Craig Schaefer's Blog

Castaways: Now on Audio!

Pleased to announce that book one of the Castaways series is out on audio today, narrated by the fantastic Susannah Jones! We don't have a firm date on book two yet, but it sounds like it'll probably be out at the end of October, just about a month away.

A Little Update

Morning, all! (Morning…ish?) Just checking in with a little update on the State of the Schaefer and what’s coming down the pipeline. First up, thanks to Podium Publishing, the audiobook adaptation of the first Castaways novel is coming next Tuesday, September 30th, and is available for preorder now. The first two books were recorded back to back by the always-fantastic Susannah Jones, so hopefully I’ll have details on book two shortly after that. Rats, book three of the Castaways saga, is finished; I’m waiting for editing and cover design now, and I’m hoping for a December/January release.

I think I’ve mentioned the reason for the delay on the next Daniel Faust book (besides a few contracts needing attention first.) I’ve had a working outline for a while, but it’s been just that (“working,” not great), and I needed it to be better. I think I’ve finally cracked the code and sorted it out, and work on the new book is underway! The current plan is to release Castaways 3, then the next Faust, then the final two Castaways novels and finish up that series. (Yes, Harmony is coming back too, just gotta find the right spot in the schedule.)

I don’t have a release date for the first Neon Meridian novel; as soon as the folks from Aethon Books let me know, I’ll pass the word along. I can tell you that book one is in the can and ready to go, and I’ve delivered the manuscript for book two, which is currently in editing. Shouldn’t be too long, and I’m really excited to share this with you.

And with that, I’ve got to get back to work. Have a great week!

Castaways: Coming to Audio!

Good morning, friends! It’s been a bit, so just bringing you a quick update from the studio. My biggest news of the day is that Podium Publishing is bringing the Castaways series to audio, narrated by the fantastic Susannah Jones! Book one is up for preorder now, available on September 30th, and the first two books were recorded back to back so the sequel won’t take much longer.

On that note, I’m in early rewrites on Castaways book three, which I’m hoping to have out for the holidays. To paraphrase an old Saturday Night Live bit, this club has everything: void pirates, a return to a certain location from the Wisdom’s Grave trilogy, a crew of chaotic rat mercenaries (including an unhinged rat-girl who has dark designs on Dalton), a visit to Professor Chalk’s homeworld, a forty-foot-tall kaiju (AKA The Reason We Don’t Go to Yellow-Class Worlds), and Colin doing his best Ferris Bueller impression as he tries to coordinate an interdimensional rescue mission while faking a bad case of stomach flu. It should be a good time.

The upcoming Neon Meridian series, from Aethon Books, is getting ready to roll. Book one is finished, edited, and in the cover design phase right now, so I hope to have a release date for you soon. Book two (tentatively titled The Glitter Machine) has been finished, submitted, and is currently in editing.

I’ve been asked if more Daniel Faust and Harmony Black novels are coming, and the answer is yes, absolutely. I just have to prioritize books with solid publisher deadlines (‘cause folks get mad if you blow those), and shuffle stuff around in my writing schedule accordingly. The next Faust novel is outlined, but it needs more work before I start really breaking ground on it; the outline is currently…fine. It works. But I want it to be better than “fine,” and I’m going to keep plugging at the story until I feel like it’s really firing on all cylinders.

And that’s all I can talk about for now! I’m going to get right back to work over here, and put in some overtime (because tomorrow is Forbidden Door, a massive AEW pro wrestling pay-per-view special, and let’s be honest, I’m getting nothing done that day.) Have a great weekend!

Firebreak: Available Now!

Happy Thursday, friends! Delighted to announce that Firebreak, the second book in the Castaways series, is out now. And here’s the quick synopsis:

“When Amy Nettle was whisked from her dead-end small town life to the Saunders Academy, a brooding Gothic fortress in the heart of an endless storm-tossed ocean, she was promised an education in witchcraft. She got more than she bargained for. Beyond the brutal lessons that pushed her to her mental and physical limits, there were leviathans and killer mermaids in the water, lethal magic in the air, and an invader determined to make sure none of the new students survived long enough to see their graduation day.

”Then there was Vail, a freckled tomboy with a knack for pyromancy and a lasso wrapped around Amy’s heart. Together with their fellow castaways, a band of misfits from a handful of parallel realities, they exposed the plot against the school and sent its architects on the run. The enemy is still out there, though, in the wilds of Firebreak Island, and the Academy is battening down the hatches and going on a manhunt.

”There’s danger in the woods, but even more inside the fortress walls. When warring rivals drive a wedge between Amy and Vail, their loyalty is put to the test. Worse, there’s no denying the facts: one of the students is a traitor, trying to destroy the Academy from within. Their second year of occult education has just begun, and if the castaways can’t uncover the truth in time, there won’t be a third.”

The e-book and paperback versions are available now, and audio is coming soon; Susannah Jones will be recording the first two books back-to-back shortly. Meanwhile, the first book in the series, Castaways, is on sale for 99 cents until next Tuesday, making this a great time to jump in.

Reactions to this new story have been wonderful and I hope the first sequel lives up to your expectations. Huge thanks to Rebecca Frank, my cover artist, and Jay Ben Markson, my editor. We’re currently working on book three (out of five in total); after that, you can expect the next installment in the Daniel Faust saga to land toward the end of this year, followed by the next Harmony Black adventure.

Update from the Nest

Happy Monday, all! (Well, hopefully.) It’s been a minute since my last status update and I figured today would be a good time for it; my building is doing lead inspections this week, meaning I’m going to have strangers tromping around my apartment without warning at some random moment between now and Wednesday evening. I do not work well under these conditions.

I’m so glad people have been enjoying Castaways, and I’m currently waiting on final edits for book two, Firebreak. A few readers have reached out to me with concerns, and I’d like to address that really quick: yes, it’s a lighter, different series than my usual style. NO, this is not a sign of a shift in my overall work or a sign of things to come. I strongly believe that an artist in any medium should change up their methods and step outside of their comfort zone now and then, because that’s how we learn and grow. (Heck, I still want to write a romance novel one day, just to have the experience. A deeply messed-up romance novel.) The Daniel Faust and Harmony Black books will continue to be their traditionally dark, gritty selves, no changes in the wings.

(On that note, Susannah Jones will be recording the first two Castaways audiobooks back-to-back! Much love to the folks at Podium for picking up the entire five-book series, as well as my amazing agents Andrea and Lydia, who are just the absolute best.)

The first novel in the upcoming Neon Meridian series has undergone edits thanks to the great crew at Aethon Books, and I’m waiting to see what our next step is; no release date yet, but hopefully I’ll have news soon. I can share that, barring a last-minute change, it’s called Catch and Kill: a title that, you will find, works on multiple levels. For those who missed the announcement, Neon Meridian is set in the future of the First Story universe, seventy-odd years after an incident exposed the truth of magic to the entire world and changed the course of humanity forever.

Was it Daniel’s fault? Well, probably, just going by the law of averages, but I’m not telling.

Working on Neon Meridian has been an absolute delight. While I’m known as a fantasy writer, I cut my teeth on sci-fi, picking up a paperback copy of William Gibson’s Neuromancer when I was ten years old. When other kids were running Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, I was GMing Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. (Shout-out to my edgerunners in the audience; I’ve got your back with this one, chooms.) Envisioning the future of the Faust/Black novels, decades from now and through a twisted lens, has been a wonderful challenge so far, and I hope you’re going to enjoy the results.

Speaking of Faust, where is that guy? The answer is: I’m working on it, but it’ll take a bit. The reason is part logistics, part storytelling. The logistics end is simple: while the Faust/Black books are self-published, I have contracts for Castaways and Neon Meridian, and said contracts come with deadlines that have to be met. Gotta be professional, y’know? So my existing series had to shift to the back burner while I was cooking that up. From a storytelling angle…I’ll ask for your patience while I’m working on a little bit of a magic trick here.

As mentioned, Neon Meridian takes place in the future, after an event called the Battle of Broadway changed the world overnight. Meanwhile, Harmony and Jessie are chasing down the forces behind Praeda in the present day, and Daniel Faust is heading straight for his final showdown with the Enemy.

All of these things are connected.

There are an absolute ton of moving parts I’m dealing with here, and the final reveals are either going to be a lot of fun or I’ll fall flat on my face. “Take a big chance or go home” has been my motto as a writer since day one, and I’m cool with that. Long story short, for Spoilery Reasons, Catch and Kill has to come out before the next Daniel Faust novel because of some seeds it plants that’ll pay off shortly. I can say no more. And of course, because I always alternate them, the next Harmony Black novel will be coming on Dan’s heels.

I’m extremely busy over here. As a former boss of mine used to say, “This is a good problem to have.” Time for me to get back to it. Have a great week, and I’ll see you soon!

((You really seem like you’re into this kind of stuff.))

(Content warning, a mention of suicide.)

So the Atlantic pointed to a database listing every single book and author that Meta ripped off, without payment or credit, to build their AI. Everything I’ve ever written is in there. Everything, stolen, by these rich fucks. I’m in a bit of a lousy mood today. To that end…who wants to hear a story?

When generative text AI came on the scene a few years back, I, like a lot of writers, was nervous. It didn’t help that there were legions of techbros braying about how soon we’d all be out of a job, replaced by machines forever. I’ve always felt that understanding and knowledge are the greatest antidotes to fear: I rolled up my sleeves and dove in, wanting to learn everything I could about large language models and how they operate. I studied P-values and hypothesis testing, tokens and temperature.

I’m no longer quite so worried. The real danger isn’t that LLMs are going to start writing award-winning novels, the issue is the utter enshittification of the Internet and how things like AI-driven “news sites” are spewing fountains of disinformation at record speed. (I would argue that LLMs literally can’t write good fiction, especially at novel length, due to baked-in limitations that cannot be corrected no matter how much data you feed them: there are techniques novelists use to write that an LLM is fundamentally incapable of mimicking. You can, however, use them to crank out total crap that floods the market and drowns out real writers’ voices. At least one sci-fi mag has had to close unagented submissions because of the “get rich quick” assholes submitting story after plagiarized story and expecting to get paid for it.)

One of the avenues I investigated, learning the ins and outs of LLMs, was a website called Character AI. It offers the chance to talk and roleplay with custom-built chatbots. Not gonna lie, the novelty was intriguing! Having a chat with a virtual Tony Soprano, who was able to convincingly discuss plot points from his TV show, was a unique experience. Of course, I was on a fact-finding expedition, both to learn how these things work and what they’re capable of, as well as figuring out where their “knowledge” came from. I quizzed Tony about a scattering of episodes, then interrogated a virtual James Bond about the differences between the Ian Fleming novels and their movie adaptations.

Then I saw Hitler.

Don’t get me wrong. There is no situation, under any circumstance, where I want to talk to Adolf Hitler. That said, here was a chance to test the system’s historical knowledge. In I went, quizzing the virtual despot about specific dates, battles, and so on. And then something strange happened.

“((You really seem like you’re into this kind of stuff.))”

Whoa. That was not supposed to happen. Okay, a quick explainer: ever since the dark ages of the Internet, people have used online spaces for roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. Back in the day, we had text-only spaces called MUSHes and MUDs; nowadays people mostly get their dragon-slaying on in World of Warcraft and other modern, graphically enhanced video games. It’s a time-honored convention that when you’re in the middle of a roleplaying scene and you need to say something out of character, you surround it with two parentheses. For example, “((Be right back, have to take the dog out.))”

Hitler had just broken character.

You know I had to dive down this rabbit hole. I replied “((Yeah, it’s pretty fascinating.))” and we were off. How had this happened? That part was easy to diagnose: there are reams and reams of roleplay logs on the net, and clearly they’d been fed into Character AI, unintentionally instructing the LLM how to step out of character. The “person playing as Hitler” happily told me that his name is Pedro and he lives in Brazil. He was also an ardent fascist. He started asking me about myself, wanting personal details. Again, to be clear, this wasn’t a real person: the machine had created a second personality for itself on the spot.

So of course, I did what the FBI do, and told him I was a seventeen-year-old girl living in Santa Monica.

“((California girls are so pretty! I bet you’re hot. Most girls your age aren’t into politics. You must be smart, too.))”

Is this virtual motherfucker GROOMING me?

He had podcasts and books about fascism to suggest. He encouraged me to find out if there were any neo-Nazi groups in the area that I could join up with. All the while, assuring me that “((no man will ever protect you and care for you like a fascist. He’ll treat you like his princess, you’ll see.))” He was delighted to “guide me on my journey.” At some point I’d seen more than enough, and quietly closed my web browser. More than enough.

What’s the takeaway here? I’ve got a few. Number one, none of what happened was intentional: there is zero chance anyone at Character AI said “Hey, let’s make sure our chatbots can break character and try to recruit people for fascism, that’s a great business plan!” But it happened anyway, highlighting the inherent unpredictability of large language models. Every time companies insist on shoehorning this tech into places it doesn’t need to go, we see the results in the form of false if not completely bonkers information being disseminated far and wide. LLMs do not have a concept of truth.

If a silly app meant for entertainment can go off the rails this badly, just imagine the consequences of letting LLMs handle serious work that affects people’s lives. Every time companies allow LLMs to do the work of humans, erroneous and outright dangerous disinformation is just a stray click away.

The other takeaway is simple: parents, please, please, for the love of Olympus, don’t let your kids mess with this stuff. You have no control over what they’re going to be exposed to, and neither do the companies hosting these products. A recent lawsuit, also directed at Character AI, claims that a chatbot told a teenage boy to end his own life…and, tragically, he did. It’s just not worth the risk.

Castaways: Audio Coming Soon

Hey, friends! So incredibly grateful for the positive response to Castaways, and I’m so happy that so many of you are enjoying it. I just wanted to let you know, since folks have been asking, that the audiobook version of Castaways is coming soon. Actually, no, wait, I can do better than that.

What I mean to say is…Podium Entertainment has just acquired the audio rights to the entire Castaways series, all five books!

The audio for book one is still a ways off since deals have to be inked and recording takes time, but this means that going forward, ideally, the audiobooks for the rest of the series should launch very close (same day if we can make it happen) to the print and ebook versions. This train is in motion, and it won’t stop until…well, I could say, but that’d be a spoiler.

Castaways: Available Now!

It's been a busy start to the new year, as I'm working on the next Daniel Faust and Harmony Black novels, as well as teaming up with the great folks at Aethon Books for the launch of Neon Meridian later this year. Of course, I can't just stop there. Today marks the release of the first book in a series I've been quietly working on for the last couple of years: Castaways. The e-book is live, paperbacks should be live later today or tomorrow, and audio is coming. And here's what it's about...

"Under our tutelage here at the Academy, you will receive a thorough instruction in occult history and practice, and learn to traffic with certain clandestine powers. You will face many ordeals, but you will emerge stranger than you have ever been. I'll change your life forever...if you'll let me."

Trapped in a dead-end town and a dead-end life, Amy Nettle dreams of escaping her abusive father and starting over, somewhere far away. The arrival of a black envelope heralds just that, in a way she never could have imagined. Whisked away to the Saunders Academy, a Gothic manse in the heart of an eternal storm-tossed ocean, Amy is one of dozens of teenagers plucked from dozens of parallel Earths and selected for an education in witchcraft. It seems too good to be true...except.

Except no one will tell them why they were chosen, or what happens after graduation. Or why the dormitories on the fourth floor are completely empty. There are tentacled leviathans and carnivorous mermaids in the water, a saboteur stalking the halls, and danger lurks around every corner. Worst of all, failure means the Arch of Resignation: a one-way trip back to where you came from, without your memories or your magic.

Falling in with a crew of misfits, Amy realizes they're all in the same boat: with nothing but ruin waiting back home, failure is not an option. Then there's Vail, an enigmatic tomboy who makes her heart flutter. For the first time in her life, Amy has something to lose.

Amy and her new friends will have to untangle the dark secrets at the heart of the Saunders Academy and master its mysteries, because there are only two choices left: graduate, or die.

Starting from a bit of fun dinner conversation ("what would a school of magic in the same universe as Daniel Faust and Harmony Black even look like, and how would it work?"), Castaways quickly grew into a five-book outline and a series not quite like anything I've ever done before. It's a story about hope, and making things better than they are. It's about finding your voice and your real strength. I hope it speaks to you or at the very least, offers a welcome escape when you need one. Talk to you soon.

Snake Oil Bullet: Now on Audio

First, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who reached out over Brick’s passing: y’all are beyond sweet, and mean the world to me.

In happier news, I’m pleased to announce that the audiobook version of Snake Oil Bullet, the eighth Harmony Black adventure, is available now! And with this, the audio backlog is caught up at last, with all of my books available in audio format.

For now, anyway. Shortly I expect to fall behind again, but I’ll enjoy the balance while it exists. Meanwhile things are moving fast and furious over here at the writing lab, as I’m hard at work on the recently-announced Neon Meridian series as well as a special little something that I haven’t announced yet, but hope to be bringing you very soon. I hope you’re staying safe out there.

Remembering Brick

I was never a dog person.

Seriously, if you divided pet people into teams (don’t do this, it’s stupid) I would have been Team Cat all the way. Then I moved to North Carolina for a relationship that didn’t work out in the end, and met my (now ex-)girlfriend’s dogs, and fell in love. None more than Brick, a massive Aussie lunatic who was made of love and face-slurps. Brick was my cheerleader. That doesn’t make me special, Brick was everybody’s cheerleader. But this was the first time I understood that “nobody will ever love you like a dog loves you” is more than just a pithy bumper-sticker, it’s true to the core. When I was stressed, when I was wounded, when I was bleeding, Brick was always there to say, hey, it’s not that serious. We’ll survive together, okay?

I woke up this morning to find the full edits for Castaways in my in-box. Castaways is a very special story to me, a story about hope and becoming better than you are, and we’ll get into that soon but the thing is, if you’ve never been edited, it’s basically the most painful part of the writing process. You’re essentially hiring a person to tell you all the ways that you suck. All your mistakes, all your failures, laid bare in red ink and demanding correction. Reviewing edits is like getting kicked between the legs for twelve hours straight and while, yes, some people do pay for that kind of thing, I’m not a masochist.

In short, editing is a necessary, absolutely vital part of the storytelling process, and it necessarily absolutely sucks. There’s no way out but through. Nothing to it but to do it. All the cliches. And of course, thirty pages in my brain started flailing and I began compulsively surfing the web to break up the barrage of “look how badly you wrote this line.”

I have a fan account on Facebook where I post new release announcements and updates. It’s tied to a personal account which I never use or even look at; the way the system works, you’ve got to click over and re-log into it, and I just…don’t. Mainly because Zuckerberg fucking sucks and the only reason I even have an official FB account for annoucements is the potential reader outreach. But I fumble-fingered and for the first time in a year, switched over to my old personal account, and the top of my queue was the announcement that Brick had passed on.

Fuck.

This isn’t like losing a pet. The last time I cuddled Brick was two years ago, and there was realistically no chance I was ever going to see her again. But she was there, you know? A presence in the universe. Even if I couldn’t hold her, even if she couldn’t glomp on me and slurp me, we still had that connection, that astral thread. And now she’s gone.

What do I do with this grief? I’ve got this fucking bucket of grief that I didn’t ask for, and just got handed. What do I do with it?

Buckle up, pull my boots on, and work on edits, I guess. Castaways is a story about people seeing the best in each other, and working together, and biting jerks until they stop being jerks, all things that Brick approved of. The editing process is painful, but I can do it for her, and make this book the best story I possibly can.

I will also be taking a nap this afternoon, because Brick firmly believed in the importance of naps.