Why do I do this? Why have I written millions of words? Some published, many more not. Well, sit back, my dear reader. I have a tale to tell. A secret origin, if you will. That I’m putting on the internet. So, “secret” might be the wrong adjective. But I digress.
Okay, seriously. Why do I write?
It’s play.
I love making stories. It’s fun. It gives me a charge. It always has. As a kid, I made up stories for my brother and me with our toys. Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, a little GI Joe, and lots of Transformers. Making my own lore. It’s something I’ve always done.
A few examples. James Newland was the name I gave to a Star Wars cloud car pilot. Yeah, I named him James. No apologies. And I made him the main character and he piloted a Y-wing. Zorlon 3 was a Transformer rain forest planet with infinitely regenerating flora, a Vietnam War analog, just based on footage I saw as a kid that I didn’t fully understand at the time. The Roboticons were a third faction of random toys, mostly old Star Wars, that fought both Autobots and Decepticons. The Star Guard were enlarged human allies of the Autobots so we could play with GI Joes at the same scale as the Transformers.
This adapted to my teenage years when my friends introduced me to D&D, Marvel RPG, Shadowrun, and especially Palladium Books’ Heroes Unlimited and Rifts. I GM’d (not DM’d) two different but related Rifts campaigns. One with Ed Burthold (old name as a Baron Munchausen homage), Inferno, Speed, and Sherman. Another with Ash Stelfire and Gnorak. All names spelled differently. I introduced Corsis and the Game during this time. My friends and I expanded their powers with the Atlantis Sourcebook, Conversion Book (specifically for Heroes powers) and Phase World for a space opera instead of post-post apocalypse with Rifts Earth.
Then one of my friends joined the Navy. He played Ed and Inferno.
I took over his characters as NPCs. And I started writing summaries that I mailed to him (right before email). I’d been reading TSR D&D novels, Wheel of Time, David Eddings’ Sparhawk books, and figured I could do that. I wrote them in the computer labs of Neihardt Hall at UNL, an old Mac at the front desk at Cather Hall (since imploded, but not forgotten) on night shifts, and my dad’s IBM 386 amber-monochrome, without a mouse, in the summers.
My brother drew pictures too, which intersected with my other interests in comics and video games. I’d send giant clipped-together chunks of stories and copies of my art to my friends. It was fun and creatively vibrant.
When I got jobs in the real world after college, I decided I wanted these characters in a world that was completely mine. And so I left the worlds of Rifts and made my own.
And I got to it. Slowly.
I spent a lot of time drawing maps. First of Trojis, then Sufrinzon. But I’ll expand to the worlds of the Celestia, an extradimensional solar system of white Illusive Space. Inner Yeom shows up briefly in Repenter. The Macro Worlds are referenced in The Brigands. Outer Yeom, a desolate world where everyone knows the Game. And Pendulum, a hemispherical world of immutable balances. All interconnected. Not through space travel but through Realm Gates that bridge the dimensions.
I made timelines and histories. They stretch back to the Weird War, which happened 4000 years in the past. And the Eruption, a cataclysm that altered Trojis with the Fire Well, an immense conflagration that consumed most of Grelland. The rise of the Holy Alliance in Trojis, an empire ruled by Dragons, Demons, Titans, and Elder Gods. The fragmentation of Sufrinzon’s own empire into the Baronies, which yearn for reunification.
I created and adapted races. Making Sphinxes have a secondary bipedal form. Sokenti Demons that look like Humans save for their perpetually bleeding eye sockets. Having Dragons cross breed with humans to make the Murdrake hybrids. Antagonist series cyborgs that can expand into hulking war machines. And specializations not just with fire magic, but mechmancy: the melding of high tech and magic.
It’s epic world building, baby.
Eventually the worlds of Trojis and Sufrinzon fully emerged as the first two primary locales, but not the last. Originally, I wrote the stories of Ashe Stelfire and Ed Burnhelt in separate narratives and in parallel. This was not a good idea. I eventually had two massive tomes that had diverged, and didn’t really fit together. Both over 250K words. I’ll get to the consequences of that in a moment. But here was the part that definitely worked across the board. Both of them featured Corsis and his Game.
What is the Game? It’s a war that everyone perpetually fights without knowing it. A war they have also lost. Because the guy running it wants it to last forever. He took it from other entities after he saved countless worlds from them. And has run it in secret for ages. He’s undying as part of his spoils. As are his enemies.
The Game has rules. Rule 1: To know the name of Corsis is to play the Game. Rule 2: Only Corsis or those working for him can tell someone of the Game’s existence. Rule 3: None may seek to harm Corsis or hinder his enjoyment of the Game. Rule 4: Corsis may add or change Rules at his whim.
The only way to win the Game is to break its rules. And Corsis makes those who try regret it.
This is the spine of the Players of the Game series. Stories that I methodically refined over the years at night and on the weekends. The process was slow. And only one of the original 250K books fit the right way. I kept Repenter. And split it into The Brigands for its second half. The A Pox became the prime threat in Repenter. While Nirva’s ascension to Empress became the focus of The Brigands.
And the other book, The False Pact. The plots and character beats no longer aligned. Things that Ashe did in his book didn’t line up with the Burnhelts’ original story. I had to scuttle it. That was a hard thing. But the work wasn’t wasted. I eventually refined its plot lines and character moments into The New Players, The Breakers, and The Game War (not yet released, but written). These books are the better successors.
But I do not recommend writing two books at once. Even with an outline. Things can go awry.
As I so often mention in my blog/newsletter entries: What’s next?
At the time of this writing in Fall 2026, I’m a little less than halfway through the Players of the Game saga. I expect to write 10 main novels in the series plus another 10-12 bonus novellas and novels.
I’m a (metaphorical) marathon runner, not a sprint runner.
I invite you to come trot on the journey with me, starting with Repenter. It’ll be a bunch of fun.
