another day, another free chapter of my odd little item shop fantasy serial :)

tuesday means a new chapter, and today it's 'Carol and Junie', featuring two good pals who love amateur chemistry and, bizarrely, serial novels

in the latest chapter of my item shop serial thingy, Wren gets into a bit of a pickle with the sheer amount of food she's eaten but meets a nice healer with whom to have a conversation about, y'know, life and how any of us is supposed to work out what the heck to do with it.

Chapter 12 is now live and you can read it for the price of zero money, for fun!

a little bit late on the post, but yesterday did see a new chapter as scheduled!

made a friend

it is Tuesday, which means it's Inventory Tales Day today's chapter is the final part of the Courier's Tale, in which we conclude the story of the good doctor and the flask that might heal you or might do the exact opposite.

In today's chapter of The Inventory Tales: the power of the strange flask is (sort of) revealed, forcing a doctor to make a decision.

Today in The Inventory Tales, we learn the history of a most peculiar artifact via a tale concerning a doctor and his wealthy patient.

a very normal and correct aspect ratio advert that popped up when I was reading some shitty clickbait article

In today's edition of The Inventory Tales, Wren gets her first customer!

Today's free instalment of The Inventory Tales is Chapter 6, "The Hilarious Misunderstanding", in which Wren inadvertently gets a job.

The Inventory Tales is here! A serial novel about a fantasy item shop and all the people and items that come through its doors, it'll be updating with two chapters per week, always free, for as long as I can keep it up. Enjoy!

Two chapter teases today, because I worked the days out wrong. Chapters 1 to 5 of the Inventory Tales launch TOMORROW, for free and for fun and for all the good things.

"Let the last story people hear of me be a good one, eh? ... For the tale to be one of magic instead of a stupid man coming to a stupid end." The Inventory Tales, a story about stories, launches on Friday!

"The story is the asides, as much as it's the beginning and the middle and the end and all the rest of it. Who's to tell me which parts of my story are the important ones, hm?" Chapters 1-5 of The Inventory Tales drop on Friday - free to read, two chapters a week for as long as I can keep it up!

First five chapters dropping on Friday!

Coming next Friday: a story about stories, and also dungeons and magic and capitalism and stuff. Free to read, new chapters every Tuesday and Friday - with a bumper drop of five chapters for launch.

Free story coming soon! The Inventory Tales will be publishing two chapters per week from mid-September, and it'll be totally free to read. Follow the page now at patreon.com/chrisdurston to get notified on launch!

this is the sort of thing you actually dream about happening one day: someone reading the words you pflurged into what you hoped might be a half-decent order and just being like "oh, yeah, this is good stuuuuff"

So I managed to write a whole ass review in the notes app on my phone and you should read it because @chrisdurstonish.bsky.social latest is heckin great

A Recipe for Disaster is free for the next few days! - Desert fantasy city in the bones of a giant beast - Ribs restaurants - Mythical wizards, maybe - A lot of terrible jokes It's thoroughly silly and a quick read, so give it a go :) mybook.to/ARecipeForDi...

@gameswithcoffee.bsky.social hey man, I can't DM you for some reason but since you've previously read books of mine, you want another one?

Indie book friends: who are some of your favourite reviewers? (Including yourself if you like!) Full disclosure, I do have an ARC I'd like to put out there if I can, but also just curious to see who's into the good stuff.

I have a new book coming out in June! A necromancer winds up in purgatory (awkward, given her career choices) and must find a way out before her old master can bind her soul to be an undead slave. Not fun. Cover reveal soon - review copies already available! Let me know if you're interested :)

It’s day 4 of the #songshare! You know what to do by now 😄 Today’s track is a song I like which is on a movie soundtrack. Burn by The Cure: youtu.be/Aj-9-3f0kr8?...

It’s day 1 of the #songshare 🎉 Give my song a listen, share one of your own and check out the other songs shared! Today’s song is a cover version that is possibly better known than the original. My pick is Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY?...

We've unlocked another stretch goal! The calamitously stylish (im trying my best) @iamloufryer.bsky.social will grace the pages of Beside the Lesser Travelled Road with locale #30! Only a couple pledges till @freddiewatkins.bsky.social! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

So we're in the last 10 hours for Beside the Lesser Travelled Road! We're now on 30 system agnostic camping locales fit for any TTRPG system! @freddiewatkins.bsky.social is up next! We're only £128 away! shorturl.at/mkW1Q

Took some mental health enforced time away yesterday and log back on to find we've smashed through TWO stretch goals?! That's now 🏕️29⛺ camp and rest scenes Beside the Lesser Travelled Road Discover more here! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

Well that's @chrisdurstonish.bsky.social unlocked! After their work on Woad I'm super excited to see what they do for Beside the Lesser Travelled Road! Next up is @iamloufryer.bsky.social £206 to go!

Beside the Lesser Travelled Road is coming up to it's last 24 hours, and is still going strong we've unlocked @edjollyboat.bsky.social and are only £48 away from unlocking @chrisdurstonish.bsky.social It's been a wild ride! shorturl.at/mkW1Q

Just a few hours left to back a collection of 20+ unique locations to add some interest and mystery to your TTRPG rests - only a few quid more to stretch goals of even more locations by even more fantastic indie writers! Get the thing! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

@josh-hivemindgames.bsky.social has made a huge project of campsite encounters to interrupt or spice up rests. There's a massive suite of stretch goal writers on this, including @molomoot.bsky.social @loottheroom.bsky.social and @fistfulofcrits.bsky.social (again) www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

check this out: a collection of 20+ unique rest stops to drop into any RPG campaign when you don't just want to set up a standard camp or go to a regular inn for the night. More stretch goals = more locations by more authors, including yours truly at £3,500! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

Hell yes, we are funded!!! We're less than £200 away from our first stretch goal writer! The talented @mumblemegs.bsky.social

WE'RE LIVE! Beside the Lesser Travelled Road is now crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Get yourself 20 roleplay-encouraging campsites to drop int your fantasy TTRPGs PLUS 20 more from the all-star team of indie freelancers we've got providing the stretch goals!!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

We are LIVE!!! @josh-hivemindgames.bsky.social and I have been working super hard on this so please check it out! 20 Unique camping locations fit for any game or table! Plus we have some of the industry best to unlock in our stretch goals! tinyurl.com/ybxmxjs5

Just a few short hours till Beside the Lesser Travelled Road launches!!! ! ! 😱😱😱😱 Follow the pre-launch now to be notified on launch! www.kickstarter.com/projects/hiv...

I am *astounded* to be lucky enough to be a part of this project with @artofarklin.bsky.social and @josh-hivemindgames.bsky.social, not to mention 20 or so other incredible TTRPG writers - seriously, I know and am a fan of a bunch of them, and being in that company is unbelievable.

An unexpected perk of having kids is that you're quite often in a situation where you can just fart and everybody will assume it was someone else

strong contender for wildest movie twist of 2024 in The Beekeeper, in which it dawns on you about two thirds of the way in that Jason Statham was supposed to be doing an American accent the entire time

Royal Mail used to at least let me know they'd "attempted" to deliver stuff, but these days I'm getting messages from them to say they were "unable to attempt delivery" like, what the heck happened that you weren't even able to *attempt* it

I wasn't expecting to find a scathing takedown of incels in a book from 1605 but that's what I got vm.tiktok.com/ZGdYRDo8r/

there's a new Chopin waltz that's just been discovered (coming only like a month after a new Mozart?!?!?) and it's absolutely astonishingly beautiful, I mean c'mon www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKOZ...

You got, like, one more day to jump on Chronicles of the Crossing for FOUR novels in the world of The Black Ballad, plus D&D campaign book, music, and more! It's been awesome to be part of it, and everyone involved will be eternally grateful to all who support it! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

possibly my silliest popular culture theory that I actually think might be sort of right: pro wrestling is not fake, but there is another perhaps surprising thing to which it's very alike vm.tiktok.com/ZGdNEd36y/

I've been dying to try necromancy youtu.be/TPRBYexOuJ0 @chrisdurstonish.bsky.social @stforgestudios.bsky.social #darkfantasy #novel #book #fantasybook #fantasynovel #indieauthor

it's the last couple of days of Chronicles of the Crossing funding, and I'm not gonna push anything too much 'cos it's a game and novels about what happens when you die and the world's on fire and stuff but, like, if you fancy checking it out, I'd still be grateful! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

My office Bake Off contribution - cinnamon buns sort of recognisably-ish in the rough shape of an elephant (who has, surely to its great distress, been peculiarly inflated)