AMERICAN PRAETORIANS

Brink of Destruction

Things Fall Apart Both Corvan and Zolah are now aware of the threat posed by the ghost ships—yet whether they will act on that threat remains to be seen, as the two factions plunge toward interstellar war. Lieutenant Bannon continues to lead his special tasks phalanx, though a reconnaissance mission aimed at the Zolarians quickly leads to new allies and a knowledge of the ghost ships that threatens to upend the entire balance of power in the sector. First Sergeant Draven prepares his company for an assault on the first defenses around Mytun, only to be similarly drawn into the maneuvers of the ghost ships before the offensive can even start moving. Two soldiers, enemies in all but mindset, drawn toward a cataclysmic confrontation, deep in the darkness of a distant star system, as all factions, human and alien, stand on the brink of destruction. The Edge of Imperium trilogy comes to an end (at least for now). Get it on Kindle or Paperback.

A Spooky Stream for October

We might have missed September, but we’re back for October, “Spooky Season,” in time to talk monsters, haints, spooks, and other things that go bump in the night. And some of those that “bump back.” Something in the Dark came out, fittingly, only a couple weeks ago, so we’ll probably get around to some Jed Horn, too. You can watch on YouTube, Rumble, or over on X.

Something in the Dark

Just Passing Through… Jed Horn was on his way home when he stopped for a bite to eat in the small town of Leutenburg. Something warned him that there was something off, but that was part of why he stopped. Jed doesn’t back down from premonitions of evil. When he’s just about thrown out by the sheriff, he discovers that there’s more to Leutenburg than even he suspected. An ancient evil stalks this town, an evil that’s come back despite seeming to be killed over and over for a century. And the other newcomer who’s dabbling in things he shouldn’t be makes matters worse. It’s up to Jed, with the power of holy water, prayer, and his .45-70 Winchester to put things to rights. If he can survive what’s waiting in the dark. Get it today on Kindle or in Paperback! It’s been a long time since I visited Jed. There was an uptick in interest with the popularity of The Lost, and being between series, I thought it was finally time to come back to our Winchester-toting Witch Hunter. In some ways, as I started my career as a storyteller scaring the sleep out of Boy Scouts around campfires, many,

Something in the Dark Chapter 2

I wasn’t sure at first whether the older man who came through the door was the sheriff or one of his deputies. He was probably in his late fifties, balding, and with a bit of a gut, though I wouldn’t have called him fat. He was wearing a uniform jacket over his dark brown shirt, pulled aside to show the star on his chest and hiked up to keep his sidearm clear. He walked past my table as I leaned back, clearing my access to my own sidearm, just in case. I wasn’t eager to get in a gunfight with the local law, but I’d seen enough in little towns where the heebie-jeebies put my hackles up to know that I couldn’t necessarily count on things to stay sane. I didn’t know what was going on here, but the fact that the diner’s staff had apparently called the sheriff over some stranger who just wanted to eat given the relatively early hour didn’t bode well at all. I was taking care not to stare at the sheriff or the waitress as she came to the counter and spoke softly to him, pointing toward my table, of course. The sheriff—his presence

Something in the Dark Chapter 1

While I couldn’t put my finger on it when I drove into town, there was something about Leutenburg that was just a little off. Now, granted, when you’ve spent as much time as I have in this profession, you start to realize that every place is a little off. Evil likes to burrow in like a tick, whenever it’s given an opening. And human nature being what it is, somebody’s always going to open that door. Demons are legalistic, and once they’re given a foothold, they’ll cling to it by right like the miserliest miser who ever went to sleep holding onto bags of cash. That metaphor got away from me a little, but you get the idea. The point is, no matter how bucolic and peaceful a place looks on the surface, somewhere there’s a dark side to it. Nature of the world as it is. Of course, the Otherworld is every bit as tenacious in the legalistic department, even if they aren’t usually quite as bad as the demons. I paused at the first of the three stop lights on Main Street, thankful for the momentary red light so that I could take stock. Try to figure out

Cascade Effect

The Flames of War Spread Even as the clash on distant, desolate Zhogalgan winds down, the spark it has ignited now threatens to set entire star systems aflame. Now Corvanite Lieutenant Ulric Bannon leads his special tasks phalanx on a deep reconnaissance on an alien world to discover Zolarian plans… while elsewhere, on an airless moon, Zolarian First Sergeant Cul Draven faces savage war against a Corvanite client-state that has launched an offensive in the wake of the Zhogalgan confrontation. Corvan and Zolah. Two great powers hurtling toward war… … but the real enemy may be the mysterious alien operatives manipulating the conflict from the shadows. *** Prologue Space seemed to twist, and with a burst of bright blue Cherenkov radiation, a blunt cylinder appeared in the Gamma Corvi 822 system. Cone-shaped drive nozzles at the aft end flared white, pushing the starship toward the distant world that the humans called Zhogalgan at just over one otuchan gravity. The light of that burst of Cherenkov radiation would reach the planet and the human starships that now dominated its orbitals within sixteen of the humans’ minutes. The starship would reach it much later than that, though at its current acceleration, it

Demoralization vs. Patriotism on Stream

Going to be a bit of a different stream tonight. We’ve been talking amongst ourselves for a while about this problem, about a form of revisionist history and a Plato’s Cave of media and social media that has reduced our society to a vaguely connected pack of self-centered individualists who no longer believe in much of anything, and so are being duped by just about everything. We’re going to discuss it tonight, in about as much depth as we can get in an hour and a half, two hours. There might be some follow-ons. We’ll see. Yes, I do have a release out this month, and I’ve talked live with Nick Cole and Walt Robillard on X about it. It will get some time tonight, but not the main focus. Come and join us. (Going to try for X again tonight, but we’ll see how it works out.)

Spheres of Influence

Some of you might have seen a little short story that I put out through Wargate Nova a few weeks ago. Well, the main story has now begun. A “Peacekeeping” Mission That Might Be Anything But Lieutenant Bannon and his phalanx of Corvanite warriors have already seen some of the worst that the irregular war between the reptilian otuchans and the human latecomers can offer. Or so they think. First Sergeant Draven, trying to hold his company of Zolarian citizen soldiers together, has been on the desolate planet of Zhogalgan longer than Bannon. He’s seen even more. Yet while they are both there as peacekeepers, they are not there to help each other. Spheres of influence and empires clash, on a dry, harsh world that might become the flashpoint in an interstellar war! So begins a new military science fiction series, in a universe that I hope to explore at great length in the years to come. Get Spheres of Influence, Book 1 of Edge of Imperium, on ebook or paperback. Audio is coming on August 27. Check out a preview here: This series is the first in a universe that I’ve been working on for a long time, even before the

Galaxy’s Edge Fan Expo AAR

It has been a while. It’s been a busy summer, and the blog has suffered, plus we had to skip the stream last month. We’re back now, though, and Walt Robillard, the Wargate Books Trunk Monkey (his actual job title) joins us to talk about the Galaxy’s Edge Fan Expo, which went down in Oak Harbor, WA, last weekend, as well as books, science fiction, fantasy, dogs, knives, martial arts, interesting violence in interesting places, and anything else that might come up. (Walt’s also the author of the sixth Order of the Centurion novel, Callsign Valkyrie, as well as the Forgotten Ruin spinoff Underspire.) Come join us. We’ll be on YouTube, Rumble, and X/Twitter again.

Galaxy’s Edge Season Three Chat

The Emperors, Nick Cole and Jason Anspach, join us this month to chat about Galaxy’s Edge Season Three. GE changed a lot when it launched in 2017 with Legionnaire, and it’s not often a series can go this long with such a fanatically dedicated reader base. Nick and Jason have also been both friends and publishers of mine, lending advice, support, bringing me in to contribute to the Order of the Centurion series, and publishing The Lost (plus a couple more upcoming series). Come and join us. We’ll also be on my Twitter/X account: https://x.com/AmericanPraeto2