Joseph Langley

@jlangleyauthor.bsky.social

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Author of Runewave | A fantasy author inspired by all the ways that little magical characters and critters can change the world. Seeking representation for ON THE ORIGIN OF LIVING FLAME | adult high fantasy Firmly opposed to AI in artistic spaces.

She looked back up at the chalkboard as her mother wrote another message. What are you doing here? Eat, silly girl. Jaera glared at her mom, and took a large bite of the rool wrap in defiance. Her mother was a hard woman, with a sharp wit. Jaera had worked with miners who went on missions with her mother years ago, and had heard many a tale of her mother besting the other miners in games of Stoneslip, embarrassing them, and taking all their money. There was always a fondness in the miners tales, and a far off look in their eye. It took a special kind of woman to win the loyalty of the man she had just sharked for all his earnings. Now that special kind of woman lay dying on a healer’s cot. Not dying. Jaera would not let her die, no matter how mysterious and fatal the malady appeared to be—and had been, for everyone else. There were twelve reported deaths from the Sinks in the last month alone, all of them miners or divers who had spent countless hours beneath the waves, just like Jaera’s mother. Nobody knew why the Sinks had started to afflict so many in such a short amount of time; nobody knew where it had come from, or what had changed. The TDSA had been mining Sunken Stone for almost a century. There were always casualties; it was a dangerous job. Only in the last month had those casualties occurred after the miners had safely returned to port. Jaera took a deep, stabilizing breath. As weird as it sounded, she liked coming here, and sitting at her mother’s side; not because the company was good—it couldn’t be—but it reminded her why she worked so hard all the time. I will find the secret, mother. I will understand the deep, and then I will bring you the cure.
A drawing of an Alimin leaf, a Vargus, and tree bark that the Vargus has chewed. The text warns of the danger of a Vargus swarm-- Vargus are little bugs that will devour human flesh.
Luka discovers fire-eating insects, known as Jjj. She is trying to maintain the fire to keep her crechemates warm. This scene details her discovery, and the scary description of the Jjj's many legs and teeth.
Mama Loga stood up quickly, but then froze, steps away from Saka. They stared at each other, hardly breathing. Mama Loga stepped forward, raising a hand out with half-curled fingers. Saka stepped forward too, hesitating. They both tensed and leaned half-away from each other, waiting for a blow to land, waiting for the other to be the first to swing. Mama Loga staggered the last few steps forward, their crunching steps in the snow the only sound to melody their union. Their knuckles brushed against Saka’s cheek. Saka threw her arm around Mama Loga and hugged her. Luka watched through tearstained vision as the two hunters made the same choice. They hugged each other with all of themselves; Mama Loga’s hands slid through Saka’s hair, while Saka’s nose rested right by Mama Loga’s ear. Saka hooked her leg around Mama Loga’s ankle, pulling the other hunter even closer. Luka ran through the ways that Saka could knock Mama Loga to the ground from that position, and the ways that Mama Loga could shift their hands to grab Saka’s neck. They didn’t. They kept hugging. Luka couldn’t tear her eyes away from the reunion. The two hunters pressed their bodies together; Saka’s nose hunted down Mama Loga’s neck like she was searching for a heart to rip out, but all it led to was a kiss along Mama Loga’s collar bone. Mama Loga spread their fingers around Saka’s whole head and pressed it into their neck, as if to crush her skull, but somehow all it did was make them whole.
A scene from ON THE ORIGIN OF LIVING FLAME, my adult Paleolithic high fantasy novel, following Luka as she attempts to figure out the magical secrets of fire in order to protect her Mama and her creche.
The cover of the high fantasy novel RUNEWAVE, by Joseph Langley, depicting a father sculling on a small boat to bring his twin children safely through a swamp full of mysterious creatures.