All that separates the powerful from the meek is circumstance, a foible jealously guarded by the privileged. The balance of power is a game best played by those wielding the gift of supernatural circumstance.
But circumstance can be stolen.
As of August 2025, this novel is completed, edited by the author, and scheduled for professional editing starting in September 2025. A professional cover is also in the works! The author (me) is eying a tentative release date in October of 2025.
Are you really surprised to discover that this is a work of fantasy?
This novel sits at a comfortable ~80,000 words. This gives the reader approximately 325 pages of fast-paced fantasy to sink their teeth into.
This book is intended for readers in their late-teens, and adults from all walks of life.
The vision for this book, and the series as a whole, is to marry up classic fantasy with approachable, fast paced narrative.

The Hook

Peace turns brittle in the northern kingdoms. The truth of old atrocities still festers, biding its time, as the High-King’s gaze shifts once more toward the free nations beyond his reach.

Elsie Marsh, a thief on the run, watches her world implode after a heist gone wrong. She flees with the High-King’s most dangerous weapon—an ancient power worth killing for and dying over.

Roy Yawburg, a war-scarred rhymer, long ago traded musket and sword for the strings of his guitar—but his hands still remember the price paid with the innocence of his youth. Now the vassal-kings have come calling again, demanding a service he swore he’d never again give.

Their paths will cross in blood and betrayal. Half-truths and broken loyalties will tip the scales of power—and at the center stand a thief and a rhymer, bound together by secrets that could herald the fall of an empire.

Book 2 of the Chronicles of the Usurper is currently being written. As it stands, the narrative is plotted and 10,000 words of the first draft have been committed to paper. Release of the final product is expected in early 2026.
Luckily, still very much fantasy.
The vision for this book, and the series as a whole, was to marry up classic fantasy with approachable, fast paced narrative.
This book is intended for readers in their late-teens, and adults from all walks of life.