“You’re sure we’ve got them all?” Lucilla asked, perched on the edge of her father’s seat in the Imperial box, gazing down at the colosseum floor.
The sandy stage for the glory of chariot races and the fierce athleticism of wrestling matches, had been transformed into a gruesome display. A wooden platform loomed, its sole p...
2023-04-25 23:40:07 +0000 UTC View PostAs soon as the council of war had ended, training had begun in earnest. By week’s end, the legions had been divided into the northern and southern armies, each with a unique focus. The southern force focused on the new formations, doing unusual drills for marching and quickly aligning in smaller, three-man rows at the sound of a trumpet call. ...
2023-04-23 18:44:48 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum
“The princess came back from Factorium today,” Medb said as she readied their room for the evening.
“I don’t believe the Romans, or I guess Britannians, call the Emperor's daughter a princess,” Cormac said, watching her work.
He was still surprised at how quickly he’d found appreciation for h...
2023-04-20 18:13:32 +0000 UTC View PostOver the last few months, I've been working on trying to improve my writing and working with a new editor (as opposed to just proofreaders and beta-readers), since I've always felt was sometimes both a little too long winded and not good at being descriptive enough. Since I didn't want to slow down the chapters everyone has been getting, I...
2023-04-20 05:01:04 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum
“Did any of you actually see this happen, or is it just gossip?” Decius asked, causing the other men to look back and forth at each other.
“No. We agreed that it was best if we only had one man in the crowd, just in case Ramirus was watching the crowd or they detained everyone for questioning afterward, ...
2023-04-18 16:40:09 +0000 UTC View PostInsula Manavia
Velius wiped the ocean spray off his face and looked at Bomilcar, who stood slightly ahead of him, staring off the front of the galley, resisting the urge to frown. They’d gone back and forth for weeks, but in the end, Velius had to give in. Every trial run they did showed the same thing. They needed to be...
2023-04-16 07:49:24 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum
“This is a terrible idea,” Ky said for the thirtieth time.
“Mmm-hmmm,” Lucilla mumbled quietly.
Surrounded by a half dozen people on the raised platform, a crowd of citizens spread out in front of her, she couldn’t exactly reply, which gave Ky the chance to make his feelings known without her s...
2023-04-13 13:54:28 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum
“We can’t get to the gunpowder,” one of the men said.
Decius frowned. Caesius’s messages had been getting more and more frantic, demanding they get him samples of the explosive powder they’d been hearing about and instructions on how to make it. They had yet to get a man inside Hortensius’s factori...
2023-04-11 17:30:35 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum Docks
“Join the Praetorians, they said,” Mettius Volusa Carantus griped, as water poured off his helmet. “See the Empire, they said. The only part of the Empire I’ve seen is this stinking city. You can’t farm in the fields in weather like this, meaning I could have stayed inside where it was warm and dry. ...
2023-04-10 03:06:43 +0000 UTC View PostFactorium
“I’m looking at this thing, and I’ve gone over every part you had me make, but I’m still not sure what this is actually going to do or how it’s going to completely change the way we work,” Hortensius said, looking at the plans Ky handed him. “Some of it makes sense, but I’m not sure how this is go...
2023-04-06 04:42:35 +0000 UTC View PostCoast, Southern Britain
The galleys cut across the water, slamming into the beach hard, driving up onto the sand. As soon as the boats stopped, men in heavy armor began piling over the sides in twos and fours, quickly crowding the entire beach with hundreds of men.
Another group of legionaries sat across from them, c...
2023-04-03 14:39:11 +0000 UTC View PostEmain Macha, Ériu
“How could you let her live,” Conchobar bellowed, looking from his elevated throne at Llassar.
“Because having her killed would have meant generations of her people trying to undermine the rule of you and your son. The Empire can’t afford to keep legions here indefinitely, and we need as ma...
2023-03-31 02:01:56 +0000 UTC View PostImperial Senate, Devnum
“They’re pirates,” Rotri, one of the Caledonian senators said, his face red, his finger jutting out at the five newly arrived Ulaid senators.
“Us?” Fiacha Sil Fingin, one of the new Ulaid senators said, standing up angrily. “Your people boarded one of our peaceful fishing boats, ki...
2023-03-28 00:29:57 +0000 UTC View PostAs he had every day, the Consul left the command tent after the three men finished going over more options and headed out to tour of the legion camps below, leaving the details of their decisions to Velius and Bomilcar.
Velius admired the Consul’s dedication to the men. He’d known many commanders over the years who preferred to sit wit...
2023-03-24 16:44:25 +0000 UTC View PostI've gotten a bunch of messages asking me about the next Country Roads book, so I thought I'd do a quick update. It's going to be called Elegy and I just hit the mid point of the story in the outline, and hooo-boy, is it a dozy. I can't wait to get to actually writing it so you guys can read it.
I'd hoped to have the next chapt...
2023-03-24 06:01:36 +0000 UTC View PostLegion Camp, North of Glevum
He had to hand it to Velius, Ky thought as he stepped out of his tent and looked west, the man could pick locations. Ky looked over the cliffs towards the blue ocean and the sails below. Although he was several hundred feet back with men and tents between him and the edge, the command tents had...
2023-03-21 02:28:42 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum
“The line must follow a two-degree slope, Lucilla,” Sophus said.
Sophus had explained to her multiple times that it didn’t feel emotions or have feelings like she did, but she could almost hear the exasperation in its voice as she set the page on top of the twelve other rejects and pulled a new ...
2023-03-17 16:14:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe story still has a long way to go before it's finished, but I got way ahead of myself, and have the cover very early this time.
“Hortensius tells me the vats and buildings to contain them should be done in a week’s time,” Sorantius said. “As you expected, the first run of the vats was not as water-tight as you wanted, although the leaks seemed minimal to me.”
“Only because you are thinking of water, which when it leaks simply corrodes the metal and leav...
2023-03-14 02:48:56 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum Docks
Valdar looked up at the hulking ship and marveled. Part of him wondered how anything so ponderous could ever make it in the choppy waters of the western ocean, which was part of the area he’d have to begin protecting. The seas to the west weren’t anything like the channel between the islands and the contin...
2023-03-10 18:18:25 +0000 UTC View PostOver the next week men poured into the capital, more than had migrated even during the original alliance with the Caledonians. Some were previous citizens of the Ulaid or other kingdoms that had fought against the Carthaginians, but most were former subjects of the kingdoms who had joined the Carthaginians instead. Men who’d fought against the...
2023-03-07 23:07:10 +0000 UTC View PostDevnum
Ky looked down the long table, surrounded by all of the military commanders currently on Britannia, as well as Talogren, who had decided to remain for several weeks following the treaty signing, Ramirus, and even Hortensius. It had been more than a month since the defeat of Carthaginian forces in Ériu and the Carth...
2023-03-04 15:43:03 +0000 UTC View PostEmain Macha, Ériu
Llassar sat on the horse he’d borrowed from the king’s stables and watched the king's son ride in tight circles around a course laid out in the fields just outside of town. When he’d finally broken through Conchobar’s distrust and summoned the Roman, now Britannian, legions to deal with the Carth...
2023-03-01 18:28:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe week following Christmas was a whirlwind as we got ready to leave for New York on Friday. It seemed like everyone I knew, or was at least friends with, was going. Besides me and the band, Hanna, Kat, Sydney and her mother, Mom, and Mrs. Phillips, were all going as my personal entourage, which was a weird thing to say but wasn’t far from th...
2023-02-26 15:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostMonday I had just gotten back from school when Kat made her triumphant return with Hanna and her mother in tow, carrying more bags than I remember them leaving with.
“How’d it go?” I asked, helping by taking some of their bags from them.
“Great,” Kat said. “Five gold and three silver.”
“You should have seen her....
2023-02-26 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostI let Vinney check on the guys on the ground and stepped back, partially ’cause they might try something again, and partially because when the sheriff arrived, I didn’t think I should be anywhere near them.
The guy who I knocked out in the beginning woke up a few minutes after Vinney came back outside, but then he proceeded to puke his...
2023-02-26 03:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostMy schedule for the next several weeks became packed, as we put in as many practices as we could between my school schedule and performances at the Blue Ridge. I even canceled most of my training with Chef, although he insisted I still come by at least three days a week, to keep my conditioning up. I agreed, although they’d be after the dinner...
2023-02-25 15:10:48 +0000 UTC View PostMy night with Sydney had been mind-blowing. It had also been funny, awkward, confusing, and a whole host of other adjectives, but they all came together into something I’d never forget. We’d fumbled a lot, but in the end, we both just wanted to make the other happy. I think maybe that was why we were both so happy when I finally left, it was...
2023-02-24 15:45:40 +0000 UTC View PostWhile it was great spending all of Thanksgiving with Hanna, her mother, and Kat, it was also kind of a bummer. It was the first major holiday I’d spent without Mom, and I really missed her. I knew she was sitting in the trailer, eating the meal she’d made for both of us, and I knew it was probably her worst Thanksgiving ever. It took all of ...
2023-02-24 05:35:01 +0000 UTC View PostI was practically flying as I drove home from the courthouse. I was finally free. I couldn’t believe it. Even Dad’s last attempt to attack me in the courtroom didn’t throw off my good mood. In fact, it made it better. He was going to be in jail and I wouldn’t have to deal with him for a while. I did feel bad for Mom. She had no one now. ...
2023-02-23 06:59:05 +0000 UTC View Post