“The Gray Kings” Excerpt: Krutch

Time for another preview of The Gray Kings, the upcoming third volume in the Graylands saga.

Here, we catch up with “notorious outlaw” Krutch Leeroy as he finds himself in a tight spot….


It occurred to Krutch that, in spite of his rotten reputation and worse luck, he’d only seen the inside of a proper dungeon once.

The room was bare, with no windows or furnishing of any kind save the lone table and seat. It wasn’t lit with a brazier or even candles, but with four glowing crystals posted at each corner that gave off a sterile, cold light. At a guess, he assumed this to be an interrogation room, and took comfort in seeing there were no torture devices. As it was, his only real discomfort were the metal cuffs binding his wrists together.

At least it’s warmer in here than outside, he thought as his captors entered.

The first was Jeremiah Escudo, a young man of Mezan descent by the look of his tanned face and dark hair. He wore basic leathers, looking like a ranger of some sort, but was distinguished by the green cloak worn over his coat. Though outwardly poised, his brown eyes were fierce and focused. In his hands, he carried Krutch’s pistol and the two bandolier belts where he kept the shells.

With him was Major Sonya Brayker—an impressive woman of muscle with short brown hair, dark eyes, and a thick scar down the right side of her face. Though without armor, she wore the recognizable red and blue colors of the Sentry Elite, and she strolled into the room with the swagger of someone in command. Under her arm was a thick folder of papers which she placed on the table without taking her eyes off their prisoner.

“Krutch Leeroy,” she said, chewing on something. “The Krutch Leeroy … right here in my base.”

“It would seem so.”

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“The Gray Kings” Excerpt: Lily

Finally!
At long last, the finish line is in sight. The third volume in the Graylands saga, THE GRAY KINGS, is coming soon!

As we approach its release, I’ll be posting previews and other updates.
Let’s start with a returning character, the reluctant demon Lily Blackthorn, as she hunts under less-than ideal conditions….


The sign in front read: MAUDE’S STOPOVER.

It stood alone on the side of the road—a simple, one-story structure of brick and wood with an arched roof. Smoke floated from the stone chimney in the center, almost invisible in the storm. Behind it was an open field that had become an ocean of snowy dunes leading to denuded trees. The road before it curved down the hill leading to Abbey, which twinkled through the haze like stars beyond the clouds.

Inside, Maude—a middle-aged and heavyset woman with bushy hair—busied herself ensuring her patrons were warm and comfortable. The way-station wasn’t a tavern, yet it offered food and drinks. It wasn’t a shop, but there were supplies for sale. Not an inn, but spare cots were available for rest. Given how bad the blizzard had gotten, and with Abbey still a mile or so away, her Stopover stood as a welcome shelter from the storm.

The demon sat on the wooden fence outside, like a crow on its perch, and watched the way-station with glowing red eyes. Snow swirled around her in the droning wind, though the occasional gust became a whining howl that made her coat billow like a cloak. A veil of frost formed over her ash-gray hair, and with every breath, a cloud of steam wafted from her mouth. Despite her outwardly human form, the cold didn’t affect the demon. She was in her element.

She was hunting.

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“The Ghost Princess” Now (More) Available

Good news!

My debut novel and first part of the Graylands saga, The Ghost Princess, is now also available at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords and more! So, if you’re not reliant on Amazon Kindle or simply looking for an alternative, you now have options.

Links to all available stores can be found here:
www.books2read.com/ghostprincess

Expect The Jinxed Pirate to similarly release on these platforms around April 2025. Until then, you can still find it on Amazon here.

Cheers!

Cover for "The Ghost Princess" by M. Walsh depicting a black tower on the edge of a cliff by a dark sea and stormy skies with a red horizon.
Art by Anthony Jensen

Kirkus Review of “Ones & Zeroes”

“Walsh (The Jinxed Pirate, 2017, etc.) assembles a collection of horror and fantasy tales populated by dragons, aliens, and other creatures in the shadows.

“In ‘His Friends,’ Cynthia is bored at a party with her boyfriend Jon’s tactless friends. But their company is preferable to that of the mysterious entity that’s lurking outside—something that’s odd, misshapen, and most definitely not human. Walsh often treads conventional territory in these stories, offering mood-setting lightning flashes; vague, moving shapes in darkness; and even a babysitter getting creepy phone calls from a stranger. The familiar setups, however, typically beget surprising turns, as in ‘Someone Else’s Story,’ in which one man’s attempt at playing the hero for a woman in trouble doesn’t quite pan out due to an unexpected twist. ‘Damsel’ also toys with readers’ expectations when a young woman named Gwen tries to find a way to escape a determined murderer. The author employs other tried-and-true horror methods to great effect, often by merely hinting at the appearance of a monster or killer. In the Lovecraft-ian ‘Look the Other Way,’ for example, Laurie Brooks and her husband, Tom, encounter a terrifying creature that Walsh reveals only in snippets—and its backstory is also eerily murky. (‘Finding Bosco’ is an equally good companion piece, taking place in the same town of Faicville, where twins’ search for a lost cat leads them to what may be the very same monster.) The collection also includes fantasy stories that, like the horror tales, have gloomy overtones. There’s a princess in both ‘Collision’ and ‘The Mouse & the Dragon’; in the former, a cleric plans on sacrificing her, and in the latter, she awaits someone to rescue her from a dragon—but over thousands of days, she only sees repeated failures. Throughout, Walsh portrays various spooky things with bold imagery. For instance, the narrator of ‘My Window,’ while lying in bed, stares at a creepy silhouette that she describes as ‘some kind of nightmarish shadow puppet.’

“Unnerving stories that turn traditional plots into fresh, original scares.”

Kirkus Reviews

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“Ones & Zeroes” Excerpt

Here’s a brief snippet from one of the stories featured in Ones & Zeroes,
“The Mouse & the Dragon”

The knight charged forth, shield up and spear ready. His armor glistened despite the dreary overcast sky like a chrome beacon amidst his hellish surroundings. The horse’s neigh was loud and triumphant as the clopping of its hooves echoed on the scorched cobblestone. The knight’s banner, an orange lion against a black background, billowed in the wind.

He would’ve been a majestic sight to behold had Hildy not seen it already or known what was coming. Continue reading