Revised Princess Onesie

I found there were a couple of errors in The Adventures of Princess Onesie and Fairy Friend (there were chapters named Chapter Two), so I went in and fixed them.  While I was there, I made it a little easier for parents to read to children, too.

(If you're waiting for something new, my twentieth novel's first draft is done, so more is on the way.)

My Publications

 

I always need to challenge myself somehow with what I write, or I lose interest.  I also like a level of challenge as a reader.  Not all of you do, so I've followed this list of my works, in publication order, with a note on which are the easiest reads.

See the sidebar for links to all of these (everything self-published is in the Free Ebooks one); everything but Lower than the Angels is a free ebook. 

By the way - no AI has been or ever will be used in producing any of my works, including artwork.   What fun would that be?!

Published

"Flip of a Coin" in Lower than the Angels
The Neglected Giant: Agnes Meyer Driscoll

Self-Published

Collections and Novellas
1.    Ice Cold and Other Stories: Expanded Edition
2.    Aunt Gabby Saves the Universe!
3.    Ghost Mode
4.    Eleven Nonsense Rhymes and a Handful of Poems
5.    Fallen into Shadows
6.    The Adventures of Princess Onesie and Fairy Friend
7.    Trouble Magnet
8.    "How to Write" - An Approach That Worked for Me
9.    Parallel Worlds and Skew - Essays and Reflections
10.   Second-Best with a Sword and Other Stories
11.   300-Plus Problem Words and Phrases
12.   Worlds of Wonder - Essays on Writing - Reflections on Life

Novels
1.    Roads Between Worlds
2.    T-Man
3.    Shadows Between Worlds
4.    Across the Worlds with Aimee and Phineas
5.    Department G
6.    Rivers Between Worlds
7.    In Solstice and in Peril
8.    US Gummint Cunning Man
9.    End of the Line
10.   Faker
11.   Shadowed
12.   Souls Between Worlds
13.   Traveling the Transdimensional Highway
14.   Making It Home
15.   Thresholds
16.   In the Service of the Queen
17.   In the Service of the Prince
18.   In the Service of the Heir
19.   A House Between Worlds
20.   Traders (coming "soon")

"Easy Reads"

My shorter fiction and collections are easy enough reads, generally, but some of my novels may challenge you as a reader more than you like.

These are the more "accessible," "easy reads" among my novels, from the #1 easiest to #8:
1. In Solstice and in Peril
2. End of the Line
3-5. In the Service series (three novels)
6. Traders (coming "soon")
7. Making It Home
8. Across the Worlds with Aimee and Phineas

A House Between Worlds (free ebook)

El Jefe rules the country, and has for a dozen years.  Has ruled disastrously.

His early decision to expel every Muslim, his decision to send in the military to do so, the mutinies and desertions that followed, all had caused global economic disaster.  With healthcare being ruined, the nation and world had suffered economic, health, and population collapse.

Of course there were those who fought against his rule and his "Provisional" Security Teams.  They sought independence from his tyranny, though they hadn't issued any formal declaration, like the one made a couple of centuries before.  But, like that time long ago, they were outgunned and out-organized.  Eventually they might have prevailed as their predecessors did.  But in the meantime they needed something or some place that would aid their resistance.  (As their predecessors had.)

A few of them found a cabin lost in the woods.  A house.  A house between worlds.

A House Between Worlds is available here.

All my (free) ebooks are at http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

In the Service Trilogy (Free Ebooks)

The fantasy trilogy is complete, and available for your reading, downloading, or sharing.  (But not AI training or pirating.)

In the Service of the Queen was already available.  It's now joined by:

In the Service of the Prince

In the Service of the Heir

Worlds of Wonder (Free ebook)

A new, free (as always) ebook of what would have been blog entries here (and in some cases were posted here, previously), if this blog hadn't turned out to be ephemeral.  Available here on Gutenberg, though you'll need an account there to view or download the book.

As always, it's free to view, download or share, but not to train AI on or, of course, pirate.

Table of Contents

Worlds of Wonder

Essays on Writing

Entertaining and Memorable
Acceleration in Narrative
Story Depth
World Depth
Roads Between Worlds: Writing Multiple Worlds
Roads Between Worlds: Traveling Between Parallel Worlds
Roads Between Worlds: Languages
Roads Between Worlds: "Psychic"
Roads Between Worlds: Sense of Wonder
Roads Between Worlds: "Psychic" and Words
Roads Between Worlds: The First Review
In Which I Concede I Must Be a High-Quality Novelist
Department G, Genders, and LGBTQ
Writing Rivers Between Worlds
Hunter-Gatherers
Off-Base
Poetry Is Good for Prose
Tired Tropes I: The Undiscovered Hero
Tired Tropes II: The Surprising Super Power
(Un)predictable
Manic?  Pixie?  Dream?  Girl?
My Approach to Plotting
Critiquing: Goals
Critiquing: Constructive
Critiquing: Objective
Critiquing: Content-Focused
Critiquing: Balance
Where I Get My Ideas
Ambition vs. Accessibility
Writing a Series: Nostalgia
Dreams of Flight
Worlds Apart

Reflections on Life

"…Are Created Equal…"
Letters to an "Adopted Daughter"
- Compatibility
- Friendship
- Love and Loyalty
- Lying
- Open Communication
- Boundaries, and Egos
- Fidelity
- A Pillar of Strength
Hug a Cat
Relationship Power Ratios
Transactional Relationships
Lasting Love
Immortality: Analog or Digital?
Could That Be You?
That Agonized Age
Hungry Like the Wolf
Mind.  Blown.
"Technophobe Boomer"
The Streaming Miscalculation?
Polyamory
Serfing USA
You've Got Another Think Coming
Priorities
Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
Donate Money to an Unworthy Cause!
Ten Things Home Improvement Shows Don't Tell You
A View to the North
Settling
$mall $avings
Tiny Luxuries
Twenty-Five Years Counting Carbs
"Deserve" and "Ought to"
Greatest of What Time?
A Bad Day at Work
"Life Isn't Fair"
"Purity" and Middle-Earth
Starship Troopers in Context
Seven Things about Guns
Communism's Fatal Flaw
Give It to Gummint?
Buster Keaton: Freedom from the Tyranny of Sound
Circle of Life
Living with Sadness
A Fighting Withdrawal
Run!
Rescue
Smile
In the Time of the Night
Storm Rider
Self-Image and Supervision
Closure
Happy Doesn't Last
Train Your AI on This

Short Story

The Old Man

About the Author

In the Service of the Queen - Free Ebook

In the Service of the Queen, the first novel in a trilogy, is out now, free to download, read or share, here.  (You'll need to create an account to do more than look at the cover art, though.)  (Don't let the "first in a trilogy" part deter you either; it does not end in a cliffhanger.)

A world of seven magical Talents, and a young man in a family of forester-beekeepers discovers he has one of them.  Not only that, he is a Savant, who can pick up the thoughts of others if he is looking at their faces.

There is tension within the realm that he knows little of.  What will he do with his Talent?  Who can he help?  Who will he serve?

Someone he never would have dreamed of.

In the Service of the Queen

See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list of my works on Gutenberg, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

Thresholds - Free Ebook

A world of heat and heavy storms.  A depopulated North America, with no working government, and almost no employment.  Too much technology long lost and unattainable.  How can Dante and the few people he's acquainted with have a future?  Where can they go?  What can they do?

And can they do so in a hot, hot-tempered world, in the wake of the mysterious apparitions that have begun to appear?

A surprisingly heartwarming tale of surviving and surmounting difficulties in a frightening world.

This free ebook is available here - but I have to warn you, to read or download books from Gutenberg's self-publishing site apparently requires logging into an account there.

See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list of my works, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

Parallel Worlds and Skew - Free Ebook

Have you been looking around and realizing over 1,000 of this blog's entries have disappeared?  I explained why in Ephemera, but either way almost all of this blog's previous content has been moved to free ebooks:

• "How to Write," an Approach That Worked for Me,
• The volume above,
• 300-Plus Problem Words and Phrases, and
  
• All the short stories are in Ice Cold and Other Stories - Expanded Edition or
• Second-Best with a Sword and Other Stories.

See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list of my works, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson; they're all free to read, download or share.

Meanwhile, as to what's in this one, it's 150,000 words, including a half dozen articles that have never been posted before—here's the Table of Contents:

Decisions
=======
Hard Choices
Meyer's Law and No Regrets
A Calm, Rational Discussion of Gun Control—Hah!
A Historical Look at Gun Control
Social Controls, Culture, and Gun Violence
When Fear Might Overwhelm
Time's Running Out
Leave It to Kevin
Buy, Baby, Buy Buy
A Darned Good Farmer
Sound Bites and Simple Solutions
The Insidiousness of Depression
The Beatles in Perspective
Nothing to Do/No One to See
Pretty? Not at All
Get a Horse?
Barbarians
Setting a Societal Minimum
Barbarians II
Lawyers and Statesmen
True Believers
Leavings of a Life
A Creation Created
Long Days, Nights
Reading Is Thinking?
Try Not to Look Like a Nail
Under the Knife
Fragile
The Society and Culture Curve
"Progress"
Mind, Emotion, and Making Decisions
Fearful Decisions
Sometimes All We Can Do Is Endure
Women as Role Models for Men
Get the _________ You Deserve
Politics of Entitlement
What Do You "Deserve"?
Acumen or Authority?
Socialism's Fatal Flaw
The End of Capitalism?
How Well, Not How Long
Life-or-Death, Split-Second, Go!
No Smoking
If You'd Been Through What I've Been Through…
We Aren't Scandinavia
Don't Follow Your Dreams (Follow Your Talents)
Politicians and the Perception Game
What Socialism Means to Me
Digital Groceries
Throwing Caution to the Winds
Class and Distinction
Dumbocracy
Who Needs a Rear-View Mirror?
Skin. Deep.
Ration the Passion
It Does Not Loom
"All Lives Matter" Misses the Point
Science!
Constraint
Gentle on Our Times
1, 2, 3, Many
Principle vs. Pragmatism vs. Expediency
Why I Dislike Politicians
Very Important
The Truth Hurts, But Post-Truth Hurts More
Galileo, Darwin, 2020
Environmentalism Is a Matter of Degree
How Green Is My Alley
Representative Democracy
Art/Artist
A Note on Punishment
The Rule of Law
Justice and the Law
A Consideration of Cultural Conservatism
Culture Wars
Cell Phones and Culture Wars
Culture of Deceit
So Get Over It Already
We Are Our Choices
It All Comes Down to Eating
Words of Power
Where Does God Draw the Line?
I Am Nothing
I Am Someone
Meaning in an Uncaring Universe: As Above, So Below
It's All About Potential
Redemption Culture
Democracy and Power
Democracy and Power II
Half My Life
Results > Intent
Unconscious Bias
Enforcement
Presidential Power, and a Cushion
I Wouldn't Call It Privilege
He Stood Tall and Strong
Our Future in the Past
Typhoid Mary(s)
Let Me Help You with the Covid-19 Risk Assessment
 Covid Percentages
 Vaccination Percentages
 Infection by Status
 Conclusion I
 Conclusion II
GMO
All Natural!
Unfaithfulness
Independence Car
Democracy's Weakness
"American"
Disinformation
"Have the Guts to Betray"
Where We Should Spend the Money
Uncharted Territory
The #1 Thing You Can Do for the Environment
What Bites Bureaucracies
Books, Movies, Dune
A Vision of Loveliness
Are You "Cool"?
Summer's End
Wasted Years
Staring
Beauty Is in the Eye
Choose Beauty
Inferior Superior?
A Baker's Dozen Epigrams
It Only Hurts When I Care
The Bureaucratic No
Background Noise
The Logical Endpoint of Voting Restrictions
Time
Raised on Television
Celebrity Culture
Wants < Needs
Invalidating Experiences
Echo Chambers?
Better Death than Dishonor?
A Quarrel with Quibbles
Make Do
Complaining
A Century's Perspective
Life on Fast-Forward
It's All an Adventure Till Someone Gets Hurt
Blame, Guilt, Embarrassment, Shame
 Part 1: Blame
 Part 2: Guilt
 Part 3: Embarrassment
 Part 4: Shame
The Greatest Writer of the English Language
Time to Let Go
What's the Point?
Ephemera

A Moment in Time
Bubbles in My Backyard

Critical Thinking
============
Facts vs. Judgment
Evolution and Science
Facts, Theories, Judgments, Opinions, and Beliefs
 Part 1: Beliefs
 Part 2: Opinions
 Part 3: Judgments
 Part 4: Theories
 Part 5: Facts I
 Part 6: Facts II
The Big Lie
In the Cross Hairs
Facts vs. Bias
"Not in My Experience"
Not So Fast, Nessie
Just One Blade of Grass
1/6: An Unconventional Angle
 Part 1
 Part 2
 Part 3
George Washington, Edward G. Robinson, and Insurrections
"News"

A Moment in Time
That Years-Ago Grin

History, and Some Beowulf
====================
A Word Shows Historical Change
Luddites
He Never Saw It Coming
Caesar
The Seventies and How They Turned Out That Way
The Struggle for America's Soul, Part V
A Desert Analogy
An Unlettered "Barbarian" in the White House
Statues and Shortsightedness
Have You Heard of Isaac Murphy?
I'm Telling You, Jack, It's Every Tom, Dick, and Harry
Cowboys of Color
Hiroshima
Towering Complacency
Twenty Years and Two Days
Only Somewhat Supreme
A Judge's Misjudgment?
From Republic to Empire
"Black Death"
Halyards and Carburetors
Spoiled vs. Entitled
Hollywood History
Man on Horseback
The Nuclear Lesson
Progress Is a Modern Concept
 Part 1
 Part 2
"Hapax Legomenon"
Lost to Time
A Very Simplified Introduction to Understanding China
The Redcoats Are Coming! Basic Napoleonic Tactics
Two Hundred Years?

A Moment in Time
When I Look into Your Eyes

Rating Presidents
=============
Rating Presidents
Rating Presidents: Washington
Rating Presidents: FDR
Value Judgments
Worst Election Ever?
Rating Presidents: Nixon
Rating Presidents Plus: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Elitism vs. Common Man Even Today
Rating Presidents: Lincoln
Outsider Presidents
Rating Presidents: Ford, Carter, Obama
Rating Presidents: One Who Wasn't, Colin Powell
Rating Presidents: Not Quite Rating George W. Bush
Rating Presidents: Clinton
Rating Presidents: Reagan
Rating Presidents: LBJ
How Presidents Get Hammered by Historians
Rating Presidents: The Seven Worst?
So What Do We Expect from a President?
A "Better" Country

A Moment in Time
That Little Heart, Beating So Fast

Leadership
========
"Hey [Expletive]!"
Learning the Wrong Lesson
Mama Boss
Breaking Point
Discussion Production: No Deflection or Reflection
Obligation and Duty

A Moment in Time
Water Always Wins

Relationships
==========
The Two Required Words in Relationships
Hearts Like Cement
T-Man: Relationship Power Ratios
Alone
Isolation
Alienated
Friends or Family?
Is It Love?
Is It Love? Us Against the World
Hey Good-Lookin'
Looks
Warmth in the Night
Growing into Ourselves
Forgive? Or Forget?
Liking and Loving Don't Always Go Together
Flirting
Incorruptible Love
Polyamory
May-December
Outta My League
I Made Love to a Dinosaur

A Moment in Time
She Cried

Everyone Is the Hero of Their Own Story
==============================
Relationships
Sexual Harassment
Leadership
Bullying
Narcissism
Dishonor
A Historical Example: "The Slave Power"

A Moment in Time
Lord of the Clouds

Self-Identity
=========
Who Are You?
Memory
Who's in Control?
Blame, Guilt, and Control
Wired for Grief
"How Well You Run!"
Making Widgets?
Wait, I'm the Smart One
Failed Yet?
"Failure Is Not an Option"
Cheating
Those Shining Years of Childhood
Validation?
Real ____________
Who Do You Identify With? Who Do You "Other"?

A Moment in Time
Rain

Life Events
========
The Pond Next Door
The Ragged Edges of Death
Almost Fatherhood
It's Not What You've Got (Farewell)
Our Song
Bonus Time
Outliving Your Loved Ones
One Way Forward
A Word on Weddings
Just Believe?
Pretty Death
Still I'm Sad
Slipping Through My Fingers
Is It Worth Dying For?
Magical Thinking
Frightening
Shock to the System
I Am a Rock God
Broth

A Moment in Time
220 Volts, Right Through the Heart

Memorial
=======
Bring Out Your Dead
Cousins
Life and Love are Warmth—Farewell, Dearest Friend
Crisis in Heaven
Plastic Animals
Not Much of a Life
Living with Sadness
Death? Unacceptable

A Moment in Time
Broken Handle

Pets and Fostering
=============
Daddy's Best Boy
A Skittish Cat
Surf Dog
Child's Best Friend
To Our Current Foster Dogs
Such an Aggravating Dog
That Cat Taught Me a Lesson
Destination: Oblivion
Emotional Relativity
They Don't Understand
I Wish I Could Promise Him Safety
Walking the Gravel
Don't Give a Pet for Christmas
Saved!
Girl Power?
Goodbye, Baby
Lose Again
Nobody's Girl

A Moment in Time
Miles and Miles

Holiday
======
Martin Luther King Day
 "I Have a Dream," He Said
Valentine's Day
 A Loyal Heart
Spring Equinox
 A Fine, Exquisite Equinox
Memorial Day
 Memorial
 Flowers and Graves
 Memories, After
 They Died to Keep Us Free
Juneteenth
 My Freedom, and Ours
 Why Juneteenth?
Summer Solstice
 So Long, Solstice
July 4th
 No Taxation without Representation
 The Nobility of Freedom
 Why Freedom Matters
Labor Day
 Labor
Autumnal Equinox
 An Equinox in the Balance
Veterans Day
 In Flanders Fields
 Veterans Day
 November Rain and Chill
 Courage
Winter Solstice
 The True Meaning of Solstice
Christmas
 The Most Loneliest Time of the Year

A Moment in Time
Snowflakes

LGBTQ
======
Transympathy
Gender Identity

A Moment in Time
Magic Is All Around

Words
=====
High Summer, High Noon
We Were Meant to Be Together
"Culling the Herd"
Honey Sugar Sweetheart
Objective/Subjective
"Ecstatic"

A Moment in Time
Fire Flies

Netiquette
=======
Define "Great"
Taste vs. Quality
Taste vs. Quality and Reviews
Taste vs. Quality and Authors (Like Me)

A Moment in Time
Mystic Highway

KWJ's Laws
=========
KWJ's First Law
KWJ's Second Law
What Doesn't Kill You…KWJ's Third Law
You—Today! And KWJ's Third Law
Sitcom Advice, and KWJ's Fourth Law
KWJ's Fifth Law: If You Have to Ask the Question…
KWJ's Sixth Law: You'll Never Get Better…
KWJ's Seventh Law

A Moment in Time
Soaring

Humor
=====
Fifty Shades of Old Bay
This Internet (of) Thing(s)
The Singing Sword…
Efficient English!
Two Dozen Non-Epigrams
All Light Nong
Unintelligent Design

A Moment in Time
Warm

Me
==
A Curious Feeling
An Unexpected Visit
I Survived
Forgotten
How Would I Like to Be Remembered

A Moment in Time
A Flight I Never Imagined

Poetry
=====
Shadowed
Train Song
Have a Heart
But She Never Believes
A Seussian Valentine's Poem?!
Lay Me Down in Winter

A Moment in Time
"So What's This?"

About the Author
 "Legend"

Second-Best with a Sword and Other Stories - Free Ebook

If you were looking for any of the short fiction I previously had posted on this blog since 2022, those stories and several new ones are in my latest free ebook, Second-Best with a Sword and Other Stories.  (The ones before that are in Ice Cold and Other Stories, Expanded Edition, also free, as all my ebooks are.)

See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

Sixteen stories, including two novelettes, 32,000 words of science fiction, spooky stories, a couple of Christmas tales, and more.

Three science fiction stories, two more that are specifically time travel, five spooky stories, a humor piece, two that focus on the environment, and a couple of heartwarming Christmas tales.

Table of Contents

Science Fiction-Adventure
Second-Best with a Sword
Drive
Debt Race 2200

Time Travel
Logic of Time
Logic of Time - 1989 original, excerpt
The One

Spooky
Sound
The Other Side of Life
Eyes Closed
Fever
Shadow Dreams

Superheroes
Corona

The Environment
Biotage
Empire of Dust

Humor
Hot People with Guns

Christmas
No Crying at Christmas
It's Only Christmas

300-Plus Problem Words and Phrases - Free Ebook

English has a lot of tricky words, including but not limited to homonyms (loosely speaking), homographs and homophones similar enough to trip people up.  Let's look at some of them, and with luck shed enough light to lessen the missteps.  If nothing else, I bet I can entertain you by turning loose and taking a trip with them!

These used to be on this blog, but I'm moved them to a (free) ebook for longevity.  Direct link to the book: here.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

Meanwhile, what are all these words and phrases?  Here's the list (note that "a lot" and "allot" count as two, that's how the number gets up over 300; there's a total of 110 entries):

A lot/allot
A while/awhile
Affect/effect
Afterward/afterword
Air/Eire/ere/err/heir
Aisle/I'll/isle
All right/already/all ready
Allude/elude; allusive/elusive; allusion/illusion/delusion
Altar/alter
Alternate/alternative
Amuse/bemuse
Any more/anymore, Any one/anyone
Are/our/hour (R) ("Arrr")
Aye/eye/I (AI)
Bail/bale
Boar/boor/bore
Borough/bureau/burro/burrow
Brake/break
Breach/breech
Cache/cachet/cash
Chute/shoot
Cite/sight/site
Click/clique (klick)
Complement/compliment
Composed of/comprise
Continual(ly)/continuous(ly)
Dammed/damned
Dew/do/due
Discussed/disgust, discuss/discus
Does (does)/dose/doughs/doze
Done/dun
Dual/duel
Eek/eke
Endanger/in danger; En masse/amass/a mass
Exciting/exiting
Fair/fare
Faze/phase
For/fore/four
Gibe/jibe/jive
Gored/gourd (Gord)
Grisly/gristly/grizzled/grizzly
Hear/here (Hear, hear!)
Historic/historical
Hoard/horde
Hole/whole; holy/wholly
Immanent/imminent
Its/it's
Knead/kneed/need
Knew/new (gnu)
Knight/night (benighted)
Lay/lei/lie/lye
Lead/lead/led
Literal(ly)
Load/lode
Loose/lose
Made/maid
Meat/meet (mete)
Moot/mute
Morning/mourning
Mythic/mythical
Nay/neigh
Oar/or/ore
Ordinance/ordnance
Overseas/oversees
Pair/pare/pear
Passed/past 
Peak/peek/pique
Plum/plumb
Poor/pore/pour
Premier/premiere
Prophecy/prophesy; profit/prophet
Prostate/prostrate
Rack/wrack
Rain/reign/rein
Raise/rays/raze (race)
Rap/wrap
Real/reel
Right/rite/wright/write
Ring/wring
Road/rode
Roe/row (row)
Root/route/rout
Sea/see, "C" (sí)
Sew/so/sow
Shoe/shoo
Slay/sleigh 
Soar/sore
Staid/stayed
Steal/steel
Tacks/tax
Tea/tee (T)
Their/there/they're
Tic/tick
Tide/tied (tidings)
Toe/tow
Ton/tonne/tun
Unique/unusual
Vain/vane/vein
Wail/Wale (Wales)/Whale
Way/weigh, under way/under weigh
Wind/Wind/Winded/Wined/Wound/Wound
Wreak/wreck (reek)
Year/light-year/parsec
Your/you're/yore
Yay/yea (yeah)

All intents and purposes; intensive
Bated breath
Cut and dried
First come, first served 

The Importance of Understanding Problem Words

"How to Write"—Free Ebook

The subtitle is "My Approach May Not Work for You," which is true of any writing how-to.  It's too individualistic an art.  Nevertheless, out of ten years' worth of work and 140,000 words, not all of which were published on this blog (and a few have had minor changes), there's bound to be something in the book you can use.

It's free to read or download (but not train AI on or, of course, pirate!) here.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

Table of Contents below the jump; those not posted here already are in bold italics:

Making It Home - Latest Free Ebook

Surrounded by geysers and fumaroles, Aelwin Seer is not just trapped in an inhospitable environment, but an unfriendly one: Seers are dismissed as useless.  He cannot leave, since all mages must live where Archmage Domina can keep her eye on them.  And yet, can he continue to live there, or even to live, once Domina discovers he has no loyalty to her at all?

Taken from his family at the age of twelve, Aelwin hasn't been aware of how much he misses having a home.  But when he escapes from Domina and the Council, he knows he cannot rest until he finds somewhere that will somehow be safe from the most powerful mage in the world.

Can he find such a place of safety?  And make it home?

 Free novel, available now here.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.

Traveling the Transdimensional Highway (New Free Ebook)

Traveling the Transdimensional Highway, my latest novel (and free ebook), is now available here.  (For a list of all of mine, kept up to date, see this entry, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.)  I'm really pleased with it, needless to say; the pace and suspense in the last half I kept credibly compelling.

* * *

Robert Serviss is a mysterious man, in some ways.  He doesn't look like anyone else, not on this Earth, anyway.  All anyone in the town knows of him is that he's just arrived in a Ground Rover that needs some urgent repairs.

A mystery to them, not so much to himself, though he'd like to be.  He doesn't even like to think about his past, or origins.

* * *

He's not from the town he starts out in, not even the world.  He's from a parallel world, from an organization with a lot of reach and resources.  The journey he's on will take him far, farther in most ways than he's ever been.

Farther than he'd ever thought life would take him.

Traveling the Transdimensional Highway: A journey of excitement and imagination.

Trouble Magnet: Free Ebook

It's here.  (Also, all my (free) ebooks are linked here, or at http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.)

Cowboys!  Flying saucers!  Gangsters!  A weird space creature!

Rustlers!  Outlaws!  Dames in trouble!  The mob!  Space Amazons!  Space gladiators!

And one man is the key to it all…

How can this be?

Trouble Magnet – A rare condition wherein the afflicted individual attracts frequent trouble of a serious nature.  This has manifested most recently in the form of a starship captain whose five-year mission was plagued on a weekly basis with every imaginable complication.  Earlier cases include ranches that were rustled, attacked by outlaws, and worse, also weekly, as well as a number of private detectives hired, once again every week, for murders, kidnappings, and other felonies rather than the usual missing persons and divorce cases.

Most often a Trouble Magnet merely draws in drama and danger.  But in the most extreme case ever recorded…
- Unusual Conditions in Space and Time, Mark Ayrata, ed., Proxima University Press, 2263, p. 1186

* * *

Back in 2006, I was thinking about the concept of a "chick magnet," someone who is supposed to be so attractive to women that they are continually attracted.

Creativity for me often takes the form of putting two concepts together that might not seem to fit, and coming up with something interesting, imaginative…or sometimes just loony.

Because I'd had idle thoughts before about what the lower ranks on Star Trek (especially the Original Series) must have thought.  "Hey, I just got a subspace from my buddy on the USS Whatever, and she says they mostly just have to dodge a meteor once in a while, or bicker with Klingons.  Nothing like what we have here!"

I mean, if every vessel in Starfleet faced ship-destroying, sun-eating, cosmos-wrecking threats every Thursday night at 8 pm, there wouldn't be a galaxy.

Then it struck me that real private detectives mostly gather evidence of infidelity or search for missing persons.  They don't get blackmail attempts, murders, and kidnappings to solve every week.  Doesn't happen.

For that matter, all those westerns that ran for years, where the same ranch has every imaginable disaster, crime and calamity hit on a weekly basis…well, a place like that wouldn't last long.

So in 2006, I thought how unique it would be if each of the above wasn't a coincidence, but a common condition.

And then this year I put that together with the idea of a good-hearted but just a little dim cowboy, who has all of those things happen to him, and how I could play it for laughs…

That's the genesis of Trouble Magnet.  I had a ball writing it.  Hope you have even half the fun reading it.

Souls Between Worlds (Free Ebook)

A parallel world where some of the Anglo-Saxon tribes traveled north into Scandinavia, and later the Viking colony of Vinland expanded, and left a legacy of an Anglo-Saxon tongue being spoken in North America, among a people who were very largely of indigenous ancestry.

But those cultures are not the focus, individuals are.

A professor who isn't totally tightly wrapped in Scandinavia develops portals: matter transmission, or teleportation.  One frightful accident later, and a man from Vinland and a woman from Scandinavia find that they can travel to parallel worlds.  Or rather their spirits can.

Trolls.  Skookums.  Jotunn.  Kigatlik.

They find frightening creatures from legend, or who long ago inspired legend, learn their own natures, and build something bigger than they are.

A full-size novel and free ebook, available here.  Join their journey, and enjoy.

See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list of my free novels, novellas and collections, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson

* * *

Behind the scenes for a moment, does this novel have a history of its own!

All the way back in 1988, I came up with the "souls between worlds" travel featured in this novel.  But I didn't go forward with it.

I wrote Rivers Between Worlds in 2019, and got the kernel of an idea for this one at that time.  But I'd already written the opening scene for this one in 2016, putting it aside till later.

In July 2019, I put the two together, and did a bit more, then settled down in September to write the novel.  Six months and 60,000 words later, I realized I'd taken the wrong tack.  I know I can get too focused on ideas and theme, and so work hard to ensure I have quality characterizations.  But I'd overcompensated, and produced something a little too light on ideas and too close to soap opera.

I put the novel aside again.

I eventually figured out how to fix it all, and started all over in July of 2022, and finished in August.  A full novel in three months is really fast for me, but I had the advantage of salvaging several chapters from the previous effort.

So here it is, an idea from thirty-four years ago, a first stab six years ago, and finally done and ready for you now.

The Adventures of Princess Onesie and Fairy Friend (Free Ebook)

A human princess who just wants to go and have some fun meets a mysterious flute player from Faerie Forest.  She leaves behind council meetings and tutoring sessions for adventures!

Soon Princess Onesie and Fairy Friend meet Unspeakably Gruel, Robyn Redcap, Boglin, broggarts, and more.  In a mix of seriousness and silliness, along with some conscious anachronisms, the princess makes new friends, helps some people, and learns some basic truths about life, the fae, and maybe even herself.

 A free ebook, novella length, which I hope children of any age can enjoy, available here.

(I keep an entry updated with all of my free ebooks, here, or you can go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson.)

Shadowed: Something I Haven't Seen Before

I've never seen anyone else do this with a novel before, and neither has anyone I asked.  Have you seen anyone do something like I did with the chapter headings for Shadowed, to add depth, flavor, and unity to a story?

One: When We Take a Step
Two: Our Shadow Walks Behind
Three: On the Day We're Born
Four: A Darkness Assigned
Five: Our Eyes Turn from Darkness
Six: We Try to Walk Away
Seven: Its Presence Always With Us
Eight: Absence Must Stay
Nine: As Time Strides On
Ten: Our Steps May Slow
Eleven: Shadowed Closer
Twelve: We Onward Go
Thirteen: Wish We To Be Followed
Fourteen: Yearn To Tread Alone
Fifteen: Feelings Frustrated
Sixteen: Reaping, We've Sown
Seventeen: A Journey Shadowed
Eighteen: Can Leave Us in Dread
Nineteen: Leading Our Lives
Twenty: But Secretly Led
Twenty-One: We Walk—Run—We're Fleeing
Twenty-Two: We Try, It Matters Not
Twenty-Three: The Light We're Never Seeing
Twenty-Four: The Fate We've Never Sought

(If you're asking, the answer is yes, each chapter title does have something to do with that chapter's contents, and is reflected within it, too.)

P.S. As always, all my fiction is free.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list.

New Novel/Free Ebook: Shadowed

It's called the Next World.  Everyone there either disappeared from Earth, or is descended from earlier Arrivals.  People, teratorns, great auks, sleuth hounds, short-faced bears, you name it.

There are six peoples, or if you prefer nations, in the Next World.  Dares who can heal, Aranhas/Simarabos with spirit connections, Bathursts who can turn you temporarily into ghosts.  Not to mention "Reapers," like a young man named March.  Or the Everetts, aka Shadows, five of whom are determined to end a feud they'd started—by killing him.

And they'll pursue him to do so.  Follow him.  To the ends of the earth Next World.

* * *

Some of my best world-building, interesting characterizations, and, as always, a tale as original as I can manage.  A young man and friends, discovering their world, discovering themselves, and striving to stay alive.  All building to a confrontation-style climax.  Plus it's free.

If that sounds good to you, then download it here (edit: you'll need to create an account).  It can be read, downloaded, and shared for free, like all my work these days.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson

End of the Line

A world where enchanters put their long-ago efforts into living creatures, not swords and such.  And those creatures were mostly human beings.  And the result is that there are seven magical bloodlines, seven different magical talents, where, if the breeding comes out right, a baby is born who in adolescence will show his clan's magical ability.

His clan's.

Because, with almost no exceptions, only the boys become blood warriors.  Women can only be breeders, and, if they excel at that, leaders.

The seven clans are obsessed with breeding for talent.  Since blood warriors are the might of the clans, and the clans don't just compete but raid and skirmish against each other, breeding is all that anyone cares about.  How many blood warriors has she given birth to?  How many has he sired?

Hauke shows all the signs of being a blood warrior.  Unfortunately for him, none of his father's or mother's other progeny do.  Which means he might be good at the warrior part, but the women who lead the clan have no reason to keep him around for the bloodline.  Do they?

If you're interested in this 106k-word fantasy novel, it's a free ebook, available here.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list, or http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson

Faker

Homeless in a space habitat, in the warren of tunnels dug into an asteroid, is hard enough.  What's harder is Gray isn't just homeless, but is a hermaphrodite, shunned or worse by everyone.

But in learning to stay alive, Gray learned to read people's body language, to study and remember.  Will those skills be enough to make it?  Or will Gray have to fake it?

A science fiction novel of coming into one's own, of overcoming oppression and exclusion, of using skills and wits for survival and even self-fulfillment.

See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list of my free-to-download or to-share works, or go to http://self.gutenberg.org/Authors/KevinWadeJohnson