Happy Questing!

I started two posts for today but neither have come together (yet!), so let me share a story from David Hankins (a fabulous and funny author from my Writers of the Future cohort!), with a bonus short from Lisa Para. 

Quest Tropes | Cast of Wonders: The audio for David’s story begins at 10m20s. Read the transcript or listen to the audio version, your choice!

The Last Quest of Corbin the Coward, by David Hankins

Corbin collapsed outside the dragon’s lair, acrid smoke wafting from his armor. He was getting too old for this. He’d never asked to be the gods’ favored champion.

Sunlit forests spread out below him, a peaceful world unaware and unconcerned that he’d almost been eaten. Twice.

Corbin drew a shuddering breath and wrenched a dragon tooth from his armor. Yet another pointless quest completed. What the hell did the gods want with a dragon tooth anyway?

No more. Corbin was done.

Enjoy!

* * *

If the ash-world dread of Mistborn got under your skin, the breathable-air-only-survives-1,000-metres premise of Vehl's Reach will hit the same nerve.

Different mechanism. Same feeling: the world itself doesn't want you here.

#SFF #BookTwitter #TheParasiteWars

REMINDER - ONE Hour until this week’s ***The Ark*** Mastodon watch/rewatch party!

This week we’ll be watching Season One, Episodes 5 & 6starting at 3:00 pm EDT (UTC -4) today, 2026-06-27.

S1 E5 ***One Step Forward, Two Steps Back***

S1 E6 ***Two by Two***

Please tag #TheArk and @thearkchat. in your posts and replies to improve discovery and federation. Boosts and favourites help get the posts and replies moving too!

Looking forward hearing more of what others think — whether first time viewers or rewatchers. Lurkers and asynchronous commentators very welcome as well.

#WatchParty
#WatchPartySchedule
#Television #SFF #SciFi

Vehl's Reach has two suns.

A yellow one. A red giant, older, dying, dominating most of the sky. Once a decade they reach perfect conjunction, both blazing at once, the sky too bright rather than too dark.

That's the day everything in this week's chapter happens.

#TheParasiteWars #SFF #WorldBuilding

Would you read a book where staying exactly where you are, refusing to leave, refusing to disappear, is the bravest thing the character does all year?

#SFF #WritingCommunity #AmWriting

Every great SFF civilization eventually worships something it doesn't fully understand. Stormlight has the storms and the Almighty.

Vehl's Reach has The Binding, a tradition built around pairing that even SkySide can't fully explain. It just knows it works.

What's the SFF ritual that's really just survival dressed up as faith?

#SFF #BookTwitter #TheParasiteWars

#SciFi #Fantasy #LitRPG #FREEBIES

Over 60 #IndieAuthors collaborating through #BookFunnel  

80+ #FreeBooks to browse and sample 🤓 📚 and we each have a #newsletter if you want more!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/free_books_friday_2026/rjprkgpj2x

⚔️ 🦄 🚀

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I've finished: Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta

I've seen others treat Mad Sisters of Esi as a fantasy novel.

I read it as a Sci-Fi novel where the technology is indistinguishable from myth. A story of a multiverse with elder tech that can build and break worlds.

A novel about the power of storytelling with the mad love of sisters at its core.

A universal novel with a distinct Indian flavor.

I made the mistake of trying too hard to keep track of the characters and make sense of the meandering story line across time and space, leading to frustration.

I suggest just going with it, things will make more sense by the end.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/9296f25a-d06e-492d-8f23-883dcd6a2a3d

@bookstodon @audiofiction
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#WritersCoffeeClub #WCC 2026.06.27 —C&R: Describe your opening scene without using your text. Everyone: What mood does it set?

Bolt, a day angel with wings, the 1st person narrator, finds herself taking a candid photograph on the street of a man, realizing she doesn't remember how she got there, but she's not upset. She relates that she has been forgetting swaths of the awful life she's been trapped into, and maybe that's a good thing? She's punked out—spiked hair, facial piercings, leather—because looking dangerous in her unstated profession makes her safer. When she hears a gut-wrenching boom, she takes the picture of the shocked man, a daemon with caramel colored goat horns before flying away to find the source of the explosion, her camera in hand.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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