Blog - Charles Mandrake Books | A Skelderheim Portal Book Series

Chapters between Chapters #018 – A Day in the Life of Orra-Kai

Everyone in Skelderheim knows the Orra-Kai. Most of them have never seen her Tuesday. CBC #018 is a full day in Anna's voice — 5:30 AM to lights out. Ward visits, forty records to sign, a ship tour at the docks, a naming, dinner in the Heights, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, a quiet hour at the library with three books that just came through binding. No crisis. No threshold moments. Just the work, Izrah being Izrah, Todd being Todd, and one cup of coffee that keeps getting cold before she can drink it. This is Continue reading

Anna

Charles

Chapters between Chapters #017 — The First Run

Early Access for Members Only: Release Schedule We want to make sure everyone has a chance to catch up with the trio in the Chapters between Chapters. Here is how you can read this entry: New Release: Chapter 017 — The First Run “Coin running is real work. It is also a way people get pushed around… You handle nothing alone.” — Anna (Orra-Kai) In this pivotal “Chapter between Chapters,” the world of the Market Ward expands through the eyes of its smallest professional. From the hushed corners of Emera’s tavern to the high-stakes navigation of city traffic, The First Continue reading

Charles

News

Charles Mandrake: The Keeper of the Flame

The Keeper of the Flame is a portal fantasy that challenges the boundaries of reality, time, and understanding. This is a novel for readers who crave depth, complexity, and a heroine who defies every expectation. Available February 21, 2026 Continue reading

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #015- Fire Meat Recipe by Anna

Early Access for Members Only: Release Schedule We want to make sure everyone has a chance to catch up with the trio in the Chapters between Chapters. Here is how you can read this entry: CBC #015 shifts gears into something practical and personal: Anna writes down her family’s “Fire Meat” not as a clean card, but as a lived signal that meant “someone is home,” “sit,” and “eat before you get too tired to be kind.” The entry is built like a real Anna page would be: stubbornly honest, mildly annoyed at recipe-blog nonsense, and focused on the parts that actually Continue reading

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #013- Return to Klebbers

FREE CHAPTER: DOWNLOAD NOW CBC #013 takes us back into the winding, damp streets of Skelderheim. Coffee is running low, and in a house like Brell and Emera’s, that changes the air in ways you can feel before you see. Anna, Todd, and Charles head out on a routine supply run to Klebber’s Mercantiles and Imports, but the trip becomes about more than just beans and salt pork. For the first time, Anna steps out fully “blended”—wearing her Haan coat not as a costume, but as a skin. Through the eyes of a discerning merchant, we learn that a coat Continue reading

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #009: Homework at Mel’s Diner

There is a specific kind of quiet that only exists in a diner on a school night. It’s not a true silence; it’s a hum made of clinking silverware, the sizzle of a flat-top grill, and the rhythmic scratching of pencils against paper. In East Bay, that sound has a name: Mel’s. I am excited to announce that the latest installment of our journey, Chapter 009: “Homework at Mel’s,” is ready for release. For those who have been traveling with us Across the Portal in the jagged, unpredictable landscape of Skelderheim, this chapter might feel like a sharp turn. But Continue reading

Charles

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #008 – Faith and Belief

Release Date NOW FREE Skelderheim Journal #008 - Faith and Belief The tavern was already quiet when the day finally caught up with me. Emera was wiping down the last table, moving the way someone does when the work is finished but the thinking is not. I sat for a moment longer than I meant to, listening to the room settle and letting the warmth stay where it had landed. Some days leave you with answers.Some days leave you with better questions. This was the second kind. What Emera shared with me that day was not instruction or prophecy. It Continue reading

Charles

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #010 – You Only Can Do What You Do

Entry #010 - You Only Can Do What You Do If you have ever walked into a room and felt it in your shoulders before anyone said a word, you already understand what this entry is about. Some places make people decide fast. Some people decide faster. They look at you, they take one detail, and they fill in the rest on their own. Sometimes it is flattering. Sometimes it is unfair. Sometimes it is dangerous. Most of the time, it is not about you at all. It is about what they need you to be in their head so Continue reading

Charles

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #012 — Ode to Coffee

Release Date RELEASED Learn More Early Access for Members Only: Release Schedule We want to make sure everyone has a chance to catch up with the trio in the Chapters between Chapters. Here is how you can read this entry: Member Preview (Patreon): Starting January 25th, all Patreon members will have early access to the full text of Chapter 012. If you can't wait to read it, head over to the Patreon page. Public Release: On Febuary 8, the chapter will move to the main site as a permanent addition to our Free Chapters section. Chapters between Chapters #012 - Continue reading

Charles

News

NOW AVAILABLE – Twelve Winters: The Amara-Kul Backstory

Add to cart Quick View Skelderheim Book Series Twelve Winters: The Amara-Kul Story – Half Letter Format $6.99 NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD! I grew up thinking my mother’s story began the day I was born. In East Bay she was just “Mom.” She packed my lunches, corrected my homework, checked the locks twice at night, and flinched whenever the observatory tower light swept across the harbor. I knew she loved me. I knew we were hiding from something. I did not know what she had already done before I took my first breath. Twelve Winters is the story of those Continue reading

Charles

chapter 9 featured image for homework at mels diner

Charles

Chapters Between Chapters #009: Homework at Mel’s Diner

Charles

Anna

Chapter Between Chapters #008 – Faith and Belief

Release Date Jan. 04, 2026 Read the Story Early Access for Members Only: Skelderheim Journal #008 - Faith and Belief The tavern was already quiet when the day finally caught up with me. Emera was wiping down the last table, moving the way someone does when the work is finished but the thinking is not. I sat for a moment longer than I meant to, listening to the room settle and letting the warmth stay where it had landed. Some days leave you with answers.Some days leave you with better questions. This was the second kind. What Emera shared with Continue reading

Anna

Charles

Chapters Between Chapters #007 – The Merchant’s Corridor

Entry #007 - The Merchant's Corridor I started weekly lessons at the Skelderheim library. It feels like sitting down in a good class for the first time. You show up with a vague idea of what you want to learn, and then someone who actually knows the subject hands you the right starting point. You leave with your head full, and you realize how much you did not know five minutes earlier. The Librarian agreed to teach me. He does not waste time. He shows up when he says he will, brings the right books, and speaks in plain terms. Continue reading

Charles

Chrstmas Dinner in Brell and Emera's tavern

Charles

A Skelderheim Christmas Story

East Bay Date:December 24th, Christmas EveSkelderheim Charles had not realized how much he missed the sound of a fire until he could hear this one without thinking about generators, gauges, or what might be humming under his boots. The copper hood over Rell and Emera’s hearth caught the firelight and sent it into the common room. Someone had hung short bundles of dried green along the mantle. It was not pine, but it was close enough that he could pretend for a while. The place smelled like smoke, stew, and fresh bread. It was different from Mel’s on a winter Continue reading

Charles

Anna

Members Only Christmas Special – Twelve Winters: The Amara-Kul Backstory

JUST RELEASED! READ THE STORY Available to members only I grew up thinking my mother’s story began the day I was born. In East Bay she was just “Mom.” She packed my lunches, corrected my homework, checked the locks twice at night, and flinched whenever the observatory tower light swept across the harbor. I knew she loved me. I knew we were hiding from something. I did not know what she had already done before I took my first breath. Twelve Winters is the story of those missing years. It begins when she is twelve winters old in the steppe, Continue reading

Anna

Myles Pibbles

Chapters Between Chapters #005 – A Lesson In Business and Finances

Business is work, risk, and numbers learning to live on a page together. That is what I am trying to teach the three of them. Most people think profit and loss belongs to merchants and shipowners. They picture crates in a warehouse, fees at the dock, wages in calloused hands. That is part of it. A ledger can tell me whether my warehouse in Skelderheim is carrying its own weight or quietly sinking under the cost of rope, wages, and lamp oil. Without that, I would only be guessing, the same way a fisherman who never counts his fuel or Continue reading

Charles

picture of a ink pen and ink on parchment paper

Anna

Chapters Between Chapters #004 – Quill And Ink

Pens at home never asked much from me. You pick one up, you scribble, the ink forgives you. In Skelderheim, the librarian puts a quill in my hand and suddenly every tremor in my fingers, every shortcut in my thinking, shows on the page. Izrah stands guard over a table of parchment and ink like it’s a battlefield, and the librarian tells me to start with my own name, then the other name this city has given me. This entry is about learning to write in a world where words are treated like permanent records instead of notes in a Continue reading

Charles

Todd

Chapters Between Chapters #003 – Fishing with Finch

Finch once signed me onto a fishing boat for three days of hard work and “deck rate” pay. At the time it felt like a one-off job: cutting bait, hauling traps, trying not to lose my breakfast over the rail while Ray watched to see if I was worth the space on his deck. I thought I was just learning how to stand steady on a moving boat and coil rope the way Finch liked it. This journal entry is me looking back at that trip from the far side of the portal, realizing how much of Skelderheim’s Dock Ward Continue reading

Charles

Anna

Skelderheim Journals #1: Market Day

There is a difference between seeing a city and living in it. This morning I followed Emera and Izrah into the Market Ward before the fog had lifted. The tavern was still half asleep when we left. Chairs were still upside down, a few coals under ash, and everything was quiet. Outside, Skelderheim was already moving. I thought I knew how markets worked. In East Bay you walk past neat rows of shelves and trust the date on a plastic wrapper. Today I learned what it looks like when you do not have that luxury. Emera showed me how to Continue reading

Anna

Charles

Chapters Between Chapters #002 – Food, Windows, and the People at the Table

I kept trying to write this one like one of Anna’s field reports and it kept breaking on me. Meals don’t fit into “conditions, actions, results.” They just happen, and then months later you still remember the chipped bowls at Mel’s, the tavern stew in the Market Ward, the buns at Klebbers, and who was across the table when you ate them. This entry is me tracking the bowls and cups that stuck: chowder in East Bay when the observatory stopped being my private project, stew in Skelderheim when my body finally believed that world could feed us, coffee in Continue reading

Charles

Showing 1–20 of 21 posts