The Wreck of the Valiant Is Here

The most infamous warship in history was destroyed eight years ago. Elara Voss has just found it, and someone is still alive inside.

I am excited to announce the release of my new science-fiction novel, The Wreck of the Valiant, Book One of The Iron Finch Voyages.

This full-length space opera combines a mysterious derelict warship, a powerful interstellar conspiracy, a capable female captain, found family, artificial intelligence, military action, and a slow-burn, closed-door romance.

A Warship That Should Not Exist

Elara Voss was once a promising Union Fleet engineer. After refusing an order that would have sacrificed civilians, she lost her commission and rebuilt her life as captain of the Iron Finch, a battered salvage tug held together by determination, ingenuity, and a crew that has become her family.

Now the Iron Finch is one failed salvage claim away from being repossessed.

While searching the Nadir debris field for anything valuable enough to save her ship, Elara’s crew detects an object hidden in the gravitic shadow of a dormant transit gate. It is enormous, silent, and missing from every modern navigation record.

Then an ancient identification signal begins repeating a single word:

Valiant.

The Valiant was a legendary League dreadnought supposedly destroyed eight years earlier. It was blamed for the Lysander massacre, the atrocity that ignited the Meridian War and killed Elara’s older brother, Jalen.

Every history book says the ship was destroyed.

Every military record says its crew died with it.

Every memorial says its commander was a monster.

The records are wrong.

Thousands of Empty Beds

Inside the Valiant, Elara discovers a ship that is damaged but strangely intact. Its corridors remain pressurized. Personal belongings have been left behind. Internal systems begin awakening as she moves deeper into the wreck.

Then she finds the stasis decks.

Thousands of pods stand open and empty. There are no bodies, no signs of panic, and no explanation for what happened to the people who once occupied them.

A hidden passenger manifest reveals that the Valiant rescued 3,118 civilians from Lysander before it disappeared. Someone later transferred those survivors to unmarked ships and erased them from the historical record.

Only one stasis pod remains occupied.

Inside is Commander Cassian Rook, the Ghost of Nadir, the man blamed for ordering the massacre and the man Elara has hated for eight years.

Cassian awakens believing only hours have passed since a mutiny aboard his ship. He insists he never ordered the attack. He claims the Valiant rescued the survivors and was carrying them toward safety when his own officers turned against him.

Then he says the one thing Elara cannot ignore.

Her brother survived the initial attack.

Jalen was aboard the Valiant.

The War Ended, but the Lie Survived

Before Cassian can prove his story, the Gatewright Consortium arrives with orders to destroy the dreadnought, erase its records, and kill everyone aboard.

Gatewright controls the transit gates connecting humanity’s settled systems. It controls the routes ships travel, the information moving between worlds, and the records people accept as historical truth.

The Valiant contains evidence that could destroy that control.

Forced to flee aboard a dreadnought that is barely holding together, Elara and her crew must restore the ship’s damaged systems, awaken its fragmented artificial intelligence, and follow a trail of missing witnesses across the stars.

Every answer pulls them deeper into a conspiracy spanning both sides of the former war.

Someone manufactured the Lysander massacre.

Someone forged Cassian’s orders.

Someone erased thousands of survivors.

Now the architects of the first atrocity are preparing to create another.

“The Valiant isn’t just salvage, Elara. It’s evidence.”

A Romance Built on Earned Trust

At the beginning of the story, Elara sees Cassian as the living face of her grief. Cassian sees Elara as the sister of a man he tried and failed to save.

Their relationship does not begin with instant trust or easy forgiveness.

It develops through shared danger, professional respect, difficult honesty, and the experience of keeping a dying ship and its small crew alive. Elara must decide whether believing Cassian would betray her brother’s memory. Cassian must stop treating himself as expendable and learn that partnership means allowing other people to share the choices as well as the risks.

Their relationship progresses from adversaries, to reluctant allies, to equal partners.

The romance is slow-burn and closed-door, with no explicit sexual content. It remains closely connected to the central mystery and the choices Elara and Cassian must make.

What You Will Find in The Wreck of the Valiant

The Wreck of the Valiant includes:

• A capable adult female captain and engineer

• A colossal derelict dreadnought hiding a wartime secret

• A loyal found-family salvage crew

• A damaged military artificial intelligence

• Fleet battles, boarding actions, and dangerous transit gates

• A conspiracy controlling interstellar travel and information

• An enemies-to-allies-to-lovers relationship

• A slow-burn, closed-door romance

• Dry humor, practical problem-solving, and high-stakes action

• A complete central story with the beginning of a larger series

Welcome Aboard the Iron Finch

I wrote The Wreck of the Valiant for readers who enjoy character-driven space opera, battered ships, competent crews, artificial intelligence, military mysteries, corporate conspiracies, and romances built on trust rather than instant attraction.

The novel tells a complete story while beginning The Iron Finch Voyages, a series following Elara, Cassian, and the Iron Finch crew as they search for missing survivors, forgotten ships, unauthorized transit routes, and the secrets still buried in the wreckage of the Meridian War.

The first voyage begins with a ship that should be dead.

It begins with thousands of people erased from history.

It begins with a salvage captain discovering that the monster she has hated for eight years may be the only person who can help her uncover the truth.

Thank you for supporting my work. After reading, please consider leaving an honest review on Amazon. Reviews help independent books reach new readers, particularly readers searching for science fiction with strong characters, found family, and a meaningful romantic storyline.

The Valiant has awakened.

The truth is still aboard.

And the war is not as over as everyone believes.

Introducing The Republic of Exiles, Book One of The Concord Series

Some people escape history. Others build what comes next.

I am excited to introduce The Republic of Exiles, the first novel in The Concord Series, a sweeping alternate-history and hard science fiction saga spanning World War II, the Cold War, the Space Race, and humanity’s first permanent steps beyond Earth.

The story begins in 1943, when American industrialist Thomas Lyle becomes convinced that the end of World War II will not bring lasting peace. Germany may be defeated, but its scientists, engineers, factories, and research programs are already becoming prizes in a new struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Thomas believes that another war is coming, one armed with rockets, nuclear weapons, surveillance systems, and technologies capable of placing the entire world at risk.

His answer is Project Lantern.

A civilization built from the people history overlooks

Project Lantern is a clandestine recruitment and rescue network operating across wartime Europe. Its mission is not limited to collecting famous scientists.

Thomas Lyle and physician Miriam Rosenfeld understand that a new civilization cannot be built by a handful of celebrated geniuses. It also needs machinists, technicians, draftsmen, nurses, teachers, farmers, accountants, translators, toolmakers, production supervisors, and families.

Project Lantern begins extracting entire technical communities before they can be captured, imprisoned, prosecuted, or absorbed into the programs of the victorious powers.

Some of the recruits are refugees.

Some are resistance members.

Some worked for governments they hated because refusing would have meant imprisonment or death.

Others carry histories that are far more difficult to excuse.

Every rescue forces Project Lantern to confront the same question: Who deserves a second chance, and who has done too much harm to be welcomed into a new society?

The rise of the Concord

The refugees are transported to the remote San Telmo Archipelago, where they establish a hidden settlement under the cover of a mining and shipping development project.

What begins as a temporary refuge gradually becomes a country.

The residents call their new society the Concord, an independent civilization that claims no connection to the governments, borders, and rivalries of the world they left behind.

Its secret leadership, the Long Horizon Committee, promises that strict control is only temporary. Elections, open records, freedom of movement, and full self-government can come later, once the settlement is safe.

But temporary powers have a way of becoming permanent.

The first generation remembers war, occupation, genocide, and displacement. Many are willing to accept secrecy in exchange for survival.

The generation born inside the Concord remembers none of those things. They do not see themselves as refugees waiting for the danger to pass. They see themselves as citizens of a country that refuses to let them govern it.

Financing a hidden nation

The Concord does not possess a magical source of wealth, alien technology, or limitless resources.

It finances itself through the Meridian Development Trust, a global network of corporations, foundations, shipping companies, research institutes, and patent-holding firms.

Meridian commercializes technologies that genuinely existed, or were close to existing, during the middle of the twentieth century. These include:

• Magnetic tape recording

• Industrial microwave systems

• Refrigeration and freeze-drying

• Transistorized hearing aids

• Numerical-control machine tools

• Solar cells

• Standardized shipping containers

• Office copying systems

• Business computers

• Semiconductor manufacturing

• Desalination and water-recycling systems

• Automated mining equipment

The public versions of these inventions remain only slightly ahead of real history. Meridian earns money by introducing products at the right moment, improving manufacturing quality, and building long-term service and licensing networks.

The Concord keeps its best designs for itself.

Its true advantage is not a single revolutionary invention. It is the ability to bring scientists, engineers, machinists, physicians, and manufacturers together decades earlier than they would have worked together in the outside world.

That advantage eventually gives birth to Hesperus, the Concord’s secret space program.

A different kind of space race

The American and Soviet space programs compete for public victories.

Hesperus has a different goal.

It does not want to plant a flag, take photographs, and return home. It wants to create a permanent human settlement beyond the reach of any Earth government.

Through offshore launch platforms, hidden tracking stations, automated cargo missions, compact computers, and closed-loop environmental systems, Hesperus begins building Somnium Station near the lunar south pole.

By the time Apollo 11 approaches the Moon in July 1969, twelve people are already living beneath the lunar surface.

They watch the public landing from a concealed station that the rest of humanity does not know exists.

But reaching the Moon does not solve the Concord’s problems.

It only gives those problems somewhere new to spread.

The lie beneath Hesperus

The Concord’s greatest technological achievement rests partly on the work of Dr. Konrad Weiss, a German propulsion specialist with expertise essential to the development of Hesperus.

Weiss was originally rejected by Project Lantern because of evidence connecting him to the exploitation and deaths of forced laborers.

Thomas Lyle rescued him anyway.

He gave Weiss a false identity, concealed his history, and allowed him to become one of the hidden architects of the Concord’s space program.

Thomas tells himself that saving Weiss allowed him to save thousands of others. Without Weiss, Hesperus might never have reached the Moon.

When the truth finally emerges, the Concord must decide whether its survival justifies the crimes committed in its name.

Security Director Anton Varga believes the answer is clear. The Concord is too important to be placed at risk by elections, public trials, or citizens who do not understand the threats surrounding them.

Miriam Rosenfeld, Hana Novák, Samuel Rosenfeld, and the generation raised inside the Concord believe something different.

A refuge that cannot trust its own people is not free.

A civilization built to escape tyranny cannot survive by reproducing it.

A story about more than reaching the Moon

Although The Republic of Exiles eventually reaches the lunar surface, this is not only a space-race novel.

It is also a story about recruitment, industrial development, family, memory, secrecy, and nation-building.

The book follows people trying to construct the practical foundations of a civilization:

• How do refugees from hostile nations learn to live together?

• Who writes the laws?

• Who controls the factories?

• Can a citizen choose to leave?

• How much technology can be sold without exposing the society that created it?

• Can scientific knowledge be separated from the crimes of the people who produced it?

• What happens when a government created for an emergency refuses to surrender its emergency powers?

• Does escaping the old world make it possible to build a better one?

The Concord is neither a perfect utopia nor a simple dystopia.

It provides safety, education, medical care, housing, and opportunity to people who might otherwise have died or disappeared into the machinery of the Cold War.

It also survives through forged identities, hidden corporations, surveillance, restricted movement, and an unelected leadership convinced that it knows what is best for everyone.

The people of the Concord must decide which parts of their society are worth preserving and which parts must be dismantled before they become permanent.

The beginning of The Concord Series

The Republic of Exiles covers the creation of Project Lantern, the rise of the Meridian Development Trust, the founding of the Concord, the development of Hesperus, and the establishment of Somnium Station.

The novel culminates during the Apollo 11 landing, when the hidden residents of Somnium watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take humanity’s first public steps on another world.

Beyond them, another project is already beginning.

The first experimental component of Barsoom One, the Concord’s proposed Mars expedition, has reached lunar orbit.

Future books in The Concord Series will explore the growth of Somnium Station, the political relationship between Earth and the Moon, the growing risk of discovery, and the attempt to build a spacecraft capable of carrying human beings to Mars.

The Concord escaped the nations of Earth.

Now it must determine what kind of civilization it will carry into space.

Everything We Lost Is Still There

Everything We Lost Is Still There

A New Standalone Science Fiction Thriller by Ryan Mercer

Some things are gone forever.

At least, they are supposed to be.

Nora Vale spends her days restoring damaged objects at Chicago’s Halcyon Museum. She can clean soot from a photograph, stabilize a cracked painting, and preserve what remains after fire, neglect, or time has done its worst.

What she cannot restore is Theo, her husband, who died fourteen months earlier in a suspicious car crash.

While testing an experimental quantum-imaging system, Nora opens a doorway into an empty version of Chicago. The streets, buildings, museums, and homes are almost exactly the same, but no people or other sentient beings exist there.

The empty city contains something even more impossible.

Everything Nora’s world has lost, stolen, burned, deleted, or destroyed still exists there.

When Nora travels to the site of Theo’s crash, she finds his destroyed blue source phone preserved inside the wreckage. The phone may contain the evidence he died trying to protect, including information that could expose one of the country's most powerful men.

Bringing it home comes with a cost.

Every object recovered from the empty world erases the human memories connected to it. A lost wedding ring can be returned, but the proposal it represents may disappear. A destroyed work of art can be restored, but the people who loved it may forget why it mattered.

As Nora searches Theo’s phone, she begins losing pieces of him. His laugh. His face. Their private jokes. Their arguments. The complicated life they shared.

To uncover the truth about Theo’s death, Nora may have to forget the man she is trying to avenge.

About the Book

Everything We Lost Is Still There is a standalone contemporary science fiction thriller about grief, memory, parallel worlds, corporate power, and the dangerous belief that recovering something lost can make a person whole again.

The story combines an eerie alternate Chicago, a mystery surrounding a journalist’s death, and an impossible moral choice. It is written for readers who enjoy accessible speculative fiction with emotional stakes, psychological suspense, and a complete ending.

The novel is currently in development. We'll post additional details and release information here as they become available.

Beyond the Open Key: The Iron Finch Voyages Continue

Beyond the Open Key: The Iron Finch Voyages Continue

The gate was supposed to be dead. Pilgrim Seven was supposed to be lost. Both assumptions were wrong.

Beyond the Open Key, Book Two of The Iron Finch Voyages, continues the story that began in The Wreck of the Valiant.

After exposing the truth behind the Lysander massacre, Captain Elara Voss has no intention of returning to the Union Fleet. She has reclaimed her name, secured an independent recovery charter, and set a new course for the Iron Finch. Her mission is to locate the remaining Pilgrim transports and bring home the people Gatewright tried to erase.

The first trail leads to the dormant Ophiuchus gate.

When an old token left behind by Elara’s brother activates something hidden inside the supposedly dead structure, the Iron Finch crosses an aperture no human vessel was meant to find. On the other side waits a starless system, a missing refugee transport, and an alien construction vast enough to make humanity’s greatest ships look insignificant.

Pilgrim Seven is still there.

Its 631 survivors are alive, but only fourteen months have passed for them. Their damaged ship has been repaired with an unknown black-silver material, and many of the passengers have been altered by the same technology. They are protected by the Waykeeper, an ancient intelligence that believes preserving human life is more important than allowing humans to choose what happens to it.

Elara soon discovers that Gatewright knew about this place long before the Meridian War. A surviving Gatewright director has followed the Finch through the hidden gate, determined to seize the alien structure and restore centralized control over interstellar travel.

Caught between a human authority that wants to own the gates and an alien custodian that wants to protect humanity from itself, Elara must find a third path.

Beside her is Cassian Rook, no longer a disgraced commander or a man waiting for a chance to sacrifice himself. He is Elara’s tactical partner, romantic partner, and equal in the life they are trying to build. Their greatest challenge is not discovering whether they love each other. It is learning how to share danger, responsibility, and an uncertain future without either one taking away the other’s choices.

What to Expect

• An enormous alien megastructure hidden beyond the known gate network

• A missing transport filled with survivors who have built their own community

• Cosmic mystery, first contact, and practical salvage engineering

• A morally complicated alien intelligence rather than a simple invading enemy

• Found family aboard the Iron Finch

• An established, family-friendly, closed-door romance

• Questions about authority, consent, survival, and who has the right to control the road between stars

Beyond the Open Key expands the universe of The Wreck of the Valiant while continuing the stories of Elara, Cassian, Mara, Niko, Tavi, Keon, Suri, and Iona.

The first book was about uncovering the truth buried in the wreckage of the past.

This voyage is about deciding who gets to shape the future.

Read the Series

Book One: The Wreck of the Valiant
Book Two: Beyond the Open Key

Introducing No Standard Build: The Unassigned, My New LitRPG Novel

Introducing No Standard Build: The Unassigned, My New LitRPG Novel

I am excited to finally share No Standard Build: The Unassigned, my new portal fantasy LitRPG and the first book in a planned series.

I have enjoyed LitRPG for years, but I wanted to approach the genre from a different direction. Instead of writing about a young warrior who becomes stronger by defeating everything in his path, I wanted a mature protagonist whose greatest abilities are observing, teaching, problem-solving, and helping other people become more capable.

That idea became Caleb Ward.

A Teacher in a World Built Around Classes

Caleb is a 41-year-old special education teacher who has spent years advocating for students whose knowledge is not always recognized by standardized assessments.

When Caleb is summoned to the Empire of Twelve Paths, he discovers a world where a single test determines almost everything about a person’s future.

Every citizen is expected to qualify for one of twelve approved magical classes. Those who fail the Concordance Assessment are labeled Unassigned. They cannot join guilds, receive enchanted equipment, serve in public positions, or even count as legal defenders of their own communities.

Caleb does not arrive as a warrior, wizard, or chosen hero. Instead, the System gives him a forbidden legacy class:

[Pathmaker]

A Pathmaker cannot gain combat attributes or become personally powerful. Caleb can only progress by helping other people turn skills they already possess into new, individualized Paths.

There is another important limitation. Caleb receives no credit when someone succeeds only because he is standing beside them and giving instructions. His class grows when the people he teaches can demonstrate real mastery without depending on him.

Meet the Unassigned

Caleb can maintain only four active Paths, and the people selected for them have spent years being told they are incapable.

Branik Tor is an injured quarry foreman who cannot perform the symmetrical stance required by the approved Bulwark class. The assessment ignores his decades of knowledge about weight, leverage, structural support, and force.

Eira Noll is an apothecary who cannot perceive the magical colors used by Imperial alchemists. She has learned to identify reactions through scent, temperature, texture, and sound, but the approved tests do not recognize her methods.

Senn Kest is an exceptional scout with a nearly perfect memory for terrain. Crowded environments and shouted battle commands overwhelm him, making it impossible to pass the standard Ranger examination.

Jory Pell cannot reproduce magical runes on parchment. When those same runes are carved into stone as three-dimensional structures, he understands them in ways trained Scribes do not.

Caleb cannot simply give them new powers. Every Path must begin with an ability they have already developed. It must carry real costs and limitations. It must work outside controlled training conditions, and it must eventually function without Caleb.

The Question Behind the Story

As a special education teacher, I spend a lot of time thinking about the difference between what a person can do and what a standardized system is able to measure.

That question became the foundation of No Standard Build.

Are we testing the skill that actually matters, or are we testing whether someone can use the one method an institution prefers?

The story is not arguing that standards are unnecessary. Reliable training, evidence, safety procedures, and honest assessments all matter. Caleb makes serious mistakes when his desire to help causes him to overprotect people or accept success too quickly.

The real conflict is about whether a standard measures genuine competence or simple conformity.

That conflict is represented by Talia Vey, an Imperial examiner who questions every claim Caleb makes. Talia is not cruel, corrupt, or opposed to the Unassigned. She has seen untested abilities fail with deadly consequences, and she refuses to certify someone simply because Caleb believes in them.

Caleb knows how to search for another path. Talia knows how to determine whether that path actually works.

They need each other, even when neither is ready to admit it.

Thirty Days to Save Rookstone

Caleb and his new party have only thirty days to prove themselves.

The failing mining settlement of Rookstone is about to lose its protective charter because the Empire refuses to count Unassigned residents among its defenders. At the same time, the Red Run is approaching.

The creatures leading the migration do more than attack. They observe standard classes, learn their formations, and adapt to repeated strategies.

To save Rookstone, Caleb’s party must become reliable without becoming predictable.

Along the way, they uncover evidence that individualized Paths were not a flaw in the magical System. They may have been what the System was originally designed to create.

What Readers Can Expect

No Standard Build: The Unassigned includes medium-crunch LitRPG mechanics, a noncombat protagonist, an adult cast, party progression, settlement defense, tactical battles, dry humor, a slow-building relationship, and characters whose abilities develop through practice rather than effortless power.

At its heart, it is a story about people who have been underestimated, mismeasured, and told that they do not fit any available path.

Sometimes the problem is not the person.

Sometimes the available paths are simply too narrow.

[BUTTON: Read No Standard Build on Amazon]

How I Fixed the EverDrive 64 X7 Black Screen on the ModRetro M64

When I first tried using my EverDrive 64 X7 with the ModRetro M64, I could not get the EverDrive menu to appear. The M64 turned on, but all I received was a black screen.

The cartridge needed an updated EverDrive OS and bootloader before it would start correctly on the M64.

After installing the newer bootloader with an original Nintendo 64, I moved the EverDrive 64 X7 back to the M64. It then booted normally instead of giving me a black screen.

Here is the complete process I followed.

Important: You Need an Original Nintendo 64

You cannot complete this update entirely on the ModRetro M64 if your EverDrive already produces a black screen there.

The bootloader installer must be launched from the EverDrive menu, which means the cartridge first needs to start on an original Nintendo 64.

You will need:

• An EverDrive 64 X-series cartridge, such as the EverDrive 64 X7

• The microSD card used inside the EverDrive

• A computer with a microSD card reader

• An original Nintendo 64

• A controller

• The official EverDrive OS and bootloader files

You are updating the microSD card inside the EverDrive cartridge. You do not need to modify the microSD card installed inside the ModRetro M64.

Download the Official EverDrive Files

All downloads below point directly to the official Krikzz website. I am not hosting, mirroring, or redistributing any of the files.

At the time of writing in August 2026, I used the following versions:

EverDrive 64 OS V3.11

Download OS-V3.11.zip from Krikzz

You can also check the official directory for a newer version:

Official EverDrive 64 X-Series OS directory

Krikzz states that OS V3.09 or newer is required because V3.09 added the bootloader installation function. I used V3.11 because it was the current version when I performed the update.

EverDrive 64 Bootloader V5.04

Download bootrom-v5.04.b64 from Krikzz

You can check the official bootloader directory here:

Official EverDrive 64 X-Series bootloader directory

The bootloader file is a .b64 file. Do not rename it, convert it, or try to extract it.

Step 1: Back Up the EverDrive MicroSD Card

Turn everything off and remove the microSD card from the EverDrive 64 X7.

Insert the card into your computer and make a backup of its contents before changing anything. I recommend copying the entire microSD card to a folder on your computer.

At minimum, make sure you have a backup of the existing ED64 folder because it can contain system settings, save files, cheats, and other EverDrive data.

Do not skip the backup.

Step 2: Install the New EverDrive OS

Extract the downloaded OS-V3.11.zip file on your computer.

Inside the extracted download, you should find an ED64 folder.

Copy that ED64 folder to the root of the EverDrive microSD card. The root is the main level of the card, not one of your game folders.

When your computer asks what to do with files and folders that already exist, choose the option to merge the folders and replace the older system files.

Do not delete your entire existing ED64 folder before copying the update. Merging the new folder with the existing folder helps preserve files that are not included in the update. This is also why making a complete backup first is important.

Your ROM folders can remain where they are.

Step 3: Copy the Bootloader File to the Card

Copy bootrom-v5.04.b64 to the microSD card.

The official instructions say that it can be placed anywhere on the card. I placed it in the root directory so it would be easy to find in the EverDrive menu.

The card should now contain:

• The updated ED64 system folder

• Your existing game and ROM folders

• The bootrom-v5.04.b64 bootloader installer

Safely eject the microSD card from your computer and place it back inside the EverDrive 64 X7.

Step 4: Install the Bootloader Using an Original Nintendo 64

Insert the EverDrive 64 X7 into an original Nintendo 64.

Do not try to perform this part on the ModRetro M64 if the EverDrive only gives you a black screen there.

Turn on the original Nintendo 64 and wait for the EverDrive menu to load.

Navigate to the location where you copied bootrom-v5.04.b64.

Highlight the file and press the A button.

The updated EverDrive OS should recognize the .b64 file as a bootloader installer and begin the installation process. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen.

Once the update begins, do not:

• Turn off the Nintendo 64

• Press the reset button

• Remove the EverDrive

• Remove the microSD card

• Disconnect power from the console

Leave everything powered on until the EverDrive reports that the installation has finished.

After the update is complete, turn off the original Nintendo 64 normally.

Step 5: Test the EverDrive on the ModRetro M64

Remove the updated EverDrive 64 X7 from the original Nintendo 64 and insert it into the ModRetro M64.

Turn on the M64.

In my case, the EverDrive menu now appeared normally. The black screen was gone, and I could browse the card and launch games from the EverDrive.

After confirming that everything works, you can remove bootrom-v5.04.b64 from the microSD card. Leaving it on the card should not normally cause a problem, but removing it prevents the installer from being launched accidentally later.

What to Do if You Only See “File Info”

If you select bootrom-v5.04.b64 and the EverDrive only offers options such as “File Info” or “Hex Info,” the updated operating system probably was not installed correctly.

The bootloader installer function was introduced with EverDrive 64 OS V3.09. Older versions can see the .b64 file but cannot launch it as an installer.

Try the following:

1. Turn off the original Nintendo 64.

2. Remove the EverDrive microSD card.

3. Confirm that you downloaded OS V3.09 or newer.

4. Copy the updated ED64 folder to the root of the card again.

5. Allow the new system files to replace the older versions.

6. Return the card to the EverDrive and restart it on the original Nintendo 64.

Once the newer OS is actually running, selecting the bootloader file should start the installation process.

What if the EverDrive Also Has a Black Screen on the Original N64?

This procedure depends on the EverDrive being able to start on an original Nintendo 64.

If it also shows a black screen there, try cleaning the EverDrive’s cartridge contacts with high-concentration isopropyl alcohol and allowing them to dry completely. Also inspect the microSD card, reseat it, and confirm that the updated ED64 folder is located at the root of the card.

You may also want to test a standard Nintendo 64 cartridge to confirm that the original console itself is working.

A black screen on both systems may indicate a different cartridge, microSD card, power, or connection problem.

What if I Do Not Own an Original Nintendo 64?

The easiest option is to borrow an original Nintendo 64 long enough to perform the update. The installation itself only needs to be completed once.

There are hardware modification discussions online involving changes to the EverDrive cartridge, but I did not need to modify my cartridge. Using an original Nintendo 64 and the official Krikzz software was the simpler and safer option for me.

Why Does This Fix Work?

Krikzz originally documented this bootloader update as a compatibility fix for the Analogue 3D. The official notes do not specifically identify the ModRetro M64.

However, my EverDrive 64 X7 had the same basic symptom on the M64: it produced a black screen before the update and worked normally afterward.

The newer EverDrive OS includes the bootloader installer, and the updated bootloader allows the cartridge to initialize correctly on newer hardware in situations where the older bootloader does not.

I cannot say that every M64 and EverDrive problem has the same cause, but this procedure fixed my particular EverDrive 64 X7 black screen.

Final Result

The complete process was:

1. Back up the EverDrive microSD card.

2. Install EverDrive 64 OS V3.09 or newer.

3. Copy the official .b64 bootloader file to the card.

4. Start the EverDrive on an original Nintendo 64.

5. Select the bootloader file and complete the installation.

6. Move the EverDrive back to the ModRetro M64.

After doing this, my EverDrive 64 X7 started normally on the ModRetro M64 and the black screen was gone.

Official Links and Sources

ModRetro M64 official product page

Official Krikzz EverDrive 64 X-Series OS directory

Official Krikzz EverDrive 64 X-Series bootloader directory

Official Krikzz bootloader instructions

Original Reddit discussion

Disclaimer

This post describes the process that worked with my own EverDrive 64 X7 and ModRetro M64. Back up your microSD card before changing system files. Do not interrupt power while the bootloader is being installed. ModRetro and Krikzz are separate companies, and this should not be interpreted as an official statement of ModRetro flash-cartridge compatibility.

New Release: The Fifth Chair

What happens when love becomes something you can count, divide, rotate, and record?

The Fifth Chair is a Cedar Mesa Polygamy Romance about Elias Ward, a man who has mistaken fairness for tenderness. On his isolated high-desert homestead, Elias manages his plural marriage with rigid precision. Every chore, every meal, every duty, and every private obligation is written into a scuffed leather ledger so no one can accuse him of favoritism.

To Elias, the system is fair.

To the women living inside it, the system is slowly turning the house cold.

The Fifth Chair by Ryan Mercer.

A story about fairness, silence, and the weight of being managed

Hannah, Elias’s first wife, has become the pillar of the household. She is steady, efficient, stoic, and exhausted. She knows the rhythms of the kitchen, the cellar, the winter stores, and the family ledger so well that no one seems to notice how much of herself has been buried beneath the work.

Leah, the second wife, moves through the Ward home like a shadow, carrying the scent of wool, lanolin, and long nights of labor. She has learned how to be quiet, how to take up less space, and how to survive inside a marriage where even intimacy has a place in the rotation.

And Elias believes he is doing the right thing.

He provides. He protects. He records. He balances.

But a ledger can only measure what is owed. It cannot measure loneliness. It cannot measure hunger for kindness. It cannot measure the grief of a woman who has been treated fairly and still feels unseen.

Fairness without love is just another cage.

The chair that changes the room

As winter tightens around the Ward homestead, the family begins to face a truth Elias can no longer calculate away: a home built on perfect distribution is not the same thing as a home built on love.

The fifth chair begins as a symbol of order, another attempt to solve the household by structure, balance, and design. But the more the family struggles, the more that chair becomes something else.

Not a seat for another obligation.

Not a monument to control.

A place for the voice that has been missing.

A remote homestead. A rigid ledger. A chair built for the voice no one has heard.

For readers who like emotional, character-driven romance

The Fifth Chair is for readers who enjoy:

Plural marriage romance with deep emotional stakes

Cedar Mesa family drama and high-desert atmosphere

Slow-burn healing inside a complicated household

A stern, wounded husband learning the difference between management and love

Strong women who have been quiet too long

Themes of covenant, agency, forgiveness, stewardship, and rebuilding trust

A romance where the central question is not simply who gets loved, but whether love can become generous enough to stop keeping score

Full hardcover wrap for The Fifth Chair.

Why this story matters

I am drawn to stories where the real conflict is not outside the house, but inside the everyday patterns people have learned to call normal.

The Fifth Chair lives in that space.

It is a story about a man who thinks precision can protect everyone from pain. It is a story about women who have been asked to endure quietly because the numbers say the arrangement is fair. It is a story about what happens when a family finally admits that order without tenderness is not peace.

Most of all, it is a story about making room.

Room for rest.

Room for honesty.

Room for a voice that was never meant to stay hidden in the corner.

Read The Fifth Chair

If you enjoy Cedar Mesa romance, complex plural households, emotional domestic tension, and stories about love becoming braver than control, I would be honored for you to read The Fifth Chair.

New Release: The Fourth Chair

A Cedar Mesa polygamy romance about Clara Jensen, a master artisan who returns to the red rocks to protect her name, her craft, and the chair that may finally give her a place to belong.

What does it cost a woman to keep her name?

The Fourth Chair is a Cedar Mesa Polygamy Romance about Clara Jensen, a master of the finish whose hands can make old oak glow like amber and mahogany feel like silk. Five years ago, Clara fled the red rocks of Cedar Mesa and the expectations that tried to turn women into footnotes in someone else’s ledger. In the city, she built a life of fierce independence, cold workshops, and a signature she refused to surrender.

Then Cedar Mesa calls her back.

A schoolhouse commission offers Clara the money, visibility, and professional recognition she has been chasing. It also forces her back into the community she escaped, into a household with three chairs already set at the table, and into the orbit of Daniel Calder, a man whose quiet strength unsettles every defense she has built.

A story about craft, covenant, and the fear of disappearing

Clara does not come to Cedar Mesa looking for love.

She comes with her tool chest, her maker’s mark, and a plan to finish the work, sign every piece, and leave with her name intact.

But the Calder household is not what she expected.

Ruth offers warmth without ownership. Naomi offers professional kinship instead of competition. Daniel offers restraint, respect, and a kind of advocacy Clara does not know how to trust.

And waiting in the corner is the fourth chair.

Not just a seat.

Not just an invitation.

A question.

Can Clara belong without being erased?

About the book

The Fourth Chair blends intimate romance, family drama, woodworking imagery, and the emotional tension of a woman deciding whether love can be an expanding well instead of a cage.

Readers who enjoy character-driven romance, artisan heroines, slow-burn emotional stakes, plural household dynamics, and stories about women claiming their names will find Clara’s journey both tender and sharp-edged.

At its heart, this book asks a question that matters far beyond Cedar Mesa:

What if independence is not the absence of love, but the right to be fully seen inside it?

This book is for readers who like:

A strong, guarded heroine with a craft of her own

A romance built on respect, restraint, and emotional honesty

Warm domestic settings with high personal stakes

Woodworking, maker’s marks, schoolhouse commissions, and hidden signatures

Plural marriage romance centered on choice, covenant, and belonging

Stories where a family must learn to make room without swallowing the person they invite in.

Read The Fourth Chair

If Clara Jensen’s story speaks to you, I would be honored for you to read it, share it, and leave a review when you finish.

Reviews help the book reach the readers who are looking for emotional romance, complex family dynamics, and a heroine who refuses to let her name be sanded away.