Stories
Venture into the litRPG world of HUMAN FLAVOR where Robin Bennett has been transported into a very real game-ified existence. He is stuck as a low-powered mall Santa, and must learn how to stay alive in a city full of supernatural horrors.
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There are other worlds and stories emerging from Layman Kingsford's mind, too: the Living Saga! From its high fantasy origins on the world of Evorstrom with Living Empires to 1,000 years later in modern cityscapes where color is dim and superpowers emerge in Living Metropolis to 1,000 years after that where the Evorstrom galaxy has been colonized in Living Cosmos.​
Hungry, Hungry Horrors
sample chapters
Book 1 of the Human Flavor Saga
Robin Bennett finds himself transported to a living game world where rolling dice and choosing ability cards is what keeps you from getting consumed by horrific supernatural beings.
Celestial angels soak up prayers of faith, demonic infernals dine upon fear and feral wereCreatures consume living flesh! Poor Robin has to learn how to survive this new reality all while wielding the skills and attributes of a middle-aged mall Santa.
All pre-orders & in-person pickups at the book launch party (June 23) will include Human Flavor bonus goodies!
Hungry, Hungry Horrors
pre-order for PICKUP in Denver
Community is cuisine when humanity is on the menu.
BigBad City is beige and bland. So are its residents, though they must be tasty since the death rate is glaringly conspicuous. Frightening supernatural creatures frolic about the metropolis feasting on mundane residents like it’s 2-for-1 night at the all human buffet.
Robin Bennett, a middling regional actor, is transported to this world and must find a way to survive game-like life posing as a pitifully-powered mall Santa. All he wants is to get home and abandon the demoralizing realization that he’s not cut out to survive there on his own. The game — or maybe it’s his own pickled psyche — keeps leading him to make bad decisions, like… repeatedly.
Such as bedding down with a literal smoking-hot incubus and his succubus sister is okay, right? Probably not, but it’s the only item on his plate. So hiding out with them in the suburbs seems like a solid plan until wereThings, undead things and angels from on-f***ing-high come calling.
Surely he won’t succumb to the age-old axiom — “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” — right? He won’t have to become a monster, riiight? Not when his actual humanity is on the line. Riiiiiight???
Nah, everything’s totally fine.
A rollicksome urban fantasy for readers who think litRPG isn’t for them.
Root Position (rough draft as of July 2024)
Living Empires short story
Evorstrom is a world where every living thing be it plant, animal or person, is marked with one of the eight holy signs: Flame, Wave, Bone, Stone, Leaf, Star, Tone and Wind.
Once every generation or two, a single person is born bearing TWO divine signMarks and is hailed as a messianic saint. Root Position chronicles an era when more than one saint is alive in the world and a new species of winged people has appeared seemingly from nowhere bearing items that allow anyone to use any color of magic!
Will world culture be able to adjust or will all of society crumble?
Anacrusis (part 4)
Living Empires short story
Before embarking on the epic story, learn a little bit about some of Living Empire’s central characters and the magical world of divine signMarks. In a world where there has only ever been one living dual-signed saint alive at any given time, what happens when there are six?
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In this story we meet, Grothak, the reigning Sultan of the Muuyu'Hadeen, an isolated civilization of stoneDwarves who have dwelled deep in the underbelly of the world for centuries. Grothak's realm has been besieged by a terrible beast and a few lone survivors must face it all on their own.
Galactic Overture (part 1)
Living Cosmos short story
Meet D'Treks Taree, an officer cadet in the Situdel Fleet Academy. D'Treks is NeeKron, a species of large, densely-muscled, heavily-boned people who value naturalistic living in the wilds of their homeworlds.
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D'Treks hopes to become a zoologist, but their upbringing as a hunter and the Fleet's need for martially-inclined individuals to help fight the invading aliens is bound to make them a desirable asset to the Tactical Corp and not the life science's Health Division.
Galactic Overture (part 2)
Living Cosmos short story
Meet Nuu'Onee (pronounced new-AWE-nee), a popular socialite and hob-robber with the famous and influential. Despite their civilian status, Nuu'Onee has made quite a name for themself as a populist for the down-trodden.
What reason could a well-liked, widely-connected V'Shendai attention-monger have for enlisting in the Situdel Fleet? Surely they already benefit from the benefits of having so many citizen connections.