Winner of the Crypt TV Horror contest. Author of The Catcher’s Trap series and Bad Medicine: Slay it...
Hello dear readers,
A lot has been going on and that’s kind of why I’ve been rather discreet in my communications. Also, I bet with three contests currently vying for attention, you get enough emails already. So what could possibly have taken up so much of my time?
Let’s start with how I had to do revisions to the manuscript for A God in the Shed. I had already handed it in but after a meeting at WeedRoad Pictures in L.A. a few weeks ago, several ideas to further improve the story demanded to be put to the page.
WeedRoad Pictures? What the hell is that? Well, that’s the second bit of paralyzing news. A God in the Shed has been optioned by Skydance Productions through the help of Akiva Goldsman from WeedRoad (props to Greg Lessans and Alexandra Neil for their part. Amazing people). I can’t do this news justice but you can read the article by The Tracking Board if you want to know more.
So what does this mean? The short answer? I don’t know! It doesn’t mean that A God in the Shed is going to be a television show but rather that there are efforts behind making that happen. Needless to say that the book is in the hands of some incredibly talented and hard working people. I’m still reeling from the news and gathering the details myself, but as far as excuses for my silence, I think that’s the best I can do right now.
What’s next?
Let me finish this with a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Adam Gomolin and Brooklyn Weaver who worked like tireless maniacs to make this happen, along with the rest of the Inkshares crew for their support and of course, you guys, the readers, without whom none of this would be possible.
On to the next step!
JF
Hello, all! It seems like just yesterday I was writing to you, to share with you some character concept art from my book, Witherfist. (Oh, right, that’s because it was yesterday.)
I’ve unexpectedly got some more art to share with you. This is drawn in a different style and is another image of Witherfist herself, Irusai. This is a different Irusai to the one you can read about in the first chapter of Witherfist. A much more composed, calm woman, in her days as a respected provincial governor - before she tattooed the true name of an ancient spirit onto her arm and became the notorious fugitive she is today.
Dear Friends
I have news to share with you. The most important one is a slight change of plans in the release of The Catcher’s Trap. We have decided to delay the release of the e-book, so it is out closer to the book official publication day. The Catcher’s Trap e-book will be available on October 21.
Originally, we were planning on releasing the e-book on October 8th, but it doesn’t make sense to release the novel an entire month before the physical book, when trying to maximize the marketing efforts. You have already waited over a year, and I thank you for your patience. The book will be in your hands before you know it, and hopefully, you’ll love it.
I also want to share with you my interview with WNPR. I was featured as part of a new series of immigrant stories, where I talked about coming to the U.S. my struggles as an immigrant and the story behind my first novel The Catcher’s Trap. If you want to learn more about yours truly, click the link below.
Finally, I want to ask for your support once again. You are the people who made The Catcher’s Trap happen, and I appeal once again to your big heart to help me win the CrypTV horror contest. I’m currently in second place, and I need your support to make it to number one.
Please get a copy of Bad Medicine: Slay it, Queen! You won’t regret it
Have a fantastic week!
First update of the last month of both the contest and this campaign. We’ve still got quite a ways to go in order for this campaign to be successful, so hopefully we can pick up steam.
I’ve talked a bit about dwarves and elves with my previous updates, but since we’re now in October and rolling right towards Halloween I figured its time that I switch tracks a bit and start talking about a few of the "monsters" encountered in Exile, Magus. I should only have 4 more main updates(including this one) before the campaign ends, which works out well since there are 4 particularly terrors I wanted to cover: my jungle dragons, werewolves, frost giants, and ice dragons. I’ll be saving the dragons for the last two updates, so today I’ll be kicking things off with werewolves.
In the world of Exile, Magus there are of course the various high gods with their worldwide churches and whatnot, but they play no real part in this discussion. Its the opposite end of the divine spectrum which relates to werewolves, the small gods or nature spirits depending on your preference of terms. Back in the days before the Progenitors’ War and the subsequent first rise of both the Melexi and Thirosia empires, certain animal spirits sometimes decided to take physical form. These spirits would most often appear as the animals which most worshipped them, but due to the malleable nature of spirit-born flesh they could take other shapes as well, including that of humanoids such as elves, dwarves, and humans, or even a mix between the humanoid and beast forms. This led to the first lycanthropes(werewolves), now known more as spirit werewolves or werewolf progenitors.
These nature spirits were limited in their geographic region of influence, but within these regions they would often gain followers beyond their animal types, often being part of pantheons of small gods worshipped by the more nomadic of the humanoids. Some of the most favored of these humanoids were given the gift of lycanthropy or chosen as mates by the nature spirit. Any child born from such a pairing is born as a werewolf.
Any lycanthrope that is either originally a nature spirit itself, or is born as a lycanthrope, has no trouble controlling its actions so long as it is at peace with both its humanoid and beastly natures. Those who are transformed into a werewolf as a result of a nature spirit’s blessing or infected through a bite sometimes have trouble reconciling these two natures and thus struggle with control, the latter moreso than the former. In the Badlands south of Zaltruscas most werewolf packs fall under the control of the vampire lord Vargas, who can join his will with that of any lycanthrope touched so as to help them maintain control. (You can read a bit about the region known as the Badlands starting here, though Pentaz and Buscidia’s encounter with werewolves is detailed in currently unreleased chapters immediately following.)
There are other types as well such as ursanthorpes(werebears), scrofanthropes(wereboars), leothropes(werelions), and many others with much the same origins and history, though not necessarily the same geographical ranges. Most of the nature spirits themselves have ceased wandering in physical forms, returning to exist solely as spirits worshipped by their animals and nomadic humanoids with their shamans. The descendants of these curious spirits still exist today, however, and their populations have for the most part thrived as they form their own nomadic societies, breeding and living with one another. They tend to stay far from civilization lest the two worlds clash though, which has led to many of those living in the larger cities of Hanaen and Zaltruscas to think of these werebeasts as mere myths, if they even think of them at all.
Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this bit of insight, and of course I’m also hoping many of you who have followed but not ordered yet will decide to pull the trigger before the end of this month. To all of you who have ordered, thank you so much. For any fellow D&D players/DMs I will have a stat block at the end. To everyone else, thanks for your time and support, and as always keep reading and enjoying!
For natural born lycanthropes or afflicted lycanthropes I feel the stats presented in the MM are close enough(though I tend to abhor the alignment choices), however there is nothing akin to my Werewolf Progenitors, so that is the stat block I’m giving everyone today. Hope you enjoy, and if you decide to try it out in your own game please give me feedback, I’d love to be able to tweak it to make it as good as possible.
Werewolf Progenitor Medium Fey (shapechanger), Neutral
Armor Class 13 in humanoid form; 14 (natural) in wolf or hybrid form
Hit Points 78 (12d8+24)
Speed 30’ (40’ in wolf or hybrid form)
Str 15(+2), Dex 13(+1), Con 14(+2), Int 10, Wis 14(+2), Cha 14(+2)
Saving Throws Wis+5, Cha+5
Skills Nature+6, Perception+5, Religion+3, Stealth+7
Damage Immunities Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silver weapons.
Senses passive Perception 15, Truesight
Languages Common, Sylvan
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Innate Spellcasting The werewolf progenitor’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The werewolf progenitor can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components.
At Will: Druidcraft, Guidance, Resistance
3/day each: Conjure Animals (always either 4 dire wolves or 16 normal wolves), Healing Word (always for 5d4 points of healing, average 12), Pass Without Trace
1/day each: Freedom of Movement, Protection from Energy, Polymorph (if this is used on a willing humanoid target it can permanently change the target into a werewolf; when used in this way the progenitor cannot cast this spell again for 1 month)
1/week: Awaken (can have more than 1 animal under effects at a time, but can only be used on wolves or other beasts descended from wolves)
Keen Hearing and Smell Advantage on Wisdom(Perception) checks that rely on Hearing or Smell.
Magic Resistance Advantage on Saving Throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons Bite and Claw attacks count as magical weapons.
Nature’s Blessing Gains its Charisma modifier to Armor Class in all forms.
Shapechanger The werewolf progenitor can use its action to polymorph into a humanoid or wolf-humanoid hybrid, or back into its natural form, which is a wolf. Its statistics, other than its AC, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Speak with Beasts The werewolf progenitor can speak with wolves and any beast related to wolves as if they shared a language.
Multiattack 2 bites(wolf form only); 2 spear attacks(humanoid form only); or 1 bite and 2 melee attacks with Claw or Spear(hybrid form only).
Bite(Wolf or Hybrid form only) Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5’, one target. Hit: 6(1d8+2) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid, then it must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or become a werewolf.
Claw(Hybrid form only) Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5’, one target. Hit: 7(2d4+2) slashing damage.
Spear(Humanoid or Hybrid form only) Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5’ or range 20’/60’, one target. Hit: 5(1d6+2) piercing damage, or 6(1d8+2) piercing damage if used with 2 hands to make a melee attack.
Tactics: They are a mostly peaceful sort, resorting to combat only when forced to do so to defend themselves or their allies/followers. They are usually accompanied by a pack of wolves, a band of humanoids, or some combination of the two. If combat ensues when they have no allies/followers present, they will take their first action to cast Conjure Animals, conjuring dire wolves if faced with 1-3 enemies, or normal wolves if faced with more than 3 enemies. Only once they have conjured these allies will a progenitor werewolf dive into melee combat, conjuring more wolves only if the fight is going very poorly for it(such as all the wolves first conjured being defeated). They have no fear of death since they know that their spirit form will eventually coalesce once more after death, allowing them resume their previous existence outside of life as a nature spirit.
Woo! 103 backers and 126 pre-orders!
A Beast Requires is the Write Out Loud Syndicate’s selection for October, which also happens to be LGBTQIA+ History Month! You have no idea how much this means to me. When I was a tiny little queerling, my life was an absolute mess. The late 80’s and early 90’s weren’t particularly kind, especially to a kid growing up in the suburban sprawl of Cincinnati. There weren’t a whole lot of LGBTQIA+ people in media, especially positive ones. Most of the time they were either stock villains, AIDS patients, or some sinister force serving as an antagonist. Of course, there was Divine, but at 8, I had no clue who Divine was, let alone had even seen a John Waters movie.
As I got older, and was able to find queer cinema, it improved, but there was still a lack of a LGBTQIA+ presence in fantasy and scifi, which were my go to genres of escapism. It wasn’t until the revival of a popular British tv show that I saw an actual representation of me in the media, someone who wasn’t 100% straight or 100% gay, and I fell in love with Captain Jack the moment my baby blue eyes first saw him.
Diversity does not exist in a vacuum, and any character’s defining characteristics should never be their race, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. When I started A Beast Requires, it was without question that the city of Aurum would be a diverse place, and part of that diversity was having LGBTQIA+ characters. Deputy Rilley, resident alchemist and mail order academic, is a trans man, and in a world where dragons are bankers and wizards use magic to grow pineapples in winter, no one bats an eye. Diversity in Aurum is a part of life, and when the nice troll drag queen asks you if she looks pretty in her dress, you say yes.
Then there’s Priz, who openly states with pride that he, in fact, loves everybody. Having a pansexual character, who loves without limitations, wasn’t difficult for me to write. Hells, Priz himself wasn’t difficult for me to write, since I was Priz for most of my life pre-2010. Out of all the things Priz is, and trust me in that there are a lot of them, his sexual orientation is the least interesting thing about him. I could have gone the entire book without mentioning it, but I had to. Agency is important, and by having that one line, he becomes a visible member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Being selected by the Write Out Loud Syndicate means the world to me. It’s an absolute honor, and I am damn proud to be part of the community.
- Jay
