Jennifer Schmaltz Robbers, thank you for your comments and painstaking copyediting. This book would not be what it is, if it hadn't been for your help.
Jan Roed Thastum, thank you for your friendship and for all the advice and help you have given me during the creation of this book's cover.
My brother Martin, thank you for helping me find my way into storytelling – from the first D&D set you gave me for my 11th birthday, to believing in me when I aimed for a career as a writer and game designer.
My daughter Gaia, thank you for the way you remind me of how the world looks and what is important – and for your love.
My parents, thank you for never telling us that we couldn't.
My test readers (you know who you are), thank you for your invaluable comments, and for taking time in your busy lives to read and respond on my first write-through.
About the Author
Anders Rauff-Nielsen is an award-winning Danish game designer and fiction writer who has made an international career working with games, storytelling and world-building since 2006 – a career based on a lifelong passion for stories and games, supported by a master's degree in Philosophy and History.
His previous work as a writer includes three years of writing fiction for the international hit trading card game Chaotic, a how-to book on story-telling and role-playing games, and the groundbreaking augmented reality fantasy adventure Noorhjem. In 2015, he was invited by the Danish Cultural Agency, under the Danish Ministry of Culture, to help investigate the future of digital literature.
For more information, please visit www.widowgrove.com
Story Blurb
For Blake Beck, it proves to be no ordinary day when he finds a razor blade in the morning mail. As Director of Black Ops within the CAC, Blake hardly expected the morning mail to include a letter from his boss telling him to kill himself.
The razor blade is intended to be Blake's ticket to Shades – the realm beyond life where all souls go to await their celestial paperwork. Following his instincts to save himself, Blake soon finds himself caught in the frontlines of the age-old war between Dæth, the ruler of Shades, and Mr. Ferre, the first undead.
As the uncovering of a mystical medieval manuscript threatens to turn the tide of the war, Blake has no choice but to embark on a fateful hunt to secure the manuscript’s hidden secrets, while his old nemesis Vincenzo looms in the shadows, out to claim the secrets first. Unfortunately, the resurfacing of Blake's one true love, as well as his own sense of right and wrong, threatens to put an end to his endeavors as Blake discovers that he is merely a pawn in the chess game of gods...
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
EPILOGUE
Shades - The Demise of Blake Beck Page 24