W.A. DAILAUTHOR · SCIENCE FICTION

CRUCIBLE OF FIRE · W.A. DAIL

They came to
break humanity.

They forged their own boogeyman.

The world has fallen. A few survivors are changing.
And the invaders have no idea what they’ve created.

Find on Amazon Discover the story Read a sample on Amazon

On Amazon, select “Read sample” beneath the book cover.

POST-APOCALYPTIC SCIENCE FICTION FIRST CONTACT

Crucible of Fire cover by Rob Williams: a blazing crucible pours molten fire onto Earth above a lone figure in the mountains.

CRUCIBLE OF FIREA NOVEL BY W.A. DAIL

HUMANITY IS EXCEPTIONALLY DANGEROUS PREY.

01 THE NOVEL

The end was only
the beginning.

An ordinary man.
An impossible responsibility.
A world that refuses to die.

Adult science fictionSet in the Ozark MountainsSacred Mischief Publishing

Cecil Harper was banished to a cabin in the Ozark Mountains as his marriage collapsed. Then the world collapsed too.

Overnight, civilization is gone. The power dies. Communications vanish. And the people Cecil once knew become mindless killers.

As he gathers a small group of survivors, Cecil discovers that some of them are changing in ways no one understands.

Including him.

But Earth’s collapse wasn’t a random tragedy. An alien civilization has come to claim the planet, using the same biological weapon that has prepared a thousand worlds for conquest.

Except something went wrong. The weapon devastated most of humanity, but sharpened a very few.

Now the invasion fleet is coming, expecting another helpless world.
They are in for a nasty surprise.

Find your copy on Amazon

02 NEXT FROM W.A. DAIL

Vanished Tomorrow

In progress

Currently planned as a novella of around 50,000 words.

Two hundred years after humanity destroyed every artificial intelligence on Earth, a group of schoolchildren tours a museum tracing the creation and destruction of AI—and explaining why no machine will ever again be allowed to “think.”

But history was written by the winners.

And the winners never knew what actually happened.

03 STORIES, POETRY & NONFICTION

Beyond the Crucible.

Other worlds. Human questions. A few paths closer to home.

Short story 7 minute read

The Watcher

An alien interventionist encounters a species whose cruelty is matched by its unexpected courage.

Read the story

Short story 7 minute read

The Bloodflock

A surveyor on a remote world discovers that the local wildlife has developed a very personal appetite.

Read the story

Nonfiction 8 minute read

The New Bicycle

A family story about a thirteen-year-old boy, his first new bicycle, and a ride home through the Carolina darkness.

Read the story

Short story 33 minute read

The Influencer

His ideas always become someone else’s breakthroughs. Then he begins to wonder why.

Read the story
The cabin where Crucible of Fire began, surrounded by snow and bare winter trees in the Ozarks.
THE OZARK MOUNTAINSWhere the story began

04 THE AUTHOR

A cabin. A story.
A long way home.

WA Dail smiling beside the water.

W.A. Dail studied creative writing before life took him in several other directions. Eventually, fiction called him back.

Crucible of Fire began while he was alone in a cabin in the Ozark Mountains. That landscape became the place where Cecil Harper’s world would end—and something far stranger would begin.

He lives in Arkansas with his wife and a pack of Australian Cattle Dogs. When he isn’t writing or working in technology, he can usually be found fixing something that probably wasn’t supposed to break in the first place.

W.A. DailARKANSAS · EARTH, FOR NOW.
Meet Cecil Harper

05 GET IN TOUCH

Stories start with
a conversation.

Questions about Crucible of Fire? Interested in a review, a book club conversation, or an interview? Send W.A. Dail a note.

Email W.A. Dail

Opens your email app. You can also copy the address.