Coming Soon: Ravenfell (Wytch Kings, Book 6)

Ravenfell, book 6 of the Wytch Kings series, is on its way. It tells the story of Prince Jossafir of Ysdrach and Prince Bradin of Miraen, and sets the stage for the final conflict between the Northern Alliance and the Wytch Council. Ravenfell is a fantasy/romance novel of ~90,000 words, and will be available in August.

Prince Jossafir of Ysdrach should have taken the throne after his father’s death, but a Wytch Council experiment gone wrong has left him with a dangerous Wytch power he has no hope of controlling. Declared a monster too dangerous to rule, Joss is locked away, his only visitors those who have been sentenced to death… and him their executioner.

When the Northern Alliance’s dragon army invades, Joss’s brother Wytch King Delrinian is captured, but Joss escapes his prison and joins a band of rebels. Joss’s first task as a member of the rebellion is to identify a highborn Alliance prisoner who may have information about the estate where his brother is being held. To Joss’s shock, he finds Prince Bradin of Miraen, the man he once loved with all his heart, lying in a dirty cell, injured and awaiting interrogation.

Now Joss must make a choice: will he use his deadly Wytch power to aid the rebels’ quest to rescue Delrinian and reclaim the kingdom, or will he turn traitor and save the man who once set his heart on fire?

Burn the Sky: A Sneak Peek

While Gremlin's Last Run is being ripped to shreds by my beta team, I've been working hard on a fantasy dragon shifter story called Burn the Sky. I wrote this as an 18,000 word novella last summer, intending to submit it to a publisher for an anthology call. While my beta team all liked it, everyone said it wanted to be a novel. And I agreed. Cramming the story and the ideas I had into 18K just wasn't going to cut it. So I put it away until I had time to work on it. Over the last few weeks I've been rewriting it as a short novel, and it looks like it's going to end up somewhere around 55,000 words. Chinchbug has already made the cover, and I should finish up this draft in a week or so. I'd like to have this out by the end of this year or early next (the timing will depend on how much work Gremlin's Last Run needs before it's released).

The Blurb:

Prince Garrik is the heir presumptive of Altan, next in line to be crowned Wytch King. There’s only one problem: in order for Garrik to be crowned, he must possess Wytch power of his own, and thus far, whatever power Garrik might possess has shown no sign of awakening. As things stand, it is Garrik’s younger brother, Jaire—a dreamer completely unsuited to wear the crown—who will take the throne after their father.

Things come to a head when the Wytch King, who has grown increasingly impatient with the situation, demands that Garrik’s power be forcibly awakened. Hoping to protect his brother from the burden of rule, Garrik allows the attempt—with disastrous results. Now, Garrik must learn to control the fiery dragon that rages within him before he destroys everything he loves.

Wytch Master Ilya has been alone for years. Learning to control the icy beast slumbering deep within him has already cost him his family and his lover, and Ilya will never open himself up to that kind of pain again. Summoned to Altan to avert disaster if he can, Ilya has no intention of allowing anyone to thaw the ice in his heart. When he meets Prince Garrik, sparks fly, and Ilya finds himself fighting feelings he’d thought long buried.

Can Garrik’s fire melt Ilya’s icy heart? Or will Ilya be forced to use his ice to quench the flames that burn within Garrik once and for all?

Coming Soon: Facing the Mirror

The short story, Facing the Mirror is nearly finished. It introduces two of the secondary characters who appear throughout the Guardians of the Pattern series, and another character who will probably inspire a book of his own, because I found him so intriguing. He's been whispering in my ear ever since he came barging into my head when I wrote the first draft of this story, and he's been getting louder. I don't think he's willing to wait much longer for his turn in the spotlight.

Facing the Mirror is now in the hands of my long-suffering, overworked beta reader (to whom I really need to send a nice, large box of truffles), and I'm hoping to have it out during the first part of November. I do have a blurb to share, and next week, I'll post a sneak-peek at the cover art. Chinchbug did his usual awesome digital magic on it, and it looks great.

Blurb:
Special Agent Cameron Asada has spent four years deep undercover in an attempt to deal a death blow to the Sapphire Guild, the largest drug cartel on Alpha. The things he's done in the name of his mission weigh heavily on his soul, and Cam is reaching the point where he's not sure he recognizes the man he sees in the mirror anymore.

Things come to a head when Cam finally gets the break he's been waiting for: an invitation to work for the boss himself as a psionic interrogator. While working at the boss's estate, Cam meets Miko, a powerful psion trapped behind a wall of silence. It doesn't take long for Cam to realize that Miko is a slave, handed around to the boss's associates as a reward for a job well done.

Miko's plight tugs at Cam's heartstrings, forcing Cam to examine just how many lines he's willing to cross in the name of serving the greater good. Will Cam risk his life and his career to help Miko? Or is the trail of broken minds and bodies he's left in his wake worth the possibility of victory over the Guild?

Guardians of the Pattern

The next thing on the agenda is to get my M/M science fiction series, Guardians of the Pattern, all nice and shiny and ready for consumption. The series consists of five novels, all of which are in first draft form at the moment, and all of which run around 85 - 95K right now.

There is an over-arching plot that runs through the entire series, but each story will focus on a different couple. The same core group of characters appear throughout the series, which covers the events of several years, so the characters from the first book will be making appearances throughout the series, and have important roles to play in some of the later stories.

Without further ado, here is the blurb for Psi Hunter, the first book in the Guardians of the Pattern series:

Blurb:
In a future where humanity has spread out among the stars, those few possessing psychic abilities are looked upon with suspicion at best and murderous intent at worst.

On Aurora, one of the more tolerant worlds of the Federation, Pat Cottrell works for Federation Security as a psi hunter, tracking down and neutralizing dangerous psi criminals.

Kyn Valdari works for the Institute for Psionic Research, running search-and-rescue operations, in which psions in distress are offered the chance to learn how to control psychic abilities that can threaten sanity and ruin lives.

Kyn and Pat used to be best friends, closer than brothers. Three years ago, one passionate night that never should have happened left both of them shocked, confused, and desperately wanting more.

They haven’t spoken since.

Now, the silence between them must be broken. Kyn and Pat have been ordered to investigate a string of murders that may have been committed by a psion powerful enough to kill with a thought. In order to succeed, they will have to work together to save an abused, traumatized young psion from being taken advantage of by the very organization that is supposed to save him.

Author's Note: Speculate all you like, but I refuse to explain the similarities in the last names of one of the main characters in this book and the name of the evil dude in Human Frailties, Human Strengths. Stick around… all will be revealed… although it might take us a while to get there!

I'm planning on having this out early next year, and sometime before the end of this year, I'll have a short (about 10K) prequel story coming out.