Grey the Mercenary Tales
A series of steampunk, swashbuckling novellas set in another solar system far across the cosmos. Each novella features a unique protagonist with unique problems, who will soon make the acquaintance of a mysterious, elderly swordsman.
The novellas can be read in any order.
A Poet of Travenna
(Novella; Kindle and Print Format)
A poor poet wanders the bridges and avenues of Travenna, wrestling with a terrible fate. He loves Belmiro, a wealthy merchant’s son, but Belmiro’s cruel twin sister, Laudalina, engages in spiteful machinations to ensure that the two young lovers remain apart.
Knowing that he must win a duel or forfeit Belmiro’s affections forever, all seems lost until the poet stumbles across the path of an accomplished, if inebriated, swordsman…
A Street Rat of Salagena
(Novella; Kindle and Print Format)
Slavers stalk the streets of Salagena, abducting the orphans that live there and bearing them off to places that only the Saints' know. When her friend Graciela is about to be taken by a group of these slavers, Suzanna heroically springs into action to save her.
Alas, her selfless act has drawn the slavers' ire, sending her fleeing through the ruins on the outskirts of Salagena. Will she be able to escape their clutches?
Other Stories
The Elixir
(Novella; Kindle Format)
Gideon Butler came to Port Harbor to pursue a career as a writer, only to discover that his writer's block has followed him. Can a mysterious man and a mysterious elixir help Gideon to become the famous novelist he dreams of being?
This story was inspired by my love of cosmic horror fiction and my neuroses regarding my own writing. It is set in the 1920s in a quaint, but creepy, New England town of my own design.
DJ Tenebrae
(Short Story; Kindle Format)
It's Tenebrae's first night DJing at the Apocalypse Club.
Unfortunately for the people at the club, a predator lurks in the shadows.
Also unfortunately, I can’t talk more about the story without spoiling it. Go read it for yourself if you’re intrigued!
Grignyr the Ecordian
(Novella; Kindle and Print Format)
In 2018, Geoff Bottone read The Eye of Argon and discovered, to his surprise, that there was an actual story lurking beneath the misspellings and malapropisms of the original. With editing pen in hand, he set out on a lonely, and perhaps futile, quest to redeem Mr. Theis' work by using its foundation to tell an interesting and fun story.
The Fear Vampire
(Short Story; Kindle Format)
As the Assistant Editor for Weird Meridian Magazine, Hawthorne Fischel has seen plenty of strange phenomena and talked to quite a number of interesting people and creatures. Tonight, at a diner on the corner of Eighth and Dunphey, he will interview a fear vampire.