What’s Marauders of the Lost Dragon City about?
My first serialised project on Patreon will be a fantasy adventure romance novella, Marauders of the Lost Dragon City. But, what’s it all about, and where did this story come from?
An invitation
A few years ago, I applied for and was granted a table at A Romantic Adventure Christchurch 2026, which took place in March. A little while later, I was invited to contribute a story to Enchanted Devotion, an event-specific charity anthology.
The anthology was going to contain paranormal and fantasy stories, and have a theme of romantic adventure. Well, my brain immediately went: Romantic Adventure? Fantasy? Yep yep, how about The Mummy (1999)? Because, honestly, I think about The Mummy a lot.
From there, I very quickly got to ‘gender-flipped The Mummy with dragons,’ and I accepted the opportunity to contribute to the anthology.
The story came together well in the end. I squeaked in, with effort, just under the word count, and then my story and eight others were gathered into this beautiful event-exclusive book.
I’m glad I own a copy of this beauty. Now, the rights to release the story have come back to me, and I can do what I want with it.
Why Patreon?
I had been originally planning to just pop it up online as an ebook, but this week I’ve had a lot of time to sit around and think (there was a hospital stay and further at-home recovery involved). Somewhat on a whim, I decided to try out serialising the chapters here on Patreon, because why not?
This crazy year of 2026 is a tough time to be an author. AI slop books are flooding the market. It’s getting harder to find artists and cover designers who don’t use AI, not because they aren’t out there (there are plenty), but because the AI slop artists are getting better at mimicking real artists. Amazon seems not to be reporting sales properly, but no one knows how to check for sure. No one wants to buy books because they are too busy taking out loans to fill their cars with petrol.
This attempt to start a Patreon may not work, but so what if it doesn’t? Nothing else is anyway, so why not have a go and have some fun?
What is Marauders of the Lost Dragon City about?
Marauders is a tale of a scholar and a world-weary person looking for an archaeological site. That’s The Mummy of it. From there, I’ve spun a tale all of my own. Expect:
A grumpy black cat woman with knives!
A cinnamon roll bespectacled scholar!
A sailing ship with a hard-arsed, supportive captain.
Hiking up a mountain and getting caught in inclement weather!
There’s only one bed roll.
THERE’S ONLY ONE BED ROLL
Smart people being smart.
Dumb people being dumb.
DRAGON
And a somewhat spicy scene thrown in for good measure.
The blurb
The untouched ruins of a dragon city have been discovered, and riches await. Two teams seek to be the first inside: an archaeological team from the university, and a band of thieves and marauders.
Alain, a scholar of draconic studies, loves exploring the cities of the supposedly extinct dragons. Expeditions like this are worth the embarrassment of being looked down upon by his colleagues for his bucolic background.
Chantal, who once dreamed of being a researcher, needs to find artefacts for the black market so she can support her financially troubled parents. Her colleagues are the worst, but she puts up with it for the cause.
When both teams arrive in the city and make a discovery that changes everything, Alain and Chantal wonder if they should stick with their respective colleagues, or work together and reach for something different. Something more.
Content warnings: workplace bullying and harassment; inclement weather; being trapped underground; fear of pregnancy complications; violence; sexual content.
How I will be releasing the story
I’ll post the first few chapters within a week, and then thereafter, I’ll release one chapter a week. The first two chapters will be free to read, and the rest will be released to my Early bird tier and above. Marauders is a novella with nine chapters, so it won’t take too long to get the whole thing up.
Once I’ve serialised the whole story, I’ll collect it and sell it online as an ebook, so you could read it then if you aren’t ready to become a paid subscriber. I release my books wide, including through library services (so you can request my books from your library), and on Kobo+ if you have a monthly subscription with them. I don’t use KU, sorry, because I don’t want to be locked into the exclusivity. But you can buy my ebooks on Kindle.
I hope you stick around, even if only as a free subscriber for now to try out the first few chapters of this novella.
All the best, and happy reading!