The villains in Mystech: Fracture get the best lines. That was on purpose.

Mystech: Fracture is out in the world as of last week, and I want to tell you about the part of it I'm most nervous about.

It's a superhero fantasy wrapped around a political thriller: The cost of virtue in a society being hollowed out. But when I look back at the manuscript, my favorite writing isn't the heroic stuff. It's the villains.

Here's one of them, talking to Evan. And here is the thing about Evan, he’s 55. He’s listened to conservative radio for more than thirty years. He’s already radicalized, he doesn’t need a ‘Turn to the dark side’ moment, he just needs permission:

"You are special, Evan. You know that the truth is not obvious, that it is kept hidden and guarded by the liberal elite. You know that Occam's razor is the shepherd's crook used to herd the sheep in their pens."

I wrote that line to be flattering and validating, because that's the honest thing to do. The villains people actually follow don't sound like villains. They sound like the one person finally telling you you're special and the world is lying to you. The horror of writing this book was how easily those lines came—and how good they sounded once they were on the page.

That tension is the whole engine of the book. If you like superpowers with real stakes and a story that takes its politics seriously, I think you'll find something here.

Mystech: Fracture available here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H6G6W2WM