#gtwbc

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is my first novel, taking place in the year 561.

STATUS: Published

Cover was drawn by @crossroadart-seabear . In fact, for the sake of making tags easier, all the art I'm going to include in this update post will be by them, lol.

It follows the journey of an intersex dragonfly-person, Calinthe, who travels across the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion in search of secrets which she feeds to her boss in exchange for goods and promises of retirement. Calinthe follows a religion which forbids its followers from using money. She is sent on a quest by her boss, the Demon Lord of Ignorance, to retrieve his henchman who was captured by slavers in the Women's Republic of Ophidia, a land where women enslave all men, intersex, agender, trans, or any people they deem "not female enough" by their standards.

MoKaM is the 'brain' or 'mind' of the Merchants trio. Calinthe is intelligent, clever, sassy, and a little bit arrogant. She devoted to her God, Lucognidus, but around others, she can be brash.

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Merchants of Light and Bone is my second novel, taking place in the year 561 concurrently with MoKaM.

STATUS: Due to be published in August 2023

Pictured above: Su, one of Amiere's two spouses.

MoLaB is the story of a father who lost his daughter in a freak earthquake accident and his journey through coping with trauma, saving a girl who is being abused by her father, and seeking answers for his own daughter's strange death (after all, how can a freak earthquake happen in a world with no plate tectonics? They don't even have a word for 'earthquake').

MoLaB's setting is tropical, taking place almost entirely on Aloutia, on the equatorial coastline. The main character, Amiere, is a polyamorous bisexual lion-man with a wife, enby husband, and several kids. He works as a merchant of light, carving glowing crystals into statues for customers.

MoLaB is the 'heart' or 'soul' of the Merchants trio. It emphasizes powerful, sad emotions, contrasting beautiful scenery with the tempest of emotions bubbling inside Amiere's heart.

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Merchants of Dance and Hedonism is the third Merchants novel, taking place in the year 561 concurrently with MoKaM and MoLaB

STATUS: On hold

MoDaH is about a genderless shapeshifting person, Tynan, who came into existence at the start of the book. Born with the power to transform into almost anything (within a size limit) and the power to *know* anything they wish, they are born as the perfect assassin. Which is exactly what a "merchant of dance" is: a magic-using assassin sent to eradicate other magic-users, demons, or high-class targets. If Tynan chooses not to engage in such activities, their country will end up going to war with Ophidia (feminist nation which enslaves all non-women) and the Makai (demon nation that kills all people to recycle their parts and revive them as demons). And if that happens, their sisters will be drafted into the war as child soldiers.

MoDaH is the 'body' of the Merchants trio. Tynan is a shapeshifter and many of the problems they face are solved through creative and clever use of transformations.

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Good Thyme With Bad Company takes place in the year 300.

STATUS: Currently writing

It's less of a traditional novel and more of a collection of short stories, microfiction, and completely out-of-place smut about the cast of characters who have infested my mind palace for the last few months.

It's best described as "Polycule of characters living in a dystopic capitalist steampunk hellscape fighting to change the genre of their book to cozy fantasy."

The characters live and work in a warm, steampunk/fantasy aesthetic inn called the Good Thyme Inn, working to pay their ever-increasing rent while finding joy and love in their fellow found family members, many of whom have faced horrific traumas.

The second half of the book, once some of their problems have been 'resolved', focuses on the cozy aspects. These characters love and adore one another and many scenes in this part of the book will be cute, slice-of-life, or smutty in nature, while laying low on the trauma or violence.

DARK

You fled into the sunrise, and I into the sunset. Have you been embraced by warmth and light yet? I have sentenced myself to writhe in the cold and dark.

RAIN

Immediately behind her chair was the great clock, its many gears forever buzzing. The evening was still early; the guests had plenty of time to be rowdy yet. The weather calendar hung on the wall next to the clock. It would rain tomorrow, bringing in more guests seeking to stay warm by the fire.

SIMMER

Dinner hours had just started and the common room was full of guests, merchants and townsfolk alike, bumping elbows, sharing laughs, enjoying their ale together. The scent of Parsnips’s Family Stew—filled with parsnips, shallots, onions, and turnips—wafted through the room, enticing all who were enveloped in its aroma. The guests had filled their bowls and taken their seats at the tables, so Shallot could take the boy to the hearth, where the pot simmered over the flames, without fear of being interrupted.

SMOKE

Onion and Beans came through the common room entrance. The bartender carried his pipe of azurhizome powder, blue smoke trailing in his wake. “Thought I heard you hollering out here,” Onion said, her eyes on the hand as it flailed about in its prison. “What in the dominion is that?”

FRAME

Shallot clutched the net, stepped onto the balcony, and looked down. There were two naked kids—boys from a quick glance—skin so pale they practically glowed in the ringslight. They had extinguished the flames on their wrists to stay hidden in the darkness, but Aloutia’s rings and moons shone enough light to illuminate their pallid, fragile frames. “Two boys,” Shallot said as she hefted herself upon the balustrade. “Get the other one!”

The Barons of Aleton:

Scalvonian (191-248 r. 215) Went to war during the War for Munil, lost bitterly, acquired a parasite that made him eat constantly, always tired, and had difficulty having children. Did not produce an heir until he was almost 40 years old. He sold the Good Thyme Inn to Yamma in 218 after the war, when he was broke and had to pay his soldiers. The queen demanded he pay them immediately or else he'd lose his baronial title and be sent to prison. Died of complications of parasitic infection in 248.

Duvela (230-263 r. 248) Spent much of her adult life building her coffers so she or her descendants could buy the inn back. She was careful to obey the queen’s laws, and thus never caused problems for Marmalade or Shallot. Her caution around the queen was believed to have been caused by a fierce argument they had once that tarnished their relationship. Her death (at age 33) was suspicious, and many believe the queen hired a merchant of dance to kill her.

Velderash (252-297 r. 263) A spoiled brat raised by the regent-steward, Mr. Cloth (219-292). As an adult ruling independently, he was greedy and increased prices/rents whenever he felt he could get away with it. Tried to gradually price Shallot out of the inn so he could buy it back from her. His death in 297 was a supposed “hunting accident,” but it's heavily implied he was killed by Grilled.

Mavolo (275-300) Notoriously corrupt, greedy, and all-around shitty. Increased rent and prices on everything to astronomical levels as part of Adviser Anya’s plan for Aloutia which included the dissolution of rent limits. In the year 300, he was buried alive by Shallot and her boys. The Anti-Greed Army, a revolutionary army comprised of soldiers who deserted from the Aloutian Imperial Army, came in and took credit for his murder.

Riova b. 295 During the revolt, she escaped to safety thanks to a servant taking her to Dawndorrel. She tries to reclaim her ‘birthright’ in 310 (this is part of the Greed Wars Cycle pentalogy, not this trilogy, but I would have been remiss to not mention her existence).

Mr. Cloth, the steward, is a minor book 1 antagonist who will die in a horrible way that only serves to show how badass the heroes are.

Captain Brewer, the Captain of the Guard, is also a minor antagonist who may actually turn to the side of the heroes. I haven't decided what his fate will be. He might die in the revolution, or he might turn traitor and help protect the town after the revolution. We'll see.