The Reckoning Cycle
Dead Reckoning
(Core Comic / Graphic Novel)
A haunting historical fantasy comic about a dead pilot, the captain who loves her, and the sixty-year ghost loop that binds them to the sea.
Inês has been dead for sixty years. She just doesn’t know it yet.
Every time she wakes from a shipwreck, she is trapped in a terrifying iteration: she must navigate a different vessel and find the captain before a brutal storm kills everyone aboard. She is certain she is saving the living. In reality, she has spent decades walking right past the one man who has been standing behind her on every single ship—her immortal lover, trying desperately to become real enough for her to see him.
With a monstrous storm building at the Cape, a living crew is about to repeat the fatal mistake Inês failed to stop in 1583. Now, she faces her final reckoning: will she use her power to save a crew that cannot hear her, or will she finally look at the devoted man who has waited sixty years for her to remember him?
- Format: Graphic Novel / Comic
- Tropes: Time loops, ghost romance, he falls first, strong heroine.
📢 Kickstarter live now — back the anthology
The Dutch Angle
🖊 In drafting — coming soon
(Creative Memoir & Companion)
The ultimate behind-the-scenes companion and creative memoir detailing the world-building, historical research, and making of the Dead Reckoning comic.
How do you build a haunted 16th-century ship before it sails? The Dutch Angle pulls back the curtain on the creation of The Reckoning Cycle universe.
Perfect for indie comic fans and process-driven readers, this companion volume compiles original scripts, exclusive artist notes, a comprehensive historical glossary, and deadline-driven creative decisions. Blending nonfiction insight with bonus fiction snippets, it offers an intimate look at the meticulous craftsmanship behind the maritime fantasy.
- Format: Creative Memoir / Behind-the-Scenes Companion
The Reckoning Cycle Anthology (Upcoming Prose Collection)
An emotionally driven, sensual historical romance anthology charting the origin of an eternal bond from quiet workplace pining to open-door passion.
Before the storm, before the tragedy, there was the Esperança. This prose anthology collects the essential prequel novelettes Corpo Santo and The Last Crossing, alongside exclusive, tender slice-of-life stories detailing the deep romance between a brilliant female pilot and her protective captain.
Spanning years at sea, this collection traces the intricate power dynamics and profound emotional maturity of two lovers fiercely devoted to their ship and each other. Watch their relationship evolve from stolen glances at dawn to a wide-open secret among the crew, building the heartbreakingly beautiful foundation for the events of Dead Reckoning.
- Format: Prose Anthology (Novelettes & Short Stories)
- Heat Level: Slow burn / Pining to Open Door (Sensual)
From the Anthology
📖 Free to read — download now
Novelette ·
Immediate prequel to Dead Reckoning
The Last Crossing
The tragic final voyage that seals their fate and births the sixty-year ghost loop of Dead Reckoning.
Five years into their secret romance on the Esperança, the tension between Inês and her captain has reached a breaking point. Her captain wants marriage, but Inês fiercely defends her independence. They leave Lisbon with a bitter, three-week silence hanging between them.
The rift deepens in West Africa when the captain hires a second navigator without her knowledge—a mysterious pilot harboring a dark secret. Though this new pilot’s catastrophic course forces Inês to step into her power to save the vessel from the weather, the ship is already doomed. This is the fateful 1583 voyage where the entire crew perishes at sea, transforming Inês into a wandering ghost and setting off the haunting romance of the main series.
- Timeline: Immediate Prequel to Dead Reckoning
- Format: Prose Novelette
- Themes: Doomed romance, tragic historical fantasy, ghost story origin.
⚓ In editing — coming soon
Short Story ·
8 years before Dead Reckoning
Corpo Santo
A historical romance novelette exploring the intense, slow-burn pining between a brilliant female pilot and her captain.
Eight years before the tragic events of Dead Reckoning, Inês is busy forging her destiny. She has spent thirteen years earning a formidable reputation on the high seas—a status built entirely on her unmatched genius as a ship pilot, not on who she shares coffee with at dawn.
When a diplomat’s daughter boards the ship and the captain is suddenly pulled away, Inês retreats into her instruments and conceals her growing feelings. But when divine intervention forces a sudden confrontation, she discovers her devoted captain’s thoughts match her own. He has been speaking to her all along—if only she will let herself hear it.
- Timeline: Prequel (8 years before Dead Reckoning)
- Format: Prose Short Story
- Tropes: Workplace romance, slow-burn pining, competent heroine.
Frequently Asked Questions about
The Reckoning Cycle
Q: What order should I read The Reckoning Cycle series?
A: The ideal reading order begins with the anthology stories—Corpo Santo and The Last Crossing—which serve as prequels detailing the characters’ living relationship. This is followed by the core graphic novel, Dead Reckoning, and finally the behind-the-scenes creator companion, The Dutch Angle.
Q: Is Dead Reckoning a comic book or a prose novel?
A: Dead Reckoning is a historical fantasy comic/graphic novel.
The prequels Corpo Santo and The Last Crossing are written as prose novelettes, which are collected into a single upcoming prose romance anthology.
Q: What is the romance heat level and spice of the series?
A: The series features an emotionally driven, high-stakes romance that moves from slow-burn workplace pining in the prequels to an open-door, deeply sensual relationship.
Q: Is The Reckoning Cycle a paranormal romance?
A: The series is best categorized as a Tragic Historical Fantasy Romance. While it features ghosts, time loops, and Speculative elements, it is rooted in real-world 16th-century maritime history rather than modern urban paranormal settings.