Well, another adventure in the books. The Drownway is one of the two stories I had bouncing around in the back of my mind that drove me to begin playing around in Nerona in the first place. I’ve had a particular soft spot for Renaissance Italy as a setting for stories since I read The Prince of Foxes way back in high school. Being a fan of science fiction and fantasy putting my own twist on the historical setting seemed like a natural extension. Some echoes of the Renaissance inspiration can be seen in characters like the Borgias or Cassian’s fascination with fashion.

I said at the beginning that I was also interested in story as an exploration. The Drownway was concieved as a search because I wanted to go to the edges of Nerona as I’d concieved of it and see what I could find. The Benthic started as a vague idea to explain why large portions of Nerona might be viewed as lost ruins. I had not originally intended to discuss them more than as a sea dwelling species that had once sunk part of the Neronan peninsula into the ocean.

The story served to flesh them out more and I’m very pleased to have taken a slightly closer look at who they are and what they are capable of. Will they come into play more in the future? Perhaps. I’ve greatly enjoyed writing stories set in Nerona whether in novellas, as with The Drownway, or as short stories. I intend to continue with them as time permits.

That said, I don’t think my next project on this blog will involve Cassian Ironhand and his companions. For that matter, I’m not sure it will involve Nerona at all. Right now I’m more inclined to check in on Roy Harper again and see how things are going in the Columbian West.

Whatever happens next, it won’t be for a little while yet. I normally take a week off after completing a project but this time around I plan to take two. I have several irons in the fire right now and I’m going to take a little more time to get things lined up before I return with my usual between-project musings. Keep an eye out for those beginning on September 13th.

In the meantime, one of the projects I’m working on is the 2025 Haunted Blog crawl! If you’re interested in knowning more about that and perhaps even participating yourself you can find out all the details here:

If you’d like to support what I do here consider picking up a copy of my book of Roy Harper stories, Have Spell, Will Travel on Amazon. You can find it using this handy, dandy link:

Thank you as always for reading. I’ll see you in two weeks!