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Personal Effects: Sword of Blood
Brinkvale Psychiatric Hospital art therapist Zach Taylor is endlessly curious, perhaps to a fault. When his cheerful elderly patient Gertrude “Spindle” Spindler completes her latest quilt and informs Zach that a 30-year-old "grand design of nine" has just concluded, Zach’s curiosity is piqued ... and he soon embarks on a quest to unwind the meaning of the woman's cryptic phrase.
He isn't expecting a descent into a world filled with mystery and ruthless subcultures -- and he isn't expecting to be haunted by Spindle's coy clues. What is The Great Blade of Blood? What are The Charred? What is the grand design of nine? And who is the dark-skinned stranger stalking Zach at every turn, threatening his life?
The answers may lie in Spindle's granddaughter, a willowy self-proclaimed psychic named Hen. But Zach soon discovers that Hen may be crazier than the patients he treats ... and the treasure he's pursuing may be more dangerous -- and deadly -- than he ever imagined.
Personal Sword of Blood is a podcast-exclusive novella written by J.C. Hutchins, author of the 7th Son trilogy. It is a prequel to Hutchins' print novel debut, Personal Dark Art.
He isn't expecting a descent into a world filled with mystery and ruthless subcultures -- and he isn't expecting to be haunted by Spindle's coy clues. What is The Great Blade of Blood? What are The Charred? What is the grand design of nine? And who is the dark-skinned stranger stalking Zach at every turn, threatening his life?
The answers may lie in Spindle's granddaughter, a willowy self-proclaimed psychic named Hen. But Zach soon discovers that Hen may be crazier than the patients he treats ... and the treasure he's pursuing may be more dangerous -- and deadly -- than he ever imagined.
Personal Sword of Blood is a podcast-exclusive novella written by J.C. Hutchins, author of the 7th Son trilogy. It is a prequel to Hutchins' print novel debut, Personal Dark Art.
10 pages, Podiobook
First published May 15, 2009
2 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
J.C. Hutchins
25 books218 followersFrom the About J.C. page of jchutchins.net:
J.C. Hutchins crafts transmedia narratives, screenplays and novels for such entertainment companies as A&E, Cinemax, Discovery, St. Martin’s Press, Smith & Tinker and Leviathan Games.
J.C.’s recent work includes Lead Writer & Experience Design roles on campaigns for the Cinemax espionage series Hunted, Stephen King’s Bag of Bones (a cable miniseries based on King’s bestselling novel) and The Colony, an intense survival reality series. He also recently created an educational transmedia experience based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
J.C. began his career has a “new media novelist,” using emerging storytelling strategies such as podcasting, social media and crowdsourcing to create and distribute his thriller novels.
His 2009 novel Personal Effects: Dark Art (co-written with web storytelling pioneer Jordan Weisman) featured online and physical transmedia elements that blurred the reader’s role from passive consumer to active participant. The Personal Effects IP is presently in development as a Starz TV series, with Gore Verbinski executive producing.
J.C. also also helps entertainment companies reach new markets by creating canonical tie-in content, and offering best practices for worldbuilding, revenue generation and cross-platform storytelling.
J.C. has been profiled by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR’s Weekend Edition, ABC Radio and the BBC. He lives in Denver with fellow novelist Eleanor Brown, and their cat, Chester.
J.C. Hutchins crafts transmedia narratives, screenplays and novels for such entertainment companies as A&E, Cinemax, Discovery, St. Martin’s Press, Smith & Tinker and Leviathan Games.
J.C.’s recent work includes Lead Writer & Experience Design roles on campaigns for the Cinemax espionage series Hunted, Stephen King’s Bag of Bones (a cable miniseries based on King’s bestselling novel) and The Colony, an intense survival reality series. He also recently created an educational transmedia experience based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
J.C. began his career has a “new media novelist,” using emerging storytelling strategies such as podcasting, social media and crowdsourcing to create and distribute his thriller novels.
His 2009 novel Personal Effects: Dark Art (co-written with web storytelling pioneer Jordan Weisman) featured online and physical transmedia elements that blurred the reader’s role from passive consumer to active participant. The Personal Effects IP is presently in development as a Starz TV series, with Gore Verbinski executive producing.
J.C. also also helps entertainment companies reach new markets by creating canonical tie-in content, and offering best practices for worldbuilding, revenue generation and cross-platform storytelling.
J.C. has been profiled by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR’s Weekend Edition, ABC Radio and the BBC. He lives in Denver with fellow novelist Eleanor Brown, and their cat, Chester.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 2, 2010
This podiobook is 8 chapters of Personal Effects, and two preview chapters of Dark Arts (encompassing chapters 1-4 of the book). I'd say this book has done its job in making me interested in purchasing Dark Arts and reading more. It'll be fun to be able to get online and research the mystery myself, I think!
Personal Effects was a great book to listen to. J.C. Hutchins is an awesome reader, and when he gets into his "creepy" voices, I can feel shivers going down my spine. In fact one thing keeping me from picking up Dark Arts right away is the fact that there doesn't seem to be an audiobook version of it (though if he wasn't reading the book, I wouldn't buy the audiobook version anyhow).
The story itself pulled me in pretty quickly. It had a good bit of mystery with a bit of maybe-fantasy mixed in. I liked how the fantasy elements weren't ever really confirmed or disproved by Zach, leaving readers to decide whether people were full of BS/insane, or if there really were mystical things happening.
Since Dark Arts starts the week after the events that take place in Personal Effects, I definitely recommend that anyone wanting to read Dark Arts listen to this book first.
Personal Effects was a great book to listen to. J.C. Hutchins is an awesome reader, and when he gets into his "creepy" voices, I can feel shivers going down my spine. In fact one thing keeping me from picking up Dark Arts right away is the fact that there doesn't seem to be an audiobook version of it (though if he wasn't reading the book, I wouldn't buy the audiobook version anyhow).
The story itself pulled me in pretty quickly. It had a good bit of mystery with a bit of maybe-fantasy mixed in. I liked how the fantasy elements weren't ever really confirmed or disproved by Zach, leaving readers to decide whether people were full of BS/insane, or if there really were mystical things happening.
Since Dark Arts starts the week after the events that take place in Personal Effects, I definitely recommend that anyone wanting to read Dark Arts listen to this book first.
November 23, 2012
OK, so not as good as 7th son, which was a real favourite for me this year. Although I do like Zach as a character, and will probably read Personal Effects sometime next year. I'm sure he has an interesting back story that i would like to know.
April 17, 2013
I like the way this is written.
July 15, 2013
Too much expository dialogue. Much of the action of the story takes place in the past. I would have preferred flashbacks.
March 2, 2016
Welp.
I'm in. Guess I'll be getting anything else involved in this series.
I'm in. Guess I'll be getting anything else involved in this series.
March 16, 2018
J.C. Hutchins books are as good as Scott Sigler's, no wonder they are friends.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews