Anna Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Charles Mandrake Books | A Skelderheim Portal Book Series

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

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picture of a ink pen and ink on parchment paper

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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

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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

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charles mandrake book depiction of the skelderheim market ward

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Chapters Between Chapters #001 – The First Steps Beyond the Portal – Skelderheim

It’s been a long day. It started when we stepped through the portal back in East Bay. None of us had any idea what we were walking in to, only that we had run out of reasons not to go. The hum of the generator was the last familiar sound. I did not realize how much it lived in the walls of the annex until it vanished. One second it was there under the floor and behind my ribs, the way it had been for every test. The next second it was gone, cut off clean. There was a thin Continue reading

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