Lore Forge News, June 2026

Herman P. Hunter
Jul 6
4 min read

Health Issues

On June 19th, 2026, I checked into a hospital for a surgery to remove the lower lobe of my left lung. The surgery was successful. Three days later, I was home and convalescing.

Why did I have half a lung removed? One single but terrible word: Cancer.

If you've been following my newsletter, you'll know that I had a PET scan and a biopsy done later in June. Well, the surgery was scheduled regardless of the results of the biopsy, mainly to hold the slot. Two days before the day of the surgery, the results came back. It's lung cancer. It's a common form of lung cancer that often occurs when you've had Hodgkin's disease (something I had treated in my late 20s).

The upside is that the cancer does not seem to have spread. The lymph nodes from both the biopsy and the surgery came back as clean. I think I was under for 5 hours, though the surgeon said the removal of the lung tissue went very well. I was hoping that the mass was pre-cancerous, but that hope is now dashed. However, catching this and removing the tumor early still offers some hope for long-term survivability.

I have a follow-up with the surgeon in a couple of days to see where I go from here.

For those of you who have never had to deal with cancer, and consider yourself lucky, there are very few curable cancers. I had one (Hodgkin's Disease) earlier in life. All other survivability terms are measured in years of remission, hence the odds for 5 and 10-year survivability. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe I didn't. We won't know until some time has passed.

I'm planning to write a Substack post on this at some point. I intend to keep writing until I can't any longer.

The Next Book

The remarks of the final beta reader finally came in a couple of days ago. There is one conclusion that all of the beta readers share: A Font of Evil Things is my best writing to date.

I'm serious when I say this: this is the one thing that all of the beta readers mentioned in one form or another.

I've already contacted the cover artist and sent him some of my ideas. I also contacted an editor. This time, I'll only do one editing pass on the book as I can't afford two at this point. That's what happens when you lose a good-paying job and have to take a significant cut in pay in order to secure employment. But I'm not bitter.

I've been writing a bunch of preliminary scenes for the next Revenant book. As I mentioned before, I intend for this book to be a direct descendant of The Revenant and the Tomb. I mentioned in my previous newsletter about how the one main criticism of my debut novella is that it felt unfinished. While this next book may not "finish" the story, it does fill in more backstory of the antagonist in the novella (aka The King of Bones). It also fleshes out the culture of the Wodemen. So, lots of good stuff will be included in this story.

My intention is to get this book out later in 2026. The initial release will be paperback and eBook. I'm also seriously considering releasing this story in 9" x 6" hardbound. Because of the cost of narration, the audiobook will be released much, much later. I'm considering doing a Kickstarter to raise funds for this project.

Also The Next Book

I'm also in the process of revising the original fantasy series that started me down this path: the Frankie series.

For those of you new to my story, the Frankie series was what I tried to get published back in 2005 and again in 2019. Both attempts were unsuccessful. All in all, I envision it to be a 4 or 5-book series. Three of the books are already completed - books 1, 2, and 5 - leaving two more to be written. Technically speaking, 4 is already half-written, as well as several chapters in book 3. With the specter of cancer rearing its ugly head, I figure I need to make completing this series a priority.

Live Events

Until I know what's going on with my cancer treatment, all live events are on hold. Hopefully, I can restart attending cons and book events sometime in the fall.

If you were hoping to purchase a paperback from me at an event, and couldn't do so, you can always purchase it from my online store. While you may not receive special event pricing, you can use code BIONICHEDGE2026 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on your entire purchase. Every paperback you purchase comes signed and with a bookmark. I also send along a pen with each purchase (I really like the pens - I use them myself).

Substack Articles

I've managed to get a few Substack articles out since the start of June:

Conclusion

Honestly, if there is a light at the end of the tunnel here, I'm not seeing it. I still have a lot of doubt and uncertainty swirling around me. I wish the news was better. Then again, July is a new month with, perhaps, better news than I've been getting thus far.

Regardless of the news, I intend to keep writing until I can't any longer.

That's all for now.