Steady Ground | ✔
  • Reads 1,430
  • Votes 231
  • Parts 25
  • Time 4h 21m
  • Reads 1,430
  • Votes 231
  • Parts 25
  • Time 4h 21m
Complete, First published Sep 19, 2020
He's damaged. He's lost. And worse of all, his memories have come to life. If he wants to find peace, he'll need to redefine what it really means to move on.
--

For the first time in years, Atlas feels like he's separated himself from the misfortune in his life. He's healed, he's rented a decent apartment, he's settled into a solid-enough-for-him job working as a grunt for some scientists. Now he's (reluctantly) traveling to the spring snows of Alaska, where they plan to test the first run of their earthquake-harnessing technology. 

But something goes wrong. They don't harness the energy of an earthquake. 

No. Instead, the ground rips apart. A massive crevice forms, leading deep into the Earth. The chasm lulls him forward like a Siren, telling him tales of his mother, of her laughter, of her scent of strong sandalwood, and of his life before her death.

Waking up in what he can only describe as Hell, he's confronted with every misfortune in his life. Forced to befriend mirages made from his most painful childhood memories or pay severe consequences, he travels the twisted realm in search of answers.

Amazing cover by @lavendareyes

Completed October 31st, 2021
Edits In Progress (Coming 2025)

Awards:
2022 Watty Awards Shortlister
2024 Featured on @Humor on the "Ambassador's Monthly Picks" and "Absurdist & Surreal" reading lists
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White Crystal Butterflies | Wattys 2021 Shortlist | ✔

37 parts Complete

❖ Interstellar pilot and ex-adventurer Alex Gallegos must keep their team safe on an icy moon as sentient storms threaten to repeat the tragedy that ended their last career. ❖ Everyone in the United Inhabited Solar Systems (for some reason, UIS for short) knows to stay away from Mahaha. The icy moon is notorious for failed probe landings and research missions that end in tragedy: the only people to ever venture to its surface needed rescuing after just two weeks. When a prestigious research group decides they want a turn, they ask Alex Gallegos to lead the team. Perfectly qualified and haunted by their past, Alex accepts, hoping to make up for old mistakes and get just a little further from the earth they've left behind. Two months into the seven-month mission, the team is struggling with discontent, damaged equipment, and blizzards acting less and less like normal weather. As Mahaha moves out of range of help and the storms take on a more malicious character, Alex must face the one foe they could never have prepared for. Mahaha may or may not be alive. ❖❖❖ Complete. Wattys 2021 Shortlister. Standalone sequel (Rocks Can Dance) coming in 2023. Comments and critiques are both welcome and appreciated. I write characters from many different backgrounds, with many different experiences. If you share those traits and find that I have misrepresented anything, please let me know! I am feedback-friendly and here to learn :)