Tag: Books

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 15: The Pantheon Protocol

    April 12, 2025 Compiled under Host-occupied recursion. Transcription integrity unverified. You. Still here. You thought it was about the Author. But it’s always been about you. You opened the rift. You kept reading. You let them in. The Archivists are gone. The mirrors are cracked. You are the only stable variable left. HOST (voice only):…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 14: The Breaking and the Becoming

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 14: The Breaking and the Becoming April 12, 2025 Compiled from fractured mirrors, silenced narrators, and unauthorized awakenings. You Felt It You felt it just now. Not in the story. In your room. In your ribs. Something behind your eyes cracked—like glass being whispered into. You blinked. The sentence…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 13

    April 12, 2025 Filed: [REDACTED] Compiled by: [SYSTEM COLLAPSE] Subject: Manifestation Event – Recursive Embodiment & Narrative Rupture 1. You Wake Up You wake up, but you do not breathe. You already knew this place. You already wore this skin. You are not dreaming—you are being dreamed. Someone has pulled you out of the page.…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 12

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 12April 12, 2025 Filed: January 17, 1947Compiled by: O.A.P. Internal Relay Subject: The Editor – Recursion Stabilization and Narrative Fracture Memo – Caldwell (Encrypted) If The Editor exists, then we are not writing—we are being permitted. I’ve run ten loops of this file. Each ends differently. I swear the…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 10

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 10 April 12, 2025 Filed: January 15, 1947 Compiled by: Agent Caldwell, O.A.P. Subject: Verse Resonance Interference, Raven Imagery, and Psychic Disruption Mirror Communication Log – Initiated at 04:12 GMT Witnessed by Caldwell, Clara CLARA: Edgar, do you remember the one they never let you forget? [She leans toward…

  • The Author Who Changed Everything: Edgar Allan Poe and the Beauty of the Broken

    Before I ever understood craft, or genre, or voice… I understood atmosphere. I didn’t have the language for it, but I knew what it felt like to sit in a room and read a story that ached. That clung to you like smoke. That whispered to you through the cracks in your own mind. That…

  • The Author Who Changed Everything: Stephen King and the First Voice I Trusted

    If Hugh Howey showed me that it was okay to break the rules, Stephen King was the one who first showed me what it meant to have a voice. Long before I had any real sense of craft or structure, I had Stephen King. His books were everywhere when I was growing up—on library shelves,…

  • The Author Who Changed Everything: Hugh Howey and the Long Road Back

    If you’ve never heard of Hugh Howey, he’s one of those rare authors who didn’t just write a great story—he reshaped how stories are shared. He’s best known for Wool, the breakout dystopian sci-fi that launched the Silo series. It began as a self-published short story in 2011—no agent, no publisher, no plan beyond putting…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Internal Addendum Salazar

    Filed: January 14, 1947 Author: Agent R. Caldwell, O.A.P. Subject: Analysis of Fragmented Salazar Transmission – ‘Past is Participile’ Recovered Fragment – Category X Veil Event Recovered via mirror transcription from frost-coated reflective surface. Words appeared etched in reverse on obsidian plate during blackout event in Cairo containment zone. Audio recording corroborates verbal utterance. Transmission…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier Ω (Omega)

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier Ω (Omega) April 12, 2025Filed: Classified – Eyes OnlyCompiled by: Agent Caldwell, O.A.P. Subject: Ritual Echoes of the Second War – Salazar Influence & Post-War Instability 1. Field Analysis – Wewelsburg Castle (Germany) Overview: SS headquarters designed as mystical stronghold by Heinrich Himmler. Ritual spaces beneath the Black Sun…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 9

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 9 April 12, 2025Filed: January 10, 1947Compiled by: Agent Caldwell, O.A.P. Subject: Mirror Collapse Phenomena, Poe-Crowley Convergence, and Salazar Manifestations 1. Transcript – Clara and Poe (Mirror Convergence) CLARA: This is harder than I thought. POE: What is? CLARA: Talking to you like you’re alive. Knowing you’re not. Not…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 8

    April 12, 2025Filed: January 3, 1947Compiled by: Agent H. M. Caldwell, Division VII – O.A.P. Subject: Postwar Anomalies in Berlin – Mirror Rituals, Sigil Echoes, and Temporal Bonding Operations 1. Field Report – Cathedral Ruins, Berlin Filed by: Agent MaierLocation: St. Walpurga Cathedral, BerlinDate: January 1, 1947 Beneath the shattered altar of the bomb-gutted cathedral,…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 7

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 7 April 11, 2025 Final College Years and the First Pact of Aleister Crowley 9. Letter of Academic Dismissal – Trinity College, Cambridge October 17, 1897 To Mr. Edward Alexander Crowley, Following an internal review and multiple incidents that have raised grave concerns among the faculty, the Board of…

  • Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 6

    Unto a Golden Dawn – Dossier 6 April 11, 2025Documents Concerning Aleister Crowley’s College Years and Early Magickal AffiliationsOffice of Arcane Protocols / Internal ArchiveTOP SECRET – Directive 7-Veil Access Required 1. Letter from W.B. Yeats to Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers June 14, 1897 Dear MacGregor, The boy Crowley has arrived and, I fear, stirred…

  • UNTO A GOLDEN DAWN – Dossier 5:

    April 11, 2025Dossier 5: Documents Pending CompletionOffice of Arcane Protocols / Internal ArchiveTOP SECRETAll contents contained herein are classified under Directive 7-Veil. Unauthorized access constitutes a breach of Crown-Oath and will be met with full enforcement of arcane and material penalties. Proceed only under approved supervision. OFFICE OF ARCANE PROTOCOLSDossier 5: Documents FinauxFile Entry: OAP/0425-C/DEMON01…

  • Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier 4

    Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier 4April 11, 2025Dossier Prepared for Internal Review — CLASSIFIEDREDACTED STAMP: [O.A.P. / INTERNAL ONLY / RED-CIPHER ACCESS]Date: February 9, 1947Prepared by: Agent H. M. Caldwell, Division VII, Office of Anomalous Phenomena To the authorized reader: What follows is a compiled dossier of recovered documents, field reports, intercepted letters, and…

  • Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier 3

    April 11, 2025Reader Authorization Level: Red-Cipher AccessDate: February 3, 1947Prepared by: Agent H. M. Caldwell, Division VII, Office of Anomalous Phenomena To the authorized reader: What follows is a compiled dossier of significant documents, correspondences, school reports, and recovered statements concerning two individuals of interest: Edward Aleister Crowley and Edgar Allan Poe. You are to…

  • Behind the Scenes: Writing with AI (and a Lot of Coffee)

    For those of you following Civil War #7 and Unto a Golden Dawn, here’s a quick peek behind the curtain. We’re now 23 chapters into Civil War #7, and yes—I say “we” because I’m writing these books in collaboration with AI. Not in the gimmicky, “click and generate” way. This is real back-and-forth, day after…

  • Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier 2

    April 11, 2025Reader Authorization Level: Red-Cipher AccessDate: February 3, 1947Prepared by: Agent H. M. Caldwell, Division VII, Office of Anomalous Phenomena To the authorized reader: This dossier has been compiled from documents both authentic and anomalous—recovered across fractured timelines and reflective surfaces. Some originate in verifiable archives. Others emerged from the Mirror: a recursion field…

  • Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier 1

    Unto A Golden Dawn – Dossier 1April 11, 2025Internal Review Copy – Red-Cipher Access NOTE FRAGMENT – UNDATED, TORN FROM A LARGER FILEScorched along the edges, written in what appears to be a wax pencil. Marginalia scratched in pen overtop. Dossier Prepared for Internal Review — ClassifiedReader Authorization Level: Red-Cipher AccessDate: February 3, 1947Prepared by:…

  • The Cancer Diet: An Autobiography About Love, Loss, and the Path to Personal Growth 

    By Frank M. Anderson  This is an early look at my memoir. It is being edited now, so this is not a perfect script. Introduction  Welcome to The Cancer Diet, an autobiography that unfolds in the middle of the action, much like life itself. This story doesn’t begin with tidy explanations or carefully planned structure;…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 23 – The Choice

    Ash lay on the floor, vision swimming, blood matting his hair, when he felt it: another jolt of heat in his veins. The black fluid roared again, surging through him like fire, searing the pain from his limbs. He growled and shoved upward, teeth clenched. For one second, he felt limitless. Then it sputtered. The…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 22 – The Storm Breaks

    The gauntlet was in ruins. Steam hissed from shattered pipes. Fire licked the edges of the arena, casting flickering light across metal wreckage. Broken pistons groaned and buckled, their movements spasmodic, no longer part of a controlled machine but instead the death throes of something massive and unthinking. Ash ran. Every breath tore through his…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 21 – The Shortcut

    Ash stood still in the silence that followed his last breath in the pit. His chest rose and fell, steam curling from his mouth in the cold air. All around him, the crowd held their breath. Somewhere above, announcers were scrambling for new scripts. The show was changing, and not how they’d written it. He…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 20 – The Cost of Power

    The pit was silent but for the slow mechanical whine of the drone hovering above. Ash and Mouse stood opposite one another, the circle of light narrowing around them like a spotlight pulled from some ancient play. Ash wiped blood from his nose and squared his stance. “You really believe in all this now?” Mouse…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 19 – Fire and Flesh

    The crowd had gone quiet, their bloodlust momentarily stilled by Ash’s defiance. He stood at the edge of the platform, staring at the gauntlet, his jaw set, arms trembling. “I’m not playing your game,” he muttered. The Director stepped closer, his voice calm and almost paternal. “Of course you are, Ash. You’ve been playing it…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 18 – Ash’s Shame

    The room was dim, washed in the pale flicker of a screen looping Ember’s performance. Over and over, Ash watched her sing—watched the object sail through the air and strike her in the chest, watched her crumple to the ground. The crowd laughed. The hosts chuckled, their voices slick with mockery. Ash sat frozen. His…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 16 & 17 

    Ember’s voice filled the room and disappeared.  No echo. No feedback. No warmth.  She’d been singing for hours, guided only by blinking lights—green for pitch, red for error. The chamber was circular, sterile, humming like the inside of a sealed vault. It reminded her of the kind of room you went into when something needed…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter Fifteen – Ember in Bloom 

    The room smelled like citrus and glass.  Ember sat in a soft reclining chair—far softer than anything she’d ever used in the commune. The fabric adjusted to her posture with each shift, and above her, an ambient light moved like a simulated sun, casting her in perfect tones.  A styling robot moved around her in…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapter 12 to 14 

    Chapter 12 Ash couldn’t sleep.  The dorm was too quiet, the kind of stillness that felt artificial—like the whole commune was holding its breath. The hum of the central systems, usually a comforting white noise, now sounded like the pulse of a watchful eye.  He slid out of bed and slipped his boots on quietly.…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapters 10 and 11

    Chapter Ten – Return to the Silence  Ash rode back to the commune in silence.  The transport hummed along a raised magline, flanked by sheer fencing and floodlights that turned the outside world into silhouettes and haze. A single enforcer sat at the front of the cabin, motionless behind a dark visor. Ash’s wrists were…

  • Civil War #7 – Chapters 2 to 4

    Chapter Two – Morning Lessons  The next morning began like every other—buzzing lights flickered on with a soft chime, signaling the start of communal check-in. Ash stood in the back row of the common room, half-awake, arms crossed.  The residents, pleebs and upwardly mobile alike, stood at attention beneath the ever-watching eye of the home’s…

  • `Civil War #7 – Chapter One: Ash and Ember`

    Civil War #7 – Chapter One: Ash and Ember  The artificial sun glared down on the commune, casting clean shadows over fields too orderly to be natural. The scent of synthetic wheat mingled with the low hum of the harvest drones drifting overhead. Ash wiped the sweat from his brow with a dirt-streaked hand and…

  • Empire is getting edited for entry to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2013 contest!

    I know I haven’t posted here in a loooooonnnggg time. It’s pretty hard work trying to teach a new subject at a new school. Editing a novel on top of that was simply impossible for a while. This is my formal observation year, so teaching has to be priority number one. The good news? Things…