Keith Edward English, Wordsmith

Ah, one of those air-breathers. Good.

Dargonzine is a shared world where authors join together to spin tales and generally become better at this wonderful craft of writing. It is a great resource and has taught me so very much. Along the way, I’ve managed to weave a few stories that I find myself somewhat proud to call my own.

And Two Steps Back – My very first story ever published, way back in January of 2013.

Kalen Darklen has recently taken up the position of Captain of the Town Guard and a deadly narcotic has made its way back onto his streets. Made incorrectly, twist causes its consumers to fall prey to hysteria while blood begins to seep from their pores. It’s Kalen’s job to discover how the drug made it back to the streets after he had spent nearly a year ridding his town of the stuff. Along his investigation, he brushes the edges of a terrible secret that results in a big target stuck to his back. Now, he needs to somehow survive long enough to put an end to the drug madness. The only problem is that he can’t place his trust in his own guards any longer and his task becomes a race against the tolling of the death knell.

Sowing Seeds Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 –

Aerimon Clyde is new to Dargon, and his ignorance shows it. He’s trained in the martial arts with weapons and fists all his life and sets out to start a life of his own in a bustling town, teaching nobles and eventually founding his own academy. However, to do business in Dargon, he must pay the right people, lest he be at the mercy of their evil ways. What does a man who is nearly unbeatable in combat need to fear from others though? He quickly finds out.

A blade can’t destroy poison, snuff flames, or keep steel from slicing into those he cares about. Aerimon suffers greatly for his refusal to pay for protection and discovers a deep hatred of evil he never knew he possessed. Kalen Darklen asks that he operates within the confines of the law, but doing so limits Aerimon far too much. Besides, he finds taking matters into his own hands and upon his own blades is far too satisfying to give up. Revenge drives him to retaliate tenfold. Soon, every man and woman in Dargon with even an ounce of evil in them is no longer safe from Aerimon’s wrath. The blood of many eventually stains his soul, some of them innocent. The slopes that would lead to him slipping down into damnation become coated with their blood too, and soon, he finds himself unable to keep his footing.

Death Blooms Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 –

The follow-up to Sowing Seeds sees Aerimon transform into the very thing he’s hated as he battles against a crazed man bent on torturing the citizens of Dargon and spreading his gospel of pain.

Cursed Part 1, Part 2 – This was an interesting project in which a co-author wrote a beginning then I finished the story. My thanks go to Joseph Carney for his great intro that sparked this wild story.

Dead men were not an uncommon thing in Dargon, whether the corpses turned up on the beaches or the streets at the heart of the city. What was unordinary, however, was when the dead got back up and made off with those who had discovered them.

Sergeant Roman Cepero sets off on a hunt across the Valenfaer Ocean after a young boy and his captor, a dead man. What he finds along the way is a friendship ruined by the rigors of life and the way it seems to pull people apart, and a horrible curse. He comes to an island where the dead don’t stay that way, and the living become branded, signing a contract to join the island’s army once they pass into the next life. Cepero only hopes to keep his men and women alive as he rescues the boy, but he may not even escape with his own life.