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A snippet from A Sense of Murder. Kellan learns that demons can speak the truth—when it serves their purpose…

“Forgive me if I don’t trust you,” I said flatly.

“Ah.” The fiend’s eyes widened. “I see. That’s the issue, isn’t it? Did your pet magus accuse you of consorting with your betters?”

“Yes. No!”

The hellspawn smirked. “You were entirely truthful with him, of course.”

“I told him that I am not the one who summoned you,” I said hotly. “That is the truth.”

“Part of it, at least.” The hellish creatu...

Most people don’t know that later on in my life, I worked toward getting a Divinity degree. During one of my classes on pastoral theology, a speaker described a church he had been called to lead. There were schisms within the body of the church; infighting and backbiting; men in leadership positions who had no business being there.

At one point, he confided to another pastor that he had some serious problems in his church. No details, just that things were bad. He said the other pastor leaned in ...

WARNING: POLITICS FOLLOW

Well. Political platform mummery.

I did this for fun. Keep this in mind. There are nerds, and then there are NERDS…

I got a link to the proposed LP platform changes yesterday, asking for feedback. (Yes, I am a libertarian, and also a Libertarian.) You know what I’ve been using to beat the living snot out of project specs at work? LLMs. So I ran the platform through Claude Opus 4.7, and what did it find?

The platform never resolves whether it is anarchist or minarchist, and i...

A snippet from A Sense of Murder. It’s one thing to push around an Imperial girl. It’s another thing entirely when the woman in question is a seer with a gift for prophecy, training from the Black House, and a background that gives her very few inhibitions against inflicting grievous bodily harm…

He froze for barely an instant, giving her time to reach up with both hands and grab his knife arm. She used her handhold to pull herself up. She raised her right leg and slammed her foot down on his ins...

A snippet from A Sense of Murder. Arriving in the port city Victar de Reya with Prospero, the pair of warlock-hunters finds some unexpected agents of the Empire waiting to meet them on the pier…

The steam whistle of the packet boat died as we approached the pier. Prospero was in conversation with the captain when I nudged him and pointed at the shore, where a tall, bald man wearing a blindfold and an ornate robe was seemingly waiting for us. Heavily armored men stood behind him, gleaming rifles m...

I don’t think I’ve made a secret of the fact that the setting for A Sense of Murder is a post-Roman, post-Christian world. There’s enough oblique references in the book that most readers will sus that out. In a world where humans routinely interact with angels, fallen and otherwise, it’s hard to avoid.

It’s also led to an interesting problem for me. The Christian Bible is definitely present, and a large part of the heritage of the Empire. Individuals, particularly priests, will be quoting from th...

An snippet from A Sense of Murder. Having recently helped the magus Prospero fight and barely defeat a demonic servant of the Accuser, Kellan finds himself struggling to come to grips with the hold that creature still has on his mind.

“Such lies we have.” The demon stretched and elongated in unnatural ways, its voice mocking; but this time, the sinking ache of dread was strangely distant, as if in—

A dream. The colors of the world were muted, washed out. I struggled to pay attention to them, but t...

Yes, yes, we will get to the memes; but first, an announcement!

My nobledark fantasy mystery, A Sense of Murder, is available for preorder! Come enter worlds that are the battleground for good and evil. Places where magic is law; guns and steel are justice; and evil is patient, persuasive, and genuinely terrifying…

In a far-flung corner of the worlds-spanning Empire, Ser Kellan tor Iaestus is a Highwayman, sworn to keep the peace in the rugged Outlands. Armed with a revolver from a forgotten war a...

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Over on his Stack, my boss1 (who has some experience in the matter) has been talking about situational awareness, which is near and dear to my heart. I am in no way, shape, or form as skilled as he is in the matter; but I’m at least aware that I should be aware, if that makes sense.

In his latest article, Ian2 branched out to talk about women’s self-defense:

The Bugscuffle GazetteWomen's Self DefenceI don’t offer training…Read more21 hours ago · 48 likes · 21 comments · Ian

I’ve also been following...