A character-driven, mythological fantasy. Available everywhere on December 19th, 2025.
When her mother is claimed by Death a second time, Kateryna is forced to abandon her afterlife and descend into Pandemonium—a shattered underworld shaped by pain, memory, and buried sin. To save her mother’s soul, she must join forces with her estranged father, whose devotion to a fallen goddess set this all in motion. Hunted by Morgana, the Goddess Corrupted and her chosen griffin-riders, Kateryna must journey through the shadows and confront the reality of her own dark past—because in Pandemonium, death is only the beginning.
Purchase Amazon More InfoLearn how I calculate progress
Ashen Rider — 100%
SOIL — 65%
What Lies Below — 77%
Those Left Behind — 37%
James D. Mills is a writer, editor, and a wanderer. He writes Fantasy and Contemporary Literature in attempts to wrangle with whatever broils beneath the surface. His main goal is to be awarded "Best Dad Ever" for 18 consecutive years by the people who matter most. After that, he wants to topple that record indefinitely.
He is most well known for his role as Editor-in-Chief for The Literary Fantasy Magazine. His short fiction is scattered in a variety of excellent literary magazines. He scribbles away at novels, soon to be unveiled. In his free time he walks around the woods, manually types out linux commands on old PCs, and sings to his family...
Looking to get published in Sword & Sorcery and Heroic Fantasy but you have no clue where to submit your short fiction? I’ve got you covered. I scoured the depths of the internet (and Facebook, *shudders*) searching for all the magazines and anthologies that currently publish S&S and Heroic Fantasy. To get an idea of […]
Before I became a writer, my first creative love was guitar. I grew up listening to the greats of Classic Rock and Americana—and also some deep cuts from my own time. In my first draft of Ashen Rider, I had placed epigraphs with song lyrics. Since then, I’ve learned this is a big legal no-no. […]
Ashen Rider is my debut Epic Fantasy to be published by The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing on December 19th, 2025. As I was performing the final proofread, I couldn’t help but smile at all the tiny intricate references and easters eggs on nearly every page. Most of these only I will ever know, but I wanted […]
The last time I walked down Union Avenue (or Road, I can never remember) in the town where I grew up and where I lived through my early adulthood, I was bombarded by memories everywhere I looked. There’s the dealership where I bought my first car, that’s the BevMo that used to be the old […]
Big Goals In March 2023, I attended the 44th International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in Orlando, Florida. It was the first time that I traveled somewhere just to immerse myself in writing and surround myself with experienced, successful people. Truly, it was a life altering experience. This is where I first […]