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Spellmonkeys: Tavern Rats & Dungeon Dogs

Feb 5, 2026 | ,

Hey, I’ve got a new combined edition of the first two Spellmonkeys books coming out March 3rd! It has a new, Illuminated manuscript-looking cover by Shawn Pagels and I should have paperback and hardcover copies for sale at Emerald City Comic Con March 3-6 (maybe!)

Also, my buddy Matt Dinniman was kind enough to give me this quote for the back cover, and he recently got, like, crazy famous? So maybe that’ll help sell some copies?

Want to see book three happen?

Anyway, I’m about to do a big advertising push on Amazon for the series, and how well it goes will determine whether I write more of these things. Most of my sales come from conventions, which is rad because I love seeing all of you, but unfortunately the business model doesn’t really scale — I can only do so many of these things per year, you know?

Which is why I’m pushing online sales. If you’ve read the book and want to see more, the biggest thing you can do to help is to leave a review on the Amazon page so people who click on those ads will see a bunch of reviews there. It really does help a lot, and it can be super short — five stars, this book is fucking rad, hit the submit button, boom, you’re done.

Upcoming Events

Emerald City Comic Con is March 3-6! It’s always my biggest show of the year, but don’t come just to get a Spellmonkeys omnibus, because shipping’s real tight on that one and it’s touch and go, I’m not gonna lie.


I’ll also be at Oddmall at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA April 18-19, which is always a good time and I’ll DEFINITELY have the new books by then.

Also it looks like I’ll be at the World Science Fiction Convention in LA August 27-31! So all you valley rats I haven’t seen since high school can come say hi at the Anaheim Convention Center. It’s like, right next door to Disneyland, you can make a whole thing out of it.

Dungeon Dogs is out now!

Jul 23, 2025 |

This one took some doing, I’m not gonna lie. But it is currently my favorite thing I’ve ever written, so if you’ve been waiting to read the rest of Frinzil’s story, I’m confident that I did you right.


After a disastrous first attempt at adventuring, all seems lost for Frinzil and her band of outcasts. Her magical orb has been shattered, and along with it all hope of returning to her quiet, peaceful life at the Sorcery Institute.

Still, somewhere in the depths of Gluumwilde Forest lies the legendary hidden city of Jülskegnom, and somewhere within that is the Institute Administrator’s secret trove, including a replacement orb that will lead Frinzil to her treasure. All she has to do is find it—and steal it—and then somehow defeat the ruthless, deadly adventurers who usurped her quest in the first place. What could possibly go wrong?

And if you haven’t read book one, Tavern Rats, now is the perfect time to jump in, because it’s a two-book arc and pretty much all the plot threads get tied up nicely. If this one sells well, I’d love nothing more than to keep writing Spellmonkeys books forever, so if you want to see more, tell your friends, leave an Amazon review, make some tiktoks or blueskies or whatever social media the kids are doing these days.

Dungeon Dogs has a cover!

Oct 25, 2024 |

Will it have a release date? Soon, probably! It’s written, and in editing, and will probably come out early in 2025, so that’s where we’re at for now. THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU ALL

Happy book birthday to me

Aug 10, 2022 | ,

 Spellmonkeys book one: Tavern Rats is out today.

(“Spellmonkey” is a derogatory term for magic users, who have a reputation for being the biggest pain in the ass in any adventuring party. The joke is that ideally you could train a monkey to cast Dome of Burning, but until then you just have to deal with some wizard’s bullshit.)

 Which brings us to our hero! Frinzil is studying magic at the Sorcery Institute, which is kind of a terrible school. But it’s the only one that would defer tuition for promising students, so what are you gonna do?

 Alas, after three years she’s still in school and they’re like, uh, you know you have to pay us eventually, right? And Frinzil’s like OH NO

 But! One thing she’s learned from ancient magic tomes is WHERE THE REALLY GOOD TREASURE IS AT. So she heads down to the local tavern to hire a band of seedy adventurers to help her fetch that one big score that will set her up forever.

 The adventurers, of course, immediately bail on her and tromp off to nab it for themselves. Which leaves Frinzil with… a bumbling orcish summoner? A fog-headed druid who can barely remember his own name? A completely and utterly terrifying elven witch? …Basically, the absolute dregs of the adventurer’s tavern that no other party would take.

Can Frinzil’s ragtag band of spellmonkeys beat the professionals to the Temple of Unrelenting Evil and get the treasure first? Can they even survive the trip?

Tavern Rats is my love letter to old-school RPGs, and to the new generation of players who’ve discovered the hobby and made it their own. It’s diverse, casually queer, and full of joy (even when the characters themselves are miserable, which, I’m not gonna lie, is kind of a lot).

Not sold yet? Read the first chapter for free!

Otherwise, the paperback is $15 and the ebook is $5 (which means you can literally start reading it like three clicks from now if you are READY TO GO):

Tavern Rats has a cover! And a release date!

May 20, 2022 |

On sale August 10th! If you want to be notified when the pre-order goes live, sign up for my newsletter below.

All Frinzil ever wanted was to study magic, but with three years of back tuition due, she’s about to be kicked out of school forever. When she stumbles upon the location of a legendary scroll, she thinks her money troubles are over… until the adventurers she hires abandon her to snatch the treasure for themselves.

Now her ragtag band of spellmonkeys (a bumbling orcish summoner, a fog-headed druid, and a demon-worshiping nightmare—basically, the dregs of the adventurer’s tavern that no other party would take) must face the perils of Gluumwilde Forest and find the Temple of Unrelenting Evil before the professionals get there first.

Tavern Rats is a love letter to the fantasy role-playing games of yore, and to the new generation of players discovering them today. It’s diverse, casually queer and socially aware, lovingly skewering well-trodden fantasy tropes while looking ahead toward the genre’s future.

More importantly, though, it’s a whole lot of fun.

 

Arabella Grimsbro audiobook available now!

Nov 14, 2020 |

The audiobook edition of Arabella Grimsbro Versus the “Wonderful” Wizard is available now on Audible! It’s narrated by the magnificent Folly Blaine, who absolutely brings Arabella to life.

You might also have noticed that the title of the book has changed. It turns out that Amazon is not super excited about running ads for books with the word “futhermucking” in the title? So the entire trilogy has a slight rebrand (don’t worry—the insides of the books are unchanged, and still include every single, magnificent  f-bomb).

 

Oh, also! Collected edition!

In other Arabella Grimsbro news, the entire series is now on sale in the Kindle store as a collected edition. It includes all three novels, plus the Sherlock Holmes bonus story, tucked right in between books 2 and 3 where it belongs.

It’s on Kindle Unlimited, too, so if you’re a subscriber and you feel like doing a re-read, you should ABSOLUTELY download the collected edition for free, I WILL GET PAID FOR EVERY PAGE YOU READ, this is the BEST SCAM EVER.