Richard was not amused.
Which made the laughter all the more satisfying. Rhi must have thought so as well, as she hadn't killed me yet. The fires of her throne danced with each chortle. I wiped the gritty tears from my eyes, glancing at the rest of my companions. Meredeath and Tandy were not amused.
Leo, however, ...
2025-08-13 16:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostI wanted to talk about the second arc in Stumbling Up. A lot has happened since we met our trio of losers and their slimy friend. But spoilers ahead... if you're not caught up to Chapter 43 STOP reading :)
They beat a [Corrupt] guardian, faced down Cole's family, and took on Rhi Voss herself. We've had some larger reve...
Good day to you all! I am dropping a note about upcoming events in August.
First - On August 19th at 7 pm CST/8 pm EST, I'll be taking over ChattinStats to interview Doug Lohse on his series Elsewhere. This will be live on https://www.youtube.co...
The howling grew louder, but I didn't see any hounds.
Meredeath and I struggled to pull Leo out of the reeds. Finally, we had him jump butt first onto the reeds, effectively distributing his weight.
"Where are they? I can't see any of them," Tandy sounded frantic, as the [Corrupt] water hounds sounded like they ...
2025-08-11 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostWe started moving again, this time much slower.
I eyed Richard on his perch. This time, he avoided my look, not because he was ashamed of us, but because he didn't want to answer any questions about his relationship with Rhi. Instead, he sat, indignant head forward, tentacles stretched out as though he were leading us h...
2025-08-10 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostI never expected to survive the [Trial Dungeon], but I was still surprised when I realized we were all about to die. To be fair, Richard had warned us about Rhi Voss. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't really blame him this time.
"Uh, guys, what are we going to do?" I asked, proud that my voice wasn't shaking.
Leo...
2025-08-08 14:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostSilence.
I didn't realize until that moment how much noise Richard created in my head. Like his slime, his thoughts tended to get in everything.
I'd fought my whole life for silence.
When I was a kid, I fought so hard for my own time, my own space. We never had enough of either. I'd go out in the woods try...
2025-08-07 15:47:09 +0000 UTC View Post
I wanted to give a formal thanks to all of you who are coming along on this ride with me. Did you know that a group of slugs is called a cornucopia? Well, congratulations, you're part of the Cornucopia now :).
Being an author has been a lifelong dream for me. I wrote a truly awful Dragon Riders of Pern-Knights of the R...
Tidemaws are giant leviathans who sit in river deltas and salt marshes. They slowly burrow into the ground, expanding their bodies and control over the local water. The creatures get their names because they can influence the tides, drawing prey in or pushing potential predators out. Our tidemaw was a giant among leviathans, ...
2025-08-05 20:25:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe thing about a skill that triggers on death is that there's no great way to test it.
The real problem is that the description of the skill was pretty frustrating:
[Cheat Death] is a passive skill that automatically triggers you to cheat fatal damage once per day. The methods of cheating death vary. Use at you...
2025-08-04 16:33:46 +0000 UTC View Post"I'm not giving you Miss Chopportunity unless you tell me what you're going to do with her." Leo held his [Enchanted Axe of Singing] close, petting it lovingly.
Damn it. There was no way he'd give me his axe if I told him what I was actually going to do with it. I had to come up with an alternative plan.
"You're ...
2025-08-03 04:37:57 +0000 UTC View Post"It bit me! Oh my god, I'm going to die."
I don't know what I'd been dreaming, but Meredeath's panicked voice pumped adrenaline through my veins. I grabbed my hammer, triggering the [Molten] effect. The loft flared with light, blinding us all. Shit.
"What is it? I can't see anything." Leo's voice was loud, and I ...
2025-08-02 00:01:12 +0000 UTC View Post"So this is your childhood bedroom?" Meredeath asked, as we sat stretched out in the loft of the barn. The gambrel roof sat above us with several murals sketched out in grease and paint. "It's not what I would have imagined."
I blushed. Meredeath struck me as a refined city girl. She probably couldn't imagine growing up...
2025-07-31 16:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post[Your Mom's Party] huddled in the corner, trying to formulate a plan while the 'dungeon monsters' ignored us.
"Why did you have to tell them?" I whined.
"Sorry, man, but it just slipped out. He was eying my axe, and well, you were going to have to tell them sooner or later." Leo was right, the idiot.
One of ...
2025-07-30 20:53:45 +0000 UTC View PostI hadn’t been home in months.
I had my reasons.
My family homestead had been one of the first successful farms in the early settlement days of Woodsten. My surname, Thornfield, had been earned. My parents had scratched out an existence from the dust and weeds. They'd lived in a sod house with my eldest sister, F...
2025-07-30 20:40:59 +0000 UTC View PostRichard had a long string of very bad days. Today wasn't one of them.
"And what does my little banana slug think?" Rhi Voss asked in a cutesy voice as though Richard was nothing more than a stuffed animal.
"Mrhble," he moved his lips at an approximation of speech. They'd established over the course of many years ...
2025-07-30 19:39:41 +0000 UTC View Post"Happy berth-day, Leo! Whar's Tandy?" Cole's voice rattled around Leo's head like a fly in a compost bin.
Where was Tandy? This was his twenty-fifth birthday, and even with her schedule and business, she should be here.
"Oh, thar she is!" Cole said as he fell off the bed. Tandy waved noncommittally from the corner...
2025-07-30 19:37:01 +0000 UTC View Post"That... them... Artie's sh-uch a fo-ole," the woman said as she took another long draft from a brown glass jug. She stumbled as she walked behind the rows of fancy houses with their fancy windows lit by beeswax candles. She snorted, to whom nobody knows. There was something amusing about people shut in their boxes, staying s...
2025-07-30 19:33:22 +0000 UTC View Post“So, can someone tell me what the big deal about Rhi Voss is? She’s a witch?” Meredeath asked, as we walked away from the crater of our last adventure.
I beat Tandy to the punch, "We will, if you explain a little more about coming from another world."
"Yeah, is that why you need a [Sponsor] and the rest of u...
2025-07-30 18:25:03 +0000 UTC View Post"So now what?" Leo asked the question we were all thinking.
"Now, Richard tells us where we need to go to find Meredeath a [Sponsor]," I said it with more confidence than I felt.
We all looked at Richard. He was very resolute in his study of an ashy leaf on the ground. The slug wouldn't meet our eyes.
"Richa...
2025-07-30 18:12:01 +0000 UTC View Post[You have chosen [Dead Wrong] for your [Adventurer] class. [Cheat Death], [Alive, For Once], [Analyze], and [Improvised Damage] have been granted. You will retain [Party], [Stillpoint], [Heartbeat], [Partial Rapport], [Companion], and [Minor Manipulate Slime] as part of your [Adventurer] base class. Legacy skills [Hammer Time...
2025-07-27 18:11:02 +0000 UTC View PostI woke up. Guess I'll take that win.
Bear Ridge needed a new name. Corruption Crater? [Your Mom's] Mistake?
Everything was whiter than it should be. It was still bright out. The sun and clouds resolutely insisted on a lovely day.
Oversized snowflakes drifted in the air. No, not snow. Ash. I held out my han...
2025-07-23 19:25:06 +0000 UTC View PostWhatever Richard had planned, he didn't have time to trigger a skill before Tandy came flying out of the tree.
She jumped onto the corrupt guardian's head. That part with the deadly sharp teeth. She clung with her legs on either side of its snout, stabbing with… was that her fabric scissors?
Leo ran forward, sw...
2025-07-23 19:23:27 +0000 UTC View PostMy ex-girlfriend would tell you that timing wasn't one of my strong suits.
As I watched Meredeath's face change from a warm greeting to horror at the atrocity barreling down on her, I had to agree.
The portal winked closed behind her as Malyc removed his key.
Fuck.
The Guild Administrator blinked slow...
2025-07-23 19:21:46 +0000 UTC View PostThe system banished Richard and, by consequence, me from the library abruptly. My heart panged in grief with the knowledge-filled stacks evaporating before my eyes as I was violently sucked into a portal.
Before I could worry, we were both ejected in a tumble from the gate on Bear Ridge.
Richard squeaked as he hit...
2025-07-23 19:08:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe three of us floated in the incorporeal ether of the portal. Tandy and Leo were sucked forward to an exit gate, but I was drawn in a different direction. Richard’s thread tugged me somewhere else.
With no fanfare, I appeared tucked behind a large bookcase, an unwilling audience to an argument.
I won! Richard ...
2025-07-13 18:11:01 +0000 UTC View PostTandy's dagger felt strange in my hand.
I stabbed the Golgothan hard in the belly. Too hard. To my horror, I watched my hand and forearm sink into the creature. The cloth wrapped around my face blocked out most of the smell, but I couldn't block out the feeling of my hand being coated in sludge.
I waited for ret...
2025-07-10 18:11:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Going to Litrpg Con and into animal companions? Check out this all-star lineup! Make sure to join us on Friday, July 18th at 10:30 am in the Sopris B room!
We'll be exploring inclusion in LitRPG on Saturday, July 18th at 10:30 am in the Sopris A room with these talented folks! Come join us!
2025-07-09 21:36:17 +0000 UTC View Post"Where's Richard?" My voice was tight.
Meredeath gave me a flat stare, "Calm down, he'll join us in a bit. Unless you got a system notification that he died?"
I shook my head.
"It'll just take him some time to get back to us." She wasn't here for my panic. Bags under her eyes belied the perfectly crafted mak...
2025-07-08 18:11:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Schedule is out! Make sure to check it out! https://litrpgcon.com/
2025-07-08 16:29:51 +0000 UTC View Post
