Hello readers! As society breaks down outside your door, I’ve got good news! The kind that’s good enough for you to put down that bat you’ve been hammering nails int, and maybe even make you reconsider putting on those post-apocalyptic leathers for another day or so.

A Trial for a Dragon, my entry for Parliament of Wizards (more at the link if you’re lost) is now ready for Alpha!

Yes, it took a few days, even once the first draft was done. See, the submission limit where wordcount is concerned for Parliament is 17,500 words, and the first draft of Trial clocked in at around 19,960 or something like that. So clearly I had to do some cutting and trimming. A lot of cutting a trimming. Sands, I even rewrote the entire introduction, cutting out some elements and getting it down to about 1,500 words less.

If you’re a Patreon Supporter, by the way, the original, expanded introduction is a supporter reward, so it’s not gone forever.

What’s Trial about, you may ask? Well, I’ll leave that for the jump. First I want to make two details clear:

1. It’s time for Alpha Readers to have a crack at it.
2. Work on the next episode of Fireteam Freelance has begun.

So, with regards to the first: E-mails to prior Alpha Readers will be firing out this evening. Check your inboxes. I think between the quarantine and size of the list of Alphas, it should go pretty quick. It helps that it’s a short, not a titan of a book like usual.

Oh, and what it’s about. I should probably drop a few primers. Genre and the like. A Trial for a Dragon is a Fantasy short story set in the same setting as A Game of Stakes (from A Dragon and Her Girl) and Axtara – Banking and Finance. In fact, the protagonist of Trial, Ryax, is Axtara’s older brother, a magic-enthusiast who has his sights set high: he wants to become a wizard.

How does that happen? How does he go about it? What, you think I’d spoil the story? Suffice to say I enjoyed writing it quite a bit, and I think you’ll enjoy reading it just as much, if not more.

Oh, and Axtara – Banking and Finance isn’t out yet. So don’t worry that you’ve missing something. That’ll drop … later this year I want to say. Alpha on that shouldn’t be that far off, actually, since the first draft is done and in Pre-Alpha right now.

So, be on the lookout for your email. Now, on to Fireteam Freelance.

I do not think episode three will be ready by this Saturday. I could be wrong (after all, there are two more full writing days between now and then) but I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver.

However, it will definitely be next weekend if not this one. Underground Orbit is off to a strong start, I’ve had plenty of time to figure out the larger beats of the episode in detail, and we’re going to see some awesome action in this chapter, plus a larger view of what life is like for the regular folks living on this future Earth.

Plus, there’s this opening line, which I leave to tease you all:

“I hate naked ops,” Ursa said, scowling as the train car swept through another tunnel.

On that note, have a great day, and stay healthy!