Next Derinwrites story

After Wandering Star and Charlie MacNamara are both complete, the next Derin story will be... one of these! Patreon members, vote for your favourites in the poll!

Holy Light

Nobody really noticed when the Rapture took place. In retrospect, the sudden uptick of missing person’s cases might have been visible in the data had the data still existed by the time anyone would think to check, but in the moment an extra hundred and forty four thousand people disappearing in ones or twos from all around the world didn’t raise any particular alarms. Nor was the seven years of tribulation all that noticeable; war and disease and starvation had been the companions of humanity through all of history, and there was nothing new or remarkable in the suffering caused by divine mandate.

The end of the Tribulation, however, could not go unnoticed.

It is one hundred and thirty two since sunlight became humankind’s worst enemy. One hundred and thirty two years since the morning that the sun rose and instantly purified anybody caught in its holy light, purifying their souls and carrying them to heaven or hell, leaving behind mindless husks that care for nothing but to praise the Lord. One hundred and thirty two years since those lucky enough to hear a warning before seeing sunlight were driven underground to live deathless but stagnant lives. Sinc ethat day, nobody has aged. No child has been born. Every year, the population of Earth dwindles as more people are caught out in the sun, either by accident or choice, and enveloped in the embrace of its holy light.

Until a stranger shows up at one of the last remaining shelters, with a need for help and a strange immunity to sunlight. He has, he claims, the secret to humanity’s salvation. But can they trust his words, or is this yet another trick of the light?

The Void Behind

Once upon a time, the starship Courageous left Earth on its grand mission to seed life throughout the galaxy. Now, multiple planets later, Erin is a young girl born on that very same ship, at the centre of a terraforming fleet heading for a dense asteroid field around a star designated Hearthfire. Life in the fleet is stable, with entire generations growing and dying between new planets and stops to harvest oxygen and iron; sustainability, safety and thoroughness are paramount.

But given enough time, life always changes. And Erin knows that their journey across space is no leisurely jaunt, but a chase. There’s something that stalks the fleet from the void behind, something more terrifying than any enemy fleet or ancient monster. And if she can’t figure out how to outrun it, it could spell the end for the starship Courageous.

(Yes, this one is in the TTOUniverse.)

I Am Not The Chosen One

When Harmony Smith went to work this morning, she didn’t expect –

This is an isekai one. It seems like every web serial author these days has to write an isekai so here I am, bowing to the market. If you vote for this then I will do an isekai one.

I know what you’re going to ask. “Derin, do you know anything about this genre? Are you familiar with the tropes, the terminology, the language? Do you have anything to say about it? Do you even know what separates an isekai from other types of portal fantasy?”

No, I don’t.

“Derin, do you read any isekai? Is it a genre you enjoy? Do you have any sense of the writer or reader culture around it?”

No, I don’t

“Well, are you going to do any research?”

No, I’m not.

If you vote for this, you will get to see somebody who doesn’t care about isekai and doesn’t know anything about isekai try to write what they vaguely think an ‘isekai’ might be. I will not attempt to learn anything. I will not attempt to find anything to say. It WILL be bad.

Nevertheless, it’s on the list, for you isekai fans out there.

The Crew of the Lucky Star

Being born is rough. Being born on a broken spaceship crewed by animals that are trying to kill you is rougher. Especially when you have no idea where you are or why.

As the only real people within lightyears, gaining control of the battered ship the Lucky Star is vital to our heroes’ survival. And that’s going to mean keeping their presence growing into the nervous systems of the big, soft, bipedal animals that currently run the ship secret, until they can gather the knowledge and power to overwhelm them. But the Lucky Star is on a mission, and things are afoot that are far more important than the survival of one small crew. Our plucky, if newborn, heroes may be facing a trial, and an opportunity, beyond anything any of their ancestors have ever faced.

If only they can figure out what it is.

The Cinder Boy

Orphaned shortly after birth, Owen has been the wizard’s servant for as long as he can remember. It’s never occurred to him to be anything else. But when a mad old witch claiming to be the wizard’s sister shows up at the tower just before winter snows block the mountain pass, prophesying her brother’s death and entreatying Owen to come with her, his life is changed forever. The witch claims that Owen’s late mother was one of the Cinderellae, dangerous spies who disguise themselves as servant-girls, and there is evil afoot that only he can undo. Thrown into a world he barely understands with naught but the wind-spirits of his kitchen trapped in the bodies of three friendly mice and the pitying guidance of a deeply scarred and more deeply mysterious errant knight, Owen finds the very fate of the kingdom in his hands.