Another month come and gone. July moved quickly, unlike Imperial Heart, which is now at 80% complete on its first draft. The book is really shaping up. I think its some of my best work yet. While I’m behind my goals, it’s definitely rounding the final stretch!

Most of the month was spent on travel. July is a great month to get out of Florida and visit family up north. The kids had a blast. We haven’t gotten many places this year, its hard with little kids, but we’re excited to do more now that number two is walking.

Progress on Crystal Empire has been slow and not very steady. Work’s been a bit of a mad dash lately, and it’s been harder to get back into this crystalline state of mind. We did hit 73% of the projected word count with about 10 chapters left in the outline. I have a feeling Imperial Heart is going to come in a bit above its planned 100,000 words.

We’re also making some progress on the Constellara Project’s first anthology. I’m excited to be lauching a few sample stories on the website. We’ve created a Patreon for anyone interested in sponsoring the project!

Set hundreds of years before the events of The Crystal Empire, witness a dark truth buried under a millenium of secrets.

The full version of The Shadow is available on Patreon

Danen opened his eyes to a splitting pain in his head and blinked blearily through tears in the bright morning sun. That was a bad sign for how his day was going to go. Rolling himself up out of the puddle of sewage and rainwater he’d made laying his tired, emaciated bones down to rest last night, he realized he recognized the alley, and even remembered choosing it last night because he could stop at Rose’s for a drink when he woke. Silver linings there.

The Exile was first published in December 2024. This story is set in the world of Crystal Empire.

The Exile

Turquoise, Reign of the Second 994th God Emperor

The gentle rocking of the little wooden rowboat in the lake along with the soft splashing of oars in the water that evening was almost relaxing. It had been two months since escaping the Labyrinth, and tonight was normally the night of the Turning. Nobody was quite sure what to expect this evening, and Mal was just as ignorant as everyone else on this side of the Wall. He rested in between the boat’s first two benches, back against the hull, watching the stars and listening to the lapping of the water. Once, he would have gleefully dozed off in a boat like this, but sleep did not come easy lately.

For your reading pleasure is an early look into an early chapter of The Crystal Empire, my upcoming epic fantasy project. It is a rought draft, and things will likely change between this and the published version.

This chapter is the first from the perspective of our heroine, Demara, and serves as an introduction to world beyond the Wall, a wild edge of the world known as the Fringe.