A Fragment from the Gospel of Draygon

The following is one of the rediscovered fragments from The Gospel of Draygon. Though lesser known than the famed Picatrix manuscript, the two documents share the same notoriety. Some scholars consider the Gospel of Draygon a composite of occult magic and arcane alchemical knowledge, while other believe it to be a hoax. Unlike the Picatrix however, we have only fragments and no complete volumes survives.

J.S. – 1981



When those left behind decayed and rotten,

By a bloodless beast, the shadow, the forgotten,

A blade you will need to cut through the darkest night

To set ablaze the forgotten and transcend its twilight


The cost to forge thine weapon is ancient indeed,

For tribes of old, would know how to succeed

And strike the blade from black glass forged in fire,

And etch the futhark in the hilt made of bone, blood, and desire


And whence from you find the materials to acquire?

In Yew is the wisdom, a sturdy root you desire.

Affix a bone from a broken thing, it’s essence made of fire,

Blood from thine own veins, will baptize thine hilt,

And the greatest of wills, removes all the guilt 


And to learn the language of the land,

A journey you must undergo to truly understand,

The need for great endurance and power

Even as knowledge and stillness will bring justice to flower.


Last of all, brings light to the blade,

To anoint, in the beasts own body, under the cursed glade,

Where things alive, pulse with malice,

And the creature hides in his smoking palace

There in the heart of the place, you must strike,

And draw the sap and soul from a place, dreamlike


This fragment appears as a chapter epigraphic in Through an Endless Darkness Gleaming (Shades & Shapes in the Dark Book 2)

Read: Shades and Shapes in the Dark for more

Tomorrow, The Shadow Wakes!!! (Shades & Shape in the Dark Arrives)

I’m so excited to announce, that tomorrow, my dark fantasy horror novel, Shades & Shapes in the Dark launches!

You can find Shades & Shapes in the Dark in paperback and ebook here!

The Audiobook is still finishing up production but will follow close behind in the next week or two. I will announce when that arrives.

To celebrate the release, me and several of my amazing author friends are gathering at Prodigy Coffee where we will be sharing some of our work. I’m so very fortunate to have such talented author friends. Check out their bios and links in the slides below!

If you’re in the Denver area tomorrow, you should join us from 1pm-3pm at Prodigy Coffee!

You can also check out the first and second chapters of Shades & Shapes in the Dark over on YouTube if you’re curious but aren’t sure if it’s for you.

A New Podcast and Preorder for Shades & Shapes in the Dark!

Hey everybody,

I have two pieces of news for you. The first is that the preorder for Shades & Shapes in the Dark has launched! You can preorder the ebook version from your favorite online store or you can preorder the paperback from Barnes & Noble at this link.

Want to get the book early and for free? I’m looking for 17 more Advanced Review Copy (ARC) readers. Basically, you let me know you want a copy by commenting below or shooting me an email and I’ll send you a copy in exchange for an honest review (yes even if you hate it).

The second piece of news is that me and my good friend Matt Wellstrom are launching a brand new podcast called, Resistance Reads. The podcast will explore the concepts of power and resistances through literature. Our inaugural episode will cover George Orwell’s classic novel 1984.

You can join us at the livestream here on April 19th at 11am MDT out of Denver. https://youtube.com/live/AqlLzQvCBBU?feature=share You can also watch the replay at the same link. Come join our discussion and ask your questions!

Shades & Shapes in the Dark Chapter 1 Audiobook (Listen Now)

I’m so very happy to release Chapter 1 of my dark fantasy, horror novel, Shades & Shapes in the Dark. You can listen to the audiobook edition of the first chapter over on YouTube at the video below. Chapter 1 is titled, The Crossroads of Life and Death.

Synopsis:

How do you fight a Shadow? How do you survive 40 years of darkness?

When 9 year old Clarissa Lamont stumbles upon something sinister in the forest, she didn’t know it was the beginning of a 40 year long nightmare strewn with the bodies of many she loved. In her journey to fight back, she will need to discover ancient hidden secrets of occult magic, and find others who understand her struggles. But the story begins where it ends, with her final confrontation with something as old as humanity itself. Shades & Shapes in the Dark is the first of four novels about Clarissa’s struggle to learn to harness her own power and magic, and fight a Shadow. Book 1 covers Clarissa’s very first encounter and battles with the creature she calls Demon.

News, Podcasts, A Writing Workshop, and Publishing Updates September 2024

Hey all, I know it’s been a while since I have had updates so I have several things to post about today. Sorry for the long message, but I’ve broken things down so you can easily skim to the information you want.

The first is the reason that things are so delayed. This summer I joined Teach for America and last month I officially became a High School English and Language Arts teacher for 11th and 12th grade. Let me tell you, that’s an extremely busy job.

Despite the very long hours I am working right now, I’ve managed to make a lot of steady progress on my forthcoming novels. I am currently on a streak of 574 days or writing without skipping. 500 or so of those days had a minimum of 1000 words a day. So I make progress on something every single day (though I must admit at least 50 of those days I deleted the words right after I finished them but hey, you gotta get those bad words out of the way for the good ones to shine).

Here is the current status of my books that I am actively working on:

Shades and Shapes in the Dark is currently in it’s final pass before it heads off to the editor. ETA for book 1 is either October 17th or November 17th depending on the amount of edits required (How much red pen my editor uses).

The series is now 4 books with the following titles and progress level:

Book 1 “Shades and Shapes in the Dark” is in final edits with an ETA in October or November.

Book 2 “Though An Endless Darkness Gleaming” is 75% of Draft 1

Book 3: “An Illumination of Extraordinary Madness” is 50% of Draft 1

Book 4: “The Nature of Twilight At Dawn” is 30% of Draft 1

I currently expect to finish draft 1 of Book 2 by November 1st and to use NaNoWriMo to finish (or get close to finishing) the first draft of book 3

The Children of AEIS and The Chronicles of the Great Migration final two books, A War For the Heavens and A Hand to the Stars are still on their way. The Children of AEIS is sitting at around 75% first draft completion. The largest reason for the delay was a major concussion only two months after the release of Serah of the Runners. This derailed me pretty solidly and right now, when I have free time on top of writing, I am working through creating notes of the 4 books because my memory of them appears to be a little lacking from first the injury and then the passage of time. But, they are in progress and they absolutely will get finished sometime in the near future.

Welcoming the Muse


My poetic essay, Writing is Living was selected for publication by Twenty Bellows Press this summer. The piece is about life as an author in the 21st century. There will be a release party sometime this fall and I will provide more information as the date approaches. Needless to say, I’m thrilled to have another short of mine published this year. That makes 2 short pieces of writing picked up by publishers.

How to Write for the Future Podcast

I also recently appeared on a second episode of Write for the Future. This podcasts covers some basics of worldbuilding. The host also spent time across several episodes highlighting some of the key features of Kyra Wellstrom and I’s book, Build Better Worlds. I have linked the second episode where I guest starred as well as the episodes that surround our book below.

Part 1

Part 2

Additional Episodes that Cover Our Book

What is Cultural Context? (Build Better Worlds, 1 of 4)

Myth, Imagined Past, and Cultural Purity in Fiction (Build Better Worlds, 2 of 4)

The Sacred: Religion and Mysticism (Build Better Worlds, 3 of 4)

Economics: More Than Money and Markets (Build Better Worlds, 4 of 4)

Twenty Bellows Writing Retreat in Denver, CO

My last piece of news is that back in July I was asked to teach a session at the Creative Colorado Writers Retreat hosted by Twenty Bellows Publishing Company. I feel so honored to be a part of this retreat as it includes some of the most talented and knowledgeable writers in Denver.

You can find out more about this retreat here


That’s it for updates (I know there were a lot). I’m confident my next update will be release news! I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend (if you’re American and reading this).

Launching My Substack


Hello everyone,
I decided to launch a Substack to connect with my fans of my work. I will still continue posting here on this website as always, but additional content will available on substack. The content on there will include my artwork, poetry, blogs about writing and worldbuilding, personal growth, anthropology, philsophy, YouTube Videos, Podcasts, and Recorded discussions and more.

The vast majority of my posts on substack will be free to anyone, you need only sign up for a free account. But, I will also have paid subscriber content as well include free access to every short story I publish and sometimes advanced review copies or audiobooks versions of my work. So, if you enjoy my work, consider heading over to my substack and signing up and supporting me and the things I create.


https://loridianslaboratory.substack.com/

I See A Buddha (Poetry)

Sometimes we see things that aren’t there. Sometimes we see things we want to see. And sometimes if we know how to look, we can see a Buddha. This poem is about learning to look, even in the most chaotic of places.

I See A Buddha

I see a buddha in the mess of words I wrote above,

Though,

I’ve veiled them from you.

It’s personal okay?

But let me say that it was all about,

How often I get to hear sparrows sing,

Or taste the morsal of a good word from book or craft,

Or chase the geese like a wild man again so that every passer by thinks me mad.


I see the buddha in the mess of words I wrote above,

Because my sadness is symmetrical,

For I know not which path is the mindful one,

And there are more than two besides.

But weave weave weave weave,

I must learn to weave,

Because I see a buddha in the mess of words I wrote above.

Anthropological Inquiries: An Anthropology of Cryptocurrency with Astrid Countee

Hey all,

This was a very last minute scheduling and so I didn’t even remember to post this here in advance of the episode. But, if you want to watch the replay of my latest episode of Anthropological Inquiries you can watch everything we talked about now in replay. I really enjoyed talking to Astrid about her thoughts on Cryptocurrency as a tech anthropologist. What could anthropology possibly have to say about Crypto? Find out!

Recorded Panel from SFAA 2022: Virtual Communities and Imaginary Worlds

This week I had the good fortune of chairing a panel at the Society for Applied Anthropology in Salt Lake City. My Fellow Panelists and I decided to stream it live on YouTube, where it will live for people to rewatch. The title of our panel was Virtual Communities and Imaginary Worlds. The panel was a lot of fun and it was an honor to be on the panel with two brilliant researchers.

You can watch the video here. You will find descriptions of each panelists talk and the timestamps for their presentations on the YouTube page. The last 20 minutes are Q&A.

What is the Value of Art?

Here is a bit of spoken word poetry I just wrote called, What is the value of Art.

“Center of All”

What is the value of art?

It is our birthright, our education,

it’s the smashing of all our limitations,

it’s the last breath as death collects us

In an ever winding energy nexus

It’s the movement of words and thoughts and dreams

Of a plurality of reality, and a sequence of scenes  

It’s what’s delicious and nutritious for the mind and soul

So luscious and rich with wonders to behold

It’s our essence and presence as a universe to witness

A study of truth and the quickest path to fitness

Of our species survival all threatened by meaninglessness

In the hearts of greed where we find only deafness

Or daftness and a lack of meaningful madness

This Art is our madness, our collective sadness,

All balled up and beat up long past the gladness

It’s the laughter of life and the meaning of love

It’s the universe in our hands and as below so above.

So you ask, what is the value of art?

It’s all this and more

For our humanity

is lost

if we lose

it’s core.