The handiness of portal travel made itself evident when rather than having to make the trek from the strange containment cell back to the citadel, Randy just reopened the shimmering violet tear in space and the three of them stepped through into the Keep’s throne room.
The troubling revelations provided by the Ennus-Merkki ritual still weighed heavy on Roark’s mind—namely that...
2019-06-05 20:27:40 +0000 UTC View Post
I've mentioned this before, but I love all the art I get to commission, both for myself as an author, and for all the authors working at Shadow Alley Press. Here's some raw art (non-colorized) that I got back today for Aaron Crash's new series, and I just love it to pieces. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below!
2019-05-26 20:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Two hours later, Roark respawned in the Keep throne room, wearing nothing but a threadbare loincloth and the World Stone Pendant. His Initiate’s Spell Book, soulbound like the World Stone, was still in his Inventory, but everything else he’d taken into the arena with him that morning was on his corpse, probably still lying in pieces in the dirt.
And there it would stay. It bloo...
2019-05-24 19:56:06 +0000 UTC View Post
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm giving the main series a facelift of sorts so that it's a bit more on brand with the rest of the VGO Expanded Universe books. Well, here's the new cover for book 1. Now with this one, I decided I wanted to stay as close to the original concept for book 1 as possible, and just sort of update everything. So the layout and background is very similar; only the character himself has really changed, and I think for the better! Hope you guys like this one. ...
2019-05-15 14:08:41 +0000 UTC View Post
Roark huddled in the corner of a massive cage, disguised as a bent little kobold in a sea of larger creatures. They were below ground, beneath the arena. Griff’s contact had led Roark down and locked him in just before sunrise that morning. Now only the smallest strips of sunlight shined through cracks in the ceiling above. The iron bars of the cage rattled constantly, trembling beneath the...
2019-05-14 21:08:48 +0000 UTC View Post
The dungeon lords ate everything Kaz and Mai laid out for them, their faces lighting up with amazement at every new taste and texture. They gulped down spiced meads, ales, and wines, smacking their lips and sighing with pleasure. Even Ko the Faceless somehow made her food and drink disappear, then sent satisfied and impressed messages to all of their minds.
“How is it possible that we ...
2019-05-09 19:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone. So though I LOVE the original VGO covers, I've decided to revamp the covers to better fit in with the rest of the VGO EU covers. To that end, I'm working to get the covers remade, though they won't be released (or even revealed) for a good long while. The plan is to start revealing them, one a week, for seven weeks prior to book 7's release (that's the plan right now anyway, though it may change). Anywho, here is the very first of the new covers with Jack (who actually looks lik...
2019-05-02 01:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Griff returned two days later with Yevin in tow. The rog magic trainer looked a sight more impressive in his silver-starred azure cloak and sorcerer’s robes than he had in the threadbare prison-issue rags. Over the next few days, the other skill trainers Griff had recruited filtered into the Citadel one by one. And just like that, they had done the seemingly impossible: assembled all the pieces ...
2019-04-30 13:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Zyra laughed at the sight of the gang’s culinary weapons. “I don’t know what you think you’re going to do with those in here. From what I’ve heard, you could barely use them when you were in a proper kitchen.”
The chef’s face turned beet red.
“I am an Oronoro Institute-trained chef, you tasteless heathen!” he bellowed, rushing Zyra, his rolling pin brandi...
2019-04-26 13:00:50 +0000 UTC View PostRoark spent the remaining few hours to dawn pointedly ignoring the way Zyra was pointedly ignoring him. Using Danella to take a jab at his eventual return to Hearthworld was a low blow, whether she understood what Danella had meant to him or not. Worse—or equally as bad, he couldn’t decide which—was Zyra’s recklessness with her own life. They were walking willingly into a prison where death was f...
2019-04-18 13:59:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Frostrime was a port city locked in perpetual winter.
Its buildings ran right up to the frozen docks and traced along the waterfront in both directions. Even as it swept inland from the sea, the squat wooden structures were covered in layers of salty ice, as if the ocean spray could reach each and every one, no matter how land-locked. Massive crystalline stalactites hung from eaves,...
2019-04-16 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone. Viridian Gate Online: Embers of Rebellion just dropped yesterday, and because you all are freaking awesome, I thought I'd give out gift copies to well ... everyone who wants one. Just click the link to snag your copy for free. Now this is book 2 in the series, but if you haven't picked up book one yet, Firebrand, it's on today through the weekend and it's also in KU. Jess did such a gre...
2019-04-12 13:49:42 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 10
The Hero Sieve
When Roark respawned in the Keep’s throne room two hours later, Zyra leapt up from the formidable black-steel chest she’d been lounging against.
“Who was it?” she demanded, Poisoned Claws extended and ready to kill. “That Lowen character? One of the dungeons you sent Kaz to recruit? A holdover still loyal to Azibek? A challenger for the Dungeon Lord’s throne? Who? Just give me a name.”
Roa...
2019-04-12 13:33:26 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone! Really gonna try to get more Troll Nation chapters up this week, as well as post a big ol' chunk of War God 3. Not 100% sure it's going to happen though. We have this big Shadow Alley Press retreat we're hosting this weekend. All out authors are coming down, plus some special guests. We're staying in this fancy cabin in the woods--gonna do a lot of writing, but not sure how the internet will be. I'll do my best though. I did, however, want to share this new cover I just got back...
2019-04-04 14:37:35 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone! So I thought I'd share this beautiful cover with y'all. One of our authors, eden Hudson (my co-author on Rogue Dungeon) has been working on a new project for us called Path of the Thunderbird. It's a Wuxia novel--sort of a Chinese based epic fantasy. There's magic, monsters, martial arts ... It's just absolutely amazing. The cover art style is definitely different from a lot of the books Shadow Alley Press puts out, but we wanted something that really reflected the story, and th...
2019-04-03 21:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 7
Mai’s Tale
“Our merchant’s in Chillend prison,” Roark said, slapping the wanted poster onto the kitchen table, deep in the bowels of the Cruel Citadel.
Kaz, Griff, and even Zyra, who’d already read it, leaned in for a closer look. Mac, who had greeted Roark excitedly as soon as they returned, gave it a onceover before deciding it wasn’t worth his time and heading over to curl up beside the cookfire, his vulnerabl...
2019-04-02 20:48:48 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Four
Path to Progress
Using the telepathy function of the Dungeon Lord’s throne, Roark contacted Kaz, Zyra, and Griff and told them to meet in the kitchen. Kaz was already there when Roark arrived. The Behemoth was nuzzling noses with Mai, the buxom young widow they had hired to train interested Trolls in the artisty of Cooking. Though it had initially looked as if there would be bloodshed between the two when Mai had insulted Kaz’s fa...
2019-03-21 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone, just wanted to show you all the finished product for the Firebrand 2 cover. Really happy with the way it turned out, and I think Otto is absolutely beastly looking. So cool. Here's the blurb for book 2!
A single spark begets an inferno.
The theft of the drug lord Carrera’s Faction Seal has set Osmark’s empire-to-be ablaze with the hunt for Abby and Otto’s heads, but her quest to discover the truth about the ultra rare item won’t wait. The...
2019-03-21 14:22:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey guys. Our own Chris Bell pointed me in the direction of a cool concept illustrator with pretty good rates, so I'm going to be getting some character art done. Chris is a MudMan fanboy, so I thought it only proper to start things off right with a rough Levi sketch. For those who haven't read MudMan yet, definitely worth giving it a shot if you're into darker, grittier Urban Fantasy. No romance. Good action. Strange but compelling characters. There's a description and a link below, for anyo...
2019-03-20 18:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter One
Bloody Recon
The Vault of the Radiant Shield was located in a sand- and wind-blasted wasteland of brilliant red rock towers that stretched up into the sky like a stone forest. Roark von Graf, most commonly known in Hearthworld as Roark the Griefer—the newly minted Dungeon Lord of the Cruel Citadel—stood on the top of one such formation with Kaz, Zyra, and Griff. A brutal breeze pounded at him from the back, the edges of his cloak f...
2019-03-19 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone, so here is some very rough render art I just got back for the Firebrand 2: Embers of Rebellion cover. It hasn't been painted over yet and there are a fair few number of fixes to make--Otto's armor isn't dark enough, Abby needs to be wearing some pants! etc. But this is the first peek, which will eventually become a totally badass cover. Enjoy!
2019-03-17 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey guys, so this isn't necessarily James A. Hunter art, so much as it is Shadow Alley Press art. But then I thought, I run Shadow Alley Press -- that's a big part of my work, and I wanted to give you all a little glimpse behind of the curtain of what I do besides write.
So, on top of writing all my books, I'm also in charge of about a gajillion things for the Press and its authors. I review outlines, do developmental edits for the folks we work with, offer pep talks, and run writing ...
Hey everyone! I just wanted to apologize. Thank you all so much for supporting me here, and I am sorry that I've been so terrible with posting content. Life has been hectic lately, and in the rush and craziness of it all, the content on Patreon has really gotten put on the back burner. I plan to rectify that. One of my fans has pitched in to lend a hand around here (mostly to remind me to post regularly), but I also wanted to ask what kinds of stuff you all are interested in seeing? I plan to...
2019-03-12 17:05:50 +0000 UTC View PostFIVE:
The half-Risi grabbed my wrist and raised it. “No brand,” he told his partner.
“Doesn’t mean he belongs here,” she answered. “Are you drunk? Affka? Have you been doing drugs?”
“I’m sorry, officer. I don’t know what Affka is, but I’m very, very sober. I’m a citizen and—”
“Where do live?”
“I… I’m not from around here.”
“Then you can’t be a citizen.” She looked at her partner. “Vagran...
2019-01-22 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostSEVENTEEN:
As Above, So Below
Inside the palace was shockingly familiar. Polished marble hallways—black stone instead of creamy white—with arched ceilings and walls scones. These, though, were gleaming silver and the magical orbs they held shed watery light like trapped moon beams. There were nooks, crannies, and alcoves here as well, but instead of fanciful artwork the items seemed far more esoteric. Maps, framed fragments of parchment, clay tablets wit...
2019-01-18 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostTHREE:
The first thing Robert Osmark saw when he woke up was the ceiling fan spinning. Round and round. Bright daylight streaming in through the thin, strip window above and behind his bed told him it was late. He hadn’t set an alarm after last night’s debacle.
The Board had been fine; Susan’s preparation was flawless, as always, so the Board accepted his proposal to shelve Viridian for two years without a hitch. It was after, when that pissant Wagn...
2019-01-17 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostFIFTEEN:
Connections
Our footsteps clattered and echoed off the high ceilings as we made our way down one of the many marble hallways in the Keep. Cutter led the way, on high alert for any sign of traps or other nasty surprises. So far nothing, but that didn’t make me feel any better. There was no way a place like this was just unguarded. If a hoard of shambling zombies had flooded out en-masse … well, that would’ve sucked but at least it woul...
2019-01-16 19:40:44 +0000 UTC View PostONE:
The door slammed shut behind us. The three of us walked briskly down a long, private hallway that led to the central building. It was floored with square slabs of white granite, and a four-inch strip of the same material formed the baseboard. The walls were seamless dark gray concrete, but they’d been textured like an oil canvas, with long brush strokes running in the direction of the hallway. Rectangular strips of white, LED lighting, each about a hand wid...
2019-01-15 13:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostTHIRTEEN:
Respite
Cutter sent out a message to the rest of the crew complete with a map marker for the local Thieves Chapter House, which turned out to be an Apothecary in one of the classier sections of Cliffburgh. And not just any Apothecary, but the 1st Ranked Phoenix-Class Apothecary. I still wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but Cutter seemed clued in and was only too happy to explain. Apparently, the Svartalfar were an orderly f...
2019-01-14 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostELEVEN:
The Blue Lanterns
Cutter was the first one to land a blow, materializing like an avenging ghost directly behind the Risi enemy line the moment the words left Peng’s mouth. There was a gurgle and a gasp as he drove his twin blades, Plunder and Peril, into the skull of the Risi Caster clad in red silk. The attack was quick, vicious, and absolutely deadly, dropping the lady where she stood before she could so much as utter a word. Screams erupted as t...
2019-01-11 13:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post