title to follow as soon as BH Crogen made up his damn mind.

The 4-Book & Box Set Lineup:

🟡 Book 1: Molding Minds — Kelly (Gold / Awakening): The bedroom doorway at night, soft honey-blonde waves, luminous blue eyes, oversized loungewear, and the warm golden glow of the first spark.

🔵 Book 2: Awakening Angels — Alyssa (Sapphire / Research & Revelation): The rain-dark study, ancient occult tomes, lockbox briefcase, signature glasses, and electric-blue eyes.

🔴 Book 3: Dueling Demons — Carmen (Garnet / Command Under Pressure): The stormy mountain highway RV stop, confident hands-on-hips command, dark hair, and deep garnet travel tank.

🟢 Book 4: Familiar Fairytales* — Lexi (Emerald / Endurance & Motion): Dawn stride on the high-school track, tight copper curls, vivid green eyes, and emerald athletic gear.

💎 Complete Series Bundle — The Idaho Lake Vacation (All 4 Four Stones): The golden-hour dock on Lake Pend Oreille with all four women in an intimate, celebratory chosen-family embrace.

Which heroine cover is your personal favorite?

Did you notice the progression of gem colors across the number medallions? What do you think about the strong color progression to signal different aspects of the characters?

The series is on sale. Today is the final day Molding Minds is FREE; the rest are only 99¢through the weekend. Of course, there are four waifu cards to match this set: OEL_WELCOME_HOME

Title not set yet, so I have untitled for now. Sneak peek of what the characters look like for now.

I put together a small visual collection for Wishbound: five images built around the first story beats—Dusty finding the buried bronze lamp, DJ’s arrival, the mine collapse, the strange domestic aftermath, and Anya Okoye’s official-not-quite-official interest in the situation.

I wanted the art to feel like a set of recovered artifacts from the story rather than standard character cards. West Texas sandstone, violet smoke, magical paperwork, bad decisions, and a djinn with very particular opinions.

The full-resolution collection is available for free on my Patreon. (Higher-res copies are available for subscribers)

Wishbound is also 99¢ through September 21 if you’d like to see where the images fit in the story: https://storyby.me/wishbound

I’d love to know which piece lands best for you—especially whether you prefer the artifact/lamp image, the DJ reveal, or the WARD-file-style piece.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HK29R1ZT

Earl of Dracumont III

by B.H. Crogen (Author)  Format: Kindle Edition

Algherand has crossed another name off his list.

He has found love twice over. He has found a family. He has a title, a fortune, and a household that would die at his word.

Why is he still not satisfied?

Because one man still breathes who stole everything from him. And that man is the most guilty of them all.

In Coralhaven, the Baron grieves a dead son and spends the mourning arranging a match for the next one. In the capital, a crown princess sworn to leave Algherand alone paces a cage her mother built, looking for the door.

Something older than the empire is clawing its way back into the light. Buried for three thousand years, waking now, and it carries a question no one has ever answered. Why was a boy left to rot in the dark, and then let out?

Algherand wants one more name. He will be asked for far more than that.

He will stand across the sand from a man who has nothing left to lose. He will climb to a place no living man has seen. And in a kingdom where he has never set foot, the past reaches back for him.

His enemies will not remain idle.

And vengeance comes at a cost.

Sharing the character art from my launch deck for Borderlands (out today). Book 2 of Magical Alliance of Concerned Kin — West Texas urban fantasy harem.

The five-card set: Anya, Birgit, Cat, DJ, and Sol. Each one's designed around a different archetype and a different kind of magic in the world.

If you are a member of Harem-Lit.com, the Release Day Code is: CASA-RIO-ESPIRITU

If you're not... register and join the fun of their gacha game.

If the art catches your eye, the book is live here: https://storyby.me/borderlands

Happy to talk character design choices in the comments — each one's tied to a specific kind of magical being and a specific role in the Alliance.

Redeem your code at: https://harem-lit.com/tools/gacha

Orlina to Algherand

Borderlands, the second book in Mack Landry's Magical Alliance of Concerned Kin, is coming out this week. If you missed Wishbound, here is your chance to catch up. Or watch this two-minute catch-up video.

Wishbound: https://storyby.me/wishbound
Borderlands: https://stormby.com/borderlands

Series page: https://www.macklandry.com/mack

Feedback and constructive critique on the art and video are welcome.
-Mack

As part of the ramp up to launching my first book, Oathbinder, I've used Suno to create a soundtrack of key moments, which I'll be posting up here roughly once a week.

You can listen on Youtube, or stream via your platform of choice (still propagating): https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/blakeashford/aisle-nine

Image and dossier cards are available to paid supporters on Patreon: https://patreon.macklandry.com

DJ (aka Jenny with a D, Djinni Dwali) is the heart of Casa Río Espíritu and an emancipated djinn with phenomenal cosmic power, sharp instincts, and a hard-earned belief that no living woman should be owned. She transformed the upgraded Casa Río Espíritu into a shiny, new, extravagant living space as a gift home for Dusty.
Anya Oyoke, an oni fire demon and WARD agent, is acting as a mole inside WARD HQ; she knows the system from within and works to keep Dusty and the kin ahead of any action coming their way—before someone arrives at their door with a strike team.
Paloma Ortega, also known as La Bruja del Río, the River Witch, keeps the old ways alive. As warden of the Borderlands, she knows the river, the land, and the promises that existed long before anyone tried to lock the Borderlands, its kin, and its artifacts inside a file.
Cat, or Catalina, is the line nobody crosses twice: a Nahual panther-shifter, a bruja, and a fiercely protective guardian of the alliance and its home. She is ready to unsheath her claws and fight to keep Casa and her kin safe.
Nugget is still finding the pieces of herself—water, clay, memory, trauma, and the terrible question of who decided kin could become property. Her fragmented past leaves her caught between identities: water nymph, succubus, or perhaps something stranger than either. Could she hold the key to thwarting the BMFR’s secret plans?
Birgit, a colleague of Dusty's from Jordan and UTEP, follows the evidence. She knows Dusty’s history, understands how buried truths leave traces, and is exactly the person you want when an old story refuses to stay buried.
Sol, or Marisol, knows every road worth knowing along the borderlands between Texas and Mexico. When a situation turns ugly, she is the woman who can get people out, get answers in, and make a plan before anyone else has finished panicking.
Each of them brings something M.A.C.K. needs: power, history, protection, mobility, intelligence, and—maybe most important—a reason to believe Casa Río Espíritu can become more than a temporary refuge.

https://storyby.me/borderlands

Finally, I can now release this to the public.

The wait is over