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    New Agents of Sorcery novella in an-all-new anthology

    This summer I wrote a new novella entitled Lunaticking, featuring Elizabeth Marquez, magics good and evil, and more than one sort of werewolf, set in the Olympic rainforest. Writing it was huge fun. It was also emotional. My wife and I lost our long-time friend Rachel to cancer. She always believed in magic, and the novella is dedicated to her. It will be exclusive to the new High Moon anthology, along with novellas by seven other urban fantasy authors also exclusive to the book: Aimee Easterling, BR Kingsolver, Jenn Stark, Becca Andre, Jenn Windrow, N.R. Hairston, and Marina Finlayson. The book will be released on September 14th. It’s already available…

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    The World Outside

    Four years ago today I published Empowered: Agent, the first novel in the Empowered series. In honor of that, I’ve written a flash fiction story which takes place when Mathilda Brandt is still in Special Corrections, nearly three years after the event of “Nullified.” *** The World Outside Copyright 2021 Dale Ivan Smith Rain popped and sizzled on the force dome above my garden in the Yard. My tomato plants withered in the heat, but the sudden rain outside Special Corrections would do them no good. San Diego got doused but it was still a desert inside Special Corrections, thanks to the damn force dome. I frowned. My watering can…

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    Witch Way

    This year’s Halloween story is another “prequel” of sorts about Elizabeth Marquez, hero of my series Agents of Sorcery. It shows what happens when a grown-up dressed as a witch visited then sixteen-year old Elizabeth Marquez on Halloween. It also reveals an important episode from Liz’s life that took place earlier that year as well. I hope you enjoy it! You can read last year’s story, “Halloween Duty,” here. Thanks for reading! WITCH WAY Dale Ivan Smith “What, what are you?” I sputtered. I brushed my bangs from my eyes, and looked around frantically. A tiny person-shaped cloud of silver sparkles floated at the foot of the couch, outlined in…

  • Agents of Sorcery,  fantasy,  Flash fiction

    Gnome Alone

    This little story takes place well before the events of the prequel story “Siloed,” back when Marquez had only been a sorcerer-agent for a year or so, and was working with her first partner, Tomlinson. Hope you enjoy it. As always, let me know what you think. The garden gnome stood frozen on the table in the R.U.N.E. interview room. The manifestation was a foot tall. Mud covered his face and head, dulling the red of his pointed cap, and a canal fern was still stuck to his side. His expression was frozen in a look of surprise. An Otterkin supernatural had found the manifestation in a forest of garden…

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    Agents of Sorcery launches! Read an excerpt from Book 1, Gremlin Night

    My new urban fantasy series, Agents of Sorcery, begins with Gremlin Night, which is now available. Liz Marquez is a sorcerer-agent belonging to a secret organization responsible for enforcing the laws of magic, the Regulating Union for Normalizing Enchantment. She spent time assigned as a guard in the Silos, a magical prison for supernatural creatures (called manifestations), but has finally been transferred back to field duty and is determined to prove she deserves the spot. A series of gremlin outbreaks and a new partner beg to differ. Gremlin Night is available at all major eBook retailers: Amazon Apple Books Barnes and Noble Google Play Books Kobo Smashwords Chapter 1 Burt…

  • fantasy,  The Empowered

    Finishing the Empowered series

    Last year when I published Empowered: Rebel, I’d posted here that the series was complete. Done. How wrong I was. I’d always known there was more to Mathilda’s story, and had considered writing another book after Rebel. Now I realize a fifth book is not only important to the series, it’s absolutely necessary. Rebel ended with so many things up in the air. The fate of Mat and her friends. What would happen to the world itself. I’d made a mistake moving on so quickly. Fortunately, Mat wouldn’t leave me alone. She kept coming up to me in my imagination, and insisting I tell the rest of her story. After…