Epic Fantasy
that hurts & heals.

Whatever shelf it lands on, the promise is the same. These are stories that don’t look away from the wound, and don’t give up on the healing.

Xavier Schwindt

Xavier Schwindt

AUTHOR · EDITOR · PODCAST HOST · FOUNDER

I didn’t set out to build an entertainment company. I started writing to get through a hard international move, the way some people take up running, and it became something I couldn’t put down. It’s still the whole point: stories that hurt and heal.

I write epic fantasy and science fiction about the cost of creation, the dignity of work, and the stubborn hope that comes out of hardship. I host two podcasts, The Science of Magic and Zero to Hero Author, and I’ve taught myself film scoring, directing, acting, and a fair bit of code so I can build stories in more than one medium.

I finished my first novel and realized it was garbage. That was the most useful thing it could have done. It taught me that finishing isn’t the same as succeeding, and that the real growth happens in revision.

I write from Colorado, in the cracks between school and work and everything else. I founded Crownling Entertainment, but first and last I’m a writer who believes the work matters.

THE WORK

Fantasy that takes its readers seriously.

Big, character-first stories about pain and perseverance, written for readers who want more than an escape. Start with a free story and see if it’s for you.

Enter the Library
QUESTIONS

Frequently asked.

Epic fantasy and science fiction. Character-first stories about the cost of creation, the dignity of work, and the hope that comes out of hardship. The tagline says it best: stories that hurt and heal.

It means the books don’t flinch from pain, and don’t abandon hope either. The hurt is honest and the healing is earned. If a story costs you something and gives something back, it has done its job.

With a free story. The library has several short works you can read in a single sitting, and This Bleeding Light is a good first door. No cost, no catch.

Two, actually: The Science of Magic, on the craft and ideas behind speculative fiction, and Zero to Hero Author, on building a writing life from nothing.

Yes. To Burn The Dark, the debut novel, is in final revision. Join the readers’ list to hear the moment it’s ready, and to read it first.

Visit the contact page or the press kit. Xavier reads every message and writes back.

Bucket List

Read all of C.S. Lewis (and his pen names)
Learn Koine Greek and Hebrew, plus two other extinct languages
Visit all seven continents
Get a pilot’s license
Fly an F-16
Write a 500,000-word novel
Hide a secret message in one of my books
Create a functional language for my wife and me (if I marry)
Be a father
Direct a full-budget feature film
Compose for a major film score
Read all of Augustine of Hippo’s available works
Speak at Dragonsteel Nexus
Make ten people’s dreams come true
Live overseas (again)
Translate Ender’s Game into Koine Greek
Go to space (low orbit)
Publish 2 books
Publish 3 books
Publish 5 books
Publish 10 books
Publish 20 books
Jump from a moving train
Create a language for a movie
Get a cameo death in a film
Build a theme park
Go skydiving
Tag a whale
Go swimming with sharks
Go cliff diving
Give a TED talk
Have coffee with a Mormon
Go zorbing
Make a stained-glass window
Blow glass
Jump through a sugar-glass window (a real stunt)
Land on the New York Times bestseller list
Get a cameo in a popular movie
Go indoor skydiving
Learn fencing from a sword master
Play a game of chess with a grandmaster
Play a perfect game of Pac-Man
Start a gloriously meaningless group, like Rothell’s Red Hand
Heavy Lies the Crown — a story by Xavier Schwindt
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