I am an ex-serving member of the Australian Army, and father to two young boys. I've always been an avid fantasy and sci fi reader, but began writing because of a hungover bet back in 2015, and discovered I had a passion for creating stories. I've written under a hootchie in the jungle on international activities, and aboard warships. In fact, many of the characters and places in my first novel, A Bastard's Birthright (available on amazon), were inspired by the people and experiences I've had whilst travelling with the Army! For a long while, A Bastard's Birthright was my primary focus, but to maintain my motivation during the rewrites and edits, based on feedback from beta readers and a professional manuscript assessment, I started an additional project as well. Starting in 2022, this in turn quickly morphed into a short story anthology series, Valor and Violence, which I have been uploading on the website Royal Road, to gauge audience buy in and gain feedback.
If you want updates on how my writing projects are going, please join the mailing list below, or join me on Discord if you'd rather just talk smack. I'm also active posting naff on instagram at jepayne_books!
I am an ex-serving member of the Australian Army, and father to two young boys. I've always been an avid fantasy and sci fi reader, but began writing because of a hungover bet back in 2015, and discovered I had a passion for creating stories. I've written under a hootchie in the jungle on international activities, and aboard warships. In fact, many of the characters and places in my first novel, A Bastard's Birthright (available on amazon),...
Deep in the Marduk jungle, an ancient artefact is recovered. Unlike anything discovered before, it launches the powers of the world into a brutal contest. Fleets set sail, mages plot, and assassins strike from the shadows, all seeking to control the most powerful artefact ever created. Whoever succeeds will have the power to either control the...
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Valor and Violence is a series of short stories following different, yet all equally colourful, characters set in the same world.
Birth of a Legend, the first short, follows Captain Erskine Erwell, a newly promoted Captain in the Calandorian Royal Navy, charged with protecting his people from all who would do them harm. Great news for the...
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A short story set on Christmas Eve in a fort bordering the place where the Sons of Solomon had ruptured the Hellveil all those years ago and started the war to end all wars... human ones, at least.
But that was then, and this is now, and the glorious victories and heart-pumping battles Kyle Eckhart had been raised hearing about are long gone. Now there's just the monotonous cycle of eating, sleeping and keeping watch over the frozen, empty tundra.
Until now.
As Christmas Eve gives way to...