iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I'll share more about the book soon. Thank you to everyone who cheered me on. I can't wait to share the finished novel with you! 🐲✍🏻

The current draft of this new manuscript is a hot mess (especially the ending), but that's what first drafts are for, right? Now I'm going to take a little break, celebrate this milestone, and then begin the arduous task of "making it good."

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I poured myself into this new world and tried to breathe life into a cast of characters who’ve already conquered my heart. I hope they someday find a place in yours. This is the most ambitious series I’ve attempted, and I’m thrilled to have reached this milestone.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/01/2026

Today, I finished drafting a new book. This is the 5th novel I’ve written and the beginning of what I hope will become a sprawling, fulfilling series. It’s a science-fantasy story: a fusion of near-future technology mixed with the wonder and mystery of unknowable magic. 🧵

An image with black text that reads:

"The End

Initial draft complete of Book 1 of a new science-fantasy series

~THE HYDRA CHRONICLES~

Word Count: 178,148 words
Printed Manuscript Pages: 906
Chapter Count: 62

Manuscript Begun: Jul 13, 2025
Completed: Feb 5, 2026

“Maybe there was a better way. Perhaps it would come from a dream kept alive by a middle aged woman’s conspiracies and rebellion.”

Hand-painted stormy ocean scene with towering cliffs under dark clouds as several cybernetic creatures fly low over crashing waves, blue energy trails streaming behind them.

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Me in 2009: "Social media. Neat. Here are all my pics and videos of my pets and kids." 2026: Ugh -- *Yoinks everything private*

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 03/11/2025

Today's the 10 year anniversary of MYSTIC's publication. 😱 Naturally, I have thoughts. Also, to celebrate the occasion, @torbooks.bsky.social has put the eBook on sale for $2.99 this week. What better time to check it out if you haven't experienced it yet? open.substack.com/pub/jasonden...

A promotional graphic featuring the book cover to the novel "Mystic". Large text proclaims "10th Anniversary." The cover itself features a young woman standing dramatically in a lush, mystical forest while the sun steams through the canopy. Her cape billows dramatically across her body. Two sparkling birds encircle her.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 06/10/2025

Some updates on my writing as we fall into Autumn. I expect to have TWO novels drafted by early 2026. Details in the link.

open.substack.com

What I've Been Working On

Some updates as we end the year, including news about my latest WIP.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 19/09/2025

I’m (re)reading The Stand by @stephenking.bsky.social and it stresses me out less than real life news. #cozyfantasy

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/09/2025

That MR JAKE TONGES PLAYER OF THR GAME, you mean. 🤩

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/09/2025

Tonges player of the game. 🤩

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 16/08/2025

Lots of talk about epic fantasy being dead in trad publishing. Trends shift, attention spans shorten. But EF still tackles the grand stories, the big questions, & shows emotional truth on the widest scale. It may ebb, but it is not going anywhere. Keep reading it, keep writing it. I sure will.

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Misha (she/her) @ahsimlibrarian.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

The Moral of the Story @seattlein2025.org @gwillow.me @shwetaadhyam.bsky.social @marshalljmoore.bsky.social @okosunreads.bsky.social Starting with a discussion of the gateway fantasies that inspired everyone. “I think fantasy is a genre of questions.”—Ehigbor Okosun

The Moral of the Story panel at WorldCon

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 15/08/2025

I’m at Seattle WorldCon this week. Yesterday I ran into the legendary Terry Brooks.

Myself and Terry Brooks, who is it elderly gentleman, post for a photo together. Terry is wearing a magenta collared shirt with rolled up sleeves. I am wearing a cyan colored dress shirt with roller sleeves.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 31/07/2025

I just deleted an unnecessary bath scene from a book I'm working on and I feel like the ghost of Robert Jordan is judging me. #amwriting

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 27/07/2025

Somebody got to go on an adventure today.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 25/07/2025

Showing off my new edition of Hyperion, a true classic of dark science fiction. This edition is from @thebrokenbinding.bsky.social with art by Raymond Swanland & art direction by @petrikleo.bsky.social. I love the new design, but I also love that it came with a 2nd slip cover w/ the original cover!

The front cover of the new edition of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Features a mostly black cover with an ominous and foreboding figure looming over the silhouettes of several wanderers trudging over sand.

Inside cover of the special edition featuring a fantastical sailing ship that sails across an ocean of grass.

The edges of the book pages are sprayed black with a stylized design of white light and stellar-like diagrams.

The alternative dust jacket featuring the original book cover. A spiked figure in black armor stands on the hill of an alien world overlooking a sea of grass where a single sailing ship approaches.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 25/07/2025

This project looks awesome. Backed! Please check it out. www.kickstarter.com/projects/844...

kickstarter.com

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 24/07/2025

A celebrity that I admired as a kid died today. But I won't celebrate them cause it turns out they were a horrible person. So instead I'll celebrate deceased artists who were kind and loving & generous: Terry Pratchett. Mr Rodgers, Robin Williams, JRR Tolkien, Chadwick Boseman, Alan Rickman, etc.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 22/07/2025

I’ll be at @seattlein2025.org next month. I’m participating in several panels and doing a reading. Also, my new short story, “The Snake Star,” will be part of the Worldcon Anthology from Grim Oak Press. More info in my newsletter. Who else will be there? jasondenzel.substack.com/p/worldcon-a...

jasondenzel.substack.com

Worldcon & Summer Update

What I've been up to since February

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 22/07/2025

I realized it’s been a while since I introduced myself, so 👋🏻 hi! I’m Jason, an epic fantasy author writing stories full of wonder and transformation. Glad you’re here. Sign up for my newsletter for more behind-the-scenes content. jasondenzel.substack.com

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 16/05/2025

Just started reading Gifted & Talented by @ olivieblake.bsky.social, the first book of hers that I’ve read and holy shirtballs the writing style / voice is perfection. She makes it seem so effortless and I’m not gunna hide my envy. 👏🏼

olivieblake.bsky.social

Olivie Blake (@olivieblake.bsky.social)

author. hi

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/05/2025

Pope Seagull I. His first order is that all communion wafers will be full bread chunks.

A screenshot of a CNN headline declaring that a new pope has been elected. The image shows the purple chimney with white smoke coming out. On top of the chimney sits a seagull.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 04/04/2025

👏🏼 [The Office] “maintains that human authorship… remain essential…to obtain copyright protection for works involving materials created by [AI].” “…firmly concludes AI prompts, alone, do not provide sufficient human control to automatically make a human user of an AI system the author of the output”

essential.to

Robert Davis @rdavis.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Reposted by Jason Denzel

Would love to get a manuscript in my inbox reminiscent of Frieren, with that perfect mix of love, loss, and a fantasy adventure quest. #mswl

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

One of many moments in Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” that will stop you in your tracks.

There is an impulse in moments like this to appeal to self-interest. To say: These horrors you are allowing to happen, they will come to your doorstep one day; to repeat the famous phrase about who they came for first and who they'll come for next. But this appeal cannot, in matter of fact, work. If the people well served by a system that condones such butchery ever truly believed the same butchery could one day be inflicted on them, they'd tear the system down tomorrow. And anyway, by the time such a thing happens, the rest of us will already be dead.
No, there is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future, but know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience.
Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness. Forget pity, forget even the dead if you must, but at least fight against the theft of your soul.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 30/03/2025

My small dog does the same. She’s blind and deaf (born that way) and will sometimes bolt upright, run around the yard and bark at ghosts. Our house is ghost-free though.

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 28/03/2025

At the FedEx store. Clerk: “What are you shipping to Canada?” Me: “Some booklets.” Clerk: “What’s the content?” Me: “Well it’s a short story I wrote about … … <pitches story>” Clerk: … Me: 👀 Clerk: “I’ll put down ‘fiction’” Me: “yeah that works” 🫠🫠🫠🫠

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 24/03/2025

Fellow #GenX people. So are you a keep-your-reading-glasses-on-you-at-all-times person or a buy-lots-of-dollar-store-readers-and-leave-them-everywhere type?

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 23/03/2025

I agree he was a genius. I didn’t know about his biography. Thanks!

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Reposted by Jason Denzel

WIRED @wired.com · 18/03/2025

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

freedom.press

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow

As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 13/03/2025

On this episode of Intentionally Blank, Brandon and Dan talk about how Brandon still writes in 12-point Courier font + double-spaced. I'm 💯 the same way. I just think it's easier to read. #Writers: what font & typesetting do you draft with? (Link jumps to 22:21 where they discuss this)

youtu.be

Who Gets to Review Things? - Intentionally Blank 197

YouTube video by Brandon Sanderson

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/03/2025

I write a lot of characters who are different from me. Even though they live in a fantasy world, some of these characters come from marginalized backgrounds in their realms, kingdoms, planets, or whatever. That isn't my lived experience. So it's important, I think, to listen and listen well.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/03/2025

Why do I do this? The real question is why WOULDN'T I? Why would I not push myself to make characters more realistic? More true to our real experience as humans? By doing that, my fiction becomes better, and my real life becomes more positive.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 08/03/2025

I'm participating today in my 3rd (... I think?) @writingtheother.com workshop with @nisishawl.bsky.social and @ktempestbradford.com. I learn so much from these workshops. I try to make it a point to attend one at least every few years. 🧵

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 01/03/2025

I’ve watched Back to the Future for 40 years and I just recently realized upon my 1,000th viewing that when the lady says “Save the clock tower!” she’s trying to preserve the clock in its BROKEN/melted state. I always thought she was raising money to FIX it. 😂

An image showing two faces from the movie Back to the Future. On the left is a smiling middle-aged woman with gray hair holding out a change collection tin. On the right is a young Michael J. Fox holding a pamphlet that says “save the clock tower” on it.

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 01/03/2025

I played the opening tutorial region and loved it. It prompted me to pause and go back and play Pillars of Eternity, which I’ve never finished. I’ll return soon. Glad you’re enjoying it!

Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 26/02/2025

I love how he unironically compares what he’s doing to “minimizing coercion” 🙄

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Jason Denzel @jasondenzel.com · 24/02/2025

Also, apparently they made a 2-part animated adaptation of the graphic novel last year. I knew about the Snyder film, of course, but not the animated remake. It’s available on MAX or available for rental/purchase elsewhere.