The Blacksword Regiment
The Gods Within
The Dead Among Us
The Thirteenth Man
The Treasons Cycle
Dreadmark Covenants
The Deck of Chaos
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Really enjoyed doing a signing at Tucson Festival of Books. It’s one of the largest book festivals in the country. 150,000 people descend on Tucson.
And thankfully, the end of the pandemic appears to be here at last.
A Peak at My Latest Books
Dread Child
Book 1 in The Dreadmark Covenants
Is the birthmark on a young boy’s arm
just a smear of discolored skin,
or the nexus of an ancient curse?
Epic fantasy at its best
Young Ket is the half-breed son of a Scairn bondservant and an unknown Duchies man. To him, the birthmark on his arm is just a smear of discolored skin. But the wizard Kainborne sees in it the Dreadmark, a portent of both evil and greatness. With his mother murdered, and him kidnapped by Kainborne’s assassin, Ket must survive the enemies about him. But can he survive the curse of the Dreadmark?
Tranquility Lost
A Commonwealth Re-Contact Novella
The Devastation is a swath of star systems 400 light-years across in which something unknown exterminated all human life about four centuries ago. A Commonwealth survey ship on a routine mission finds a habitable planet in one of its systems, and for the first time in recorded history a planet in the Devastation is inhabited by living humans, not decayed corpses. But the crew of the ship goes berserk, and barely escapes the system with their lives. The Commonwealth now wants disgraced re-contact specialist Jack Strand to go in under cover, to blend into the medieval culture there and find out what is going on. Jack would prefer to pass on the job, but they don’t give him any choice in the matter.
The Thief of Val D’Ossa
. . . his lover the Harlot, plus the Witch, and her Apprentice
Book 1 in The Deck of Chaos
The paths of chaos lead only to damnation.
Jaxon is the son of an impoverished nobleman. When Jax was sixteen years old his father died, and his older stepsister and stepbrother threw him out on the streets of Val d’Ossa to fend for himself. The city was not kind to a young boy, especially one who is a little bit pretty, and to endure he learned some brutal lessons.
Nine years later he has survived by being a thief, for which he has a very unusual talent he calls his instinct. An agent of an anonymous noble house wants to hire him to steal a valuable figurine, but Jax wants nothing to do with the politics of the noble houses.
Can Jax and his lover, the beautiful prostitute Maelleen, survive the machinations of the High Noble Houses? And what of the Witch who rules the city of Val d’Ossa? She is reputed to maintain control over the High Noble Houses by sorcerous incantations and demon manifestations at the Witch Palace. If the High Nobles are involved then so is she, and Jax desperately wants to avoid any involvement with the evil, old woman.
A Hymn for the Dying
Book 1 in The Blacksword Regiment
For most, the dying part is hard.
For some, the living part is harder.
At sixteen years of age, Mathius’s life is focused on scrounging bits of food in the midst of a five-way civil war on the planet Novalis III. Two government factions and three rebel factions are all trying to kill one another, and the civilian population is caught in the middle. If Mathius doesn’t find food, he and his father, mother and sister will go hungry for the day, a not unusual occurrence. Mathius must also avoid the rebel factions, who frequently kidnap young boys and force them to become soldiers.
Will the Commonwealth of Allied Systems intervene? And what of the Blacksword Regiment, the elite soldiers of the Commonwealth Security Corps? Will they sweep in and make everything right? And then there is the Kelk Supremacy, a race of strange humans that evolved for a thousand years in isolation on a far planet. Why does Mathius keep seeing signs that the Kelk are somehow involved in the unrest?
A Dirge for the Damned
Book 2 in The Blacksword Regiment
Damned if I die today,
Cursed if I live tomorrow.
Nikaela Vreekande joins Kristdokar’s clandestine operation to identify those responsible for the tragedy on Novalis III, and the incident on Reisenar. Lieutenant Colonel Katrine Primatov meets with Thordahl and Brynjar on Norandyne to establish covert lines of communication between the Kelk Supremacy and the Commonwealth. John Mathius travels to Trafalgar to attend O-School, and all seems well. But there are those in the Commonwealth and the Supremacy who would prefer that John and Nikaela fail, or barring that, they would see them dead.
A Prayer for the Fallen
Book 3 in The Blacksword Regiment
Pray not for those who fell before,
and grieve not for those yet to fall.
After John and Nikaela are rescued from the rogue warship Sycorax, Katrine Primatov has only a lone hunter-killer to back her in the remote Sarkovie system, and she is faced with a Kelk force of overwhelming firepower superiority. The Kelk decide to take John and Nikaela back to Viktorkinde, whether Katrine likes it or not. With no choice in the matter, she accompanies them, and the three are reluctant guests aboard the Kelk heavy cruiser Konigsborge. But the Kelk are quietly at war among themselves, fighting their own battle against superstition and irrationality. John and Katrine begin to learn the roots of their hatred of the Blacksword, and Nikaela does what she can to help them.
A Requiem for the Forsaken
Book 4 in The Blacksword Regiment
Forsaken, damned and dying,
a bad day all around.
The diplomatic mission has arrived at Viktorkinde, but something big is up. Katrine and John need to figure out what’s up before the shit hits the fan.
Upcoming Events
This year, other than the Tucson Festival of Books and NorWesCon, almost everything is happening in the last half of the year. NorWesCon in Seattle in March was a real treat since I grew up there. And now I’m looking forward to BuboniCon in Albuquerque, and WorldCon in Anaheim.
I hope all of you out there, and your friends, colleagues and loved-ones, are healthy and well. Be sure to check out The Dreadmark Covenants, a new coming-of-age epic fantasy series. There’s more information at the top of this page.
Do get out, but stay safe, stay well.
BuboniCon
August 21–23, Albuquerque, NM
Here’s a link to the web site. And here’s my panel schedule:
Panel Schedule for BuboniCon:
Date/Time/Loc |
Title/Participants |
Description |
22 Aug 2026 Saturday 11:00 AM Salon G-J |
ASK A SCIENTIST: PROBING QUESTIONS J.L. Doty, Matthew Fetrow, M.T. Reiten, David Lee Summers, Ian Tregillis MOD: Courtney Willis |
In this panel, Bubonicon scientists answer questions from the audience that pop up in frequent hall conversations on technical/plot points. Also welcome are young would-be scientists and their parents who want to talk about career paths. |
22 Aug 2026 Saturday 1:00 PM Salon F |
THE ETHICS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ASIMOV’S THREE LAWS & BEYOND J.L. Doty, Kevin Sonney, Ian Tregillis, Walter Jon Williams MOD: Michael A. Stackpole |
Stories have long explored the ethical questions raised by artificial intelligence from autonomy and consent to responsibility and care. How do contemporary creators imagine the moral landscape of emerging technologies? What can speculative fiction contribute to real‑world conversations about AI ethics, and where do the classic frameworks (like Asimov’s Laws) still resonate or fall short? What lessons from science fiction can we apply when considering A.I. and other new and emerging technologies today? |
23 Aug 2026 Sunday 3:30 PM Salon F |
I AM A LEAF ON THE WIND: BETRAYING VS SURPRISING THE READER J.L. Doty, Brian D. Hinson, Lauren C. Teffeau, Tiffany Trent MOD: Connie Willis |
Some plot points or story beats feel like a betrayal to the reader. Sometimes things are figured out well ahead of time and the denouement is not a surprise. Panelists talk about walking the thin line between keeping your reader on their toes and able to be surprised versus betraying their feelings and expectations. |
WorldCon
August 27–31, Anaheim, CA
Here’s a link to the web site. And here’s my panel schedule:
Panel Schedule for WorldCon:
Date/Time/Loc |
Title/Participants |
Description |
29 Aug 2026 Saturday 6:00 PM Redondo (Hilton) |
What the Heck is Military Science Fiction Anyhow? AK Llyr (mod) Dan Moren J. L. Doty Jonathan Brazee Paula Lieberman |
Despite having the word “war” in its title, Star Wars is not usually considered Military SF. Paul Atredes starts a galactic war, but most fans wouldn’t class the novel Dune as Military SF, either. So what is military science fiction? This panel will discuss the conventions of the subgenre and why military science fiction continues to resonate. |
30 Aug 2026 Sunday 4:30 PM 260C |
How Orbital Mechanics Shape Our Solar System J. L. Doty (mod) |
Asteroids, comets, and the planets and their moons abide in a complex dance around our sun that has evolved over the last 4.5 billion years. We’ll use computer simulations to introduce how orbital mechanics has shaped our solar system from present day resonance orbits to the Grand Tack hypothesis for Jupiter’s migration. No equations needed. |
31 Aug 2026 Monday 9:00 AM Pedestrian Bridge |
Autographing J. L. Doty |
|
31 Aug 2026 Monday 12:00 PM Malibu (Hilton) |
Near Future Warfare: Robots, AI and Space Lasers! Alex Gurevich Bob Hranek G. David Nordley Henry Herz (mod) J. L. Doty |
Autonomous drones, missile-destroying lasers, and other technological marvels have made the battlefield more complicated than ever. What might the depiction of military technology in science fiction tell us about what’s next in the evolution of combat? Our panelists explore the near future of warfare and the role of science fiction in imagining it. |