A bit of history on the nine cuts

The Short Version: A role-playing game, a retainer check, a laptop, a tragedy, fifteen years of an idea knocking on the inside of my skull, and one student who finally kicked the door open.

The Longer Version:
If you want to understand where The Nine Cuts came from, you have to go back to the 1990s. I was deep into a role-playing game called Shadowrun — a cyberpunk fantasy world that I found genuinely compelling. Compelling enough, apparently, that I wrote a novel set in that world. Just like that, on a bit of a whim. It was apparently compelling enough that a publisher/author at the company FASA thought it was worth developing, and sent me a retainer check to finish it.
I used that check to buy a laptop. A writer’s instinct, if not necessarily a writer’s wisdom.

Then my contact at FASA passed away. I reached out to others at the company and found nothing but closed doors. The book — nearly finished, something I had genuinely poured myself into — went into my files, where it has sat for several decades. A near-miss that taught me something about the publishing world and about the particular cruelty of timing.

I moved on. Built a career in Information Technology. Along the way, I published several books on subjects I know well — Cryptocurrency and Herbalism for starters. They were good work, decent books, they didn’t let me retire from my job, but provided a bit of a side income. But fiction, and particuarly fantasy, kept pulling at me.
For about fifteen years, the idea that would eventually become The Nine Cuts lived in my head. A martial artist. Worlds seeded from Earth’s own history. A system of magic built on real folk traditions from our world and societies. An ultimate betrayal.

I knew the shape of it. I just never quite believed I had the creativity to really execute it, at least not well. Nonfiction is different — you know what you know, you write what you know, and the structure is built into the subject matter. Fiction requires you to trust something less tangible. And in my case, I wasn’t sure I trusted it.

Then one of my Kenpo students and good friends — Jeremy Lucas — did something that changed all of that.

You see, Jeremy had his own story living in his head. Like me, he had waited with the ideas, never feeling quite ready. But, the day came when he felt ready, and he sat down and started writing it. He knew I had books out, even if they were nonfiction, and he asked me to read what he had, and give him some feedback.

What I read was good, but what really got me, is that it was alive. I could feel the rush of ideas, the passion of someone who had finally let the thing out of its cage. It was the work of someone who had stopped waiting for permission.

It inspired me in a way I didn’t expect.

I went back to my own idea. Not to dabble with it, but to commit to it. I spent about a month doing nothing but world-building — fleshing out characters, building antagonists, developing magic systems, mapping the timeline, and coming up with plot and character arcs. As I worked, I realized I didn’t have a book in my head. I had an entire series. I readjusted my thinking accordingly.

It turned out I REALLY liked what I had. I’m hoping that you do too.

Several months later, Book One of The Nine Cuts is in final editing. It will be released soon. Book Two is already underway. The nine-book arc is mapped. The worlds are built. The guardian is walking.

If you’ve been waiting for the right story to find you, I hope this is it. Sign up below to be the first to know when Book One drops.”

Jeremy — thank you for kicking the door open.

Nine books, nine worlds, nine cuts.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Walk well between the Worlds,

Sean