Chronicles of the Still Lake · A Free Novella · Out Now

Stories From The Still Lake

Three legends the Lake remembers.

Cover of Stories From The Still Lake by Bill McKibbin: a still mountain lake at night beneath the Milky Way, the title lettered so the stars show through.

Long before the Chronicles begin, the Lake already kept its legends.

A commander who spent his whole life holding back — until the day at Kael Morath when he didn't. A great house's quietest daughter, and the assassin an entire age learned to fear. A healer so old that his own statue outlived the truth of him.

Three voices from a vanished age, telling their own stories: what they were given, what it cost, and what the water kept.

You will not be told how their gifts work. You will feel what they paid for them.

Free · delivered by email to any device · unsubscribe anytime. Joining also unlocks On Flowcraft below.

Cover of On Flowcraft, a reader's companion by Bill McKibbin: a still lake beneath the Milky Way, with the six forms of Flowcraft drawn above it as a constellation.

Also free with the list · out now

On Flowcraft — a reader's companion

All six forms of the magic, named and explained: Echocraft, Voidshaping, Streambinding, Lifeweaving, Loreforging, Essencebending. What each one gives, and what it asks of the person who works it.

Then the vessel. Why one person can draw deeper than another, and why a small vessel worked well still beats a large one worked badly.

And the law under all of it. Flowcraft is received before it is cast. You go still, and the Lake answers or it doesn't. Whatever it gives, it keeps a price for, and the ripple lands when it lands.

Never sold, never in a shop. It goes to the mailing list and nowhere else. Nothing in it spoils the novels.

For subscribers. Enter the email you joined with and it downloads straight away, with nothing to confirm a second time. Not on the list yet? Start with the Legends and this unlocks.

Why start here?

The Legends stand alone — no homework, no cliffhanger, an ending that ends. But readers who begin here will walk into Book One already knowing things its characters have forgotten. The Lake remembers more than the world does.

The details: a prequel novella of three standalone legends · Chronicles of the Still Lake series · epic fantasy · free · EPUB, Kindle-ready · delivered by email via BookFunnel · out July 1, 2026 · reads before Book One with no prerequisites — Book One serializes free on Royal Road beginning this winter, with the complete edition following in 2027.

See where the story goes from here