Border, KS is a Web Serial Novel published every Tuesday and Thursday.
Walter Richards is a police officer, and former soldier, who moved his family back to the small town their mother came from. Border, a moderately sized city in southern Kansas near the Oklahoma border, was supposed to be a quiet place for them to recover from unexplained tragedy. To date it has proven to be anything but quiet, as Walter quickly finds himself investigating a bizarre murder and dealing with the fact that his family may be more involved than he thought.
Border, KS launched on July 1, 2014. Book one ended December 31, 2015. A short story set between books one and two began on 2/2/2015, with book two to follow.
It can be found at www.border-ks.com
Provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Characters include Walter, Ryan, Ryan, Siobhan, and Antigone.
- Blithe Spirit: What Antigone appears to try to be.
- Creepy Twins: Antigone and Siobhan finish each other's sentence in one of the chapters, while looking at a spooky door.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of the main cast, most frequently Walter and Siobhan.
- First Kiss: A relatively normal one between Walter and Morgan.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Walter continues to insist magic is nonsense, although in later updates he clarifies he acknowledges the results exist but that there must be a logical explanation for the forces behind it, as opposed to Hand-Waving it all as 'magic'.
- Friendly Sniper: Walter.
- Lampshade Hanging: Antigone and Siobhan in the short story "O, Death" comment what would happen if they were in a story.
- Lightning Bruiser: The Faeries compared to the humans. And Tania when she goes all out compared to other Faeries.
- Little Miss Snarker: Siobhan
- Majorly Awesome: Walter has had a very intense military career. The police chief calls him 'Major' because of it, and he may qualify as one himself.
- Missing Mom: Rhiannon Richards (Walter's wife and the mother of Siobhan, Antigone, and Ryan) is missing. They don't know where she is, nor does her brother.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Ryan Richards is named for his uncle Ryan Aquino, both of whom appear in the story. In addition both Walter's wife Rhiannon and daughter Antigone are referred to by some as Annie.
- Perky Goth: Siobhan. While she will make up stories about why they transfer schools involving very dark things, Siobhan is a generally this.
- Retired Badass: Walter is retired U.S. Army Special Forces. He thought he was getting in to a safer line of work.
- Short Story: "O, Death" is set between books one and two and serves to cover some of the Time Skip.
- The Fair Folk: Morgan and Tania, and by descent Siobhan and Antigone
- The Intern: Antigone and Siobhan in the short story "O, Death".
- The Nicknamer: Walter has a tendency to come up with these for villains. So far they include Ninja Grandpa, and Professor Gloom.
- Think in Text: Internal thoughts are in italics.
- Time Skip: Between book one and the first short story (close to two months), and eventually between O, Death and book two (three months).
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Siobhan (Tomboy) and Antigone (Girly Girl) are minor versions of this. Siobhan still cares about lookign nice, but she's quite comfortable being out in jeans and boots (as long as they are black); Antigone takes more time to do make up and dress attractively in order to fit in.
- Unconventional Formatting: In the realm of Nightmare all text and speech are in italics, except if you are speaking in someone else's Nightmare—then it is non-italicized. Example.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Walter's assessment of Ninja Grandpa.
- Unusual Euphemism: The Faeries have a tendency to swear with the word Blight.
