A man stood before Kelly. He wore a pile of rags. He held a knife. It was pressed up against her throat. One of Kelly’s hands was up in the air. The other was handing over her wallet.

Cyrus stood next to Kelly. Both of his hands reached towards an unseen sky. The skyscrapers of Rupture soared above the trio. A massive pressure hull hovered just out of reach of the skyscrapers – although a gangly tourist standing on the highest tower could touch it – and above that skin flowed a million tons of ocean.

“Do you know that he’s the mayor?” Kelly asked, careful not to push her skin against the cold line of the blade while she spoke.

“Sure. How ya doing, mayor?” The robber flipped through Kelly’s wallet with one hand. “You need to bring richer guests down to Rupture.” Read the rest of this entry »

“You can’t name an underwater city Rupture!” Kelly wailed.

“I can name it whatever I like. I am Cyrus C. Cwiggus, and I am the mayor of Rupture,” said Cyrus. He had spent the last hour attacking a piece of paper with a pen, and only looked up when he thought Kelly had struck a telling blow against his plans. The last time he’d moved his head was forty-five minutes ago.

“You’re going to get sued. Remember that video game Bioshock? It had an underwater city. Named Rapture.” Read the rest of this entry »

The long-awaited (especially by me!) Chronocyclops T-shirts are now available!  You can find them at the handy “Merch” link in the header!  Buy one, two or six dozen!

Freedom Beer took a hit this week because I took a few hits this week.

In an odd coincidence for the creator of Hank Rockjaw, I wasn’t able to get the latest chapter of Freedom Beer up on time yesterday because I had been punched in the face too hard, too many times last Sunday.

Long story short, on Sunday I was doing a boxing drill. I’m still inexperienced and my partner wasn’t being as careful as they should have been with the force of their punches. While I didn’t have any urgent symptoms, I went to the doctor on Wednesday and he told me that I had probably suffered a minor concussion.

The headache has been coming and going, mostly going, but during my writing time it was coming right for me.

I’ll chalk it up to research.

I think that Hank would approve.

February has been blazing past. Why? Because of beer. Freedom Beer, to be precise. Since Codex Nekromantia ended last September I’ve been devoting more of my time to long term projects. I missed the frantic energy of serialized long-form fiction. Freedom Beer has been like a glass of, well, refreshing beer to slake my thirst for stress, deadlines and pressure.

Some writers work at their best in low-stress environments, like a secluded cabin. Other writers prefer the constant murmur of bars and cafes.

I work best with a series of minor emergencies pulling me along. Once I’ve built up my savings a little more, I’m planning to hire a part-time assistant to stand behind me all day and flick lit matches into my hair.

And now there’s a new way to support my goal of being slightly on fire at all times! With the help of the talented designer Ashley Hay, I have produced a tshirt based off of the Chronocyclops story in the Guide to Moral Living in Examples.

Because of my silly ideas about labor rights and the environment, the design is printed with PVC-free plastisol inks that are manufactured in the USA and silkscreened onto US-made Royal Apparel organic cotton tshirts – now with 100% less sexual harassment or weird tumors!

The store portion of A Path Fantastic isn’t quite ready yet. If you are jonesing really hard you can email me and we can sort out something where I meet you in an alley and pass you a parcel wrapped in brown paper and inside that parcel might even be a tshirt but I’m no snitch. Otherwise, the store should be available soon!

A fist arrives without any preample.

And Hank Rockjaw tags along behind it.

Freedom Beer, the newest Hank Rockjaw serial, begins today. My publisher, 1889 Labs, is graciously hosting it for its run. I’ll be posting entries Monday, Wednesday and Friday from now until February 29th.

There will be fists, beer, mystery, beer, jet fighters, beer, intrigue and beer.

If you don’t like Valentine’s Day, then this book is for you.

And if you do like Valentine’s Day, then you should also like this book because you seem to be the sort of person that likes things.

Who is gunning for Hank and the brewery that’s been in his family for generations? Who is behind the mysterious Saint Secaire Brewery? Is it Josh, former sweatshop owner and former punch recipient, trying to exact his revenge on Hank for ending his exploitative business? Or is it Zelphia, Josh’s enigmatic attorney, who arrives unannounced at his home?

And why is this book cover so fucking awesome?