Twin Dragons Wake
Kumo wants to be left alone with his archaeology Ph.D. Alice has other plans. A mind-bending descent into the dark underworld of Japan.
ISBN 9781948414012 · print & Kindle
Science-fantasy series
Nemia Rising
Two episodes so far, one world with rules that don't bend when it's convenient — twin dragons, a buried past, and the kind of internal consistency I'd want in any system, fictional or not. Written as Joseph Anthony Dattilo, with cover art by Katherine Dattilo.
What it is
Nemia Rising is a science-fantasy series I write. The world, the rules, and the story are mine, and the instinct from building real systems carries over: real consequences, no hand-waving. Katherine read every chapter as I wrote it, helped with the editing, and made the cover art.
It follows Kumo, an agoraphobic albino grinding through a Ph.D. in archaeology who wants nothing more than to be left in peace to get ahead, the way his father always pushed him to. He'd have managed it, too, if a girl named Alice hadn't come along and messed up the whole plan. (If you thought Kumo was weird, you haven't met Alice.) From there it's a mind-bending trip through the dark underworld of Japan: discovery, intrigue, romance, and action. If Neverwhere or Narnia are your shelf, this belongs on it.
Two episodes are out in print and on Kindle. Twin Dragons Wake is the fuller introduction to the world. The Dig is the prequel, set earlier in Kumo's own timeline but written second: an ill-fated excavation he took with his father as a boy, where his story actually begins. Neither needs the other read first (more on that below), but together they're the whole story so far, and there's more coming.
The two books
The Dig
The prequel: the ill-fated excavation Kumo took with his father as a boy, where the whole story begins.
ISBN 9781948414029 · print & Kindle
Where to start reading
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Chronologically
The Dig (Episode 0) happens first inside the story.
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Written order
Twin Dragons Wake came first off my desk, and it's the fuller introduction to the world — start there if you want the on-ramp the series was actually built for.
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Either way
Both entry points work. I'd just rather you start reading than wait for me to pick for you.
Who's writing this
Why a dragon story sits next to my AI work
By day I design AI agents for a living — the kind that have to hold a stable, believable personality across thousands of conversations, not just answer one prompt and forget everything. Turns out writing a series with Katherine, keeping a cast and a set of world-rules consistent across two books (and counting), trains exactly that muscle: character anchoring, a voice that doesn't wobble, motivations that survive situations nobody scripted. My agents feel coherent partly because I write characters, not just prompts. I go into that in more detail on the engineering side of things, if you're curious.