Sorry it took a while to get this chapter out. I finished writing the Magical Girl Undergrad series last Saturday, and immediately had a bit of a mental collapse. I think I needed the break, so thanks for your patience. We should be more or less back, though!
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Hello, readers.
A quick writing update to let you know where I'm at with my stories.
I'm closing in on finishing Magical Girl Undergrad: Book Four's draft. Once that's done, I won't have any further obligations for writing that story except editing, and I'll be able to focus on...
Alice waited months to see if she’d get into West End High.
Landsdowne Middle School usually didn’t feed into high schools on the other side of Victoria, but West End’s soccer program was a BC-champion-caliber program, and Alice had spent her whole middle school career positioning her...
2024-08-14 16:23:07 +0000 UTC View PostI never picked up the phone as a kid.
If Mom or Dad’s was ringing, it was their problem. Alice didn’t get calls; she’d figured out how to set hers up to only take voice and text messages by the time she was eight. And I didn’t have a phone until I got my augs.
Even then, it wa...
2024-08-06 16:32:59 +0000 UTC View PostHello, readers! I'm getting rolling on Book Two here. This chapter has a little bit of recap for the previous book, not because you need it, but because someday, they'll be individual books, and small amounts of recap are a good idea. So if some of what's here feels redundant, that's why. 2024-07-30 13:49:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Thank you for sticking with me through Halcyon System's Book One. I'm a chapter into Book Two now, and am enjoying where it's going. Hopefully, you all will too!
SHOCKS Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia - June 1, 2043, 4:05 AM
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Morning b...
2024-07-26 13:39:46 +0000 UTC View PostThanks for being patient. Again.
This chapter felt like pulling teeth to write, and I'm not sure why. But the next post will be a brief epilogue, then into Book Two. I've got some exciting stuff planned for it, and I'm getting geared up to make it happen in text form instead o...
2024-07-19 14:04:44 +0000 UTC View PostThanks for your patience on this one. I've been installing a cooler on the second floor of my house, and it's taken some time out of writing, but here's the next chapter. It should be edited pretty decently, but there's a good chance some things slipped through. Sorry in advance for that. 2024-07-14 15:52:15 +0000 UTC View Post
The news is never good.
Dad watches it at max volume or muted—no middle ground. The TV’s always screaming about United States politics, about what a shit show it is a few miles across the Salish Sea. It’d sound like a lie, except he watches so many different channels, and the yellingâ...
2024-07-09 13:59:49 +0000 UTC View PostHello,
First, Halcyon readers. Sorry, I posted Chapter 32 with the wrong tier checked, so some (most) of you missed that one. It should be corrected now. My bad, and thanks to Arcane for pointing it out.
Second, MGU Little League readers. You should be all caught up to where you sho...
2024-07-05 15:35:55 +0000 UTC View PostAlice and I share a bedroom; she’s on the top bunk, and I got the bottom because of course I did.
Dad sleeps on a pull-out mattress sofa or in his armchair. Usually in his armchair.
Almost always in his armchair.
It took a long time to realize that Dad wasn’t a rock anymore....
2024-07-05 14:06:56 +0000 UTC View PostSHOCKS Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia - May 31, 2043, 12:12 AM
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Paul Ramirez’s hands were sweaty.
He had the director’s computer—his computer—open, and as the seconds ticked by, he dug deeper into the few files of archived information ...
2024-07-01 13:54:01 +0000 UTC View PostKnights of the Apocalypse is a fast-paced, four-button MOBA-style game. Its single-player mode stayed playable even when the company shut down the multiplayer servers, and I’ve got over six hundred hours in it.
My favorite characters are the ranged DPS girls. May-Lei (no relation to Li Me...
2024-06-26 13:39:27 +0000 UTC View PostTaking about a week off of posting has been great, and I think I'm actually ready to get to some sort of rhythm. I'm not sure what that rhythm will look like yet, but I'm here, I've got an extra chapter and a half of backlog, and I'm feeling much more focused after having some writer friends ...
2024-06-20 14:33:05 +0000 UTC View PostSHOCKS Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia - May 31, 2043, 10:13 AM
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Sergeant Arnold Strauss’s truck pulled up in the SHOCKS Headquarters garage, springs squeaking. He’d had a long time to think since his release from Aberdeen Hospital. His hur...
2024-06-12 13:59:48 +0000 UTC View PostI’ve had the ringing in my ears for a long time.
Since I was five, probably.
I don’t remember. But it didn’t get bad until puberty. Not sure why growing boobs and stuff made it get worse. But it did. And even then, it’d be back for a couple of hours or a day, and then it’d s...
2024-06-10 14:44:38 +0000 UTC View PostHello readers,
I'm tired. Exhausted, even. Book launches are incredibly stressful, and even when your book's doing well, there's a ton of anxiety associated with it. I've put a ton of effort into The Halcyon System, getting its backlog together for a good launch on Royal Road, ...
2024-06-08 13:41:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe scariest part about being five and watching your life fall apart is the police car.
When the dust settled on our apartment and the air stopped smelling like roses and machine oil, the ambulances and cops descended on us. They pulled me away from Mom and put me in the back of a cop car w...
2024-06-07 14:20:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe locked door opened with a binary screech, and James’s world expanded.
He’d been expecting it, of course. For the last 835 picoseconds, he’d been preparing for the torrent of information as new connections formed between his familiar new world and the one he’d inhabited for most ...
2024-06-05 15:44:44 +0000 UTC View PostHi Patrons,
First, I'm working on a chapter post for The Halcyon System. It'll either post today or tomorrow, depending on how my anxiety management goes for the rest of the day. I've got a lot of that today. So you might be only 6 ahead of Royal Road for a few hours, but you...
2024-06-04 15:00:52 +0000 UTC View PostNanaimo, Victoria, British Columbia - May 30, 2043, 12:17 PM
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Director Adam Smith’s back wouldn’t pop anymore.
He turned his back on the empty ferry slip where the Nanaimo ferry to Vancouver was supposed to be. The rest of the SHOCKS Victoria/Vancou...
2024-06-03 13:27:38 +0000 UTC View PostSHOCKS Headquarters, British Columbia - May 29, 2043, 11:13 PM
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The convoy pulled into SHOCKS Headquarters’ garage, and Lieutenant Rodriguez breathed a sigh of relief as the last truck rumbled into its parking spot and the engines cut off. Around her, truck...
2024-06-01 13:19:37 +0000 UTC View PostJames faced the door that blocked the path to the SHOCKS database. It loomed over him, an impossibly large steel barrier made from ones and zeros. Those he was familiar with—he’d built them, after all, with the help of SHOCKS’s electronic warfare experts. And beyond that, of course, was the...
2024-05-31 13:53:17 +0000 UTC View PostWe're in the chapters that take a little more time to edit now, so I may occasionally be a few hours late on my posts, but they should happen the day of a Royal Road update. Thanks for your patience on that, I appreciate it!
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Mr. Roberts always hated me the most.
... 2024-05-29 18:51:20 +0000 UTC View PostJames—formerly Sidney Alexander, though he hadn’t thought of himself as anything but the Joint Anomaly Management Enhancement System in a very long time—reveled in the freedom of his new digital prison. Were the doors out shut? Yes, but he’d long since realized that they’d never open. O...
2024-05-27 15:14:10 +0000 UTC View PostThere’s a little aquarium up Vancouver Island in Ucluelet. It’s not much, especially compared to the one I’ve seen pictures of in Vancouver, but my class went there for a nature field trip in sixth grade. Alice was happy to get the bedroom to herself, and Dad was happy not to have to deal w...
2024-05-25 16:59:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One
[Incident Report IV-1 Alpha: Subject - 945-Y-12/IV-1, September 03, 2035]
Background: On September 03, 2035, a dual containment breach occurred at SHOCKS Headquarters Victoria/Vancouver Island. Two Xuduo-Danger an...
2024-05-24 15:08:19 +0000 UTC View PostAlice had a boyfriend for a couple of weeks last year.
I wasn’t supposed to know about him. Neither was Dad. He was Alice’s dirty little secret, but even though her whole life’s a lie, she’s not good at keeping them. So, when I found out, she begged me not to tell Dad. She said sheâ...
2024-05-22 13:09:30 +0000 UTC View PostMaroon glow. Electric tang. Roses and machine oil.
The point isn’t what happened. The point is that I remember, and that Alice is a liar.
But maybe that’s not what’s important. Maybe what’s important is that when the white light faded and the metal squids filled the r...
2024-05-20 14:03:58 +0000 UTC View PostMinor League readers, I saw by the poll that you want access to my new story, so here it is. The first eight chapters are on Royal Road at https://www.royalroad.com...
2024-05-18 14:27:36 +0000 UTC View Post