Aaron Sher
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Aaron Sher
@aaronsher.bsky.social
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Fantasy author, martial artist, software engineer, cook, ally, and cat minion. Not necessarily in that order. (he/him) http://aaronsher.com
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Aaron Sher @aaronsher.bsky.social · Jun 22
“This isn’t just magic in a trench coat. It’s magic on a job site.” - Goodreads reviewer

Applied Leverage is an award-winning urban fantasy novel starring a snarky telekinetic locksmith in a world of magic. On Kindle, KU, and Audible. books2read.com/AppliedLever...

#fantasy #books #booksky
aaronsher.bsky.social
Release day! Book two of the Origin Key series is now available on Kindle, KU, and paperback.

Magical action, international supernatural politics, a little bit of romance, zombies... sort of... it’s urban fantasy with a side of snark, and it’s on sale today!

aaronsher.com
Cover image of the novel Mechanical Advantage, showing the three main characters in front of the London skyline, with a full moon and some sort of giant robot creature in the background.
January 31, 2026 at 5:35 PM
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December 19, 2025 at 5:33 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Of course, a couple of amateurs are so certain that they can do better than the trained ME without even seeing the body…

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"Connor Rourke," he interrupted. "I know who all of you are. I know what you have done, and I know what you hold. I am tasked with ensuring it is not misused, and there is no way for me to do that with the knowledge you have. This conversation is pointless." "All right then, we'll skip a few steps here. I think your real enemy here is White. She has way more information than we do. She knew enough to have Pinto killed, for one thing." That seemed to take him aback, though it was hard to read body language when he was smashed under Nia. "You know this for certain?" "We have a medical report showing that Pinto did not die in a car crash, though of course the doctor couldn't interpret the evidence of magical assassination. White knew he had no heirs, and she had him killed so that she could acquire his house legally."
December 12, 2025 at 12:56 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Despite the legal disclaimer at the front of the book, this cat *might* be based on someone I know.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
At that moment I was startled by a mraow from almost directly above my head. Taking a step back—which was a trained tactical maneuver to make space and not at all a panicked flinch—|looked up. It was a cat, white with some splotches of orange, looking down at me from its position atop a cheap particleboard wardrobe with the inherent superiority of the feline race. Noticing my attention, it looked away as if I had been of only passing interest. Had anybody been feeding it? It didn't look starved or desperate. I looked around and found a half-full gravity feeder and a large bowl, almost dry, under a desk. "Good thing we showed up, hey kitty? Would have started to get uncomfortable pretty soon." The cat glanced once at me with a look of utter contempt, as if of course it had alternative sources of food and water lined up and ready whenever they were needed. Then it looked away again as if something on the far side of the room was vastly more interesting than anything I might do.
December 11, 2025 at 12:14 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Not a lot of options this time. My narrator did an amazing job with Quint and now I can’t think of him any other way.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Through the little wired-glass window in the door I saw the lights were on, so I pulled on the door and made the little bell jingle. Quint was where he always is: sitting almost crouched on top of a high stool behind his counter, smoking a pipe and reading a big heavy book. The man is short and ageless—I was almost sure he was over thirty, but beyond that I couldn't have told you. He was totally bald, with a long drooping mustache. Not a fashion choice I would have made but to each their own- -maybe "80s movie kung fu master" was the plan, or maybe it was a happy accident. The air in the store was thick with pipe smoke, incense, and probably some other less legal stuff as well. I was used to it; I almost managed not to cough as I walked the three steps from the door to the counter.
December 10, 2025 at 12:16 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Wouldn’t you make your armored bunker lab nicer if you could?

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
In the very center of the space, there was a steel rod welded to a big steel plate set into the concrete floor. The surface of the plate and the floor around it was blackened and bubbled like it had been exposed to very high heat, but not in a neat circular pattern—this was wavy radial lines, like the light in a plasma ball. In one corner of the room, there was a steel box the size of a person-just. It was made of solid steel plate with a window, like a phone booth designed for use in an active war zone. It was mostly covered with more foam and its walls sloped a bit like they were designed to deflect bullets. "What in fucking hell is this?" asked Nia. "Workshop," said Elise matter-of-factly. "White has one kind of similar, though hers is a lot nicer. She doesn't use it much, she keeps it for some of the people on her staff." "For what kind of work?" "The kind that is likely to go boom," Elise explained. "Magical research is dangerous."
December 9, 2025 at 11:42 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
I'm collecting ARC readers for Mechanical Advantage, book two of my urban fantasy series Origin Key. You'll get a free copy of the book (with instructions on how to access the first book) in exchange for an honest review on Amazon or GoodReads. Sign up at forms.gle/MhgF61WNkMv1...!
Cover image for the novel Mechanical Advantage
December 8, 2025 at 5:33 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Narrator: he didn’t have an idea.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Nia took a big swig of her coffee. "Crap. I hate smart bad guys." "So, we've got three problems. First, how do we get in? Second, what kind of security spells do they have? Third, what do we do about the golems?" "Fourth, what about the fucking mages?" asked Nia. "Um... yeah, and there's that," I said glumly. There was a long pause. "Why is everybody looking at me?" I asked. "This is usually the moment when you say 'I have an idea' and convince us to try some absolutely insane thing that somehow doesn't get us killed," said Nia, deadpan.
December 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
I'm opening ARC signups for Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key! forms.gle/MhgF61WNkMv1...
Cover image for the novel Mechanical Advantage
December 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Is that really how anybody plans their day?

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Watching the fire splash off the empty air a few inches from my face and feeling the heat starting to bleed through was... well, not how I planned my day. Jeeves must have been really angry—he was actually showing human-like emotions on his face. He snapped out, "Take that shield down!" and the other four mages began pouring various energies into the shield. All I could do was stand there, anchored to the ground, and watch five different flavors of death pounding into my invisible defense. My powers were useless against energy. I couldn't dodge. The best I could do was cover my head with my hands, which I did even though it was stupid. Oh, actually that wasn't all I could do: I triggered the trap.
December 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
See, the plan had been to grab the notes and run. Time for a new plan.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
.... "Spread out and see what you can find," I said. "No need," said Elise. She had pulled a clipboard from a hook next to the door I'd come through. "They're on rack three, shelf two." "Ah, I love an organized villain." Rack three, shelf two turned out to be about fifty feet long, but the very first box was marked "Pinto". "There it is," I said. "And the next one," said Nia. "Um... I think we have a problem," said Elise slowly. She was moving down the rack. "They're all from Pinto." Well, crap.
December 6, 2025 at 2:44 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
I modeled Connor’s apartment after a dorm room I had in college.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
My apartment looks like it was furnished from thrift stores and the occasional dumpster find, largely because it was. The furniture is all a bit worn, there are posters on the walls, and the fridge was surely top-of-the-line in 1990 or so, but it's comfortable and it's mine. On the single end table next to the worn futon-couch was my laptop, also old and worn but functional. It doubled as my TV, and the screen was small enough that the fuzzy video my anemic internet connection fed me was fine for my needs. Some people would say that my apartment needs "a woman's touch". My last couple of girlfriends definitely agreed with that, though their touch seemed to be the kind you'd use to dispose of a dead rat: reluctant and at arm's length. My social life has been... let's call it "challenging"
December 5, 2025 at 11:18 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Kind of tempted to write a flashback about Pinto, just because he’s such a fun character in my head.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Something occurred to me. "What about Principio Pinto?" I asked. "Who the fuck is that?" asked Nia. "Guy who owned the house that White bought," I said. "I turned him up in my research. He died and the city auctioned off his house." Elise said, "I visited the house with Mr. Mortenson while they were cleaning it out. Whoever he was, he was making focuses. He had a whole lab set up, with engravers and drafting tools and torches and everything. They took it all out and put it in a truck, so I assume White has it somewhere." "Focuses? So maybe he was part of the creepy-psi squad?" "What the hell kind of a name is Principio Pinto?" said Nia. "Is it Italian? Spanish?" "A weird one," I said. "A weird name for a weird guy making weird things. Who just happened to die without heirs, leaving the house available for White to buy. That seems like it might be convenient, doesn't it?" "I wonder," said Nia.
December 4, 2025 at 12:22 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Doing vibes today. Blake vs DeRose is a clash of titans in the poise department.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Blake was ensconced in DeRose's commandeered office, somehow effortlessly making the guest chair look like the one on the correct side of the desk and the Grand Magister seem like a visitor. They were dressed today in a different gray silk suit, a bit more loungewear than boardroom but still by far the most elegant thing in even this room. The pipe was firmly in place and filling the room with a sweet not-quite-tobacco smoke. They gave me a warm smile. "Connor, I wanted to thank you for letting me know that my old friend James was here." DeRose, impassive as always, leaned back in his chair. He made it look casual, but I suspected he was trying to get away from the pipe smoke. "Now," he said in his rich voice, "as pleasant as this visit has been, perhaps we can come to the point? Time is rather pressing."
December 3, 2025 at 12:36 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Elise has some specific interests. Connor is interested as well, mainly because they keep trying to take his head off.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"...but there's a whole other layer to golems having to do with the imprinting of the construct within the vessel. If you do it wrong you don't get all the benefits of shielding the construct energy, or it might not even be able to move the vessel properly. One expert could do it, but I bet the London mages used at least a circle if not an actual ritual for theirs. That's probably part of why they had the globe, actually—that way they can keep their golems continuously powered without having to rebuild the constructs all the time." I'd actually followed maybe fifty percent of that, which was better than usual when Elise went off on her magical research. It might have been even more, but I got distracted by the way her eyes glowed with excitement as she talked. I remember thinking she was terribly quiet when we'd first met; I just hadn't known what to talk about, then.
December 2, 2025 at 11:31 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Throw me the idol and I’ll…

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"Right. I think the psi tried to kill me in the bar, using that giant oaf as a tool and you as bait, to keep me from opening the safe." "He was a tool, all right. Makes sense. And Elise said that guy was using focuses, so maybe the idol thing belongs to his faction?" "Idol?" "I don't know, it just looks like an idol. Doesn't it?" "Um... sure, whatever. Oh, and there's that. The thing doesn't seem to need power." I demonstrated the trick with the pen. "Um... so you know I'm not exactly up on the whole magic thing, but isn't that impossible?" Nia asked. "Been hearing that word a lot recently," I commented.
December 1, 2025 at 5:21 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Give Fox an inch and he’ll take the highway, the off-ramp, and all the rest stops in between.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"Name it," I said, fully prepared to commit the College to whatever he might ask for. "I want a cheers." "A what?" "A thank you." "Of course," I said, puzzled. "Not from you. From the College. In writing." I thought about what it would be like to try to get DeRose or, worse, Andrews to publicly thank a psi-and even more so, a teep—for supplying critical intelligence in a crisis. "I can make that happen," I said, probably lying through my teeth. "In the form of a limerick," he added. "Don't push your luck."
November 29, 2025 at 12:43 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Going with “weave”. Nia’s most un-Nia-like moment in two books. Needs must and all that…

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"Want to try to pick his pocket?" "Which pocket? What am I grabbing? I don't think it works like that." "Always gotta make me do things the hard way, don't you?" she asked. Getting up, she moved towards the man, a bit of a weave in her step that I knew she hadn't had enough beer to justify. Fascinated and a bit terrified, Elise and I watched her chat the guy up. He'd apparently been in the process of ordering a drink; we couldn't hear the conversation, but it looked like Nia got him to buy her one too and then she went back to his table. Thankfully he seemed to be alone; I don't know what we could have done if there had been a whole table full of mages. "Any idea what we can do to help?" I asked. "None whatsoever," Elise said.
November 28, 2025 at 4:43 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
It’s not laziness, it’s a forensic countermeasure! That’s my story, anyway.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"And what do you think they were up to?" I'd really expected this conversation to go a bit better than this. Hope springs eternal, I guess. Franklin put down his tablet and actually looked at me for the first time. "We don't know. Obviously there was something going on. They lost a bunch of their people..." "And one of ours," put in Elise. "Rothbauer, right," said Franklin a bit sourly. "And then when Ms. Vaughn showed up to investigate they tried to kill her." "And Connor and Nia," Elise prompted. "Whatever," said Franklin, picking up his tablet again. "So there's clearly some shady stuff going on and we need to know what it is. We were hoping to find records but they're such a disorganized mess here that it's an almost perfect shield."
November 27, 2025 at 11:38 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
If you’re going to make magical golems out of something, why WOULDN’T you make them out of suits of armor?

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"Do it." Nia said. "We'll buy you time." She stuffed her flashlight, too small to be useful as a weapon, into a pocket and moved forward with empty hands. I recalled that she'd lost her belt in the cemetery, and that pen probably wasn't going to be useful against armor. Terrific. I hefted my cane and backed her up. The actinic light from Elise's wand swelled behind us, but too slowly. The first armor lowered its halberd and stabbed at Nia with the spear point on the end. It was slow and awkward, and seeing that I felt like we might actually have a chance at this. Nia slipped to the side and grabbed the shaft with both hands... and was almost flung down the hall as the armor raised the weapon again, totally unimpeded by her weight. Slow, but very strong. Noted.
November 26, 2025 at 1:30 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Not considering telekinetic locksmiths is at LEAST one star off their Yelp rating.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
She went on, "And now, here you are, robbing my private office. You didn't think I'd have magical alarms on it?" Crap. Of course she would. I'd gotten caught up in the idea that mages usually relied on physical protections, and neglected to think that usually didn't mean always. Come to think of it, the spells on the safe were probably what the tracker had been leading us to, not the focus itself. "Well, the rest of your security was so shoddy, I figured maybe you didn't care if people wandered in and out." I mean, what did I have to lose? "I admit, my consultants evidently did not design the system with telekinetic locksmiths in mind. An oversight." "People who put in lousy security systems make my job a lot easier overall. I vote you give them an At rating and pay them a bonus," I said. At this point, I was just letting my mouth run in order to stall for time. I wasn't sure what I was hoping would happen, but whatever it was, it didn't.
November 25, 2025 at 11:46 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
I went with “start”, and conveniently it’s literally the first word of my debut novel.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Chapter 1: Starting in a Bar is a Cliché The fireball made arcs of light as it flew back and forth across the table. It wasn't much of a fireball, only a few inches across and burning a dim orange, but it was bright enough in the dim light of the bar and it would certainly burn your skin if it touched you. The mages were playing a game involving trading off control of the thing-as I understood it, if you let it go out or lost control, you had to drink. Alcohol doing what it does, somebody usually got burned. Typical. I was sitting a couple of tables away, and the damned fireball kept flashing in the corner of my eye and catching my attention. I was trying not to watch-mages can be touchy to us "lesser folk", and I didn't want a tableful of drunk mages catching me staring at them. Tossing a fireball around in a dusty wooden room full of alcohol was already a pretty good indication of their state of mind, so discretion felt like the better part of valor. Not that valor is a thing I usually worry about.
November 24, 2025 at 12:01 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Always disconcerting to trip over an army you didn’t know was there.

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
"Rome?" "Aegis central command." Aegis was a single worldwide organization? Id thought it was sort of like local police, individual commands reporting to the local College chapter. I took a moment to think through the implications of that one, while Andrews gave some orders repositioning the outside teams or something like that. I really wasn't following the tactics going on, though I'm sure that Nia was. If Aegis had a central command, and I had to assume units attached to many chapters of the College, that meant... hell, the College had an army. And they weren't all mages, meaning that they could recruit mercenaries or retired military or whoever they wanted. The College could certainly get their hands on the kind of ordnance that would normally be ridiculously illegal for a non-governmental organization to have. And then of course there was the magic. Why did they need an army?
November 23, 2025 at 12:22 PM
aaronsher.bsky.social
Maybe a cemetery isn’t the BEST place to fight the undead?

A snippet from Mechanical Advantage, book two of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Averill and his lackey weren't doing so well. They had personal shields as well, of course, but the zombies had so much sheer mass that just standing up was a problem. I was sure that if they went down before that wave of rotting flesh and bone that would be the end of them. Averill was calling thunderbolts down from the sky like I'd seen White do once, though seeing it from this angle wasn't nearly as impressive as it had been at ground zero. Edwards was using his crystal-tipped wand like a whip, trailing a line of blue flame that cut through zombies like they weren't there. All of it, all the devastating magic, Nia's enchanted axe and my cane, the explosions and the fire, all of it together...it wasn't enough. There were just too many zombies. And now DeRose's wall of water had died down and they were after us again. I set myself to go down swinging; I didn't see any way out of this.
November 22, 2025 at 11:34 AM
aaronsher.bsky.social
The introduction of Elise! She, ah, turns out to be important.

A snippet from Applied Leverage, book one of the urban fantasy series Origin Key (see my pinned post). #amwriting #WIPsnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #fantasy 📚💙
Suddenly, there was a flash and the dog was gone, leaving swirling energy in its wake. I heard a pair of muffled screams from the direction of the mages. When I looked over, I saw Jeeves and the other man down on their knees, holding their heads in what looked like blinding agony. At least, that's what I hoped it was. The woman, on the other hand, was sprinting full speed towards us. "Go!" she yelled I started to ask a question like an idiot, but Nia wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She grabbed me by the hand, hauled me to my feet, and took off towards the door again. By the time we'd gone two steps I had my feet under me and I was analyzing the locks on the door to see what we'd need to do to get it open. A second before we reached it, however, it exploded outward in a shower of splinters and we ran out onto the lawn, the woman who'd evidently saved us hot on our heels.
November 21, 2025 at 12:02 PM