Introducing my new short novel, The Cat-Eared Historian Mage on the Crumbling Planet

I'm participating in Honeyfeed's current writing contest with a new short novel. Chapters are posted every Wednesday evening US time, and it will total around 50,000 words.

You can read it here.

Humans have settled a million worlds, all led by the Council of Humankind. On Fobo 2, society is beginning to crumble under a mysterious rise in violence, and the council has sent one of their historian mages to stop the violence before it can spread to other planets.

Ashtin Blackford is hardly a model mage. He's young, impulsive, obsessive, and uses what little magic he commands for frivolous purposes—such as growing a pair of cat ears atop his head. Despite these flaws, he is fiercely loyal to the council, and that is what the council needs most in this crisis.

Alongside the similarly-loyal Dr. Flay Shreburn, a spellbreaker with an intense interest in magic, Ashtin is sent to the epicenter of violent crime, Settlement 266, to investigate whether rogue mages are pulling the strings. Danger lurks around every corner, and behind it all lies a secret that the council does not share with even its most trusted mages.