Substack makes you pin one publication as primary for your profile, and they seem to be pushing for a unified profile/publication experience. Unfortunately, I created separate publications for my two serials, because they don’t really have an overlapping readership. In hindsight, I should have created sections under my author publication and kept one email list, but here we are, over 70 posts in and I don’t feel like merging them and making an even bigger mess. So, I have made my author site the primary publication, and will just deal with the mess from here.
First up, my Science Fiction, Cyberpunkish, space opera:
The Girl with the Cybernetic Eye
Adult Sci-Fi Serial · Trilogy Planned · Maybe More After
Simonee Saran looks like she knows exactly what she’s doing—until she doesn’t. She had one job—steal a mysterious keycard from the woman she loves, easy in, easy out, no harm, no foul. But things didn’t go according to plan, and now she’s on the run and she doesn’t know who she can trust.
It’s adult sci-fi about imposter syndrome, the specific exhaustion of performing competence when you’re terrified you have none, and the found families you stumble into when you’re running from something else.
What’s available now: The Ice Princess of Enceladus Station (Book 1) is complete and live on Substack as well as Amazon, etc. (for the sake of convenience). The Cannibal of Cloud Ball 9 (Book 2) is in progress and released one chapter per week(ish).
There’s also: Original music (lyrics by me, vocals by our robot overlords), and at least one Polish-Mexican fusion recipe, because Carlos likes to cook.
Next up: A teen/YA historical fantasy/horror story:
The Shadowmancer Chronicles
Ganser, Massachusetts, 1921 · A 15yr old girl answers a call from the ancient gods of Sumeria.
The Call of Mammitum: Teen/YA Historical Fantasy/Horror Book 1 of 7 in The Shadowmancer Chronicles
Mattie Mae Albright lost so much to the Great War, and she’s living in poverty with a mind they didn’t build school for. So she retreats into vivid daydreams, steering them through her happiest memories. But something else takes control, and her dreams turn into nightmares, spoiling what little light she has to survive the anniversary of the worst day of her life.
Now the day starts cold—a blank essay on her desk, a fight with her mother, a morning full of nightmares she can no longer control. When she runs from a chance at social connection, she steers herself to the only place she thinks she can feel safe, Kerr Hill Cemetery, and a memorial to the bodiless dead.
But the dead aren’t listening today, and the dark force interrupting her dreams guides her to the oldest stones at the base of the hills, where a stone door waits, bearing a seven petaled rosette.
Whispers fall from the willow boughs, calling ki-gal-sheh, ki-gal-sheh, ngesh-tug-zu, ki-gal-sheh si.
And Mattie answers their call.
What’s available now: I’m running through a voice polish draft and posting the chapters on Substack. The cadence is sporadic at the moment, but should pick up once I take a mid-point break from The Cannibal of Cloud Ball 9.