Things That Should Stay Buried by Casey L. Bond + giveaway

Things That Should Stay Buried

by Casey L. Bond

August 28th, 2020
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy/Mythologya
Editor: Stacy Sanford/ The Girl with the Red Pen
Cover & Trailer Designer: Melissa Stevens/ The Illustrated Author Design Services
Hosted by: Lady Amber’s PR

Some destinies are written in the stars. Others must be bought with blood…

The Zodia are real. Clawing their way from a long-forgotten tomb, they emerge, ravenous to claim everyone born under their star signs. Plotting to resurrect kingdoms no human knew existed, they are driven by a hunger for vengeance against the one who buried them: Aries.

Larken is a natural born sprinter, but even she can’t outrun the darkness closing in. A shelter-in-place order has been issued, causing widespread panic. Some brush the alarm off as a drill, until people begin to disappear... vanishing without a trace. Left with only one option, Larken’s brother does what he must to save her life... and calls forth Aries.

Considered a traitor by his own kind, only Aries has the power to stand against the Zodia. But he can’t do it alone. Mystically bonded to Larken, the pair must band together for the fight to come if either hope to make it out alive. Neither anticipated the passion that would ignite between them. Yet, in a world suddenly thrust into chaos, it may be the key to their survival.

The Zodia are out for blood with their attentions inexplicably focused on Larken. When long buried truths finally come to light, will their love be their salvation or their curse?

“A mesmerizing and haunting twist on a familiar tale you don’t want to miss. “ - Cameo Renae, USA Today bestselling author of the Hidden Wings Series

“Casey L. Bond reaches for the stars to bring us Things That Should Stay Buried. The Zodia are beautiful, dangerous and to die for.”- New York Times Bestselling Author Chanda Hahn

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About the Author:

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Casey Bond lives in West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. She likes goats and yoga, but hasn't tried goat yoga because the family goat is so big he might break her back. Seriously, he's the size of a pony. Her favorite books are the ones that contain magical worlds and flawed characters she would want to hang out with. Most days of the week, she writes young adult fantasy books, letting her imaginary friends spill onto the blank page.

Casey is the award-winning author of When Wishes Bleed, the Frenzy series, and fairy tale retellings such as Riches to Rags, Savage Beauty, Unlocked and Brutal Curse. Learn more about her work at www.authorcaseybond.com.

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Author Stephen Zimmer: The naming of weapons in epic fantasy

Fantasy author Stephen Zimmer talks about his character

Ragnar Stormbringer and his Axe—Raven Caller.

And gives I Smell Sheep a proper Kentucky toast!

Depths of Night: A Ragnar Stormbringer Tale
by Stephen Zimmer
April 4, 2018

82 pages

Publisher: Seventh Star Press; 1 edition

After a harrowing end to a long sea journey, the famed northern warrior Ragnar Stormbringer and a force of warriors step ashore in the lands of the Petranni, a tribal people known for their workings in silver and gold. The search for plunder takes a sharp turn when homesteads, villages, and temple sites show signs of being recently abandoned.

When it is discovered that the Petranni have all taken refuge within a massive stronghold, Ragnar and the others soon fall under the shadow of an ancient, deadly adversary. Wielding his legendary war axe Raven Caller, Ragnar finds his strength tested like never before.

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About the author:
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Stephen Zimmer is an award-winning author and filmmaker based out of Lexington Kentucky. His works include the Rayden Valkyrie novels (Sword and Sorcery), the Rising Dawn Saga (Cross Genre), the Fires in Eden Series (Epic Fantasy), the Hellscapes short story collections (Horror), the Chronicles of Ave short story collections (Fantasy), the Harvey and Solomon Tales (Steampunk), and the forthcoming Faraway Saga (YA Dystopian/Cross-Genre).

Stephen’s visual work includes the feature film Shadows Light, shorts films such as The Sirens and Swordbearer, and the forthcoming Rayden Valkyrie: Saga of a Lionheart TV Pilot.

Stephen is a proud Kentucky Colonel who also enjoys the realms of music, martial arts, good bourbons, and spending time with family.

Tour Schedule and Activities

5/21 Beauty in Ruins https://beauty-in-ruins.blogspot.com/ Guest Post
5/21 Literary Underworld literaryunderworld.com Guest Post
5/22 Sapphyria's Books https://saphsbooks.blogspot.com/ Review
5/22 The Horror Club thehorrorclubblog.wordpress.com Review
5/23 Oak Hill RPG Club wordpress.com/oakhillrpgclub Review
5/23 Breakeven Books https://breakevenbooks.com Interview
5/23 Bookwraiths http://www.bookwraiths.com Guest Post
5/24 MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape http://mylifemybooksmyescape.wordpress.com Author Interview
5/24 Ally Books and Reviews https://allybooksandreviews.blogspot.com/ Guest Post
5/25 Sheila's Guests and Reviews http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com Author Interview and Guest Post
5/25 The Book Lover's Boudoir https://thebookloversboudoir.wordpress.com/ Review
5/26 I Smell Sheep http://www.ismellsheep.com/ VLOG
5/27 MightyThorJRS Fantasy Book News and Reviews https://mightythorjrs.com/ Guest Post
5/27 Jazzy Book Reviews http://bookreviewsbyjasmine.blogspot.com Top 10 List

Tour Page URL: http://www.tomorrowcomesmedia.com/stephen-zimmers-depths-of-night-blog-tour-2/

Book Review: Furyborn (Book I of The Empirium Trilogy) by Claire Legrand

Furyborn (Book I of The Empirium Trilogy)
by Claire Legrand
May 22, 2018
Publisher: Sourcebooks
ASIN: B07B3FTJDM ISBN: 9781492656623
When assassins ambush her best friend, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

One thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a fairy tale to Eliana Ferracora. A bounty hunter for the Undying Empire, Eliana believes herself untouchable—until her mother vanishes. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain and discovers that the evil at the empire's heart is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world—and of each other.

This YA fantasy is two stories set a thousand years apart. One story is about Rielle, who saves her friend and exposes her abilities, maybe showing she may be one of a pair of prophesied queens. One queen is of light, the other, of blood. 

The other tale concerns Eliana, a bounty hunter for the Undying Empire. She does this for her mother and brother, but suddenly, her mother vanishes. She joins the rebels and learns terrible things about the Undying Emperor who she works for.

The book would have been better if they'd written two different books for each character. The formatting of the back and forth of each character’s story made it confusing and irritating. Also, both female heroines behavior irritated me. I didn't like them that much.

I hope the next book's format will be better thought out.

I give Furyborn (Book 1 of The Empirium Trilogy) 3 ½ sheep.

Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney

About the Author:

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Claire Legrand used to be a musician until she realized she couldn't stop thinking about the stories in her head. Now she is a librarian who writes novels for children and teens. Legrand is the author of THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, THE YEAR OF SHADOWS, WINTERSPELL, SOME KIND OF HAPPINESS, and FOXHEART. She is also the author of the upcoming YA epic fantasy FURYBORN, the first book in The Empirium Trilogy (May 22, 2018), and SAWKILL GIRLS, a YA horror novel (October 16, 2018). She is one of the four authors behind THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, an anthology of dark middle-grade fiction. She lives in New Jersey. Visit her at claire-legrand.com and on Twitter @clairelegrand.

Spotlight: Epic by Adrienne Wilder + 2 giveaways

Epic

by Adrienne Wilder

June 15, 2017

319 pages

Andrew Atler has learned the hard way, fiction is far better than real life. In his romance novels the world is safe, predictable, and there is always a happy ending. Best of all, he can safely fall in love and the person will never know. There he can weave a tale of perfect passion plus pay the bills.

Matt Grim flies the colors of Hell’s Legion. When he’s not riding his chopper, he’s working as a bouncer for the Six. Matt’s life consists of drinking, playing in a band, and burning the midnight oil in the dungeon. He lives hard, plays hard, and rides even harder.

Two people who would never be a part of the same EPIC love story.

But sometimes those fairy tale clichés have a way of working magic.

And sometimes…sometimes those happy endings do come true.

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Next book coming from Adrienne Wilder...

Wild
by Adrienne
Releasing in Sept 2017
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No sane man would choose to live in the Alaskan bush unless he had something to hide. And Keegan Brooks has secrets darker than night, more dangerous than wolves, more brutal than an Alaskan winter. Every day for him was survival until he found August Vallory the sole survivor in a downed plane. 
It’s no longer just Keegan’s life teetering on the edge of survival.

Now it’s his heart.

Blog Tour

Aug 14-25

Aug 14 Boy Meets Boys Reviews – guest post
Aug 15 Making it Happen - review
            Vampy and Racey – review/guest post
Aug 16 The Novel Approach Reviews – guest post
Aug 17 Joyfully Jay – guest post
Aug 18 Jeep Diva – guest post
Aug 21 I Smell Sheep – spotlight
Aug 22 Love Unchained - review
            Pearls Cast Before a McPig - spotlight
Aug 23 Love Bytes – guest post
Aug 25 Jessie G Books – spotlight

Each blog may run their own giveaway for an ecopy of any Adrienne Wilder book.

I Smell  Sheep Giveaway

ecopy of winner's choice from Adrienne's backlist

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Tour Wide Giveaway

$20 amazon gift card

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Interview: Piers Authors Piers Anthony and Kenneth Kelly (Virtue Inverted -Pakk Trilogy-book 1)

Piers Anthony Interview

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Who are your favorite authors?

If I lost my memory and had my choice of reading matter, I hope my favorite would be Piers Anthony. I try to write what I would like to read. As for other authors, I have admired many in the Science Fiction and Fantasy fields, from Robert A Heinlein on down. I am also an admirer of the plays of George Bernard Shaw, and not just because he was a vegetarian.

What advice do you have for other writers?

Publishing is changing so much now that much of what I might say would become dated about ten minutes after I wrote it. So I’ll just say read and study the genre you are in, keep writing and improving, and may the world go well with thee.

What's the best thing about being a writer?

For me the best thing is getting to exercise my imagination and being independent. I can’t be fired for someone else’s mistakes.

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?

It used to be dealing with publishers, who were like insensitive robots interested only in money, regardless what they claimed. But the old order is passing and the new publishers I am dealing with are generally more compatible. Some of them even like good fiction. So now the hardest thing is facing the prospect of my declining ability with advancing age. I’m not capable of simply letting it go and retiring. So when I no longer write well, I hope I am the first, not the last to know it.

Where can people find out more about you and your writing?

My web site is www.hipiers.com where I have a monthly column, commenting on whatever is on my mind, and background information on my titles. I have also written two autobiographical books: Bio of an Ogre and How Precious Was That While.

Where can a reader purchase your book?

From wherever the publisher puts it.

What are you doing to market the book?  

Precious little. I’m a writer, not a marketer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kenneth Kelly Interview

What genre do you write and why?

I dabble in Science Fiction, but I primarily write fantasy. Science Fiction is all about high tech gadgets, science, space travel…things that could possibly be in our own world or worlds very similar.  You have to have a good idea of scientific theories, astrology, and modern advances in space travel.  You have to follow certain ‘rules’ if you expect the reader to take you seriously, and while I’m up for a challenge, I prefer my writing to have a bit more freedom for creativity. That’s what I like about fantasy: having more freedom.  That doesn’t mean I can write whatever story I darn well please. 

Fantasy writing still has to have a certain verisimilitude, but it’s not as confined by research and ‘correctness’ of what constitutes good science fiction.  You can experiment a bit more with fantasy.  The rustic, woodland settings, sword and sorcery, outrageous monsters, things that aren’t possible and defy laws of physics and have no explanation and don’t need one; I can create the rules of the worlds my stories take place in.  With fantasy I can let my imagination go crazy in a way other genres wouldn’t permit.  

Tell us about your latest book. 

Virtue Inverted started off as a story I began in high school.  I was very proud of it, showing it off to all my friends and English teachers.  But it wasn’t anywhere close to the work it is now.  Benny Clout’s character was essentially the same, but almost everything else (setting, plot, characters, etc.) was unrecognizable to how it is now.  After I graduated and began college, I quickly realized it wasn’t the masterpiece I’d hoped it would be and sat on it for a few years until I contacted Piers Anthony in 2015 in regards to another book I’d written.  We began to discuss this old story of mine, collaborated and before I knew it we’d completed Virtue Inverted and the following installments.  I don’t want to discuss too much of the story, but I’ll describe it as a hard hitting vampire fantasy. However, it’s not your typical vampire story.

Who are your favorite authors?

This is a hard question because there are so many writers I admire.  I’m obviously a big Piers Anthony fan, and I love the big names of sci-fi/fantasy like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Stephen King.  I love the more modern, popular writers like Robert Jordan, Isaac Asimov, David Farland, etc.  But there are a lot of lesser known writers I don’t feel received the recognition they deserved: John Bellairs,  H. Beam Piper, Niel Hancock, Brad Munson, and John Ruskin.  If I typed the names of every writer I consider a favorite this interview would go on forever.  An easier question would probably be “which writers aren’t your favorite?”  

What advice do you have for other writers?

Keep writing and never give up.  It’s hard to become well established as a published writer; I’m still working on that.  If one project doesn’t take off, set it aside and move on to the next.  You’re first big idea won’t always take off like a jet plane, so don’t become discouraged if your ‘magnum opus’ doesn’t get the reception you think it should.  Look at my example: it took over half a decade and the aid of a bestselling writer before Virtue Inverted was picked up by a publisher.  Also remember that I got lucky, and not everyone will get the chance to write with a man like Piers Anthony like I did. So I’ll go back a hundred times to the same advice: don’t give up and keep writing no matter what!  It’s easy to let everyday life and limited success steal your motivation.  Don’t let it happen.  The only way to be a writer is to write.  

What’s your favorite quote about writing/for writers?

A now deceased English teacher, poet and father figure of mine, Kurt Van Wilt, once told me “write what you know.” I’ll remember this advice after everything else is forgotten.  You have to know what you’re writing about, even in a genre like fantasy.  I’ve never served in the military let alone gone to war, and I’ve never devoted much research to the idea, so for me to write a novel from the point of view of a soldier as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, or something similar, would be ludicrous and any readers who have experienced this would pick up on it.  It’s sort of like that. Writing what you know is what makes your work believable and gives it credibility.     

Who is your favorite character in your book and why?

I’d have to say Dale Beranger.  He’s a tortured soul with a complicated past, who was a well seasoned adventurer who could handle any situation imaginable at any given time.  You never know what to expect with him.  Having him as a main antagonist and villain is what I feel makes Virtue Inverted the story it is.  I’ve always thought that the villain of a story is what made it compelling, and my own work is no exception.  

Why do you think readers are going to enjoy your book? 

Virtue Inverted is a compelling, fast paced and action packed story. I know how much I hate a boring book, and I don’t want readers to find my work dull.  The narrative is complex, with many twists and turns that will keep the reader on the edge of their seats until the very end.  

Who Designed the Cover?

The cover for Virtue Inverted was done by Mitchell Bentley from Atomic Fly Studios.  I stumbled across his website a while back and loved his work.  So, Piers and I agreed to let him to the cover for our works.  I came up with the general idea for the cover, which Mr. Bentley used to design the finished art.  

Who inspires you?

A short, simple answer would be God, family and friends. So many people have aided and supported me throughout my writing and life.  My parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends, living and dead, have always pushed me to give nothing less than my 110% at any task I set before me.  I feel compelled to make them proud, and to help others in the way they’ve helped me.  

Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

It may seem like a childish inspiration, but an old VHS tape is what inspired me to become a writer.  When I was a toddler, a neighbor gave me some old video tapes full of old cartoons that I would watch on a daily basis.  As a child, I was mesmerized by the colors, characters, places and things I saw, and I would become lost in these amazing worlds I witnessed.  This inspired me as a child to create and tell stories to my parents, who would write my tales down before I knew how to write.  There were few things that stirred my soul more than a compelling story.  Each movie or book I watched or read became a real place, with real friends where I escape the boredom of everyday life.  They kept me motivated and gave me something to live for.  Every story I watch or read inspires me to this day, but it was those old VHS tapes, which I still have, that set me on the path to become a writer, so that I could help inspire and motivate others with my own work.  

Virtue Inverted (Pakk Trilogy) (Volume 1) 

by Piers Anthony, Kenneth Kelly 

July 18, 2017
123 pages

Publisher: dreamingbigpublications.com
Virtue Inverted is the first book in a hard-hitting sword and sorcery trilogy by bestselling fantasy author, Piers Anthony, and collaborator Kenneth Kelly. Benny is a poor mountain boy who has found true love in Virtue the vampire. However, Virtue is no ordinary vampire; she's actually a very nice girl. Her bites contain extraordinary power, but will that power be enough to combat the evil that awaits them?

Amazon

Spotlight: Silverwolf (Rowankind: Book Two) by Jacey Bedford + giveaway

Silverwolf (Rowankind: Book Two)

by Jacey Bedford
January 3, 2016
DAW Mass Market
432 Pages
Some have returned to Iaru to find freedom with the Fae; others are trying to find a place in the world, looking for fair treatment under the law. The course of the industrial revolution may change forever.

Wild magic is on the rise. Creatures of legend are returning to the world: kelpies, pixies, trolls, hobs, and goblins. Ross and Corwen, she a summoner witch and he a wolf shapechanger, have freed the rowankind from bondage, but now they are caught in the midst of the conflict, while trying their best to avoid the attention of the Mysterium, the government organization which would see them hanged for their magic.

When an urgent letter calls Corwen back to Yorkshire, he and Ross become embroiled in dark magic, family secrets, and industrial treachery. London beckons. There they discover a missing twin, an unexpected friend, and an old enemy—called Walsingham.“Swashbuckling adventure collides with mystical mayhem on land and at sea in this rousing historical fantasy series launch set in a magic-infused England in 1800.” —Publishers Weekly

“Bedford crafts emotionally complex relationships and interesting secondary characters while carefully building an innovative yet familiar world.” —RT Book Reviews

Winterwood (Rowankind)

by Jacey Bedford
February 2, 2016
432 pages
It's 1800. Mad King George is on the British throne, and Bonaparte is hammering at the door. Magic is strictly controlled by the Mysterium, but despite severe penalties, not all magic users have registered.

Ross Tremayne, widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch, likes her life on the high seas, accompanied by a boatload of swashbuckling pirates and the possessive ghost of her late husband, Will. When she pays a bitter deathbed visit to her long-estranged mother she inherits a half brother she didn't know about and a task she doesn't want: open the magical winterwood box and right an ancient wrong—if she can.

Enter Corwen. He's handsome, sexy, clever, and capable, and Ross doesn't really like him; neither does Will's ghost. Can he be trusted? Whose side is he on?

Unable to chart a course to her future until she's unraveled the mysteries of the past, she has to evade a ruthless government agent who fights magic with darker magic, torture, and murder; and brave the hitherto hidden Fae. Only then can she hope to open the magical winterwood box and right her ancestor's wrongdoing. Unfortunately, success may prove fatal to both Ross and her new brother, and desastrous for the country. By righting a wrong, is Ross going to unleash a terrible evil? Is her enemy the real hero and Ross the villain?

About the Author:
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Jacey Bedford has a string of short story publication credits on both sides of the Atlantic. She lives a thouand feet up on the edge of the Yorkshire Pennines in a two hundred year stone house. She has been a librarian, postmistress, rag-doll maker, and a folk singer in an acappella trio.

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Excerpt Spotlight: The Outlanders (The LonTobyn Chronicle, Book 2) by David B. Coe + excerpt/giveaway

The Outlanders (The LonTobyn Chronicle, Book 2)
by David B. Coe
Lore Seekers Press
October 2, 2016
$4.99 eBook/ $18.95 Paperback
561 pages
ASIN: B01M0ZQPZ9
Four years after the insidious, devastating invasion by agents of Lon-Ser, Tobyn-Ser’s Order of Mages and Masters is riven by conflict and paralyzed by inaction. From the outlander, Baram, they have learned much about their neighbor to the west: Unlike Tobyn-Ser, which is served by the Mage-Craft of the Children of Amarid, Lon-Ser is devoid of magic. Instead it possesses a dazzling and deadly technology that shapes every aspect of its people’s daily life.

Frustrated by the Order’s inability to act, Orris, a young, rebellious mage, takes it upon himself to prevent further attacks on his homeland. Taking Baram from his prison, he embarks upon a perilous journey to Bragor-Nal, an enormous, violent city in Lon-Ser, ruled by a brutal, feudal-like system of Break-Laws, Nal-Lords, and Overlords. As Orris soon learns, however, Baram has been driven insane by his captivity. Upon reaching his strange and fractured homeland, the man abandons Orris.

Armed only with his magic, Orris is thrust into a world whose language he does not comprehend and whose technology he can barely fathom. Together with Gwilym, a man with strange powers, whose vision of Orris has lured him out of the mountains and into the chaos of the Nals, and Melyor, a beautiful Nal-Lord who harbors a secret that could cost her life, Orris must end the threat to Tobyn-Ser without getting himself and his companions killed.

THE OUTLANDERS is the second volume of the LonTobyn Chronicle, David B. Coe’s Crawford Award-winning debut series. This is the Author’s Edit of the original book.

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EXCERPT
Dob ran a hand through his long, dark hair. “I propose a deal.” He glanced again at his comrades. “My friendship and all the benefits that come with it, in exchange for your...services for the evening.”

Her smile was coy. “That’s a very attractive proposition—”

“One you’d do well to accept.” All traces of mirth had left his face, leaving the grim set of his unshaved jaw, and the severity of his cold eyes.

Melyor straightened. “I’m afraid I can’t.”

“Why not?” Dob asked, his tone low and menacing.

“I’m waiting for someone. I’ll be offering my services to him this evening.”

The break-law narrowed his eyes. “Who?”

“Nal-Lord Savil.”

Dob raised his eyebrows in surprise. After a moment he began to laugh again. “Savil,” he said. His companions chuckled as well and he turned to them. “She’s waiting for Nal-Lord Savil.” The other men’s laughter mounted, and Dob faced her again, shaking his head. “You may be pretty, Kellyn, perhaps even beautiful. But you have a lot to learn about the workings of this part of the Nal. Savil is the most important person in the Realm; he answers to no one save his Overlord and the Sovereign, and he certainly doesn’t deign to be chosen by the likes of you. He can have any uestra he wants. And here you come, new to the Realm, thinking you can just claim him as you would an ale from a dispenser.” He shook his head again. “It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. You’ll be lucky if he even notices you.”

Melyor kept her expression cool. “You sound jealous. Am I stepping on toes here? Perhaps you had planned on taking Savil back to your flat tonight.”

She was an accomplished street fighter--she had to be to have gotten as far as she had--and, slight as she was, she was exceptionally strong. Even so, and despite being prepared for Dob’s reaction, the man surprised her with his swiftness. Before the last word crossed her lips, Dob had twisted a brawny hand into her hair, and jerked her toward him so that the gleaming spikes on the wrist of his coat rested against her temple. “I’ve killed for far less,” he said, wrapping his other hand around her throat.

“I’m sure you have. But, in this case, you might wish to temper your response a bit.”

“What?” He spat the word with contempt.

By way of reply, Melyor tapped the blade of her dirk, which she already had in hand, against his groin.
He looked down, and gasped with fear and disbelief.

“Tell your men to back off,” she said under her breath, sensing that the break-law’s friends had formed a semicircle around them, “and then let go of me. Slowly, Dob--you wouldn’t want to do anything to make me nervous.”

For a moment he did nothing, and Melyor pressed the blade a bit harder against his britches.

“All right!” he whispered. “All right!”
“Tell them, not me.”

“It’s all right,” he said, pitching his voice to carry. “Everything’s all right.” He relaxed his grip on her hair.

About the Author:
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David B. Coe, who also writes as D.B. Jackson, is the award-winning author of nineteen novels and more than a dozen short stories.

Writing under his own name (http://www.DavidBCoe.com) he has most recently completed a contemporary urban fantasy called the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, published by Baen Books. The first two books, SPELL BLIND and HIS FATHER’S EYES came out in 2015. The third volume, SHADOW’S BLADE, has recently been released.

Writing under the D.B. Jackson pen name (http://www.DBJackson-Author.com), he writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a series set in pre-Revolutionary Boston that combines elements of urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. All four books in the series, THIEFTAKER, THIEVES’ QUARRY, A PLUNDER OF SOULS, and DEAD MAN’S REACH, are available from Tor Books.

David is the author of the LonTobyn Chronicle, his debut trilogy, which received the Crawford Fantasy Award as the best work by a new author in fantasy. He has also written the critically acclaimed Winds of the Forelands quintet and Blood of the Southlands trilogy, and the novelization of director Ridley Scott’s movie, ROBIN HOOD, starring Russell Crowe. David’s books have been translated into a dozen languages.

He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his Master’s and Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University. He co-founded and regularly contributes to the Magical Words group blog (http://magicalwords.net), a site devoted to discussions of the craft and business of writing fantasy, and is co-author of How To Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion.

GIVEAWAY!

There is a tour-wide giveaway for 3 sets of CHILDREN OF THE AMARID and THE OUTLANDERS, and a $10 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Giveaway runs Nov. 10 thru Dec. 15th. If you’d like to share, the Rafflecopter code is below.

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Maradaine Culture Reports: Guest Post with Author Marshall Ryan Maresca + giveaway

THE KIERAN EMPIRE

An Import of Intrigue takes place in a part of the city of Maradaine called "The Little East”, a handful of blocks populated by enclaves of immigrants and foreigners from all over the larger world. Most citizens of Maradaine avoid these enclaves, and their only understanding of other countries and cultures comes from Augustine Montrose’s memoir, My Travels of the World. Here we look at an excerpt from his book, where he talks about one of the cultures encountered in An Import of Intrigue.

--

Maradaine Culture Reports

As a child, I once visited a traveling carnival, where I encountered a warped mirror. In that mirror, I saw a twisted reflection of myself— somehow recognizable yet unfamiliar at the same time. This experience kept coming to mind in my journeys through The Kieran Empire.

Any historian or scholar worth their letters is, of course, familiar with the Kieran Empire. At its height, the Empire controlled over half of the continent, including Druthal. The origins of classical thought, mathematics, astronomy, even our language, all come from the Empire. Our culture is still very much shaped by what they made us, even after over a millennia of freedom from their direct rule.

So it stands to reason that in the Kieran Empire, I would see a dark, decadent reflection of ourselves. So decadent, I am amazed that it not only functions as a civilization, but has continued to do so for nearly three thousand years. Even if it a pale shadow of the great power that it once was.

Like Druthal, the Kieran Empire is ruled by a combination of a noble class and elected legislators. However, said rule lacks the balance that our own government has. Nobles go largely unchecked, and the elections for the Kieran Senate are shamelessly, openly corrupt.

The fascinating thing to me was how, for the average Kieran citizen, this seemed normal and equitable. Perhaps this is because the average citizen is mostly concerned with their own hedonistic pleasure, which they all pursue with utter abandon.

I would not shock gentle Druth readers by cataloguing the perversions and degradations that would casually and openly be engaged in public company. I can say that I was amazed that any proper business of life gets done. Perhaps that is because in the Empire, pursuit of wealth is the only way to have the freedom to engage in the decadence that every Kieran aspires to.

This is tied to my observations of how fundamental labor is performed, and the legal system in the Empire. The laws in the Kieran empire are byzantine and absurd, and it is quite easy to find oneself charged and convicted of a minor violation. Needless to say, the Empire has more than its share of lawyers. What the Empire does not have, however, are prisons. Any crime, regardless of the severity, is punished by fine. A man could freely murder another if he can afford the fine.

If he cannot afford the fine, though, he then must place himself in a labor camp as a slave until his work pays off his fine. It is in these camps that the work of farming, mining, and other labors that keep the wheels of civilization moving is performed. Nearly half the population are amongst the slave class, and given the complex rules surrounding fines— which are inheritable— there are thousands of slaves who are still paying the fine of a longer forgotten ancestor who died centuries ago.

That is not to say there are not those who excel in arts and craftsmanship in the Kieran Empire. Beauty is held in high regard in the Empire, and those who are gifted in making something that can be appreciated by the noble and professional classes can find themselves in a lucrative career.

This is why the most common exports from the Empire to Druthal are luxury crafts: fine made furniture, jewelry and wine. Kieran wines— especially from the Nitaria region— are possibly the finest in the world.

The Kieran Empire is also the highway to the east, at least over land, and so it is through there that we reach Fuerga and points beyond….

An Import of Intrigue (Maradaine Constabulary #2) 
by Marshall Ryan Maresca
November 1, 2016
DAW Mass Market

400 pages
This second novel in the Maradaine Constabulary series blends high fantasy, murder mystery, and gritty urban magic…

The neighborhood of the Little East is a collision of cultures, languages, and traditions, hidden away in the city of Maradaine. A set of streets to be avoided or ignored. When a foreign dignitary is murdered, solving the crime falls to the most unpopular inspectors in the Maradaine Constabulary: exposed fraud Satrine Rainey, and Uncircled mage Minox Welling.

With a murder scene deliberately constructed to point blame toward the rival groups resident in this exotic section of Maradaine, Rainey is forced to confront her former life, while Welling’s ignorance of his own power threatens to consume him. And the conflicts erupting in the Little East will spark a citywide war unless the Constabulary solves the case quickly.

About the Author:

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Marshall Ryan Maresca grew up in upstate New York and studied film and video production at Penn State. He now lives Austin with his wife and son. His work appeared in Norton Anthology of Hint Fiction and Rick Klaw’s anthology Rayguns Over Texas. He also has had several short plays produced and has worked as a stage actor, a theatrical director and an amateur chef. His novels The Thorn of Dentonhill and A Murder of Mages each begin their own fantasy series, both set in the port city of Maradaine.

GIVEAWAY

One set of A Murder of Mages and An Import of Intrigue and are for US/Canada only.

Maradaine Constabulary series giveaway

Spotlight: Gravedigger by Michael-Israel Jarvis + excerpt

Gravedigger
by Michael-Israel Jarvis
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Booktrope
31st October 2015
ISBN: 1513703102
ASIN: B0175IDQDW
Number of pages: 304
Word Count: 115,747
Cover Artist: Amalia Chitulescu
Dead or alive. Good or evil. Hero or fugitive.

Valo needs a specific solution to a grave problem. The human Claimfold and prigon Torzsi draw apart. War is promised in the West. Worst of all, the magi of Nagyevo are meddling with the dead.

Perin is an apprentice Gravedigger: uneducated, unwanted, unsure. He may be the answer Valo needs, if he doesn't get killed before he works out what's going on. But of course there's the chance that fate hasn't called him after all. The gods are nameless and silent and the best laid plans have a way of going badly wrong.

Enter the spade and sorcery world of Valo.

Gravedigger subverts the expectations of that oldest of foes in fantasy, the dead that walk, in a fast-paced adventure through a world of culture, intrigue, magic and blood.

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Excerpt

They didn’t have to wait long. Fully visible under the abundantly full moon, the bulky figure of Kesairl emerged from the trees. He strode toward them, jumping down the sandy bank into the graveyard. A figure followed him slowly, moving with awkward heistancy. He was swathed in a great deal of loose cloth.

Kesairl halted beside the grave that Graves had dug unaided earlier that day, much to the concern of Perin, who had not been there to meticulously edge the hole with his sharp new edging spade.

“Greetings by moonlight, Master Graves, young Master Perin. I hope you are both well.” Kesairl’s voice rolled out above the subtle noises of the night.

“Oh, aye, and yourselves, too, we ‘ope,” said Graves, peering at the cloaked stranger beside the prigon, “I imagine you two’ve got the recently departed in the woods. Well, if it wants burying, we may as well get started, as you don’t want peepers.”

Kesairl hesitated for a moment, brow furrowed. “Well, I’m afraid the one that wants burying, as you accurately put it, is not so recently departed.”

“Ah. Fine. S’to be expected I suppose, if you’ve travelled far. S’all right, Master Kesairl. Me and the boy aren’t unaccustomed to a bit of decay.”

“You misunderstand me, good man Graves. The one I speak of has been dead for a very long time, indeed. He was born that way—if birth is the right way to put it. Allow me to introduce—nay—to present my companion.”

The prigon smiled, white teeth gleaming in the dark to match the moon. His arm gestured to the shrouded figure beside him. With a strange, jerking motion, the figure unwrapped the main cloak from his body, revealing himself to be exceedingly thin. He was, in fact, skeletal. Skin clung to his frame, close as a glove, undamaged but as pale as the prigon’s teeth.

As pale as the full moon.

His wan, skull-like face stared mournfully at them. His head was devoid of hair of any sort, though it was crowned with a circlet of silver. His eyes were pale, but not empty or decayed, and Graves and Perin both knew the eyes were the first thing to go. Soulful meaning radiated behind the orbs, proof somehow of the creature’s being. Aside from that, and the wonderful preservation of the body, he was quite dead.

“I am aware that I am quite troublesome to look upon.” The creature spoke in a voice that made Perin think of the way fallen leaves whispered across the ground underfoot. He watched the dry mouth speak, in shocked fascination. It moved very little, yet produced the words distinctly. “I am not…conventionally alive; but please, I am not to be feared.”

Graves seemed to think otherwise. “Undead!” He growled, hands gripping the handle of his spade, knuckles almost as white as the dead man’s.

Perin stared.

The undead man nodded uncertainly and then bowed. Graves considered for a moment, fear and amazement clashing.

Kesairl watched, not speaking a word.

“All right. So. What’s you wanting on your stone, then?” Graves muttered at last, shifting his stance.

Kesairl smiled, seeming to appreciate the human’s return to composure.

The undead man spoke. “A marker stone? How thoughtful! I am Medrivar, if you need a name to engrave.”

“King Medrivar,” Kesairl corrected his companion in a soft tone.

“Just because that is who I am, it does not mean I need always to announce it,” the undead man returned with a sharp reprimand.

Graves coughed. “What do you want under the name, Your Majesty?”

“I would very much enjoy the phrase, ‘At rest’, as it will be no falsehood.”

“Sort of, ‘Back in a little while’, then?”

Both the undead king and the prigon chuckled at Graves’s joke. The old gravedigger smiled. Here was a person who had qualities Perin knew Graves admired, in particular the complete lack of a heartbeat. In some ways, this was familiar ground. Graves often talked to the dead. They’d never spoken back.

“I will need the plot for a year. It is, of course, important that I am interred and raised at full moon. Kesairl will serve me very well in performing the rites, I am sure.”

“They are not difficult,” the prigon said. He winked at Perin, who found he could no longer keep his silence.

“This is…amazing! Where did you come from?”

The undead king gave a crooked smile. “I am from the North. But I get the sense that your question meant more than that. You have an inquiring mind. Very good. You would know the secrets of the undead, young man of breath and blood?”

“I would.” Perin said, still trying to grasp the reality of the situation.

The emaciated king folded into a sitting position and closed his blank eyes for a moment. His eyelids were thin and papery.

Perin leaned on his edging spade, feeling it sink into the frost-hardened earth.

Medrivar smiled again. “I will be brief, but this is an important story, so listen closely.” 

About the Author:
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Michael-Israel Jarvis was born in Cambridge, brought up in Bishop's Stortford and moved to Great Yarmouth in his teens. He got his degree in Creative Writing at the University of Northampton and returned to Great Yarmouth with his wife, Katie.

Michael-Israel writes principally for Young Adults, which is what he intends to be until he's very, very old. Further explorations of the genres he prefers to write in throw up fantasy, adventure, coming of age stories and more. If possible, he prefers to write in a way that bends the distinction between different genres. Why shouldn't the superhero trope take place within a fantasy novel? And however serious a book is, shouldn't humour weave its way in?

"Gravedigger" republished on 31st October 2015, with both "Osric Fingerbone and the Boy Murderer" and "Land Rising" to be republished within the following months.

Sequels to all will follow.