The Payback Archives is my world of quiet vendettas, emotional fallout, and hard-won redemption—with just enough magic to tip the scale.
How It Started
I grew up on weekly Star Trek episodes without a season arc, and by the time I was publishing with major traditional publishers, my TV appetite gobbled up Buffy the Vampire Slayer and La Femme Nikita with their weekly episodes and overarching storylines. To this day, any time any of these shows air, I will sit and watch the whole episode, even though I know every punch and quip.
When I decided to write The Guide to Petty Revenge, I wasn’t sure what it would be. It’s surprised me ever since.
I fully expected The Guide to Petty Revenge to be a short story, maybe 5000 words at most. I knew it wasn’t going to be a full novel, but I got the idea at the same time I was editing The Empath Gene, which I wrote in 2017 after my Ireland trip, writing the ending of A Fiction of Demons, which I had shelved in 2021 in favor of the Rites of Passage Trilogy, and then a brand new book, The Book of Heroes that I dreamed up in March of this year (thanks, Pete Hegseth) and practically channeled. So I figured, why not write more character-driven fantasy short reads?
I have dictated most of my books for decades, and now that my walks are closer to 5 miles a day than 10 miles, it makes sense to experiment with shorter works.
I had already written The Smell of Death in March, also intended to be a short story but it clocked in at almost 20,000 words. That one was more like a quick mission to pick up a magically dangerous book in a Southern Gothic setting, and I really loved the mission and character dynamics between Raven and Lilah, so I decided to try the same approach with The Guide to Petty Revenge.
I wasn’t even done with the first draft when I realized I needed a unified theme (revenge) and lots of “short missions to acquire rare and volatile magical texts,” much like some of my favorite TV shows have weekly episodes and a larger arc. I’ve been having a blast ever since!
How It’s Going Now
I just finished the third book in the series and I’m now writing the fourth. At this point, I’m seeing patterns and discovering what the series is really about.
I’d thought it would be about all kinds of missions–Raven and Lilah’s weekly assignment to retrieve a book of forbidden spells, conduct a demon census, or secure an ancient grimoire–mixed with themes like grief-fueled motives, emotional sabotage, and quiet acts of vengeance by various characters and what motivates that revenge. I’m discovering something unexpected: each book has an unexpected theme that emerges by the last chapter.
What the series is really about is:
– Unspoken consequences
– Complicated relationships
– The cost of subtle betrayals
– The emotional residue of doing the right thing after the damage is done
– Emotional intimacy over graphic sex and violence
While revenge is key to all the stories, the series is more about emotional healing. Surprise! In The Lost Teachings of Dead Monks, Lilah really felt that she’d broken the code on relationships and that love was a real possibility for someone as psychologically damaged as she was, and then Charlie betrayed her. That started the revenge theme with Charlie’s new wife, a dangerous international book thief, with Lilah initially taking some petty revenge while Rune’s payback for being thwarted in stealing from an occult library is much more sinister. Each book in the series brings her one baby step closer to healing and trusting again.
Book 1: Getting closure without confrontation
Book 2: Recognizing self-sabotaging patterns
Book 3: Having each other’s back
Book 4: Being vulnerable to ask for help
I’m not completely sure yet what Lilah will learn in Book 4, The Playbook for Settling Scores, but you know what? Her process is part of my own process. I just didn’t expect these healing milestones to show up. I should have.
The Payback Archives is a series of interconnected missions—quiet, personal, and devastating in their consequences. Think emotional intensity over body count, dark humor instead of graphic violence, and a cast of flawed operatives navigating old betrayals, impossible choices, and the quiet ache of what they’ve lost. These aren’t stories of explosive revenge. They’re about what lingers afterward—and what it takes to heal through justice.
A Southern witch returns home. Secrets won’t stay buried. A chance to confront and heal—or face the consequences.
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