kindle app.
The PDF and WORD files should be readable just by clicking on them.
The process for getting .mobis onto your Kindle is well documented online. It's pretty easy by all accounts.
If you like the books/stories, don't forget to give them some stars on Goodreads!
The Chinese Room
This is a contemporary fiction book with an AI theme (so technically scifi too). I really need feedback on this one, so it you read it, please let me know what you thought of it.
Solomon - short story - Jorg story
This is a 5,500 word short story starring Jorg Ancrath - the 4th Jorg story I've written. It appeared in the anthology Unbound II, published in 2022.
It's set during his time living in the Renar Highlands.
About Pain - short story - Library trilogy #1.7
This is a 6,000 word short story that is associated with the Library trilogy, ideally read between books 1 and 2, but no harm to read before THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN
It features Livira, Clovis and Volente from the trilogy and a number of new characters.
Returns - short story - Library trilogy #1.6
This is a 8,000 word short story that is associated with the Library trilogy, ideally read between books 1 and 2, but no harm to read before THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN
It features Livira, Yute and Wentworth from the trilogy and a number of new characters.
The New World - Prologue - Red Queen's War Sequel.
This is the prologue to the sequel I started writing to the trilogy. The first chunk of that is to be found in The New World novella (see down the list). This is the prologue that makes sense later after their sea crossing.
Note - the 'natives' and 'savages' (Jalan's words) are the descendants of modern day Americans and are not the native Americans of history.
Overdue - short story - Library trilogy #1.5
This is a 12,000 word short story that is associated with the Library trilogy, ideally read between books 1 and 2, but no harm to read before THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN
It features Yute and Wentworth from the trilogy and a number of new characters.
I ,Hubert - the 1st 10 chapters
The first 10 chapters of a sci-fi comedy novel I wrote in 2023. Currently it's out with my agent looking for some publisher love.
It takes some inspiration from the 70s classic sci-fi film "Silent Running".
If you've got feedback on this one - hit me with it!
The New World - a Jalan and Snorri novella (goodreads link)
Originally the start of a new Jalan book (after The Red Queen's War trilogy), I took the start and made it into a novella to include in the special edition omnibus. The book itself is about 1/3rd written. I'm not sure when/if I'll get back to it. I do love writing Jalan, but he's not one of my most commercial characters, and I've got to eat! The novella covers a sea voyage to America.
Gunlaw - a weird western (goodreads link)
A complete fantasy book. Written during the publication of The Broken Empire, so around 2012. My agent felt it was too large a departure from the trilogy that had brought me to the readers' attention. So I wrote Prince of Fools afterwards rather than a followup to this one. Technically ... a weird western. Gunslingers, hex witches, dogmen, minotaur, trains that run further than you can imagine ... Mikeos Jones is a gunslinger, faster than thinking, part of the gunlaw, a man who can seldom afford the luxury of looking past the end of any given day. Jenna Crossard is a hex-witch, but her ambitions are larger than spells and charms - the need to understand the world consumes her. They say the gunlaw keeps men safe from the endless horror of the sect, but to Jenna it's a cage and she wants out. If that means breaking open the world and killing a few gods ... so be it.
Blood of the Red - a more traditional fantasy (goodreads link)
The fantasy novel I wrote before Prince of Thorns.
It's 20 years old now! But I had a good time writing it and I think it's a fun read.Darker Tide - horror with strong SFF (goodreads link)
A lot of my stuff strays towards horror. I wrote this after I'd finished Book of the Ancestor.A quick read - very definitely at the shortest end of the book scale.This was written to demonstrate a proposed video game mechanism, and as such focuses on the idea and on action. But I hope it's also a fun, potentially unnerving read!It's set in the 80s (like my Impossible Times trilogy) and has lashings of SFF content. Currently my highest rated book - because so few people have read it!
The Devil You Know - three short stories
These three stories are bundled together for arcane reasons concerning Amazon's royalties structure - they are not connected. The stories are:The Devil You Know - A Book of the Ancestor short story that has never appeared before. It's set immediately after the end of book 1, Red Sister.The Hero of Aral Pass - A Red Queen's War short story that sheds more light on the events in Aral Pass that made Jalan Kendeth into a hero. Primarily focused on events before book 1, Prince of Fools, but the framing story is set after the trilogy concludes. This story first appeared in the anthology Art of War.A Thousand Years - A Red Queen's War story that concerns Snorri and Tuttugu when they were just starting out as young warriors. The events happened ~20 years before the start of book 1, Prince of Fools. This story first appeared in the anthology Unfettered III.
Free Short Stories I have on Amazon
These aren't a Patreon-specific freebie, but I'll list them here in case you didn't know about them.
During the Dance is, in my view, perhaps my best short story. It packs a lot of emotion into 2000 words. Written around the time my daughter, Celyn, was born profoundly disabled and it seemed likely she would die. The Visitor is a second story inspired by Celyn, but this time wanting to give severe disability some representation in fantasy. The story first appeared in George RR Martin's Wild Cards series, in the book Knaves Over Queens. There's a free follow-up, The Visitor: Kill or Cure, on Tor.com. During the Dance on Goodreads
The Visitor on Goodreads
The Visitor: Kill or Cure on Goodreads
Jacob's Ladder - incomplete, epic grimdark
This was something I started around the time I wrote Red Sister. It was a "possible" but in the end I chose to pursue Nona's adventures.People call me a grimdark author, but The Broken Empire was the only really dark trilogy I've written. I don't think I'd get that moniker if any of my other trilogies was the first one to be published for me.Jacob's Ladder is the most grimdark thing I've written since Jorg's story. There are only 7 chapters of it so far, and I hope to come back to it one day. There's a central idea / twist / mystery that's revealed in these chapters, and I think it's a good one with bags of potential.Have a read and let me know what you think.
Memory - a thriller - real world, not fantasy
This was another something I started around the time I wrote Red Sister. I was well ahead of my deadlines and contracts, but I can't self-publish in SFF (contractually I have to offer SFF to my current publishers, and then it would become part of the schedule that's too slow for me) - so I tried a new genre.This one didn't find a buyer - publishers said it didn't fit the structure/template of the standard thriller. I haven't self-published it as I don't know how good it is, and I'm not sure there's much a self-published market for thrillers. Plus I don't have a following in that demographic, so finding readers would be an uphill struggle.I'm eager to get some feedback and see what readers think of it.
Thaw - A Book of the Ancestor short story
Aiki Flinthart contacted a bunch of fantasy writers after she became terminally ill with brain cancer. She wanted to put together an anthology. And she did! Relics, Wrecks & Ruins was a passion project for her, and a day after it was published, she died.Aiki had one of her own novels entered into the SPFBO that year (it was a semi finalist), and I was one of the authors she asked to contribute. I wrote a Nona story for the occasion. Here it is!
Zero - the first 4 chapters of a new book I started
Every time I finish a trilogy there comes a period of 'noodling' where I write the start to a book and maybe sell my publishers on buying a new trilogy based on it, or maybe write another start and offer them that.This was a noodle aimed at following up my sci-fi start with 47 North, something closer to YA than Impossible Times was.It's possible that one day I might return to it. Especially if people find it here and tell me they want more.
Dark Tide - short story where the idea for the book Darker Tide (see above) was born (goodreads link).
I honestly can't remember what led to this story. I guess it's associated with the start and end of the day when the sun gets low and every hollow / depression fills with shadow and it looks like they might actually be filled with a liquid darkness. The idea that springs from that is: what it it got deeper like a rising tide rather than continuing as the generally greying that actually occurs. What if it really was like a tide?
Morality Tale - Jorg short story from Broken Binding Special Edition
Not sure how this ended up titled "The Donkey" in the special edition, but this is the title I had it under in my files. This is here for those of you who treat special editions like holy relics and won't read them. If you haven't bought the special edition - go do that! If it's sold out, then I guess you can read this with a clear conscience.This is actually a section from inside a longer Jorg story that I started and then abandoned (not everything I try works!) - but this piece stands well on its own as a very short, short story. It tells you a lot about our friend Jorg in rather few words.
Brevity - 118 page collection of my non-book short stories
I've been writing short stories for a long time. Some of these are pushing 20 years old. Some are quite new. None of them are related to my published books. Back in the day when I was learning how to write I used short stories for practice. I sent a lot of these to magazines and some were published (under pseudonyms) for $20 here $40 there.It's a mixed bag: work I'm proud of, work that was where I was writingwise at the time. I thought I'd throw it all together in a pile of miscellany. At least I know where to find it now! I hope you find some tales to enjoy.
Bound - a Nona story, Book of the Ancestor 2.5 (goodreads link)
A Nona short story, intended to fit between Grey Sister and Holy Sister. Fills in some background on Nona and Arabella.
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