Witches control reality. Will reality survive if a witch won’t fulfill her cosmic directive? Abbie balances life with her infant son, fending off demons and reapers while trying to save the live of one man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Good midnight!
Story Update:
SCARAB is designed to provide for any need its human masters may encounter as they set up their survey mission on Tantalus 13, including their need for swift and reliable transportation. As with everything else SCARAB has built since settling on Tantalus 13, however, it has gone significantly beyond the minimum effort needed. To an almost suspicious degree...
SCARAB’s craftsmanship is second to none. But why? Why is SCARAB so determined to create such extravagant accommodations for a simple mining base? How is a machine, however intelligent, capable of such artistic expression? Is SCARAB’s handiwork hiding secrets of its own?
Find out, when you pre-order Tantalus Depths!
Excelsior Pirates!!
No real update, but today is apparently National Tell A Joke Day. Some dino humor for you:
Rock on Pirates. Rock on.
*Gasp* We’re up to 60 unique readers, 76 pre-orders, and 8th place in the Geek and Sundry contest! We’re even closing in on 7th! That’s pretty impressive, so I’ve uploaded Chapter 3. Thanks so much for your support!
It may be hard to believe, but I’m not the most talented person in my family.
My sister has been awesome enough to create this incredible Van Gogh-inspired SCARAB poster as a limited-edition special promotion. I call it "SCARABy Night."
Or maybe not...yeah, probably won’t be calling it that again...
Anyway, from now until September 1, anyone who either:
A) pre-orders a paperback or super-reader copy of Tantalus Depths
or
B) refers someone who pre-orders a paperback or super-reader copy of Tantalus Depths will get a free copy of this poster sent to you shortly after September 1. You can also buy the poster directly from her Etsy shop until that date, if you choose to.
In order to ensure that there is zero misuse of Inkshares’ referral system, I want you to confirm your referrals with me personally through private message: Just shoot me a simple private message saying who you referred, and/or who referred you.
And please, while you’re at it, take a look at my sister’s shop, just generally. She’s extremely talented and has all kinds of great crafts and artwork. It’s well worth your time.
There is no magic bullet
We can’t Star Trek our way out of this one
Bigotry, classism, elitism, hatred, and all the other ills of our times are exacerbated by unjust distribution of resources. When someone has – or appears to have – the ability to give a resource to someone in need of that resource, that’s when societal ills go from quirks to conflicts.
When a family is starving for want of bread, they don’t simply rob the nearest baker. They choose the baker most different from them. When faced with the opportunity to hire someone and uplift them from poverty, an employer chooses the applicant with which they most empathize. It’s hard to turn away someone that looks like they could be your son, or daughter, or even you from a different life.
Without scarcity – without need – these conflicts would not become violent. Without scarcity – whether that scarcity be of rights or resources – bigotry goes without harmful expression. Without scarcity, we can afford to tolerate bigotry.
Magic Bullets are Blanks
Star Trek: The Next Generation and the original series both faltered when faced with a specific conflict. Two groups which dislike each other are fighting over a limited resource. Often there has been some wrong-doing, misunderstanding, or ancient enmity that results in a conflict. In the end, the crew of the Enterprise broker an end to hostilities.
Take “When the Bough Breaks” as an example. An elusive nation kidnaps children because they can breed none of their own. The Enterprise, ready to fight to get back its stolen people, discovers the cause of the nation’s infertility. They present the solution to the people of the nation, and peace is attained. The children are returned.
This sort of solution appears time and again throughout many Star Trek series, but it is the most false of hopes. An acute problem on the edge of spilling out into violence, is resolved by the clever intervention of technology. Yes, drama still occurs, but the scarcity which caused the conflict is alleviated.
This is what it means to “Star Trek” your way out of a problem, and it rarely works in real life. Technological solutions always target the suffering of the rich. When the poor are considered, they are but a market from which the rich can benefit. Heroes who seek to solve the world’s problems with only technology, will only succeed in widening the gap between the wealthy and those that suffer the most.
Technology can cure a great variety of ills. Those who market technology as a cure-all are either grifters or marks.
The Alchemy of Brilliance
Brilliance - and the greater continent of Promise - is filthy with the fantastic. The Soaring Scar - the home of the Raptors - is a mountain range that floats above a boiling ocean. The walkwoods of Promise will march upon cities and towns to drag away sinner and saint alike. And, barring misadventure, the people of Brilliance live forever.
All this magic - well, most of this magic - is due to the influence of alchemy, and it is bound by alchemy’s limitations. Alchemy cannot bring the dead back to life. Alchemy cannot make barren lands grow food. Alchemy cannot provide energy from nothing. All energy on Promise comes from somewhere. Resources are always limited.
Reagents and the knowledge of how to use them are scarce. Perhaps the most contentious resource is the possession of the iron wells themselves. While iron water is most central to the people of Brilliance, there are other forces in the world that rely on it as well.
Unlike Star Trek or other utopian fictions, Seven Days a Servant does not present a technology which cures scarcity. In fact, all fantastic technologies on Promise increase demand for its scarce resources.
As Brilliance moves ever-closer to revolution, no technology is going to save them. They can’t Star Trek their way out of their problems. Whoever lives to tell the story of Brilliance, they won’t recall the magical solution which brought salvation on the dawn of their darkest day.
Peace will be won with negotiation, compromise, and blood.
Hello adventurers!
I have spent my afternoon and evening today editing the previous chapters, adding some things and fixing the errors I made with the help of one dear follower. It is only right that I give his project a shout out. Go and check out his book, The Knightmares! It is a horror book, with a most entertaining and quirky style to it.
I am currently in the middle of writing a new chapter, and one minute worth of text is already available. The chapters I’m releasing this week require a ton of research and double-checking the facts. The Hunter Saga isn’t obviously meant to be a history book, but I feel like the more real and accurate the environment is, the more magical the fantastical things will be.
During the next few chapters we will explore the relationships of the characters deeper, as they are bound to spend a lot of time together to get to their goal. No worries, there will be plenty of action afterwards. Plenty. Oh gods I feel horrible just thinking about the things I’m destined to write soon. But it must be done! I’m thinking about how much do I want to release here, and at the very least, I need to tell this first origin story to its end *shudder*. You don’t become a monster hunter without getting some trauma, that much can be deciphered from Supernatural. Everything is going to be alright, right guys? Why am I sounding like a creepy villain from Goosebumps? Huff!
Sweet dreams! You are important!
-H.A.