@mark-engels.com
Sojourner. Husband. Father. Railroader. Anime-manga-anthro fan. Author of the WERECATS series of urban fantasy thrillers in the FOREST EXILES SAGA. (@mj_engels on Twitter/X.) #werecat #werecats https://www.mark-engels.com/
Recent reads: Eyrie by K Vale Nagle
4⭐
Easily some of the most worldbuilding work I've seen in a long time, the world is rich and dense.
Speaking of dense, so is the story. The cast is endearing and expansive. I found myself wanting more time with some of them.
Good thing we have sequels!
"I'm on a mission! A.K.A., how it's going one week post-launch!"
Two maps -- the world, and the United States -- in white with their countries/states delineated. Some countries/states are filled-in with dark turquoise. "So Far: Three countries, nine states!"
"A huge thank-you to everyone who has bought a copy already, whether that's from me or a retailer, or otherwise spread the word and shared they they think! You rock!"
"Haven't taken a bite yet? Not sure what it might do to your TBR? Read the Prologue and Chapter 1 for free at www.tamarasharker.com/books and join the map!"
I've truly been blown away by how well my first week has gone! It's modest of course compared to others', but it's just the kind of steady, organic growth I want.
A huge thank-you to everyone who has given my debut a chance so far! ❤️
The very cool and stylish Infernulls logo, red letters with gold outlining in a spiky 90s design with black liquid at the end of it filling the letters. The cast is drawn in a bad chibi style in front of the very cool logo with Lamya holding her sword over her shoulder, Cepheia hanging over the letters, Evelynn floating on her scythe, and Eaduric looking back at a bunch of widgets hiding. Logo drawn by Ishida1694 Characters and horrible chibi drawings by Zeggy.
I just spent an hour on this. #Infernulls Logo with my characters drawn by me. I usually don't draw them, but I thought this would be fun.
Logo made by Ishida1694
Characters and horrible chibi drawings by me. (I'm actually quite proud of these.)
#OCsky #OC
illustration of our narrators, courtesy of @poulsens.bsky.social !
It is indeed! Which I expand upon here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
HOT TAKE (not a hot take)
I finished book 1 of this series two days ago and it was GOOD
And I'm BUYING BOOK 2
The covers of the first ten Gryphon Insurrection novels by K. Vale Nagle, starting with Eyrie and ending with Saberbeak, portraying a wide range of interesting gryphons in interesting places from hawks to kakapo to snowy owls to diving petrels to starlings to hooded pitohui to sand cat hoopoe birds to white-tailed kites in golden armor to saber-toothed tiger gryphons. The first ten covers are in an illustrated style, but the last book, Blue Eyes, is a short story collection in a very stylized art that has a snow leopard in the snowy mountains.
By popular request, @bookshop.org has all of the GryphIns books in paperback, hardcover, and now ebook!
If you love #gryphons, epic fantasy, and LGBTQIA+ characters, give it a try =)
"Wings of Fire for adults — with gryphons!"
Eyrie, book one, is currently free: bookshop.org/p/books/eyri...
These books are like potato chips, friends: read one, and you’ll want more. A delightfully unique world that’s fun to immerse in, wonderful cast, swooshy magic, lots of action and emotion. Check em out!
also in paperback!
authorizedmusings.blogspot.com/p/learn-to-h...
The cover for Learn to Howl: a black wolf with blue eyes in profile on a red background, her ear pinned back and her teeth and tongue visible. Painted by my cousin Husdon Fraser, who you can find at https://www.instagram.com/hudsonfraser.art/ cover copy: When a football player follows her home from an illicit party, preacher's daughter Allie unmasks a secret her mama has been trying to pray away for almost seventeen years. The women in their family are werewolves. All except for Allie's mama. To protect her normal life, Allie's mama dumps her off in the wilderness with three aunts she's never heard of, let alone met. But Allie hardly has a chance to find her bearings among these strangers who are family before somebody kidnaps them and burns down their ancestral home. Allie has one high-speed road trip with her wolfier-than-thou cousin, Morgan, to learn how to make her way in a world she never knew existed
today is the 2 year pub-i-versary of Learn to Howl, the titular book in my werewolf trilogy!
books2read.com/LearntoHowl
itch.io/c/5930931/le...
Takes notes for AWSIDY
💯
"Nya!"
Dvd cover for captain Harlock
Would also rather watch irresponsible captain tylor
But also much more than either
Harlock
Aaaaaand now I'll be earworming "Through the Night" the rest of the night now. 🤘😝
I'm not kidding when I say the soundtrack is amazing by the way: it's by Kou Ohtani who also did Shadow of the Colossus.
This track has inspired my stories for decades.
youtu.be/Ma-QXe8u-fU
Just watch Outlaw Star: that's where Whedon stole most of the plot twist and set dressing points from anyway and it's got a super fucking good soundtrack.
I think I like bittersweet, somewhat open-ended endings. The victories aren't hollow, but there’s pain on the way to them, and there's a good chance we'll see these characters or parts of their story again.
#AwesomeCharacters
This show, with a slight upgrade, is what the world needs now.
it does it does indeed it never eeeeeeeeeeends 😩😩😩
Friends in CA and US! Kobo has a sale right now for cozy reads below $5. Tales of Lunis Aquaria is part of this, but there are tons of other good reads.
US: www.kobo.com/us/en/p/cozy...
CA: www.kobo.com/ca/en/p/cozy...
Tales US: www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/...
Tales CA: www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/...
Number one, baby! #fiction #books #booksky #sf #sff #sffh #scifi #scienceFiction #weirdFiction #horror #dreampunk #speculativeFiction #shortFiction #shortStories
You too, huh? 😒😒😒
save me $350-$500 and share my books!
novels!
books2read.com/ExitGhost
authorizedmusings.blogspot.com/p/learn-to-h...
books2read.com/burnupinvict...
novellas!
authorizedmusings.blogspot.com/p/run-with-h...
books2read.com/DrownedHeir
books2read.com/BetweentheBl...
Zyearth is going to Wondercon!
Today's first chapters are from Mage and White Assassin.
War is a horrific, terrible thing that destroys lives. Sometimes we cope with love... sometimes with destruction.
Buy direct from zyearth.com!
www.zyearth.com/mage-first-c...
www.zyearth.com/white-assass...
Zyearth is going to Wondercon!
Today we have Angel and Tanned Hide.
What happens when our heroes get entangled with blood thirsty assassins? Or worse... what if they are one?
Buy direct from zyearth.com!
www.zyearth.com/tanned-hide-...
www.zyearth.com/angel-first-...
#Books #Wondercon #Furry
Owen/Kenzie and Wesley/Rowan by @faindriart.bsky.social 😍
#AwesomeCharacters
No art of Lady Shadow or beyond (yet! Hoping to change that this spring and summer), but tons of the boys 🤭 (the last one is by @azshure.bsky.social!)
#AwesomeCharacters
#AwesomeCharacters
Yeahhhhh it's my favorite kind of posting day. 🤩
Mana & Mori: @birdko.art
Naki: @nushdeco.bsky.social
KBP: @autumnchildart.bsky.social
Morgan & Therion: @letoyga.bsky.social
other things that can help me/my books:
leave reviews! (Storygraph, Goodreads, Amazon)
request that your local library purchase them! (they are all available through Ingram, except Between the Blood and the Sun)
do a book club! (on Fable or otherwise)