“The Witch of Knightcharm” goes live in one week!

I am extremely pleased to announce that my first serial novel, “The Witch of Knightcharm,” is all set to go on Kindle Vella. The first seven chapters will be published in one week, on February 20, and new chapters will follow every Monday and Thursday thereafter. The book is tentatively set to be 75-80 chapters and so will continue into at least November.

“The Witch of Knightcharm” is a fantasy novel set at a fabled magic school for dark witches. It follows the adventures of Emily Holland, a young witch who tried to fight for the good guys but failed during her first mission and caused an embarrassing defeat. Humiliated, ashamed, and at the precipice of being reassigned to ‘support’ duties which won’t allow her to redeem herself, Emily makes a desperate decision: to infiltrate this evil school under the guise of being a new student and to take it down from the inside. But once there, Emily learns she doesn’t just have to deal with inhuman lessons and murderous classmates. There’s also the threat from the school’s mysterious leaders, whose efforts to corrupt all their charges are a lot harder for Emily to resist than she first thinks.

I will post the link to the story as soon as it is available. Thank you for your attention, and I hope you enjoy my novel!

2022 Summary

I’m very satisfied for how 2022 went for me in terms of writing and publishing. Highlights include:

• I wrote and sold 44 more short stories to Eduland, the Hong Kong company creating a library of short stories for the English Language Training (ELT) market. These stories are set in a science fiction world called ‘Nation-X’ where animals attend school, hold jobs, and otherwise act like people while engaging with advanced technology. My stories ranged from detailing a squirrel scientist’s attempts to help students learn by designing Virtual Reality headsets which completely immerse those students in recreations of historic events to showing a bunny yoga enthusiast figuring out how to deal with a corrupt crowdfunding system which stole her money. While these stories won’t go live until Eduland finishes their full collection of 45,000 stories, I’m still excited to have contributed, and I hope to keep writing for Eduland in the year to come.
• I wrote and sold another short story for Tellest, the online fantasy universe created by Michael DeAngelo. This story, “Ghost Guardian,” is a sequel to my story “Ghost Hunter” which came out a few years back, and it follows the further adventures of a shaman and warrior who strives to keep her land safe from the ghosts that would haunt its territory and harm its people. As she progresses in her adventure, she discovers that some members of her own ghost-hunting order may be a greater danger than the spirits she’s sworn to oppose, and she’s forced into dangerous battles against some of the strongest warriors she’s ever known. I really enjoyed writing this one, and I’d be honored if you all would read it. This is my sixteenth story for Tellest and, like Eduland, I’m definitely planning on doing more work for this world in 2023. The story is available here.
• I wrote and sold three more ‘dungeonmorphs’ for Inkwell Ideas, a gaming publisher which specializes in producing platform-agnostic RPG content. Dungeonmorphs are miniature dungeons which can be inserted into other campaigns to mix things up and provides players, even those who may already have played the campaign before, with new content. The dungeonmorphs I wrote for Inkwell Ideas this year ranged from a campaign in a ruined temple to an exploration of a cave system occupied by pirates. A sample dungeonmorph that I wrote can be seen here.
• I completed the novel version of “A Witch of Knightcharm,” one of the longer projects I’ve been working on. In 2023 I aim to turn that book into a series of episodes for Kindle Vella.
• I wrote 5 other short stories of my own IP which I aim to find a home for in the coming year.
• All together, I wrote over 400,000 words between my short stories, game writing, and novel revisions.
• Finally, I attended 5 major writing conferences, including LTUE, Storymakers, Quills, FanX, and the World Fantasy Convention. I also was a panelist for the first time, speaking on a game writing panel at World Fantasy. I thoroughly enjoyed all the conventions, learned a lot at the panels, and had a great time meeting some authors I’ve enjoyed since my youth.

In 2023, my goals include producing another 400,000 words of commercial fiction, of which I’m aiming to have at least 120,000 be my own IP. I want to modify “A Witch of Knightcharm” into a series of episodes and post it, as well as possibly another work, on Kindle Vella. I’m also aiming to submit to specific contests and anthologies, including Writers of the Future.

I hope you all had a a great 2022, and that your 2023 is successful too.

Introduction

My name is Aaron Canton. I am a freelance writer who specializes in fantasy and science fiction stories as well as written content for games and other interactive works. I do work-for-hire as well as my own projects, and I am currently open for commissions. My Amazon author page is here and a complete list of my published works is accessible via the ‘Publications’ page on this website. References are available upon request. If you are interested in commissioning work from me or have other inquiries, you can contact me at AaronCantonWriter@gmail.com.