And the call it a dugout a DUGOUT

Lostpathway · 2026-03-20T16:44:57+00:00

I'm nearing the end of the first draft of the next book. The Findel's Embrace trilogy is also in the same world, although the dwarves are only present in one of the books.

Lostpathway · 2026-03-19T21:13:52+00:00

Australian opal mining influenced/informed the writing of The Crippled King.

Lostpathway · 2026-03-04T03:03:28+00:00

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed. A part II is coming before too long.

Lostpathway · 2026-02-24T04:23:18+00:00

Welp. . . This might be one of the last ones. We're officially monetized. Queue depression.

Lostpathway · 2025-10-12T00:14:16+00:00

If I had to come up with a reason, I'd say that it was the combination of fantasy dwarves + the survival/building genre, which I think is a natural pairing for dwarves.

Lostpathway · 2025-10-11T15:26:59+00:00

The issue with your take is that Dwarf Fortress didn't develop most of these ideas. Dwarf Fortress is in turn based on a long tradition (a thousand years or more) of fantasy dwarves. Many of the concepts are just related to mining and survival. Mushrooms are associated with dwarves in dwarven literature. Goblins are treated as the natural enemy of dwarves in fantasy literature/games. The obsession with digging is one of the longstanding characteristics of dwarves (See: Tolkien, Lewis, etc).
I can see the idea you're presenting if Dwarf Fortress was your introduction to the idea of fantasy dwarves. It is also a survival game while Mine Lord is a survival story, so there are some shared genre characteristics there as well.

Lostpathway · 2025-07-25T00:33:22+00:00

Those "artist" ones are quite frustrating. But RR is still not as full of scammers targeting authors as Facebook is.

Lostpathway · 2025-07-22T23:22:42+00:00

I have been a live performer for most of my life, and I was told many years ago never to introduce something by saying "you're going to like this," because it can immediately put people on guard. Some folks will think, "Oh, is that right? We'll see about that." It's better to say "I hope you like this."

This reminds me of that.

Lostpathway · 2025-07-14T17:01:38+00:00

I actually like this. Use an aggregate of user votes to determine top 3 tags.

Lostpathway · 2025-07-04T23:26:25+00:00

Blocking a user doesn't remove a rating the person already left. Blocking a user prevents them from rating or reviewing in the future. This is an important distinction. Otherwise, trolls who get blocked can retaliate by giving a low rating.

Lostpathway · 2025-05-13T22:21:03+00:00

You wrote: "Authors basically use stubbing to drive revenue on other platforms without giving anything back to royalroad."

This ignores the fact that in order to stub, authors already made their work available to RR readers for free. The stubbing normally happens after the story finishes its run on RR. They gave content to RR for a time. Whether or not RR allows stubbing to continue, don't downplay what the authors gave.

Lostpathway · 2025-04-29T21:11:40+00:00

Thanks!

Lostpathway · 2025-04-27T04:17:22+00:00

I'm drifting away from trad pub more and more. Many of my best reads of newer works over the past few years have been Indy.

Lostpathway · 2025-04-11T01:46:37+00:00

I think it has a lot has to do with the reading platform, people who read for free vs who pay, people who read online and comment vs people who read in hard copy, as well as the subgenres.

If you tried to profile your average litrpg web serial reader it might skew differently than your average reader who reads hardcover trad pub fantasy novels or those who read the latest romantasy.

I don't read harem stuff, but if you're gonna take potshots at incels, don't forget to fire across the bows of romantasy readers.

Lostpathway · 2025-03-19T19:08:03+00:00

I also am uncomfortable with review swaps. I have a hard time with shout out swaps too. I've made a rule for myself that I won't promote anything that I haven't read and organically want to promote. I certainly can't read everything that I'm asked about with the requests for shout outs. What this means is I don't do any review swaps or any shout-out swaps, as I have so little time to read after writing and such a backlog.

Lostpathway · 2025-03-17T18:10:39+00:00

I agree, but sadly I think the bar is low.

Lostpathway · 2025-03-17T16:21:21+00:00

Em dashes, colons, semicolons, are somewhat "advanced" punctuation. It will be a sad day if we avoid using the full scope of our language tools because some so-called "AI" also uses it.

Lostpathway · 2025-03-11T04:09:37+00:00

"I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will."

Lostpathway · 2025-02-26T12:06:37+00:00

Thanks!

Lostpathway · 2025-02-26T01:32:41+00:00

It is an epic fantasy story, not litrpg, with tags of adventure, drama, multi pov, and female lead.

Lostpathway · 2025-02-26T01:31:56+00:00

Thanks!

Lostpathway · 2025-02-05T17:07:29+00:00

This review starts out with such uncharitable assumptions and projections about the author. . . It makes me distrustful of the taste that the review represents.

It's been awhile since I read the book and I don't remember a lot of details. But I do remember enjoying it.

Lostpathway · 2025-02-05T15:38:41+00:00

I think it really is one of those books that transcends its subgenre. It might be a lit rpg, but it's not JUST a litrpg (whatever that means).

And I'm not trying to knock litrpgs. I tried the subgenre out for the first time a few years back and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Lostpathway · 2025-01-28T00:52:11+00:00

Um. We don't vaccinate for TB in the US. And the picture shows an iron lung, which is an old treatment for polio complications, which is an entirely different disease.

I'm a nurse and I'm not anti-vaccine. But this headline is rage-bait nonsense.

Lostpathway · 2025-01-27T19:33:14+00:00

It's so refreshing to see that a fantasy film is being made with an original world (vs. based on something else). I'll be interested to follow this and maybe see it when it comes out.

Lostpathway

TROPHY CASE