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Aaron Sher

@aaronsher.bsky.social

470 followers 350 following 1.3K posts

Fantasy author, martial artist, software engineer, cook, ally, and cat minion. Not necessarily in that order. (he/him) http://aaronsher.com

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · Jun 22

“This isn’t just magic in a trench coat. It’s magic on a job site.” - Goodreads reviewer

Applied Leverage is an award-winning urban fantasy novel starring a snarky telekinetic locksmith in a world of magic. On Kindle, KU, and Audible. books2read.com/AppliedLever...

#fantasy #books #booksky

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 11h

Almost barbecued, just lightly browned on the outside.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

Nia eyed me skeptically. "You almost got barbecued and then trampled. You sure you're OK?"
"Almost is the key word there. Almost barbecued, almost trampled. Not actually barbecued or trampled. That goon was just a hothead, nothing to worry about."
'''Hothead', nice. Well, hopefully he gets what he deserves for that. I spotted what you did there, spoiling his aim with that bit of teek, but I don't think anybody else did." Nia misses nothing.
"Joe can't exactly call the cops, so banning the guy
is probably the best he can do." I sat down on the steps of her building, trying to make it look like I was just relaxing and not because I wasn't sure my legs would hold me. I knew I wasn't fooling her, but I also knew that she'd take the effort for what it was and pretend right along with me.
"Why can't he?" she asked. "The guy tried to kill
you."

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 11h

Wordle 1,576 5/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 22h

Nobody replied - do I take that to mean nobody got the joke, or everybody got it?

Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 1d

Wordle 1,575 2/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 1d

This bathtub is easily big enough for my 5’10” overweight self. These two are Maine Coons, and neither is full grown (2 and 1 years old respectively).

Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 1d

AI would do a better job.

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 1d

Who actually gets this joke? I may have gone a bit too obscure with this one. If you don’t, does it bother you?

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

Towing her rather large suitcase, Elise forged her way through the crowd to where the man waited and said,
"I'm Elise Vaughn."
The man said, "Welcome to London, Ms. Vaughn.
My name is Edwards and I'll be your driver for today." He paid Nia and me no attention whatsoever. "If you'll come this way, the car is waiting."
No Marx Brothers straight line for me. Defeated, I
trailed along in the wake left by the man and Elise's suitcase. Nia brought up the rear; I couldn't tell if she was truly alert or if that's just what her face did when she was acutely sleep-deprived. That might have more to do with me than with her, though.

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 2d

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Wordle 1,574 X/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 2d

I used this one before, but it’s the only “prize” in two books.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

"Disciples get to take initiative, Initiates don't,"
Elise said. "This is a gray area since I'm still doing exactly what Uncle James wanted me to do, though I think if he knew the details he'd tell me to back off. But if I do that, then I don't find the answer:"
"And you just can't stand not knowing the
answer," Nia said, smirking.
"Could you?"
"Hey, I was in the Army. You get told what you need to know, when you need to know it, and then you're supposed to forget it to make space for the next thing.
Initiative is, let's say, not highly prized, at least at the lower ranks."
There was a lull in the conversation. By this point
we'd finished eating and were all just sitting around, so "Shall we?" I asked.

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 3d

Wordle 1,573 4/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 3d

Fox enjoys his job.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

"Like trickle-charging a battery, I get it. Could we maybe take the golem there and tap into the network? No, that would be wildly conspicuous, there's no place on that street to casually park a big flatbed truck." I trailed off, trying to come up with a solution.
"Rourke!" came a shout from out in the main area
of the shop.
I left Elise staring glumly into the hole in the
golem and went out to see what was going on.
It was Fox. When he saw me he gave me that sharp grin that always made me feel like there was a joke at my expense somewhere.
"I did the thing," he said without introduction.
"What did you find out?" I asked.
"Bugger all," he said, seeming satisfied. "Bloody
nothing."

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 4d

Wordle 1,572 4/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 4d

I think that “fuck” really just sums that up, don’t you?

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

"You look like crap. What happened?"
"Take me home and I'll tell you."
She pulled away from the curb. "Something go
wrong with that job for the mage this morning?"
"With her goon, anyway. I opened the
safe—which was a bitch, by the way—and then, bam, woke up in a dungeon."
"A what?"
"A dungeon. A literal, cell-door,
strapped-to-a-chair, drain-in-the-floor dungeon."
"Fuck."
We drove in silence for several moments. I was
content to slowly melt into the seat and trust Nia to handle the everyday combat of the Boston streets.
Finally, she spoke up. "That sounds like the kind of bad day that might be followed by a bad night involving people with black suits and guns."
I roused myself from my not-entirely-conscious
state. "This seems... definitely possible."

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 5d

Wordle 1,571 4/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 5d

Well… sort of zombies. But that’s later.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

As soon as we were far enough away to feel very slightly safer, Elise called the London mages. There was a very brief conversation, a lot of Elise's side of which was along the lines of, "Yes, I said zombies. Yes, like walking dead people zombies. Haven't you ever watched a movie?"
Hanging up, she said, "They're sending a car for
us and a team to put down the zombies. Hopefully they actually believed me."
Nia was watching behind us as we ran—well, jogged. It was over a mile to the spot where we'd been dropped off, and neither Elise nor I was really in shape for long-distance running. She said, "Slow as they are, I figure we've got thirty minutes at least if they come straight after us. If that was as fast as they can go, anyway."
"The car should be here soon, they said." Elise
was panting a bit.
Nia grunted, not at all out of breath. "I wish I had
a gun."
"I wish you had a gun too," I said.

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 6d

Wordle 1,570 4/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 6d

Eh, who’d notice a few extra zombies in London, right?

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

The first zombie, the one whose knee I had broken, got within range and Nia gave it a heavy work boot to the head. This was the same one whose skull she had cracked earlier—not to mention taking a lightning bolt to the face-and apparently enough was enough; there was a crunch and it lay still.
"We can stop them. Just takes a lot," she said.
"We don't have a lot," I pointed out. I swiped with
my cane at the groping hands of another zombie but missed.
Elise said, "When we get to the opening, I'll cover
it with a shield. Then we run?"
On the one hand, leaving a zombie horde behind us wasn't a great look. On the other hand, being killed and eaten by a zombie horde didn't seem like an improvement.
"Running sounds good to me."
Nia said, "Motion carried. Three more steps...
two... and... now!"

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 7d

Wordle 1,569 3/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 7d

Breaking into a mausoleum at night in a cemetery. What could go wrong?

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙

Unless it had been locked from the inside. I wasn't
going to pursue that line of thought, I decided firmly.
I further noted that the heavy iron door where the
deadbolt had been set was bent slightly inwards, as if someone or something had broken the lock by simply pulling until it gave way.
This all took the creepiness factor of the night up
at least another three levels.
We all waited a moment to see if anything would
happen. When nothing did, Nia shone her flashlight around the space inside, revealing the expected small chamber. What was not expected, however, was that the caskets that had previously been stored there were
splintered, leaving shattered bits of heavy wood littering the floor. There were no obvious body parts, so either they were buried in the rubble or... yeah, not going there either.

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 8d

Wordle 1,568 4/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 8d

The Stuff Your Kindle event is still going on with hundreds of free books. Don’t miss it!

#books #fantasy #freebooks

Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 8d

FREE on Kindle today!

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). books2read.com/AppliedLever...

I said, "So we'd better be really sure we don't give them any reason to think we might even be considering the possibility of betraying them."
"What can we really give away?" Nia asked
rhetorically. "We know they exist-White, at least, obviously knows that too. We know they have a village... somewhere, presumably in South America. We know about this house. If Burhan rolled up that tapestry and drove away with it, there would be nothing we could do to expose them."
I sighed. "You're not wrong. Well, it was a choice
between making a deal with them or getting hunted by White for the rest of our lives, which is to say probably a week or so."
"This sucks."
"No argument there. What did Burhan give us?"

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 9d

Wordle 1,567 5/6

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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 9d

My book and HUNDREDS of others are free today! Go to stuffwithfantasy.com for the complete list. Don’t miss it!

Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · 10d

Event starts tomorrow!