Summer Writing Sprint 2025

Ah friends! Midsummer comes upon us anon. It will be an interesting summer and not one soon forgotten, I fear. Yet life goes on, and while there’s life, there’s hope, and need of vittles, as a wise man once said. And for those of us who must scribble to maintain sanity, there is writing.

For while I haven’t been posting as regularly here as I’d like, I have been writing. My goal this year is to finish both Crown of Crows and Axon, Inc.. This would be a pretty big deal, because I started Crown (originally Return to Sagaia) in 2014, and Axon back in 2013. But at last, both of them are in range of being properly finished. So I’m sprinting to the end. My target is to wrap up Crown in mid-July, Axon in mid-August, and have both of them ready to publish by the end of August.

So here’s a bit of a curtain-peek, for those who like them. A little progress report, a little linguistic nonsense, and a few excerpts of recent writing.

What am I working on first?

Mainly the fantasy novel Crown of Crows — which some of you have followed in serial form on my Patreon. It’s an uncommon tale of return: a young woman named Sarah, who ruled a realm in childhood, is drawn back as an adult when the boundary between worlds is broken. The fantasy world has ended, but it did not die a natural death.

The latest chapter is called “Shuddering Wood.” In it, Sarah and her companions (her friends Gilly and Dean, Gehwa the unicorn, and a peculiar crow who is also a witch) must traverse an ancient forest where grief is manifest and the trees scream.

Can we read some of it?

Of course! Here’s a moment from the Wood:

Within the woods, the creaking and moaning of the trees, which had faded from Sarah’s consciousness as she became used to it, was so much louder and all-consuming that she flinched and shook every time it started. The noise was now a cacophonous chorus of torment; it sounded like some trees were literally being twisted and bent until they snapped and cracked and screamed. Above and beyond the moaning and wailing, she thought she could hear other noises — howls, cries, lamentations. Wordless, inarticulate anguish.
Sarah found that she was crouched forward, huddled over her clutching hands, her shoulders tensed as if she would be attacked from behind any minute. She tried to relax. The crow witch shifted its footing on her shoulder. There was nothing to do but follow the light and hope to be through the woods soon.
“How long will it take to get through?” she asked the crow, during a break between the noises. She found herself whispering. Was there anyone in these woods to hear her? “How far is it to the other side?”
“Why didn’t we think to ask that sooner?” whispered Gilly.
No knowing, muttered the crow. Long. Short. Fey light finds short way. Maybe.
“It doesn’t really know,” said Sarah to Gilly. “Not much we can do anyway. It takes as long as it takes.”
“We might as well try a sing-along to pass the time,” said Gilly. Sarah snorted a laugh. She heard Dean snicker, too. For just a moment, the darkness seemed to lessen, and the muscles in her shoulders eased.
“Thank God for you,” she said to Gilly. And she meant it. Gilly reached out and squeezed her arm in response.

The Crow Witch is not a talking animal in the usual sense. It knows no English. Instead, it speaks a crow-language, as all crows do. In order to communicate more easily with Sarah and other non-crow animals, it naturally casts a Speaking Spell. The charm allows all animals, humans, and others to understand each other. Here it is, in full:

Dark wing
Light grace
Eyes gleam

Whisper rhyme
Words fold
Break time
Tale told

Voice dream
Witch space
Spell sing

Magic call
One, all
Spell thrall

Share ear
Draw near
Hear clear!

What else is new in the world of Artír?

I’m so glad you asked! I’ve continued coining new words and names in Artanga, the constructed language of the world. Artanga is a daughter language of Irish, heavily influenced by English and Latin. Here are a few fresh favorites:

orr

/ˈoʊrʲ/

Gold. From Irish ór.

Ta orr i dúllo. (“The gold is in a leaf.”)

Ohra

/ˈoʊhra/

A unicorn of the Last Battle era, brother of Gehwa. From Latin aurum, “gold.” (The unicorns tend to give themselves names derived from Latin, just as the human royalty do.)

alngúll

/alngulʲ/

Hooved animal (deer, horse, cow, unicorn, centaur, etc.). From Latin ungula.

stauliann

/staulʲanʲ/

The chief breeding male of a unicorn or centaur herd.

Ex. Ciannes an stauliann prímm acc an triettcaććt treí cio ahass ceívn. (“The stauliann prímm leads the battle-herd through mist and memory.”)

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If you’re curious to see more — full chapters, author commentary, behind-the-scenes worldbuilding — it’s all on my Patreon. That’s where the bulk of this summer’s work is being shared. And of course, if there’s anything you’d like to see a post about here — the White Stag, Perry’s pipe-weed rants, the rites of the cult of the Night Wolf — just let me know.

Till then: may your trails be strange and your maps unreliable.