This site contains text and images for Aether Torrent: an action-adventure fantasy novel of 90,000 words, currently in the arduous process of agent querying. The story's themes include found-family, anti-capitalism, religion, and LGBT+.

I started writing Aether Torrent in May of 2007 simply for the amusement of myself and my friends. Fourteen years of refinement later, here we are.

So, what's the story about?

Tori, an atheist who makes a living by stealing treasures and suffering through retail, wants to turn her black-market boss's ill-gotten treasures into a legitimate, life-affirming museum. Avani, a devoutly religious fugitive blamed for her temple's violence, wants to evangelize safely distant from the influence of her temple's zealots. The girls' paths cross, and they help each other fight their way out of their respective bad situations. Tori then claims that her mother in a distant city can grant both of their wishes at once.

Over five days and nights, Tori and Avani travel between city-states and wilderness. They are joined by Cirrus, a flying, shape-shifting tiger woman who once hunted Avani but had a change of heart. The party battles other monsters and helps other people, growing quickly into a found family on their brief journey. All the while, they race time; if they take too long, Tori's "museum" treasures will be confiscated before the world can appreciate them like she does.

Magic exists in their world as a natural force. Ordinary people wielding the proper tools can draw out elements of the omnipresent aether and use them to supplement the world's early-20th-century technology. Those who do so frequently are called aetherists.

Words of Praise for Aether Torrent

"This story is cinematic as all get-out. It gives us a likeable cast and keeps moving as Tori, Avani, and Cirrus move from one train wreck to the next, leaving chaos in their wake.

It's a ton of fun, and you also have a unique world filled with magic and crime and shark people and giant crabs. It's got a ton of different moving parts, and everything is bursting with life.

Frankly, I think that if you get an agent's attention with this, you've got a really good chance at getting this optioned, because it feels like it's begging to be adapted to a visual medium."

~ Patrick Weekes, lead writer for the Dragon Age video game series and author of Dragon Age: The Masked Empire, Feeder and the Rogues of the Republic series