terrapin

In May, 1899, a hundred and fifty unassuming envelopes are delivered to households across the city. Most of them will be picked up by butlers and carried on silver trays to their recipients. All of them contain invitations to the wedding of Lady Eleanor Serrs to Mr. Ryce Penn. When the newspapers hear about it, they start buzzing. Who can blame them? This would be the wedding of the century! She’s the daughter of Duke Erravold Aubrey-Serrs, and the Marvelous Mr. Penn is one of the most famous men in the country.

But Penn is famous for being the city’s most notorious thief. He’s an unrepentant attention-seeker with a taste for gems and danger. And Eleanor swears that she’s never met him.

Chief Inspector Lucas Haley, Penn’s long-time nemesis, is called in to protect the Aubrey-Serrs family and try to figure out what the master thief is planning. He’ll need all his experience and tenacity for this case, as it quickly becomes obvious more is at stake than the reputation of an innocent woman.

Emerra Cole died just short of her twentieth birthday—but that won’t stop Jack Noctis, the embodiment of death, from asking for her help. 

Not that Jacky raised her from the dead. He says she came back on her own. He only dug her up, pulled her from her casket, and gave her a place to stay. While he hates to impose, he hopes she’ll lend him a hand with a murder that’s been giving him trouble. 

The anthropology professor, Trevon Wayde, was shot in the chest. The police are looking for his murderer, but Jacky wants to know why his soul is missing.

Emerra returned from death with the Eyes of the Sphinx, a legendary ability that allows her to see things others can’t. Jacky thinks her new powers could be useful when it comes to uncovering what happened.

When Emerra agrees to look around, she’s dragged into a world of magic and monsters. There isn’t much time for her to adjust. She’ll have to get her bearings while working side by side with a vampire, making friends with a wolfman and a bog-creature, and learning how to deal with an abrasive teenage witch. Thank god the mummy is there to help. 

Life after death is going to be interesting.

If you're one to travel the roads, you may have heard of me. You may have heard my Names in the stories, the songs, and the whispers of the road. Perhaps you've even seen me during my travels, speaking to a bird of blue light, or on a city street, performing small acts for coin and repute. Or perhaps you may know me as the Skystrider, who walked with the wind. Or the Voiceless, a man of song without speech. You may know me as the Tutor, who taught the Lion of Summer how to fight, or the Traveler, who has walked all the roads of the earth. I am all of these things.

And people have branded me a myth.

But people don't understand what a myth is. They haven't heard the songs lost to our tongues, nor have they seen the things I've seen. They haven't gone to the places I've gone.

My feet have walked the plains, the seas, and the clouds. I have spoken languages unspoken; tongues lost to time. I have sung to the earth, held the moon in my arms, and walked the roads that your heroes hesitate to even mention. I have outwitted Demons. I have danced with the Fae. My songs have been heard by lords of wind and ash, and my steps have echoed in the bellies of gargantuan beasts the likes of which you have never seen.

These are what real myths are. And me?

I'm no legend.

I'm just the bard stupid enough to poke the real ones with a stick.

Discord link here.

[Disclaimer: Book 1 of this story will likely be published in KU by around the start of 2022, so please keep that in mind. Book 2 and onwards will continue here until they are published as well.]

Regis knows it's an illusion. He's only ever seen Princess Charlotte from afar; only heard her voice when she spoke to a crowd. Sure he's good at reading people, but he knows she of all people will be wearing a perfect mask.

The problem is he's in love with the illusion, and it's not going away.

So he strikes out on a quest: win the fighting tournament held every year, where she gives out the prize, and hypothetically—just hypothetically—he can forfeit the monetary winnings and instead ask for a week to be close to her, to get to know the real her, and break the illusion once and for all.

Completed Story.

Texas Lawman Cash Renshaw gets pulled into a world of magic and mysticism that he never knew existed but finds himself uniquely suited to handle.

Alhambra Sheriff's Office Detective Cash Renshaw is about to wake up.  He learns that there is another world out there where all the creatures of nightmare and magic are real.  Not only that but he finds that he is a special type of person called an "Archetype" that derives powers from the collective power of human imagination.  Now he will join his new partner in the Agency for Metanatural Investigation to investigate a strange new type of Runic Tattooing that allows normal humans to tap into magic powers, at the cost of their lives.  Cash will learn that his new reality is as deadly as it is mysterious, and his first case might be his last.

Portal Fantasy. Isekai. A daydream of nerds everywhere, leaving behind their boring world and living in a fantasy one that is full of adventure. A daydream that became a reality for me and 1000 other Comic-Con attendees.

Except for me, it was more of a nightmare. Wanting nothing more than to find a way home, and also saddled with being the world's new [Demon Lord], I found myself trapped in a gamelike world and also somehow a part of the [Hero's] party.

So join me as I tell the tale of my struggles. A tale of levels and skills. A tale of cagey game admins and bugs. And a tale of our party's grand quest to defeat... Well... Me.

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What to expect from this book?

1. A main character who is not overpowered (and instead has to go from near-useless to strong. Not just weak to strong). If you are looking for an OP [Demon Lord] who laughs at his weakling enemies... This isn't for you.

2. A meandering pace as the characters aren't told how a lot of the world works and have to figure it out themselves. (And because there are a lot of characters. Whose idea was it to have a party of 9? I blame Jake)

3. A tragedy. A lot of things are not going to go well for the protagonist. (Not that everything is tragedy all the time. There is humor, laughter, friendship, and even a mascot monster character who got way more popular than I expected. But this is not a story that will leave you uplifted and inspired after every time you read it).

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Release Schedule and publishing information:

Book 1 is complete! I will include a link to book 2 once it has been started.

Feel free to give feedback, positive or negative.

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Other notes

Book 1?

Yes, this says Book 1. There are probably going to be 3 books.

No, the plot as you can guess is not going to be tortured to drag out all the way to book 3. That would be ridiculous. If you can guess the plot of books 2 or 3 at any point before the last chapter of book 1, please use your clairvoyant powers for something more productive.

TitusGM?

This story is intentionally told under the username TitusGM because the idea is that he was the one actually writing everything down what happened after it all is over.

I initially planned to answer everything in character on this site, but that just really didn't work out. If you want an in character response to a comment, simply prefix it with IC: (I also try to leave that as a reminder in the author's note after each new chapter)

Cover art?

Made by a friend who shall remain nameless at this time by his request

Violet is a lonely young girl living in a small village, surrounded by the uncertain darkness of an endless forest.  All her life she has been taught that only evil things come from beyond her village, for the woods are filled with demons...and they are growing hungrier and more powerful all the time. 

Yet, when she encounters an only slightly devious talking cat, Violet must abandon all she thinks she knows about the world in order to set out on a grand, dangerous journey and try to save her village as best she possibly can.

His name is Eight. Not really, but that’s what the System decided after a slip of the tongue. One moment, he was stepping out the office door on the way home, and the next waking up on a hillside below a town wall. Oh, and the gate guard drove him off, because he thought Eight was a monster.

Life’s tough when you’re an old man trapped in an eight-year old body on another world.

Note: This is book 3 in the series, and these chapters are first drafts.

The books prior to this one are final and available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited:

Eight 1

Eight 2: Way of the Hunter

The story won't nearly be as enjoyable without them, so please don't read ahead.

Five years ago, the first Silvergate was found. At first, they called it a hoax. But since then, more and more people have entered the alternate dimension called Northworld, received their Interface, and going on to real adventures. As it gained momentum, they called it a problem. Now, they call it a crime. But for nearly a half a million people, it's now their real home.

Yearning. Escape. Duty. The reasons to go are many. Despite the criminalization of the Silvergating, people still seek out their ticket to Northworld.

But for new Gaters Jasper Hill, Erika Haglund, Henry Esteban, Northworld has surprises in store. Not every rumor are false, not every conspiracy theory is stupid. When the veil lift for them, showing truths about Northworld that no one suspected, they may have a hard time making themselves heard.

And being trusted may mean the difference between life or exile forever.

Northworld is a litrpg story where people enter an actual world, submit to an RPG-type Interface, and discover an alternate reality. You could describe it as a reversible Isekai since people alternate between Earth and Northworld.

The characters are usually casual about it, which means casual talk and the not-infrequent profanity. Four letter words dropped in conversation (or internal monologue).

Warning: one potentially horrible theme and one implied sex scene.

Book 1 is complete, as the title says. Book 2 is expected to start in 2022 (hopefully).

Revised version now available! Amazon paperback, ebook, audiobook, Kobo, B&N, Google

In the war-torn land of Cyraveil, four heroes strove to overthrow an empire. By cold steel and elemental sorcery, they brought peace to a warring land on the brink of destruction. As the flames died, the realm needed strong leadership, and who better than the champions who had saved the kingdom? But when the people sought out their saviors... they vanished.

Matt, Blake, Jen, and Carl: the four mysterious companions, who together had deposed an insane ruler and saved countless lives, were gone—spirited back in a whirlwind of magic to a sleepy suburb in Mellbridge, Oregon, never to return. The friends found themselves home in the real world, exactly as they'd been the night they were taken, as if no time had passed... except only three came back.

Hi there! This was my entry for National Novel Writing Month, because why only write one series at a time? The more the merrier! (meanwhile, my keyboard bursts into flames...)

I'm also the writer of The Last Science, an ongoing low-fantasy/speculative sci-fi series. If you're familiar with that, you know what to expect here: lots of character-focused drama and dialogue, not a whole lot of traditional action. However, I'm writing a bit differently than usual here, and in a very different structure, so there should be some surprises for returning readers. I hope you enjoy it!

 [Discord] — for those of you who want to hang out and chat.

Cover art (fullsize): Path of Revelation, by taenaron (Tobias Roetsch), modified by Etzoli. Normally I like to do my own cover art from scratch, but I was in a rush for the contest. Might be replaced down the line if I get time.

[winner of the NaNoWriMo Royal Road 2018 challenge—Most Favorites]

Bran Lietmann is a student by day and a demon hunter by night. However, after becoming fatally injured in the line of duty, he is transformed by the mysterious Alice Vancratt into a demon to save his life. Now feared by humanity, he finds himself drawn into Alice's world and is forced to team up with her in order to protect what little he has left.