Stuart Thaman's Blog

Traverse through realms far and wide with seven unique tales from four veteran authors. Sharpen your blades, clean your guns, and never look back.

Blades and Bullets features novellas and short stories from Stuart Thaman, Mike Leon, Sena Andeo, and Bill Pearce.

Find more awesome stories at www.nefhousepublishing.com

Today we’re talking to BardLyre and Cliff Hanger , both top tier LitRPG writers on Royal Road!

Thanks for joining us! Right out of the gate, congrats on your success! What drew you to Royal Road, and what was the first thing you read on the platform?

BardLyre: I stumbled across it wholly be accident. I’d taken out a KU subscription, and one of the stories mentioned it in their acknowledgements. I started reading widely on there and, eventually, thought about trying out adding my own scribblings. But it was when I realised you could get ‘previews’ of series I loved that I really started reading!

Cliff Hanger: Pretty simple. I like anime. I watch anime. Then the anime ends and I’m forced to wait… or, I can read the Manga/Light novels. Which I did. I read all the good (and many shitty) novels available. As I searched for more to read, I eventually found royalroad.com (Formerly Royalroadl.com). It was on that website where I read my first and still favorite novel Those Who Aspire to Become Gods: A darker fairy tale novel.

Tell us a little bit about your main series. What sets it apart from the other stories on Royal Road, and how have you sought to make it unique?

BardLyre: One of my readers described the series as ‘Lady Terminator versus the Sadistic Prick.’ I think that sums up the vibe well! Overall, I’m aiming for a blend of LitRPG and Grimdark that’s a little more character driven than can sometimes be the case in that genre!

Cliff Hanger: Inexorable Chaos follows a main character by the name of Quasi Eludo. Quasi is a Summoned Hero for hire. He is a guy that gets summoned to another world as part of his job. He’d been summoned 28 times before and my novel begins right before his 29th summon. In this summon, Quasi finds himself in a world where people gain skill and classes.

In essence, we are putting a slightly psychotic 9000+ year old hero in a completely new environment to play with. Quasi is capable, knowledgeable, experienced, and very crazy.

What has been the best part of being in the Royal Road Community?

BardLyre: I’ve had some awesome support from other writers – lots of advice and plenty of constructive criticism. The ability to get instant feedback from readers too is very helpful – it’s like having hundreds of beta readers!

Cliff Hanger: Comments. I love reading comments. Just knowing that people read my stuff floods my blood with dopamine.

What aspects of Royal Road have been frustrating?

BardLyre: you have to keep tell yourself not to feed the trolls. I’ve been relatively lucky – compared to others I know – but when someone decides they hate your book, but reads (and comments) day after day, it’s pretty wearing.

Cliff Hanger: They keep changing the damn algorithm!

Check out Inexorable Chaos on Royal Road today! Join the millions!

If you could snap your fingers and add any feature to Royal Road, what would it be?

BardLyre: It would be great if you there were a few more tools in order to get visibility. The rush for Rising Stars is a bit OF a pain, and it would be great if that could be smoothed out a little!

Cliff Hanger: SHOW ME THE ALGORITHM!

Tell us a little about what you have coming next! New novels, new series, etc.

BardLyre: The second book in my Tales of Shattered Glass, Stonehand, will be coming out in the very near future. The third book, Shadowbound, is 20k in on Royal Road if people want a preview. Book 1 of my new series with a very different tone – ‘Chance’s Gambit’ – is just reaching its climax. For fans of chaotic LitRPG comedy. Book 2 starting there soon too!

Cliff Hanger: My second series IC: God Games continues with the same main character, except crazier, more creative, and with significantly more cats.

If you could make a cross over with your main character into any other Royal Road series, which one would it be?

BardLyre: I think Daine would enjoy kicking arse and taking names alongside Azarinth Healer.

Cliff Hanger: I think Quasi would get along with Erin from the Wandering Inn. Both are crazy humans, just one of them has been crazy for a much longer amount of time.

Read or listen to Darkhelm today!

Everyone has—for better or worse—a favorite review that sticks out in their head. What is yours? What makes it so memorable?

BardLyre: I love the one I’ve mentioned above, but one from a troll sticks in my mind. ‘If this wasn’t so well written, I’d have fucked it off months ago.’ There’s a compliment in there somewhere.

Cliff Hanger: My most memorable reviews are easily by the people who praise the comedy. For example, here is a comment from a recent review: “genuinely funny to the point I can’t read them on the bus.”

There is also this one: This much good story, me likey very good much, yes yes. This good story. Me not slave of author no no. Me strong independent reviewer and not evil homunculi slave to author-chan.

Honestly, my readers are weird.

TRAIN TO BUSAN

The difference between American and Korean zombie movies is the mindset of the characters. In American movies, everything is a free-for-all, and every man is for himself. Sure, you’ll find the occasional hero, but most people have their own welfare in mind. In Train to Busan, you can really see the differences in communities. When a member of the young baseball team is bitten, the rest of the team doesn’t run away—they come together. However, this sense of community is broken at first by the father in the story; his job comes before his daughter, Soo-an. Soo-an only wants to go see her mom in Busan. Family is important to her, and she tells her dad that he is selfish.

The father tries to tell her she does not have to be a good person and should look out for herself, but Soo-an disagrees.

The news anchor on TV urges everyone to stick together and trust their government, something that an American movie would probably see, but nobody would actually do. The government is the first entity to rouse suspicion in a zombie movie, and for good reason.

There’s a business man in Train to Busan who has no sense of citizenship at all and pushes others in the path of the zombies to save himself.  He reminds me of most American heroes in the zombie movies, just out for himself.

There’s even teamwork in Train to Busan when a few passengers band together to lock the train station doors against the zombie horde. They are strongly contested by the business man who can’t cooperate with anyone. Again, that kind of unity is typically lacking in the usual American zombie movies where people kill each other just as often as the living dead.

The man I call Captain Korea, the husband to the pregnant woman, is the best example of leadership and teamwork. He is inclusive to all party members and always acts for the greater good. One of the baseball team members has a crisis of conscience with his bravery versus his fear, and he too acts for the greater good, trying to make sure everyone is safe.

Captain Korea gives a speech to the father and the baseball player about his teamwork—something not often seen in American zombie cinema. Even the bus seats boast communication and community, as several are facing each other rather than away like in America.

When the zombies start to reach critical mass on the train, the selfish businessman blocks Captain Korea and his crew from entering the cabin, which to me is a very American move. He doesn’t want to get infected so he starts a rumor that Captain Korea and the father have the virus. Captain Korea then sacrifices himself for the pregnant wife, the businessman, Soo-an, and the baseball player. His sacrifice is a very Korean move. We usually only see one person sacrificing themselves in zombie movies, but Train to Busan has a whole cast of characters that are connected to each other and want to help each other, each making sacrifices for the greater good rather than themselves.

Director Yeon Sang-ho masterfully builds tension throughout the film, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats from start to finish. The claustrophobic setting of the train, coupled with the relentless pursuit of the undead, creates a palpable sense of dread and urgency. The director employs tight editing, dynamic camerawork, and expertly choreographed action sequences to maintain a breakneck pace while allowing for moments of quiet introspection that genuinely set the movie apart from virtually all other zombie movies.

Coupled with themes of filial piety, community solidarity, and the importance of the collective beyond the individual allow the vibrancy of traditional Korean values to shine through. Train to Busan transcends the confines of its (usually B-rate gorefest) genre to deliver a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant cinematic experience. With its sharp social commentary, well-drawn characters, gripping tension, and stunning visuals, the film stands as a testament to the enduring power of storytelling in exploring the human condition, even in the face of a zombie apocalypse.

This article was written by Kristi Buckel. Check out her awesome horror, and check back soon for updates on her upcoming novels!

What’s the best zombie movie out there? Leave your favorite in the comments!

Alster Lightbridge was meant for great things. Locked away in his father’s estate, he yearns for more than cold stone walls and endless days in his family’s library. He wants the adventure promised by legend—to live up to his namesake: the revered general Alistair the Fourth.

Four centuries ago, Alistair fought and won the First Conquest of the Shades, putting an end to a plight caused by magical beings known as Shadowliths. After the war, his tomb was sealed away, hidden where no one could go, and the magic of Shades was forgotten along with it.

Crippled and alone, Alster is barely a shadow of his mythical ancestor, but that’s all about to change.

Join Alster on the epic adventure of a lifetime in the Umbral Blade Collector’s Edition featuring the complete duology plus bonus content unavailable anywhere else.

Contained within the Collector's Edition:Umbral Blade 1: ShadowlithUmbral Blade 2: MournsteadBonus Content: The First Conquest of the Shades Umbral Blade Collector’s Edition is finally ready!This entire series has been a super long time in the making. For everyone who read Shadowlith back in the day, thank you for waiting! Read today!

Thanks for doing an interview, Bardlyre ! 

Read the book for FREE on RoyalRoad! Click the pic!

Right away, tell us about the name. What does it mean? How did you pick it? I’m a huge fan of Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. The character of the Bard, Fisher, especially. When I was looking for a pseudonym, I wanted to channel that energy! Also, as a teacher from the Midlands in England, no higher calling than wanting to be known as the Bard! What got you into LitRPG? I accidentally signed up for Kindle Unlimited a few years back and came across all these books that weren’t like anything else I’d read before. I quickly blitzed through all the big names – DCC, DoftF, HWTWM, PH – and then spiralled out into everything and anything else. I really enjoyed the idea of System that ordinary people could use to get access to incredible powers. How has the experience of writing on Royal Road been? Pros and cons? As someone who has always tinkered away with stories for an audience of one, the idea of this massive potential audience you can out your work into simply blows me away. The fact that I have people that come back three times a week to see how my thing is going is a huge buzz. Cons? As with everywhere on the internet, there are Trolls at there and people who enjoy causing drama. Such closeness with the audience is an amazing privilege, but it can get pretty raw when someone wants to give you a kicking. Daine Darkhelm is an awesome character. Her no nonsense attitude and witty inner dialogue are certainly fan favorites of the series. What was her inspiration? There are far too few older women in fantasy literature and LITRPG especially. I didn’t think the world needed anymore socially awkward, young male powerhouses tearing up the landscape. I was interested in what the end of that hero journey looked like. When you’ve been kick-ass for too long and you don’t really want to keep going. There’s a Bill Hick’s routine I love which he starts with “I've been on the road doing comedy for ten years now, so bear with me while I plaster on a fake smile and plough through this shit one more time.” That’s the stage where we meet Daine. 

Read for FREE here!

Tell us a bit about the class system in Darkhelm and how you came up with it. I liked the idea of Class being via inheritance and being a completely frozen, locked in thing. I think one of my antagonists described it best: For the most part, year after year, Bakers bred Bakers, Stonemasons had little Stonemasons, and so and so forth until the end of time. Then you get the ones who are able to break free of those restrictions  – like Daine or Eliud (who seems to be most people’s favourite character – his Class has an unlimited mana pool and is not afraid to use it). I wanted to explore how that sort of rigid social structure was not sustainable. What are some of your favorite non-LitRPG books, and have any of them influenced your writing? I mentioned the Malazan novels – seriously, if there’s anyone that’s not read them, they must (after they read Darkhelm, of course). I love Joe Abercrombie and, of course, Brandon Sanderson. I have a room in my house that is basically a shrine to Terry Pratchett… What’s next on the horizon after the Darkhelm series is finished? I’ve learned so much writing these books. There’s so many things I look back on and realise a different choice would have created a really different experience for the reader. Looking forward to exploring some different worlds! You’ve put out a lot of content in a relatively short time. Any writing tips for other authors struggling to meet their word count goals? Best advice anyone gave me is the killer of most stories is constant rewriting. I write a chapter, get some thoughts from my beta readers, make some changes,  proofread then move on. You’ll kill your love for it if you worry it to death!Read Darkhelm for FREE on RoyalRoad! Want more LitRPG? Click here!

The wait is FINALLY over.

An ancient history of magic—rediscovered.

Alster and Elsey have found the tomb of Alistair the Fourth. Four hundred years ago, the mighty general was sealed away in what was supposed to be his eternal prison. Hidden in the mountains, protected by magic, and forgotten for ages…

Not anymore.

The feared magic of shadows has returned to Vecnos, and no one is safe. With the Umbral Blade restored to its rightful owner, Alster and Elsey must seek another artifact—and their journey will send them into Mournstead, the dreaded capital of the west where a single misstep means death. If they don’t succeed, all of Vecnos will perish under a brutal regime of shadows.

Mournstead is the wild conclusion to the Umbral Blade epic fantasy duology by Stuart Thaman. Brace yourself for the thrilling journey of a lifetime as two friends leave their home in search of long-forgotten adventure.

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I own Nef House Publishing, and I used to work at Hydra Publications as the production / acquisitions manager. I know a thing or two about the small press industry.

What do you need to know to land a contract with a small press? What can you avoid? What stands out?

As always, let’s dive right into it:

Make sure you know the difference between a small press and a vanity press. A vanity press publishes anyone who submits and then charges them a hefty fee, sometimes in the $10,000+ range. Vanity presses are scams. If a publisher of any kind ever tries to charge you money, RUN AWAY! Real small presses operate more or less just like traditional publishing, just on a much smaller scale (as the name implies). As a general rule: money always flows to the author.

Make sure you actually want to be published by the press you submit to. Don’t take a shotgun approach and query every publisher under the sun. Check out the publisher’s work to make sure it looks like stuff you would be happy producing. A lot of small presses cheap out on things like covers and editing, and you don’t want your manuscript treated the same way. Along those lines, make sure the genres match. Some publishers go for any and all genres, but most are specialized to things they know how to sell. Does your project fit? Will it look good next to the other titles on a table at Comicon?

Read the submission guidelines! Failing to follow the submission guidelines is not just an instant rejection—it also makes you look like a fool. Don’t submit a children’s book to a press looking for adult horror. Again, you just come off as foolish, and that’s not where you want to be. Keep in mind that many, many small press owners and authors know each other. The industry is fairly close, and people talk.

Do not have a backlog of subpar self-published novels in your query. I see this one all the time. Allow me to explain: if you have a link to an author website or other published works in your query, I am absolutely going to click it. I want to see what else you have. Are your other books selling? That’s a point in the good column. Are your other books stagnant? That’s not good… but the worst thing I can see when I click that link is a slew of amateur covers on equally amateur novels with no editing, no formatting, no reviews, no sales, and no hope. It tells me the author isn’t serious. They don’t care about their projects, so why would anyone else? And perhaps most damning of all, it would reflect poorly on the press to sign someone with an amateur backlog. Say you do get signed and a professional quality book is produced. People read it. They want more. They search the author name… and they find a disaster. Or, more likely, a whole catalog of disasters. They assume all those other books are also from the press, and it tarnishes the entire company.

What should you do if you have a rough backlog and want to query? Lying about it won’t get you the right answer, so fix it instead. If you’re serious, either professionally produce the projects and relaunch them or just bury them. Unpublish what you should not have published in the first place. Trust me—I’ve had to bury two novels and relaunched four. It isn’t fun, but it is necessary.

Edit your sample. The query letter and sample need to be as close to flawless as possible. A single typo can mean an instant rejection. Why? Small presses, even miniscule presses, get hundreds of submissions every single week. There are so many submissions that acquisitions managers like me can wait for a better novel in the same genre to come along. It isn’t worth taking a shot on a sample with typos when the next 10+ samples don’t have typos. Just nix the bad sample and move on.

Pro tip: even if you don’t want to hire a professional line editor for the whole manuscript before querying presses, at least hire an editor to go over the first 5k words. It won’t cost you much, and the benefits will be immense. Ask the editor what they think of the quality. Is it ready to submit? They have no skin in the game, so they’ll tell you. And it should go without saying, but self-edit the hell out of it. Showing your potential publisher that you’re serious about your craft and dedicated to producing quality goes a long, long way.

Stick to the book. Don’t give a full life story or curriculum vitae. You aren’t applying for a job. A few pertinent details about your writing career are fine, but nothing else is really important.

Keep the query short. Remember how many submissions come in? No manager wants to read 1.5k words of the query before even getting to the sample. There just isn’t enough time. Keep it short, to the point, and impactful. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you can get them interested with the first line, they’ll read the pitch. If they read the pitch, they’ll start the sample.

Examples: don’t start with “Hello, my name is xxx” or anything equally boring. Start with something cool like: “Welcome to the world of Uncity, a gripping post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller following a sexy cyborg cop caught in a web of lies, deceit, and destruction in the seedy underbelly of Chicago, 2967 A.D.” Something like that will instantly grab someone’s attention. That’s the goal.

Set expectations low. Most presses deny something like 95 - 99% of all submissions without even asking for a full manuscript. Don’t lose faith after 10 rejections. Analyze whatever feedback you received, look at your query with fresh eyes, and reposition yourself to do better next time. If you get denied because your book doesn’t fit the genre, recalibrate your targeting. If you get denied for typos, hire an editor. You get the idea.

If you find a press you really like and want to hit a homerun, talk to an author or two in your genre from that press. Reach out to them. Read their work, ask them questions, and get a feel for the press. Ask what worked with their query. Get whatever advice you can from the authors who have made it out of the slush pile and onto the shelf.

Don’t take production steps. I see this one every now and then, but thankfully not super often. What does it mean? I’ll get into a sample I like and request the full manuscript, and it’ll be delivered with a cover, ISBN, formatting, etc. All of that is a nightmare for a small press. Right out of the gate, if it has an ISBN, I’m instantly out no matter what. I do not want to worry about how / if the book is registered anywhere or to anyone or anything like that. Formatting is just as much of a nightmare. If you’re accepted by a press, extensive edits are going to take place. Editing blows up the formatting. Not only is it a wasted expense (the press pays for formatting, of course), it can make your manuscript cumbersome. Remember, with so many submissions coming in at all hours from all reaches of the planet, it is much easier to nix a manuscript than worry about undoing formatting.

Don’t try to get into a press based on non-writing elements. It should go without saying, but trying to play up things that have nothing to do with your sample is a bad idea. No good acquisitions manager wants to read about your life as a struggling single mother of 19 (obviously, this doesn’t apply to non-fiction and self-help) when you’re submitting a sample of an esoteric horror set in Medieval Europe during the plague. The worst thing I’ve seen people do is try to create a sob story / reason to be accepted based on irrelevant factors like race, heritage, and sexuality. If you’re querying for a horror novel, your appearance and personal life simply do not matter. Especially not at the query stage. By way of example, I had someone query a sci-fi novel with a whole paragraph about how they deserved to be published because they survived a heart attack a few years ago. It didn’t even make sense.

Know your audience. If you’re querying a self-help book targeted to a Jewish demographic, being Jewish is obviously something you do want to mention. If you’re querying a badass epic fantasy saga in the style of Game of Thrones, being Jewish is irrelevant. Hopefully that makes sense.

The quality of your writing and ideas and marketability of your project should be the only relevant things to a decision.

Don’t query an unfinished project. If you’re sitting at 60k of a planned 90k word book, you aren’t ready yet. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

Don’t query a small press seeking “representation.” I see this one pretty often. Small presses are not agencies or agents. They are the publisher, not the agent, so you aren’t looking for representation at all. You’re looking for a press. Similarly, a lot of presses (my own included) do not accept represented manuscripts. The reason is the cost and trouble associated with it. A manuscript with an agent means the agent will demand a hefty advance, usually take a long time to respond to simple questions, and overall just get in the way.

Review and negotiate your contract. Are there terms you don’t like? Speak up! Once you sign that contract, things aren’t likely to change. Does your contract have an out? What happens if the relationship sours and you want or need to be out of it? Are the rates what you expect or want?

If contracts aren’t your thing, please hire an attorney to look it over. Signing a publishing deal is a big decision—don’t make it lightly. At the very least, get a trusted author in your genre to look at the contract if you don’t want to spend some cash on an attorney.

Ask questions! Even if you get denied outright, ask a friendly question or two about specific feedback. You might not get an answer, but you might. And that answer might be incredibly useful.

Don’t query the same book to the same publisher. No matter how much time has gone by, many publishers keep master lists of rejections.

You can, however, query a new project to the same publisher. Should you remind the publisher that you’ve been previously rejected? Maybe. It depends how far you got. If you were denied outright, I wouldn’t mention it. If you made it to full manuscript stage, I would. In the end, use your judgment.

That wraps it up. Have any advice of your own? Comment below!

Just over a year ago I found myself working abroad in Türkiye. Away from family and a bit of time on my hands, I had room for a few extra hobbies.It was toward the end of COVID and traveling still hadn’t completely opened. My job, working out, and studying the Turkish language only kept me busy for so long. I wanted something better to do with my time than streaming and playing video games, so one Saturday morning I grabbed a cup of coffee, fired up my laptop, and started typing. Before that day I’d never thought about creative writing, but the words just started to flow. Hours turned into days—then into months—as taking the stories from my head and putting them into words became my new favorite activity.I always feel strange when I tell people that I just decided to start writing one day out of the blue, but that’s what happened, and that’s the first thing I learned about writing:It doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you’re writing something.Take the thoughts in your head and make them tangible. Whether it’s a notebook and pen, a typewriter, a voice recorder, or, in my case, a laptop, only you can get the story out of your head and make it real.It doesn’t have to be coherent, and it definitely doesn’t have to be perfect, but the more you write, the easier it is to keep up the process. If found that one of my favorite things to do was wake up early and read whatever whiskey-induced things I had come up with the night before. Some of them were genius or hilarious, but most were garbage. However, as the days ran on, the sporadic concepts started to meld together into something resembling a story.I let a few of my friends read it, and they gave me the encouragement to see it through to the end.Finally, as I got on the plane to come home to my friends and family, I typed the final scene. I had done it. I had written a book. It wasn’t pretty, but in 80K words, I had created a fantasy world like the ones from J.R.R. Tolkien and Lloyd Alexander that I had worn the pages off as a child. That was the easy part. When I started writing, I had no intention of ever publishing, but since it was done, I wondered if anyone else would enjoy reading it. There was a problem, though. If I wanted to get my book out there, I would have to get it published, but that concept was as foreign to me as Türkiye was when I first arrived.With a lack of knowledge, I did what any good millennial would do… I turned to Google. For weeks, I read through every blog, website, and anything else that offered advice on getting my work out there. The more I learned, the more I realized I was unprepared to take on the task myself. Thousands of dollars on several different types of editing, working through social media to develop a following, and competing with thousands of other authors just in the fantasy genre were just a few of the daunting tasks before me.I needed help, and that’s where I learned my second lesson:Put yourself out there as much and as often as you can.I don’t remember how many agents and publishers I reached out to, but I know it was a lot. It took a bit of digging, but the internet had no shortage of agencies accepting submissions.Most didn’t respond back. A hand-full gave a simple thanks-but-no-thanks. Even a few foreign publishers seemed interested, but I wasn’t ready to navigate those waters.When I had just about given up hope and started looking into self-publishing, my current publisher, Nef House, asked for the full manuscript. I was beyond excited and within a week, they read my story and came back with a suggestion: We like the book, but have you thought about making it a LitRPG? For those who don’t know, LitRPG stands for Literary Role-Playing Game.I had read a few LitRPGs and as an avid D&D player, I was familiar with the concept, though completely re-writing my novel was not something I was prepared for. However, the more I thought about it, the more what I had created seemed like it was begging for the RPG elements to be added in.I realized that if I was writing a story that I wanted other people to read, I needed my book to realize its full potential.Don’t be afraid of major changes—take the opportunity to make your story better.I resolved myself to make the book as enjoyable for the reader as possible, so I hunkered down and spent two months changing my novel into a LitRPG. I proudly submitted my updates and started working on books two and three, but the process was far from complete.Remember when I said I was an amateur author that had never considered creative writing? That was painfully obvious when I got back my line edits. I thought I was at least a somewhat decent writer, but it seemed like every single line had something wrong with it. My spelling, grammar, and punctuation were terrible, but those were the easy pieces to fix. Some of the feedback pointed out major loopholes. Other parts of my book that I thought were crucial actually took more away from the story than they added.Based on that feedback, here’s the fourth thing I learned:It’s an incremental process. Embrace the criticism and grow.I had never had someone take so much time to help me hone a skill—and believe me, writing is a skill. As an engineer, technical writing came easy to me; it’s complicated, but linear and direct. Creative writing is a different monster all together. Character development, engaging dialog, and simply putting the fantasy world in your head into writing are all complicated aspects on their own. Keeping them consistent through an entire novel was a huge weak point for me. However, I learned more in a month fixing those line edits than I had through grade school and multiple college degrees.My publisher worked with me to turn my book into something that I can be proud to share with the world. I’m now two months out from my release and couldn’t be more excited to have my story out there.As of this writing, I’m powering through the first drafts of books two and three, and I’ve started writing two separate books in the Sci-Fi and Urban Fantasy genres. I still wake up every day excited to put the thoughts in my head into my laptop and inch my way toward another release.Bruce Jamison is a debut author with Nef House Publishing with his first release: No Sun Under the Mountain, Dead Again: Book 1. You can reach him at brucejamisonbooks@gmail.com

Dead Again 1: No Sun Under the Mountain

Henry already died once. Does he really need to do it again?

Now he's a skeleton with a stat sheet, skills, and an insatiable desire to kill humans. Lurking in the very depths of his bleached skull, some remnant of his old self still remains—and it wants to break free just as badly as Henry wants to figure out how he's a skeleton in the first place.

And Henry isn't the only one. Other skeletons are gaining sentience all over Jallfoss. Is there any way back? Any way to break the curse that holds all of Jallfoss in its icy grip?

More humans are coming, and if Henry doesn't learn how to keep himself alive, none of it will matter.

The manuscript has been sent to the editor. Finally. We’ve waited so long.

The Umbral Blade series was always intended to be a duology with only two installments. After an arduous wait, Mournstead is getting extremely close to being ready. It will be out by Christmas, and we’re also working on a very cool Collector’s Edition with some special art and other goodies packed inside!

Stay tuned for more updates, and in the meantime… grab a copy of the latest edition of Shadowlith!

An ancient history of magic. An epic journey to find it.Alistair the Fourth was a mighty general from a long-forgotten war. Four hundred years later, Alster Lightbridge is barely a shadow of his legendary namesake. Crippled and confined to his family’s estate, he spends his days dreaming of something larger than himself—something worthy of his name.

Encouraged by his tutor to explore the Lightbridge archive, Alster discovers a magical dagger with the power to cleave shadows from their bodies. Blade in hand, Alster finally understands his purpose, though he needs to find a four-centuries-old grave in order to fulfill it. Shadowlith is the critically acclaimed first installment to the Umbral Blade duology by Stuart Thaman. This new 3rd edition version from Nef House Publishing features a highly polished manuscript with minor adjustments to the original text while preserving all of the grand adventure that fans around the globe loved at original release. Read today!