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DWinchester

DWinchester

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Death After Death PLUS 318-320

Ch. 318 - Someplace New

The road continued, and four days after they left Ifrin’s Crossing, they reached the foothills that marked the true borders of this Kingdom. Charia and Brin might end and begin at the river they’d crossed so recently, but the culture didn’t change noticeably until they reached the first moun...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 132-134

Side note, but I finished writing book 3 this week. On to book 4! How does it end? I guess we'll have to find out in a month or two...

Ch. 132 - An Impasse

The Iron City was a collection of smithies, warehouses, and cages. There were no homes to speak of. The closest anything came to that were long barracks filled...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 184-185

Ch. 184 - Restless Peace

For the better part of the next week, things were mostly quiet. A few more nobles died, but this time neither Lucas nor anyone in his employ had anything to do with it. He was so enchanted with his fiancée that he barely paid attention, and unless a couple of assassins paid him a visit one night...

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Death After Death PLUS 315-317

Ch. 315 - Hero of the Day

After his orb disappeared into the darkness above, Simon sat just where his doppelgänger had been a moment before and waited. Instead of reflecting on that strange disconnect between the man and his aura or even the irony that he was sitting exactly where the other man had been sitting a few mi...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 129-131

Ch. 129 - Heart of Fire

“Me?” the Ebon Blade asked. “A sword can do nothing alone, but with the right wielder, anything may be accomplished.”

The group of souls debated those ideas for a time, and the Ebon Blade was able to bring several around to its way of thinking, just by emphasizing the glory of battle...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 182-183

I don't want to spoil anything, but in the spirit of making sure people don't renew their patron subscriptions more than they need to, I will say that this book is only a few weeks from ending. While I love the note the story ends on, it makes me want to write another trilogy picking up where it left off after I edit the series.

You'll see...

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Death After Death PLUS 312-314

Ch. 312 - The Long Way

Despite his hurry to leave Hepollyon, Simon was in no hurry to arrive in Ionar. That urgency had been caused by the growing discomfort of trying to live a life that wasn’t his anymore more than any tight timelines. He still had more than a year before the volcano was due to erupt. 

So,...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 126-128

Ch. 126 - Lost

Inch by inch, the blade was buried in filth. While it stood there, unused and embedded in the stone, the tiny demons built a terrible sort of nest around it, and then multiplied inside that ugly thing like evil wasps. The blade hadn’t been able to keep track of the passage of time very well up until now ...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 180-181

Ch. 180 - Watch Out

Mage ambushes aside, on some level, Lucas felt safest when he was riding down a dark road at night. Given the number of monsters in this world that was crazy, of course, but he believed it just the same. Out here he might get attacked by a goblin or a giant spider; a freaking owlbear might even try to...

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Death After Death PLUS 309-311

Ch. 309 - Uprooted

After over a decade and a half in Ordanvale, Simon finally decided to leave and journey south to see the Oracle in her mountain-top city. He wasn’t looking forward to explaining who he was again for the third time, but he had to; it was the only place where he was likely to get answers about what he ...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 123-125

Ch. 123 - Smoldering Embers

When the tide of bottle up evil thinned into a fog, they strode forward. Now the blade could study the details of the plain stone corridor and its rotted contents, and even without any obvious signs of violence, it could see that something was very wrong with the place. 

While it st...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 178-179

Ch. 178 - What to Do

Seconds later, the two men succumbed, and he and Lord Torvin were all but alone amidst the limp bodies of his rivals. “Going straight for the throat, huh?” Lucas asked as he set his glass down. 

“I only did what I learned from you,” Lord Torvin answered. “I’m surprised you noti...

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Death After Death PLUS 306-308

Ch. 306 - A Stranger

Simon had been in Ordanvale for more than half a decade when he saw someone he was sure was part of the Unspoken for the first time. He was hardly the first stranger. There had been so many travelers and peddlers that Simon could hardly hope to count all of them. There had been tax collectors and nob...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 120-122

Ch. 120 - The Songstress

Lucian fell from the sky like a bloody comet, and as he did, the blade absorbed souls all along the way, devouring the lesser ones as best it could. There would be no survivors in the meatgrinder that the building had become, and through the archmage and whoever else had occupied the eighth floor...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 176-177

Ch. 176 - Muted Celebration

No matter how much neither of them wanted to let go of each other, eventually they did, if only because Lucas was absolutely dead on his feet. Together, they went inside where Lucas was given porridge and tea. That’s when he broke the news to Danaria, Kar’gandin, and every servant that hap...

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Death After Death PLUS 303-305

Ch. 303 - Further Experimentation

Despite Simon’s near miss with the orb, he was undeterred. While it was fun to improve the lives of those in Ordanvale, and that summer he opened up a copper mine after a goblin purge one valley over from the small town, his focus continued to be on his own experiments. Indeed, now tha...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 117-119

Ch. 117 - A Real Challenge

There were no other hunters or divine attacks in the days that followed that terrible night. The Ebon Blade and its wielder made good time and defaced two more small waystones, further altering the magical landscape, making it look like they were going to go south when they were, in fact, about...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 174-175

Ch. 174 - The Perfect Ambush (part 2)

Lucas fell end over end for several seconds before he stabilized his fall. That gave him just enough time to decide how he wanted to land but not enough time to come to grips with the fact that he was probably going to break every bone in his body. Endurance potion, don’t fail ...

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Death After Death PLUS 300-302

Wooooo! Chapter 300! What a milestone. I love it.

It's amazing how quickly stories add up if you just keep going. If you go this far, thanks for reading!

Ch. 300 - Field Research

As the winter progressed, Simon lost himself in his research. That wasn’t enough to bind him to the town he found himself, of co...

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Tenebroum is Complete... For Now...

Today, Tenebroum Book 5 is now available, in its final form on Amazon in print and e-book. 2025-08-04 20:36:29 +0000 UTC View Post

The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 114-116

Alright, we are back to three chapters a week, with (hopefully) no further commercial interruptions. Thank you for your patience!

Ch. 114 - The First Link

Part of the Ebon Blade expected another massive pillar of fire to appear the moment they approached the first standing stone, but that didn’t happen. There wer...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 172-173

Ch. 172 - The Tolling Bell

The bell rang nine while Skylara was getting ready, increasing Lucas’ anticipation. He felt more like bait than a dragon slayer, but he was committed now. It’s not as if he could just bail. Heisenburgle would have no way to see his target. He was trusting that Lucas would have her standing ...

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Death After Death PLUS 297-299

Ch. 297 - A Short Delay

Simon spent the rest of the night hacking the little green monsters to pieces. He was in no hurry, even from the beginning, before the grim work exhausted him. Why should he be in a hurry? With the collapse of the other two tunnels he’d found, he was reasonably sure that the only way out was thr...

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Continuity, and Other Topics

So first, let me preface this post by saying I'm just fine. To the best of my knowledge, I'm in perfect health. That said, last week I had a sort of thought-provoking scare.

One night after a dinner of chicken and fried rice, I was slammed with one of the worst migraines of my life. Easily the worst one I had in a decade. Fortunately, my ...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 112-113

I'm making a post about it in a couple of days, but just to let everyone know, I plan to resume posting this story three times a week next week or the week after. While I will still be posting Brewing Bad for a couple of more months, it is now written, allowing me to focus on two books, and my ongoing editing projects. Thank you for your patienc...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 170-171

Ch. 170 - Last Chance

They reached the River Palace a few hours before dawn, which was even bigger than he imagined it to be. He’d heard both Heisenburgle and Skylara describe it in passing as a lesser palace or a vacation spot of the prince, but neither did it justice. The thing was too elaborate to be called a castle...

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Death After Death PLUS 294-296

Ch. 294 - Never Alone

For the first few minutes, Simon just enjoyed the change of scenery. As the distant rumble of the volcano faded along with the portal, he listened to the sound of rain softly pelting the leafy canopy above him. It both felt and smelled like peace, and he decided right away, as he pulled his cloak up...

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The Blood-Stained Blade Ch. 110-111

Ch. 110 - Impact

The young mage fell silently and invisibly from his perch toward the hard ground below. He tried to struggle and squirm, but the blade held him, twisting his body only slightly so that he made two full revolutions before landing on his feet.

When he hit the ground, the only evidence that he passed ...

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Brewing Bad Ch. 168-169

Ch. 168 - A Dangerous Liaison

‘My dearest Mr. Blue,’ the letter began. ‘I can see now that I might have been hasty in judging you. Perhaps we can arrange a rapprochement, and in time, perhaps more will come of it. I look forward to dancing with you again soon, Dutchess Skylara.’

It was a short memo, but the...

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Death After Death PLUS 291-293

Ch. 291 - Experiments 

Simon went hunting that afternoon, but more to practice with his bow than for the food. He was planning to stay for a couple more days to trace runes and dig through the wealth of knowledge he’d collected. A deer would have been too much for that, so he’d been hunting for a rabbit or perha...

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