Samuel Groshans

Author • Storyteller • Gamer at heartWriting worlds where ordinary people face impossible choices — and find a little light in the dark.

About

Samuel Groshans writes dark fantasy because he has always been drawn to stories where people keep going even after the world gives them every reason not to. His debut novel, Autumn Ends in Darkness, is a character-driven story about grief, survival, manipulation, and what it costs to become something stronger — or something worse.He is currently working on An Empire of Dragons, a dark political fantasy series about power, resistance, and the dangerous comfort of looking away. Book 1, The Sleeping Flame, is complete and in final polishing, while Book 2, The Hollow Flame, is currently in progress.

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Featured BookAutumn Ends in DarknessAdrelo Torsten was supposed to celebrate becoming a man. Instead, his village burned.On the night of his coming-of-age festival, Redmill is torn apart by betrayal, fire, and steel. When the smoke clears, Adrelo is the prize left buried in the ashes: the son of a broken mage, heir to a power he does not understand, and the one boy Lord Saar Moutre came to claim.Taken to a distant manor and raised alongside two other gifted outcasts, Adrelo is trained to fight, deceive, and obey. Saar offers him comfort, purpose, and a future far greater than anything his village could have given him.But every lesson comes with a cost.As Adrelo grows into the weapon Saar intended, something darker begins to stir inside him—something drawn to violence, power, and the terrible freedom of becoming more than human.A character-driven dark fantasy about manipulation, ambition, loyalty, and the making of a weapon.* * * * * * * * * *"Autumn Ends in Darkness is a sincere and thoughtfully constructed debut with a genuinely good idea holding it together. Samuel Groshans has written a fantasy adventure that is quietly furious about how adults use children, and he sustains that argument from the father in the rubble to the king in the throne room without ever stopping to underline it. The opening two chapters are excellent, Lord Saar is a well-drawn manipulator who is generous and warm and entirely self-interested, and the handling of Adrelo's dark magic as an appetite he enjoys and fears in equal measure is more interesting than the standard version of that story. Readers who enjoy traditional epic fantasy with young protagonists, morally slippery mentors and a darker edge than the setup suggests will find plenty to like." - Wrote a Book BlogBooks in ProgressSeries: An Empire of DragonsBook 1: The Sleeping Flame
Stage: Complete; currently querying agents.Emberthain is a nation built on unity, law, and the promise that progress belongs to everyone. When Kaedric Solvere rises to power as First Elect, he offers a frightened city exactly what it wants: safety, order, and a future forged in dragonfire.For Sahvra, a Wildkin survivor living on the margins of society, those promises sound like warnings. New registration laws, rising prejudice, and increasingly aggressive patrols threaten the hidden community she has sworn to protect. Survival has always required compromise, but under Solvere’s rule, every compromise carries a cost.Captain Rhoric Stormwell still believes in duty, justice, and the rule of law. But as the institutions he serves become tools of fear, each act of mercy brings him closer to treason—and each order obeyed draws him deeper into complicity.As Solvere unveils terrifying mechanical drakeships and tightens his grip on the city, Sahvra and Rhoric must decide what they are willing to risk before obedience becomes surrender.The Sleeping Flame is an adult dark political fantasy about authoritarianism, survival, resistance, and the dangerous comfort of looking away.---Book 2: The Hollow Flame
Stage: Early draft.The sequel to The Sleeping Flame is currently in progress. Full synopsis pending to avoid spoilers for Book 1.