Wordwrought – One Writer's Journey

Chronicling my traditional publishing journey

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Author of Fantasy Novels, High, Cozy, and Urban varieties! Rep’d by Tricia Skinner of Fuse Literary!!!

  • Fun with Fae

    If you’ve been following along with the latest season of A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures you’ll have immediately noticed the contrast between Season 1 (Mac’s first adventure with Garrick in Prague), which was more of a mystery/investigation story…with ghosts and vampires! This season started off with Mac and Garrick chasing after Garrick’s notorious rival – International Gentleman Thief: Lucien LeBlanc. Lucien tricked them into chasing him through a mysterious portal…right into the Realm of the Fae and a heap of trouble.

    This story takes place three years after Season 1, and is a much different story. Mac is a seasoned adventurer by this point. He’s had a few scraps, met some new supernatural friends (Hi, Saoirse!) and has become quite used to Garrick mucking things up.

    The relationship building between Mac and Saoirse (who Mac met on a previous adventure with Garrick) is a highlight for me in this Season. Mac is a very “go by the plan”, routine oriented fella. Saoirse is very much the opposite. She’s a Leanan Sidhe of the Fae Realm, who works as a sort of Supernatural Journalist, traveling the realms and worlds for the latest scoop and gossip. She’s also a badass fighter who will flip you on your ass if you disrespect her. Don’t. Seriously.

    Anyway, the Fae turned out to be the biggest surprise to me, mainly the Fae in their natural environment. They are SPICY beings. Good lord. To the point where Mac and Garrick require applying an ointment every handful of hours unless they want to become helpless participants in the Fae’s…I’d say nocturnal activities, but they’re more of an “all day, especially if we’re bored” kinda gang.

    We’re almost at the halfway point of Season 2 already?! I can’t believe it! So if you haven’t gotten caught up yet, go follow the above link and treat yourself to some snacks and a binge, and come along for the rest of the ride!

    Catch y’all on Threads!

  • A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures: Season 2 Premier tomorrow!

    Hey folks!

    Don’t forget, season 2 of A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures premiers tomorrow! I’m calling it season 2 because this will be a whole new story in this anthology, taking place about 3 years after Garrick and Mac’s Prague adventure. I’m excited for you to see Mac’s evolution from “Fresh into the supernatural world” to “hardened cosmic Samwise Gamgee”

    It’s going to be a lot of fun!

    Be sure you’re caught up on tiny.cc/cosmicadventures !

  • Season 2 Premier Approaches! 1/27/2026

    Hello all! While I took a couple of days off from writing A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures (I actually did some more writing in my Epic Fantasy novel that’s still cooking…I’m going over the first Arc that I wrote (it’s already 93,000 words…yeesh) and tightening it up so I can write that latter 2 thirds of the book. ANYWAY, enough sidequesting.

    This coming Tuesday, January 27th, will be the Season 2 premier of A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures! If you haven’t gotten caught up yet? You can binge chapters 1-10 on Royal Road, and it’s all for free!

    https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/143489/a-cooks-guide-to-cosmic-adventures

    This adventure will take place a couple years after their Prague adventure in Season 1 (We WILL return to Tellareth for another adventure, but I might save Mac’s first trip to another world for an entire book, rather than this anthology, we’ll see).

    And, for the first time, we’ll be getting a peak into the Realm of The Fae! While I don’t want to reveal too many details, since the fun will be experiencing the Fae through Mac’s eyes…and Garrick’s terrible, bumbling mishaps. I’ll spoil a bit and say that the Fae is a layer within our world. Another world within our world. But in the Realm of the Fae…things are infinitely more dangerous. Whatever you do? Don’t ever accept a gift…or give someone a compliment.

    Find out more this coming Tuesday! Hit me up on Threads if you’re enjoying the story, I’d love to hear from you!

  • A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures…season 1 finale Tuesday, 1/14!

    Season?! What? The hell am I talking about here?

    Well about a month ago, I posted on here about starting a serialized novel on Royal Road that was a continuation of my short story posted on here about Mac’s first meeting with Garrick. https://allanmwriting.com/2025/11/14/the-crossroads-or-when-mac-met-garrick-and-signed-up-for-the-adventure-of-a-lifetime/

    To be honest, when I started the book, I had no idea where I was going to go with it. I knew I wanted to tell the story of Mac’s first real adventure with Garrick (the books I’m querying right now actually take place much later during his “retirement” where he’s got a supernatural food truck and makes the best pork and broccoli-rabe sandwiches in Philly) but that was about as much planning as I put into it. Sure I plotted out their first adventure (I plot everything), but something interesting happened while I wrote specifically for the serialized format of Royal Road.

    I found myself flowing natural into an almost TV episode story format for each chapter. And wow. Once I saw it in that light? I started getting all kinds of ideas for “Cosmic Adventures” as a book. And so? I’ve decided to make this an anthology of serialized stories of Mac’s adventures with Garrick saving the world.

    If my attempt at traditionally publishing Mac’s cozy adventures works out? “Cosmic Adventures” will be an awesome companion piece. One of those delicious fillers that will make you smile as you read “Supernatural Philadelphia” and Mac just says offhandedly to a surprise visit from Garrick, “Oh like that time you nearly got me killed chasing down a Ghost-napping Vampire in Prague?” and you’ll know there’s a whole “Season” of “Cosmic Adventures” dedicated to that one sentence.

    Anyway, if you’ve been following along, we’re coming to the end of the first Arc of Cosmic Adventures. Chapter 10, next Tuesday’s release, will be the “season finale” of A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures. After which I’ll take a small break to send a handful of queries out for my other Mac novels. But I can never stay away from Mac and Garrick for too long.

    Keep an eye here, on threads or wherever else I say you can find me. Season 2 will be releasing before you (or probably I) know it!

  • A Cook’s Guide To Cosmic Adventures Arrives on Royal Road!

    I’ve mentioned before that my novel, A Cook’s Guide to Supernatural Philadelphia, is currently on the query journey. I am waiting to hear back from three literary agents who are currently reading the full manuscript. If you know anything about traditional publishing, you’ll know (and I’m learning this as I go) that it is a SLOOOOOW journey. That’s okay. Because I’m going to keep writing anyway while I wait to hear back. For instance, did I mention I already finished the sequel? That book is called A Cook’s Guide to Supernatural Succession, and it’s a fun romp of a cozy murder mystery that pulls Mac’s community and found family into the dangerous political power games of Vampires.

    On top of that, I started ANOTHER book, starring Mac Sullivan. The whole gist of Supernatural Philadelphia, is that it’s a cozy urban fantasy about what happens to the faithful sidekick after the world has been saved? How does someone find their place after that? What do they…ya know….do with themselves? That’s where that book came about. And there’s quite a few references (because people recognize Mac when they realize oh he’s THAT GUY that saved the world with Garrick the Gallant) that give you, the reader, the idea that a lot of heroic shit went down in the previous ten years before Supernatural Philadelphia takes place.

    So I wrote a short story simply because I wanted to understand how Garrick and Mac first met? I mean, how does a cook and bartender suddenly fall in with a well-meaning, Dr Who level powerful, but Mr. Bean level clumsy cosmic superhero?! That’s the story you can read for free here on my site! But a funny thing happened shortly after I posted it…

    I didn’t want to stop writing that story. And so, that transitioned into what I’m currently calling A Cook’s Guide to Cosmic Adventures. I’m releasing this story on Royal Road, with a new chapter every Tuesday and Thursday, from now until…well…whenever Mac and Garrick’s first adventure wraps up!

    So feel free to follow along, add it to your to read, mark it as a favorite, share it with your friends! If you enjoy it? I’d love to hear from you on threads. Who knows…maybe you’ll inspire your own spot in this tale? *malicious grin*

    Till then. Keep writing, writers.