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Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 37 – The Mountain, Part 6

Sen took one brief moment to cycle water qi and drag enough moisture out of the air to douse the still-burning hair of the bisected ape. Then, he was running. He found Falling Leaf almost thirty feet away, half-buried beneath a pile of leaves, grass, moss, and sticks. He could see where she landed and how far she slid. Sen ke...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 36 – The Mountain, Part 5

As one day dragged into two, two into four, and four into eight, Sen found a kind of unpleasant routine. He’d sleep for a few hours at night while Falling Leaf guarded him. Then, he’d cultivate while she slept. After that, they’d walk. He did his best to avoid fights when he could. The old wariness and observation that ...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 35 – The Mountain, Part 4

Sen stared up at the forest canopy and just ignored the smoldering corpse of the giant hawk next to him. He was tired. He was hurt. Plus, he’d have to keep traveling, despite the fact that night was all but on top of him. Sen reasoned that he’d earned at least two minutes of just staring up at the sky. After five minutes,...

Jericho Lott - Chapter 45

To my immense relief, Annie decided to take on pass on those kinds of heavy conversational topics after that. I’m not opposed to discussing complicated issues, but it’s not the kind of thing you want before you’re about to do something dangerous. Fortunately, she segued into things that didn’t take a lot of brain powe...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 34 – The Mountain, Part 3

Sen was still staring at the goat and trying to figure out what he should do next when Falling Leaf bounded into the clearing. She skidded to a stop when she saw him and then hurried over. She looked him up and down with the most intense look in her eyes that he’d ever seen. Once she seemed satisfied, the big cat went over ...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 33 – The Mountain, Part 2

The reality of what was in front of him didn’t really drive home for Sen until he walked out of the gate, considered his options, and started off in an eastern direction. Until then, there had been a haze of unreality about the whole idea. That haze of unreality hadn’t been helped by the sudden arrival of Ma Caihong, Mast...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 32 – The Mountain, Part 1

Sen was only allowed to nap for a couple of hours before Uncle Kho came to retrieve him. Sen was relieved to discover it was primarily to make sure he got something to eat. On the bright side, Sen finally understood why Uncle Kho had said that his wife was the real cook in the family. There were great piles of deliciousness o...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 31 – Killing Intent, Part 6

Sen gave her a nod and put some distance between them. He thought for a moment before he looked at her.

“When you’re ready.”

Ma Caihong gestured to him. Sen never would have considered attacking her unprovoked. He knew full well that she could crush him like an insect. On the other hand, he wasn’t going to...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 30 – Killing Intent, Part 5

Ma Caihong stared at Sen with a slightly stunned expression. It was like she either didn’t know what to say or couldn’t believe that he had spoken those words aloud. The stare persisted until Sen started to fidget.

“I don’t mean to be troublesome,” he said. “I just don’t know how. If you show me, I’ll do...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 29 – Killing Intent, Part 4

Sen froze in place. He had learned a lot about how to behave properly over the last few years. Yet, here he discovered a gaping hole in that education. He felt confident that there was a proper response to Ma Caihong’s words. He just didn’t know them. He did know that staring at her with his mouth hanging half op...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 28 – Killing Intent, Part 3

Watching Master Feng have the same argument with two different people felt a little bit like a strange dream to Sen. It was made even stranger because the two people had such different motives. Sen knew that Uncle Kho objected because the old cultivator was actually fond of him. Ma Caihong had objected because she thought the...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 27 – Killing Intent, Part 2

Sen was both fascinated and a little shocked by the display before him. Uncle Kho was shouting at Master Feng. He had never so much as heard Uncle Kho raise his voice, let alone descend into full-throated shouting. Yet, there it was. The kindly old cultivator who patiently taught Sen to read, who had guided Sen after his disa...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 26 – Killing Intent, Part 1

Sen stared at Master Feng’s back as the old cultivator walked a short distance away. He had heard Master Feng and Uncle Kho mention killing intent in passing more than once, but never in a way that roused Sen’s curiosity enough to ask. Now, he was regretting that lack of curiosity. On the one hand, the words seemed to hav...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 25 - Growth

Author's Note: Okay, so looking at feedback the last six or seven chapters got elsewhere, I've got some structural problems there to work out. That's ultimately a problem for when I'm editing a finished manuscript of the completed book. On a more general note, though, I get the vibe that people wish ...

Jericho Lott - Chapter 44

It didn’t take too long to load everyone and everything up. Bill and I always had go bags ready in our vehicles. Jessie didn’t have anything except what came with her from Denver. Plus, we were headed to her place anyway, so there wasn’t much point in getting her more stuff. All Annie had was a carry-on. I’d taken a l...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 24 - Cultivation, Part 2

Well, it's arriving a little late courtesy of a power outage earlier today, but you know what they say. It's Monday somewhere. 

***

Sen watched a startling array of emotions cross Master Feng’s face. He saw disbelief, confusion, a moment of anger, realization, and some guilt. All of that passed over the old...

New Chapters

There should be new, patron-exclusive chapters up later today. I started going one way with the new material for Unintended Cultivator, then I rethought the direction it was headed. While that's not usually a crisis, it delayed the new material this time. Keep your eyes peeled.

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 23 - Cultivation

On the whole, Sen usually liked the spring season. When he’d spent most of his time scurrying from alley to alley, spring meant a release from the cold of winter. It meant months and months without the constant fear that he might freeze to death. It also meant that new kinds of food would start appearing in the market befor...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 22 – Scrolls

“Uncle Kho, is there a reason you picked this scroll?”

Sen stared down at the partially unrolled scroll, not quite sure why it was in his hands. The scroll was covered with a combination of pictures and text. The pictures were of plants. The text described a variety of things about the pictured plants, such as where...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 21 – Practice, Part 4

While that question plagued Sen, his life took on a new routine. In the morning, he would get up, practice what he already knew, and go for a run. From time to time, he and Uncle Kho would discuss the new scroll that Sen was reading. The new scroll was a lot less interesting than the first scroll. The first one told a story. ...

Future Covers

I've been thinking ahead about Unintended Cultivator. There is a LOT of room for this story to grow and expand over time. At present, I have ideas for at least three books worth of material. Maybe more. So, I've attached the cover I settled on for Vol. 1, and tentative covers for volumes 2 and 3. Do you think they work? Are t...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 20 - Practice, Part 3

When Sen went inside to have a meal, he found both Master Feng and Uncle Kho inside. He narrowed his eyes at the two. There was something about the way the two men carried themselves that made Sen feel like they had been waiting for him. Despite the feeling he couldn’t shake, the three shared a quiet meal. The closest the c...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 19 – Practice, Part 2

Sen had the feeling that his days of general rest were just about over. He still grew tired more easily than he’d like, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been. For those first two days, everything felt like an effort. After his conversation with Uncle Kho kept, he kept wondering about the outside world and if he would ever b...

Jericho Lott - Chapter 43

It turned out that I was mostly superfluous for that phase of things. Bill and Jessie were still making phone calls. They’d apparently run into a lot of unanswered calls. I was a little skeptical about that, at first. Chalk it up to my age. I’m part of that generation that grew up with smartphones. I’m never willingly m...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 18 – Practice, Part 1

While the second pill the old men provided did a lot to restore him, Sen still felt fatigued for several days after what he thought of as the filth purge. While the effects hadn’t been nearly so awful on the second pass, he found himself wondering where all that filth had come from. Most of what he remembered about the firs...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 17 – The Second Time Around

With that first cleansing pill, Sen hadn’t known what to expect from it. This time, he wouldn’t get caught unawares. He lay down on the floor. There was no blanket, but he realized he didn’t need one. He was inside where it was warm, not outside in the cold night air. He took deep breaths to keep himself as calm as he c...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 16 - Gifts

There was a long moment of silence before Feng answered.

“Indeed. Well done, Sen.”

Sen let his arm drop. The weight of uncertainty lifted from his shoulders. Master Feng was sparing with praise, so it struck home ever more deeply when he offered it. A moment of elation washed through Sen. He had done it. He ha...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 15 – New Year

Sen made his way into the kitchen and was surprised to find it empty. Either Master Feng or Uncle Kho was usually up before him. Still, on those occasions when Sen found himself the first to rise, he knew it was up to him to start breakfast. He stoked a fire in the stove, which added a pleasant warmth to the air. While the co...

Jericho Lott - Chapter 42

I did my best not to think too hard on the way back to Gran’s. It’s all too easy to find yourself in a doom spiral when you know something dangerous is ahead of you. You start second-guessing everything. You see every worst-case scenario coming true. That kind of thinking becomes positively lethal when the odds are runnin...

Unintended Cultivator: Chapter 14 - Learning, Part 2

Lunch was a quiet affair. Uncle Kho was busy studying a scroll that had captured his full attention. He’d only stop reading to idly put some food in his mouth every once in a while. Feng was utterly concentrated on the meal. He seemed to make a point of thoroughly chewing every bite before swallowing. Sen only noticed these...