Fantasy Writer

Alden
Burgess

Writing stories where the magic is easy. It's the people who are complicated.

Read about ExSpelled →
ExSpelled
Alden Burgess

Adult Urban Fantasy

Currently querying

ExSpelled

A disgraced wizard must team up with a band of magical misfits to solve a murder and save his father from an evil sorcerer.

Set in Northmere, a New England town where the only thing stronger than the magic is the coffee opinions, ExSpelled follows Lanford Grier, a young wizard who gets expelled from Merewood Institute of Magic after an unsanctioned training session goes wrong and the chosen one ends up dead. What follows is equal parts noir mystery, found family, and a magic system built around the seven senses.

~98,000 words. The arc moves from feckless to purposeful, with a few very bad decisions along the way.

Adult Urban Fantasy ~98K Words Currently Querying

Comp titles: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett · Witch King by Martha Wells · The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

For agents

Full query package available on request. Manuscript complete. Get in touch →

About Alden

Alden Burgess writes fast-paced, funny fantasy adventures. His debut novel, ExSpelled, follows Lanford Grier as he tries to solve a murder and save his father from an evil sorcerer.

After studying at Maine Media College and spending years in film production, Alden brought a storyteller's instincts to the page with a love of structure, a weakness for a well-timed joke, and the conviction that even magic systems need rules.

Alden is a board member of the Speculative Fiction Writers Association, where he writes the craft column The Engine Room. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with his wife, two kids, and Taco Tuesday, a yellow lab who takes his hiking schedule very seriously.

ExSpelled is currently with beta readers.

Alden Burgess

The Engine Room

Welcome to the Engine Room, where craft can be learned, adjusted, and repaired. Out of sight of the passengers, but essential to keep the story moving forward.

ETA: Emotion, Thought, Action

When a big moment hits your character, a revelation, a confrontation, a loss, resist the urge to just describe what happens. Run it through ETA.

E Emotion
T Thought
A Action

Let the character feel the EMOTION — a gut-punch, a wave of heat, a sudden stillness. Then let them THINK about it and interpret how the situation affects them. Even a half-second of processing what just happened grounds the reader in their perspective. Finally, have them ACT.

Skipping steps makes your biggest moments feel thin. ETA won't fix every scene, but if a draft moment isn't landing, check which letter you dropped.

More dispatches from the Engine Room on the way. Browse all posts →

Contact & Updates

For agents & publishers

Query materials, manuscript requests, and professional correspondence — I'm currently actively querying and would love to hear from you.

Stay in the loop

Occasional updates on ExSpelled, new Engine Room columns, and whatever else is worth saying. No noise.