Feyon in the Doll Room

Mike GristJabbler's Mons, Stories, Story Art 2 Comments

Feyon is the voice of wealth and pampered privilege in DAWN RISING, my epic fantasy novel. She has never had to work a day in her life; rather she is treated like a porcelain doll by an army of maids and retainers, dressed and primped endlessly, and looks on Dawn and the others in the Abbey as if they are her playthings to toy with. However, there is steel at Feyon’s core, and a horrible secret even she has struggled to forget- centred around the grand doll room in her mansion in the Roy, where all the figures of her …

Killin Jack $0.99 on Kindle

Mike GristFeatured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Kindle, Writing Leave a Comment

I’m launching my short story Killin Jack on Kindle!! It’s a story of revenge and dark morality in the ramshackle fantasy city of Jabbler’s Mons, available now for $0.99 Killin Jack Killin Jack is a man-made monster stalking the blood-slicked warrens of Jabbler’s Mons, a brutal city where back-street mogrifers sculpt living flesh into twisted zoo-morphized contortions. Jack hunts the Bunnymen, lascivious cross-breeds that once rutted the city to the point of oblivion. But when his last victim proves to be a baby, Jack’s moral certainy falls away, and the final leg of his long-wrought revenge begins. Contains KILLIN JACK …

Celibate Jayne the Hammerhand

Mike GristBooks, Featured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Stories, Writing Leave a Comment

by Michael John Grist It was nearing high-tide on the Sheckledown Sea when Celibate Jayne the Hammerhand finally bashed his way out of the belly of the whale. Ashen face covered with gobbets of blubber and gut, he slithered down the black rubber side of the beached leviathan, a river of purple slime showering down on his head. He gasped, coughed up a wad of bloody kelp and brine, then slumped himself starfish-splayed on the beach. Soon enough the jubilant cries of his crew carried raucously over the sand, as they moored the 6-oar gully, hefted up the smelting cauldrons, …

Killin Jack the Malakite

Mike GristFeatured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Stories, Writing Leave a Comment

by Michael John Grist It was gone All Hallows by the Grammaton’s gong when Killin Jack the Malakite mobbed down the last of the Bunnymen. He was stalking spires up the Seasham cathedral that night, hopping from ladder-top to gargoyle round the copper-roofed cloisters, swerving in to the dome-top graveyard in the middle. The Bunnyman was knelt in a moonlight lozenge midst the marble gravestones, shovel in his hand and a clothy bundle at his feet, white glow bathing his silver fur pristine. Killin Jack padded cross the open cobblestone courtyard, shadow-casting, watching. The Bunnyman’s long velveteen ears twitched, and …

Gellick in the Hax

Mike GristDawn Rising, Featured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Story Art, Writing 1 Comment

Gellick is the rock at the heart of DAWN RISING, my epic fantasy novel. He is the lightest, most fun character, the one least touched by all the chaos outside in the city- though there is plenty of darkness lurking within his stone chest. He is a Balast, a race that calcify with time, losing all fluctility until they are just motionless blocks of stone, unable to think, speak, or move. It’s a terrible fate, one that comes young and never lets up, that all Balasts seek to stave off through the Hax- an endless recounting of their life stories …

Mare in Indura

Mike GristDawn Rising, Featured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Story Art 1 Comment

Mare is the most powerful voice of resilience and independence in DAWN RISING, my epic fantasy novel. She is by far the toughest character, who has been through the worst childhood imaginable- her parents were beaten to death in the street by drug-money collectors and she was sold into body-slavery, where mogrifers cut out the left side of her brain and threw her back into the slums of Indura expecting her to die. But she didn’t die. She pulled herself together and taught herself to survive in the filth and rot of the world. As a result she relies on …

Dawn in the Gravery

Mike GristDawn Rising, Featured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Story Art, Writing Leave a Comment

Dawn is the central character of DAWN RISING, my epic fantasy novel. He is an orphan boy living in the last Abbey to the Heart, insulated from the caste-driven chaos in the city outside, his life regulated by the Sisters who have been his only family since his mother died. It’s a lonely life, and Dawn spends his days lost in imagination, dreaming of adventure and ancient heroes from the Book of Saint Jabbler, wondering when his turn will come. Here Dawn clutches the Book to his chest while looking up at his heroes in the stars: This is the …

Dawn and the Fetchling

Mike GristDawn Rising, Featured Story, Jabbler's Mons, Stories, Story Art, Writing 1 Comment

I commissioned this sketch of Dawn from an artist I found online. Dawn is the lead character in the book I’m working on now- Dawn Rising, set in my Jabbler’s Mons fantasy universe. The artist took a few passes at rendering Dawn and his scars, but in the end unfortunately gave up before finishing, so the image at right is what I’m left with. His scars look a little too much like war paint, but otherwise I think this is close to what Dawn (he is a boy, yes) looks like. I’m talking to a few other artists now about …

The Dawn Cycle 1. The Rise of the Truth

Mike GristJabbler's Mons, Stories 2 Comments

I`ve written a book. The working title is The Rise of The Truth, and it`s the first book of The Dawn Cycle, a saga of 5 fantasy books following Dawn on his quest to take care of business. In the last couple of days I put together submission packets for literary agencies, including query letters and book-jacket `blurbs`. I sent the book out to a selection of agents by email and post. Because I`m in Japan, sending to the US and UK, the few by post cost me $100 in postage. A small price to pay for hope, SY says. …

By the Grammaton

Mike GristJabbler's Mons, Writing Leave a Comment

BY THE GRAMMATON is an (as yet unpublished) collection of short stories set in the brutal city of Jabbler’s Mons. Life is harsh under the King’s savage rule, with the threat of Evincement on the Spike ever-present, so the city’s denizens have become harsh; surviving floods and famine, endless nights, genocide, volcanic eruptions and the wrath of dark gods. FREEMANTLE MONS Freemantle Mons the Leviathan Smile watches as the moon and stars freeze in the sky and perpetual night descends over the city, spurring a race against the rioting populace as he struggles to kick-start the Grammaton clock-tower and get …