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Some wounds need more than medicine to heal. Even the dead need doctors. Healers, warriors, gods, and damned souls navigate a space where hope is scarce and survival is never guaranteed. amzn.to/4kgSPTK
#JanetMorris #DarkFantasy #Anthology #EpicFantasy #SpecFic #MythicFantasy #Perseidpress
November 2, 2026 at 5:00 PM
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She knelt by the sacred water… but something ancient was watching

#RomantasyReads #MythicFantasy #BookTokMadeMeBuyIt #booksky

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October 25, 2026 at 11:09 AM
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She sat beside the god everyone feared… and felt safe for the first time.

#RomantasyReads #MythicFantasy #BookTokMadeMeBuyIt

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October 25, 2026 at 12:36 PM
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Some carry swords. Only one carries a torch burning openly across his back. Embers from Grandmother's Hearth have melted his hair into blackened curls, charred his monastic robes, and burned his skin pink.

A Mishal of fire has come to Chantara.

QUEEN FOR A DAY
#MythicFantasy #BookSky #Sniptober
“My queen?” The voice cut through her thoughts. Admiral Cherith had entered the water-hewn throne room with a man Cobeah wished she had never laid eyes upon. His monastic robes hung loose, charred at the sleeves. His skin bore blotches of raw pink where flame had kissed it. One of his yellow eyebrows was gone; half his ivory hair melted into blackened curls. A lit torch was strapped across his back like the greatswords popular in far distant lands. Its flame hissed in the damp Chantaran air, sending sharp scents of smoke through the room. Only one kind of man carried open flame with such nerve. A Mishal of Cymbeline. A monk of Aodh; Spreader of the Flame. “Name yourself,” Cobeah demanded, gaze narrowing. “Within our arid realm of heat and flame, we are given a name after our fiery rebirth. I am known as Egan Little Fire. However, beyond Cymbeline I serve as Mishal to Aodh, the King of Fire.” “That’s a long way to answer a simple question. Care to be more succinct about why you’re here?” The Mishal bowed his head, torchlight flickering across his ruined skin. “To claim Chantara’s debts.” ---
October 27, 2026 at 5:50 PM
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The Forgotten Gods of the Drowned Kingdom: Only Half Came Back

Twelve men entered the doorway beneath the black pillars. By evening, only six had returned. Ipu, a young guard assigned to count the expedition, has twelve marks on one side of his tally board and six on the other. Among the missing…
The Forgotten Gods of the Drowned Kingdom: Only Half Came Back
Twelve men entered the doorway beneath the black pillars. By evening, only six had returned. Ipu, a young guard assigned to count the expedition, has twelve marks on one side of his tally board and six on the other. Among the missing is a stone-cutter who joked with him before entering the darkness. Only Half Came Back continues The Mythic Chronicle, following the human consequences of the discovery beneath the western dunes. Read the Chronicle on WordPress. #TheMythicChronicle #MythicFantasy #FantasyFiction #DarkFantasy #ForgottenGods
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October 28, 2026 at 12:38 PM
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She killed the queen by law.

That does not mean Chantara will forgive her.

Before moonrise, Cobeah must hold the realm together long enough to learn whether the crown she won can survive her.

QUEEN FOR A DAY
#DarkFantasy #QueerFantasy #BookSky #FantasyBooks #AmWriting #MythicFantasy
Cobeah slid her dark-umber fingers, still blood-soaked from their fight, across Disaya’s blue eyes. She closed them forevermore. The holy water rippled out from around the queen’s body and encircled her in royal arcs, much like the shape of Cobeah’s ancient quoits. Still kneeling, she kissed Disaya’s still warm forehead, then lifted her fallen lunar crown from the shallows. Its polished silver caught the thin moonlight. Forged from interlocking crescents to honor Luna and Menae in the nighttime sky, the circlet hid two curved blades in plain sight; weapons of last resort should the queen ever need them. “May Mother Altalune guide your soul.” The first stanza of the Requiem for the Fallen trembled from Cobeah’s lips. No one answered. No one continued the dirge. Hundreds of witnesses stood as stone, their silence filled the hall, vast and unbearable. None had dreamt of seeing their queen fall, least of all by Cobeah’s own hand.
October 21, 2026 at 10:47 PM
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Even a dark tragedy needs a moment of joy here or there. Otherwise, there is nothing worth grieving when the ruin comes to fruition.

Before a crown can drown, a realm must believe in the future it promises.

#SnipTober revelry
From QUEEN FOR A DAY
#BookSky #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #QueerFantasy
“Taliah,” said The Water Thief, and silence took the room, save for The Ninad’s soft babble. “Do you accept this mantle of your own free will, under no compulsion nor coercion of any kind?” “With an open heart that yearns to serve all Chantarans, everywhere,” Taliah replied. Sun-darkened from youth spent outside, her umber face shone with pride and light. “It has been spoken,” The Water Thief said, lifting his arms to the heavens. “Let it be written in the annals of our history. Note the time in the royal water clock.” “Not a drop past the twenty-fourth ring,” Disaya said from the throne. “I have spoken as the Lunar Realm ascends the far horizon. Taliah, you are now queen-in-waiting. The Clepsydra will refill the water clocks throughout the realm, and the next twenty-four rings are given as holiday in The Mother’s honor and the Sisters Twain’s grace bestowed upon you.” “For Taliah,” the audience roared, drowning the last of Disaya’s words. “For The Mother,” The Water Thief said, joining the cries of elation. “And the Sisters Twain.” It seemed the entire realm bellowed the final words as Chantarans tipped back borrelglass after borrelglass, drinking deep in their revelry.
October 14, 2026 at 3:21 PM
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In Chantara, the old blood remembers the sea.

It shows in the flesh.

Today’s #WIPSnip is from QUEEN FOR A DAY, a finished fantasy novel.

#BookSky #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #QueerFantasy
As carefully as her trembling arms allowed, Cobeah straightened Disaya’s body upon the soaked stone floor. Golden braids, loosened in their struggle, spread across the finger-deep water like kelp caught in a tidal surge. Even in bloodied death, she was the most beautiful woman Cobeah had ever seen. Her snow-pale face still seemed to hold its own light. Half-submerged, and with the striking cerulean cast of her skin, Disaya appeared more a Nereid or Naiad than mortal. The blood of those watery beings still marked Chantaran flesh in faint, indelible blue, blooming across skin and gathering at the tips of fingers and ears like remnants of distant tidewater. Long ago, they had guided Chantarans from the abyss left in the wake of the primordials and into the moonlit grace of the Goddesses above.
October 13, 2026 at 5:24 PM
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Admiral Calder knows the pulse of a ship and that dry land has none. He would rather face squalls and storms at sea than answer a new queen’s summons at the palace.

From QUEEN FOR A DAY, a finished fantasy novel.

#WIPSnip #BookSky #QueerFantasy #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #WriteSky
Chapter 6 Eighteenth Ring (Noontime - The Day After Queen Disaya’s Death) Calder detested dry land. It lacked rhythm and held no sense of flow. Yes, it offered vistas that could steal a man’s breath: cliffs and forests and sky enough to make poets of sailors, yet it remained resolute. Unmoving. A beautiful kind of wrong. Nothing compared to the ocean’s rocking, the familiar argument between hull and wave. Nothing beat the feel of waterlogged timbers beneath his bare feet at sea, boards breathing up through his soles as if the ship itself had a pulse. Like countless seafarers before him, Admiral Calder had always been enamored with the stars glittering overhead, indifferent beacons to those upon land who kept their gaze transfixed on one foot in front of the other. Now here he was, dragged ashore and summoned to meet with the queen no less. As much as he admired Cobeah, enough to feel a private pride in her rise, he wanted nothing more than to turn around and chase salt wind back to open water. Even sailors, who’ve weathered the worst the world can imagine, know there’s no good reason to remain upon the shore.
October 12, 2026 at 6:28 PM
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Tomorrow, my supernatural mythic thriller releases! As a bonus, I am running a FREE kindle Ebook promo for Aziryte (book 1) Oct 6-10!
#Booksky #Thrillerreads #Metalmusic #Scifi #Mythicfantasy #Scifireaders
October 5, 2026 at 4:14 PM
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Tomorrow, my supernatural mythic thriller releases! As a bonus, I am running a FREE kindle Ebook promo for Aziryte (book 1) Oct 6-10!
#Booksky #Thrillerreads #Metalmusic #Scifi #Mythicfantasy #Scifireaders
mikekmusicartgeek.bsky.social Michael Kemer (Author) @mikekmusicartgeek.bsky.social · Oct 5
Tomorrow, my supernatural mythic thriller releases! As a bonus, I am running a FREE kindle Ebook promo for Aziryte (book 1) Oct 6-10!
#Booksky #Thrillerreads #Metalmusic #Scifi #Mythicfantasy #Scifireaders
October 5, 2026 at 4:14 PM
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An ancient wolf-titan bound to hold the collapsing sky. A scarred hind carrying the weight of decay. A thousand-year debt that has to break.

My debut mythic novella, THE WOLF WHO HELD THE SKY, is officially live on Amazon & Kindle Unlimited: amazon.com/dp/B0HLWXJM14

#MythicFantasy #Xenofiction
The Wolf Who Held The Sky, by R.K. Varden, a Hidden Gods Novel
October 5, 2026 at 2:10 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
In Chantara, queens are not buried to rest. They are prepared to guide those who inherit the coming tides. Even in death, an anointed monarch has duties. She does not leave the world empty-handed.

From QUEEN FOR A DAY

#MythicFantasy #DarkFantasy #FantasyBooks #BookSky #WriteSky
The Clepsydra had readied Disaya’s body for eternity. A breathtaking slab of water-smoothed stone to bear her. Her body wrapped head to toe in fabric cut from an ancient corsair sail and tied with dozens of seawater-preserved sailor’s ropes. A replica of The Mother’s Crown resting on her sail-shrouded brow. Ancient coins and cut gems scattered across her body and the slab beneath. A preserved leather scroll fastened to her right hand, naming every monarch they knew of before her. In her left, they had secured a book containing brief accounts of Chantaran history and its hardest lessons. In death, Disaya held everything she needed to guide the rulers who came after. Mourners sobbed as the Clepsydra carried Disaya through the room and past the throne. The sound of the entire crowd dropping to their knees at once was a single, thunderous impact, like the last hammering beats of a racing heart. It cracked something in Cobeah’s chest. Even in doing what she must, she still despised herself for killing Disaya. From the throne, Cobeah dipped her head in acknowledgement, one monarch to another. The only time she could ever bow to another as queen.
October 4, 2026 at 5:04 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
In Chantara, a crown can make a queen, but it cannot make The Water Thief kneel.

Highest among the Clepsydra, he wears the remnants of drowned ships as his mantle and meets Cobeah’s gaze with disappointment in his eyes.

From QUEEN FOR A DAY.
#DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #FantasyBooks #BookSky
The natural stone throne waited ahead, water-hewn by centuries of rushing rivers and bubbling streams. Its surface glistened with a perpetual dampness, a cold, continuous reminder of all the ages that came before. Cobeah sat where the queen had ruled for decades as the most cherished monarch in Chantaran history. The lunar crown rested upon Cobeah’s head. Stillness held the chamber. Murmurs rose in little eddies of grief, fear, and anger as the crowd knelt as one into the shallow current. Holy waters soaked their garments from the knee down. The Water Thief alone remained standing. His face held no grief. Only disappointment. Highest among the Clepsydra, he slipped along the crowd’s edge without once looking away from Cobeah. His stout body parted the silent supplicants like water. The sailcloth robes, stained by sea brine, hung heavy upon him. Ancient ropes bound them, once belonging to a vessel long vanished beneath the waves. His cloak of fishnet and kelp trailed through the shallows, a relic of older seas. He moved without haste, but with the quiet certainty of a man convinced the Goddesses themselves favored his cause.
October 3, 2026 at 8:05 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
If you’ve enjoyed my #Sustember posts, QUEEN FOR A DAY begins its weekly release in January 2027.

After a lawful killing makes Cobeah queen, she has one day before moonrise to keep Chantara from breaking apart.

The first 3 chapters will be free.

#BookSky #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #AmWriting
Chapter 1 Twenty-Second Ring (Two hours before Moonrise) Blood sprayed from the slice across the queen’s throat as Cobeah’s round-bladed quoit completed its arc. The circular weapons were common throughout the Chantaran realm, but Cobeah’s were ancient, honed through generations of warfare at sea. Queen Disaya staggered. Her knees folded. Liquid crimson drenched the pale silk of her combat raiment, ceremonial garb that mirrored, with bitter cruelty, the gown she had once worn to her wedding. The distant memories refused to sink. Neither did the emotions rising with them. The queen’s body fell to the water-covered stone floor with a splash that sounded far too loud in the throne room’s hush. She betrayed Disaya. By rite and law, the act was just, but Cobeah couldn’t shake how wrong it felt. To the watching realm, to the Goddesses above, it could only look like high treason. With her magickal abilities, Queen Disaya held an absolute advantage over her. She could have boiled Cobeah’s blood before the fight ever started or used the very waters in her body to drown her while standing in place. Offensive magicks were punishable crimes but Cobeah had expected Disaya to break those laws to preserve her life. She hadn’t. In the face of death, she kept her hands clean of forbidden magicks. For reasons lost with her death the queen had refused to turn them against Cobeah. The trial by combat had ended with an outcome no one in Chantara could have predicted.
September 30, 2026 at 6:14 PM
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Cobeah is too haunted by the blood she spilled to sleep. It will never feel necessary, even though it was. Tomorrow will show her what winning the crown has already cost: the realm, her family, and most of all, herself.

#WIPSnip from QUEEN FOR A DAY
#AmWriting #DarkFantasy #WriteSky #MythicFantasy
Now alone before the doors of the royal suite, Cobeah laid her umber hands, cerulean-hued at the edges, upon the silver handles. Her body resisted, as though her own limbs remembered The Water Thief’s defiance an hour past. Yet even he had bent, in the end. Together, they had borne Disaya’s corpse to the inner Royal Sanctum beneath the throne. Come the morrow, the Clepsydra would consecrate her in glory, even if they hated Cobeah for forcing the rite before moonrise. Disaya had known the cost of that too. I have laid my dark deeds bare. Storms without end will come, but we must keep rowing onward, and I can only continue forward. Her dour thoughts circled like sharks sniffing for blood in the shallows. She pushed the doors wide and stepped inside. The palace staff had already scoured the chamber clean since the last time she had seen it. The massive four-post bed, built piece by piece inside the suite, loomed like a throne of rest, and drew her toward sleep. Never had a day stretched so long, nor seemed so dark. Not even her years at sea chasing Shione Lahiri aboard her infamous Tanim, nor the bloody eradication of corsairs from the Chantaran coast, had felt as long or as dark as this one. Her mind craved respite, and her body ached for a hot bath, but she forwent both and fell upon the bed still in her light seafaring armor. The miniature water clock beside the bed dripped on. Each drop represented a precious second of rest she needed, but sleep would not come easy, not tonight. For tomorrow would decide Chantara’s fate. Tomorrow will show me if Disaya’s last request, her final wish, was ever within reach. ---
September 27, 2026 at 5:56 PM
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September 26, 2026 at 12:39 AM
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Brishon is fighting to avenge the queen he called mother. His opponent is fighting the queen’s nightmares that refuse to stay buried. As rain turns the courtyard to mud, neither can find a way past grief.

#WIPSnip Tumble. #AmWriting #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #BookSky
She was dismantling him; piece by piece. Brishon couldn’t let her. He launched himself into a wild, desperate tackle. They tumbled through mud and blood. Weapons clattered across the courtyard at their sides. Fists hammered open new wounds. They were too close for honed techniques. Just two grieving, furious creatures clawing for their own causes. “I won’t let you kill me again. Not in life nor in my dreams,” she hissed in his ear as she climbed onto his back. He had no time to parse the words. Pain ripped up his spine as she drove a quoit beneath the edge of his armor. He elbowed backward, smashing her face. She rolled away. Blood poured from the fresh gash across his back. “It ends here, Brishon,” she said, swaying on her feet in the pouring rain. “Even if the mud takes us both.”
September 23, 2026 at 8:40 PM
dmdealwis.bsky.social
What it's like to be an Indie Author doing the job out of passion and not for profit (yet). The numbers. Note, I am my cover designer, and copy editor. Publisher costs are for illustrators and my editor. 5 Books. Break even is years away. #MythicFantasy #BIPOCAuthor #CanadianAuthor
September 23, 2026 at 12:31 AM
cjmann3.bsky.social
After a lawful killing puts Cobeah on the throne, Brodny refuses to accept that the law can justify their beloved queen’s death. Premier Derya warns him that some truths are best kept to himself.

#WIPSnip with “stream” from QUEEN FOR A DAY

#AmWriting #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #WriteSky
Brodny grunted. “Cobeah has never been one for pomp, always preferring action over talk. Still, she might have considered all the good Disaya did before murdering her in cold blood.” “Meter your words,” Derya said, hissing while closing the distance and glaring with their sharp green eyes. “By the letter of the law, Cobeah’s act was just. She has always had an even-keeled head on her shoulders. Do not provoke her into making an example of you because you cannot tame your tongue.” “Subjects should not live in fear of the crown, but the crown should fear its subjects.” “You of all people know sharp philosophy makes a poor shield against sharper steel,” Derya said. “Cobeah is a soldier. She’s pragmatic. She will not waste time debating your ethics.” “Disaya would.” “Disaya is dead, Brodny.” Derya’s words came flat, as if spoken to a child. “Get that through your skull. If you want to dream of improbable outcomes, then hope Aulay descends those water-hewn stairs to announce Cobeah abdicated over breakfast.” “She should abdicate.” Derya’s eyes narrowed. “Why do I get the sense you think you are the one to make her?” “Someone must try—” “Listen, old man,” Derya said, eyebrows angled, lips sneering as they brought their face close to his. “You and I can stand here agreeing on everything until hatchlings find their way downstream, but once Cobeah’s bony arse is on that throne and I am standing beside her, I cannot help you.”
September 21, 2026 at 5:22 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
As head of the Royal Guard, Leola serves the crown, not whoever wears it. When danger floods the throne room, they rush into it rather than let it reach Cobeah on the throne behind them.

A #WIPSnip from QUEEN FOR A DAY

#AmWriting #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #BookSky #IndieAuthor
An attacker’s sudden shout stole Leila’s attention. The oncoming man saw what remained of his dying companion, but didn’t make it far. One of Cobeah’s quoits sank into his shoulder and spun him sideways. He staggered to his knees, then forced himself upright. Magickal fire poured from his uninjured hand in a searing sheet, driving Leola back towards the throne. With the other hand, he created a small, focused shield and knocked aside a second quoit from Cobeah that would have found his head. Sweat ran down the man’s face. Not from the fire heating his skin, but the effort of maintaining such magicks in quick succession. Leola knew any weak user of offensive magicks could unleash powerful acts with the quickest of outbursts, thoughts, and emotions. However, even the strongest of mages needed time, intention, and focus to form durable defensive magicks. “For Disaya!” Resignation burned in the man’s eyes as he screamed. He knew he was almost spent and meant to take everyone with him. Leola leapt through the wall of flame. Heat clawed at their armor and slipped through in waves, cooking their body within. Their short hair fused to their helm. Leola squeezed their eyes shut against the blast. Sight no longer mattered; Mother Altalune guided them now. They burst out of the flames and brought the scimitar around in one savage stroke, taking the man’s head mid-incantation. The half-formed spell detonated. Fire erupted in all directions. Leola crashed down, smothering the worst of the blast with their body. Agony tore through them, every nerve alight. It still paled beside the pain they would have carried if they had failed to protect the crown, no matter who wore it.
September 17, 2026 at 8:07 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
Absolutely. In QUEEN FOR A DAY, most Chantarans believe their realm lost the craft of forging magickal Water Gates centuries ago. Admiral Calder suspects the crown only lets that rumor survive, because no nation would misplace a power like that.

#Sustember #AmWriting #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy
Calder detested dry land. It lacked rhythm and held no sense of flow. It remained resolute. Unmoving. A beautiful kind of wrong. Nothing compared to the ocean’s rocking, the familiar argument between hull and wave. Nothing beat the feel of waterlogged timbers beneath his bare feet at sea, boards breathing up through his soles as if the ship itself had a pulse. Like countless seafarers before him, Admiral Calder had always been enamored with the stars glittering overhead, indifferent beacons to those upon land who kept their gaze transfixed on one foot in front of the other. Now here he was, dragged ashore and summoned to meet with the queen no less. He wanted nothing more than to turn around and chase salt wind back to open water. Even sailors, who’ve weathered the worst the world can imagine, know there’s no good reason to remain upon the shore. He had come through Chantara’s Water Gates in haste, less than a full ring from the coast to the palace. He emerged with cold spray still on his skin and the taste of minerals on his tongue. The Gates were miracles of ingenuity and magickal power, allowing travel from one point in the realm to another, so long as a continuous flow of water bound the path between. Rumor claimed Chantara had lost the craft of forging new Gates long ago. No one, neither the Royal Alchemist nor the late Queen Disaya herself, knew how to build them anymore. Calder had always suspected that was a story the crown allowed to breathe, the sort of lie told to discourage sabotage and vandalism. A nation would not misplace a power like that. Not if it intended to survive.
September 17, 2026 at 8:23 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
QUEEN FOR A DAY opens with Queen Disaya’s death at Cobeah’s hands. Between its chapters, Requiems return to the years before: the responsibilities, compromises, and choices made that led to the first-page tragedy.

#WIPSnip #AmWriting #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy #WriteSky
Requiem Five (Four years before Cobeah’s act of High Treason) In her study, Disaya watched the blazing sun begin its descent through one window, while another on the far wall framed the crescent of Luna breaking the horizon. This time of year, the lunar realm was eager, pressing into the day’s last light. In other months it lingered, letting the sun die fully before showing its moonlit face. Beyond the glass, Pelagica prepared for night the way it always did. Doors opened. Voices rose. Meals were shared, bread broken, cups filled again and again with wine, water, and ale. The city’s joy reached her as muffled sound, softened by distance, a celebration heard through stone-thick walls. As much as she took pride in her work, it left her with a familiar irritation when duty pinned her to the desk well after moonrise. The burden came with her mantle, and she had accepted it with an open heart. Still, she would rather have been at a table with her children, and sometimes even Aulay, laughing over food while the night cooled the house. Not tonight. Tonight required another hour, maybe two. Seals waited. Signatures. Documents that could not be delayed simply because the moon had risen. Calder’s promotion to Admiral. Revisions to the Fishers’ Guild charter. Schedules for court and ceremony, all of them threaded around the Clepsydra’s lunar rites, because the holy calendars did not bend for mortal convenience. Disputes needed judgment. Legislation needed shaping. Qualms with neighboring realms needed addressing before they became raids and corpses. The pile on her desk had the quiet weight of a flood.
September 14, 2026 at 8:49 PM
cjmann3.bsky.social
History can make a fine distraction until you realize you’re about to become part of it.

From QUEEN FOR A DAY, a finished dark fantasy novel.

#WIPSnip #AmWriting #DarkFantasy #MythicFantasy
Cobeah walked the stone halls, her grief locked below deck. Each hollow step pressed her closer to losing control, but promises bound her. So she held strong. Ready to retire to the royal chambers for the night, she turned her gaze to the walls at her side and let their welcome distractions take her. The stone was older than any throne, its first shapes carved not by human hand, but by water’s patience. Settlers had later squared the halls and hewn their mark into what had once been wild, yet the bones of those ancient water-flows remained, if one knew where to look. Countless monarchs had roamed these halls. Queens, kings, and rulers unbound by gender. Before them all, Chantara had been corsair water, lawless and greedy, until one woman rose from plunder and bent the realm toward order. From her fleet came Pelagica. From Pelagica came empire. The Naiads and Nereids guided her sail and Mother Altalune sanctified her course. Now Cobeah, in her own turn, threatened to bring it all toppling down. Her foul actions would be written in the same water-hewn stone as the monarchs of old. She had no choice, not that anyone would care. Their belief in her wasn’t necessary. She only needed the crown long enough to finish what Disaya’s death had begun. Long enough to protect her bloodline, her grandchild, and the future of the throne.
September 13, 2026 at 4:57 PM