the fiction and faith of P. Todoroff
“April is the cruelest month…”
Wife and I finally got Covid. (Happy Easter, eh?)
I’m on the mend but it really took the wind out of my sails. After-effects are hanging on.
On a positive note, it looks like there’s another Osprey rule book in my future. So that’s cool.
Fiction-wise, I’ve got another Exclusion Zone short in the queue and Shattered Worlds Book 2, “Into the Scorned Lands’ is moving forward.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Stay well. Have an excellent week.
Laying out my writing schedule for rest of this year, it’s past time to turn my attention back to the fantasy post-apocalypse of the Shattered Worlds. (think Middle Earth meets the The Road and you’re in the right neighborhood)
Part One, Beneath the Broken Moon, introduced Addas Dashag, the half-breed scavenger thrown into a damaged landscape in search of a dubious refuge. Next up is Into the Scorned Lands as the misfit company continues on their quest through a world more broken and dangerous than they’d imagined.
Scorned Lands will be released separately for Kindle as well as packaged with part one in print. (see the cover art above) Providing the river don’t rise, the cattle don’t spook, and hell don’t freeze over, both will be done and out before the year’s end.
Thanks for your time.
Keep heart, art hard, and have an excellent day.
I hope you’re safe and well in the midst of what increasingly resembles a plot from a dystopian sci fi novel. Despite this present strangeness, I’m pleased to announce Shattered Worlds Book One, Beneath the Broken Moon is now available.
“Took long enough,” you say. Yes, it did. There’s a story behind that too, but I’ll spare you. It’s done now and the ball is rolling again.
Book Two, Into the Scorned Lands is slated for release later this year, also as an ebook. If sales merit, I’ll combine both in a print version.
In other writing news, the table top war games , Hardwired, the TST Expansion, and Zona Alfa all continue to do well. In fact, the Stalker7 Facebook Group for Zona Alfa has grown to nearly 550 members since its inception in January, 2020. If you’re a miniature painter, table top gamer, or interested in narrative war games, feel free to drop by the Stalker7.com site for more information. If you’re into those things already and the idea of cyberpunk or Russian-flavored post-apocalyptic skirmish wargames appeals to you, request to join the group and mention you saw it here.
Thank you all for your patience and support. More news as it comes.
Stay safe. Art hard. Enjoy life.
Gnolls… never underestimate Gnolls. Especially after the apocalypse.
Bit of writing news for the new year.
I’ve decided to alternate fiction projects in 2017. My first and main effort continues to be the post-apocalypse fantasy novel Shattered Worlds, (currently hammering out Act II, Into the Scorned Lands) while the second, ‘mistress project’, is a straight up military science fiction novella presently titled Zombie 6.
Focused on a spec-ops team ordered to support the embattled Colonial Administration Security forces on the mining colony Mèng Tiān, Zombie 6 will be offered free here on HSSJ as it progresses. I have added a tab to the top header menu. The first three chapters are up already and I plan on posting new ones bi-weekly. I’m getting a kick out of where the story is taking me and I hope you enjoy it as it develops too. Feedback is welcome and comments are always appreciated.
In other fictional realities, the second Eshu International book, Shift Tense is now available in print. You can pick up a copy here at Amazon. For whatever reason, reviews for the Kindle version have not, are not, (will they ever?) carrying over to the print listing, so would some of you nice folks who have read Shift Tense fire off a few lines or Copy-n-Paste your Kindle review so it doesn’t look so forlorn there? Thank you very much.
Finally, thank you all for your continued support. The older I get the more convinced I am success is defined by creativity, community, and contribution more than anything else. I’m fortunate to have such excellent family, friends, and fans. Thank you and happy new year.
Eresh’s Chimney looked like a mud castle made by a giant. A mish-mash of crude bricks, rough boulders, and hewn beams the thickness of tree trunks, the spire gnarled its way skyward, knobby, crooked, and enormous.
There was a single entrance at the ground level, two massive doors of stone. They were the color of storm clouds and seemed to take forever to open.
The sun had started its drop toward the western edge of the horizon when Levi, Gibs and Addas watched Snat delicately unwrap a leather bundle of long wire instruments and with a wink, get to work on the mechanism. “Have us in before you can say ‘Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.'”
Twenty minutes later, he was still fussing with it with his tools, but muttering in goblin under his breath.
Levi steeped up behind him and peered down over his shoulder as he worked. “Legend has it that lock was fashioned by Völundr himself, sort of a payback to Eresh for helping him escape an island where he’d been imprisoned. Cunning genius that he was, I’ve read the smith crafted such things looking in a mirror. That way, spying eyes would be hard pressed to understand, let alone copy the secrets of his trade. Perhaps if you imagined yourself inside the lock—”
“Credentialed in gobermouch before the Shattering, were you?” the goblin snapped. “Cause you’re a bit mouthy to have been a picklock.”
“Ah, it’s just we should gain entrance before the sun sets. While there’s still light, you see.”
“I see.” The goblin gritted his teeth, put one pointed ear against the lock plate. “If you’d quite yammering. I’m—” A grin. A soft click. “There!” He tugged gently. The massive stone door whispered open.
Snat knelt and wrapped his tools back up. “In you go,” he nodded. “While it’s still light.”
Hot Space Station Justice 