New Release: Demon of the Dead

“The blood of the living shall welcome the blood of the dead. I am the keeper of the Fault Lands, and the dead shall keep me.”

For generations, the Corpse Lords of the Fault Lands have watched over the fire mountain of Aeretoll, preventing it from erupting and laying waste to the North. Not yet twenty, Náli is a powerful necromancer in service to his king, a talented swordsman known for his razor-sharp insults…and chained to his destiny as Corpse Lord, doomed since birth to lead a short, painful life; forced to beget an heir so that his essential magic can be passed on to the next Corpse Lord.

War looms on the horizon, but Náli must return to his homeland, to soothe the mountain, and to finally choose a bride. Painfully in love with his Dead Guard captain, Náli sets out to discover the secrets of his power once and for all – to settle the mountain, spare himself a wedding, and finally seize all that he truly wants.

The enemy is lurking, though, and war won’t wait for long. A war in which the heroes of Aeretoll will need the Demon of the Dead on their side.

This is the fourth installment of the Drake Chronicles, an epic fantasy romance series intended for adult audiences. Look for the first three books: Heart of Winter, Edge of the Wild, and Blood of Wolves.

DOTD is live, and you can grab it HERE.

I hope you all enjoy book four of our ongoing Drake saga. I had fun focusing a little more strongly on Náli, and on expanding the lore of the universe. I do want to stress, though, while I have your attention, that, as an ongoing series, and as an ongoing fantasy series, the Drake Chronicles is not formatted as a sequence of standalones meant to exist independently. The books do need to be read in order, and while some books will shift the focus onto certain characters, this is most definitely not a "main couple per book" sort of series. Our characters face challenges, and gain new ground, but the overall story is ongoing, as are their individual stories. Nothing will be "decided," as it were, until the end. Oliver and Erik have much more page time ahead, as does Amelia, teased only in a few chapters so far. The pacing is intentional - I'm writing it as a fantasy series with strong romantic storylines, rather than a romance series with fantasy elements. It's important not to expect tidy resolutions in each book. It's also important not to take what you read on GR as fact. I've seen readers claim they know how many books the series will contain, when I've never given a firm number. I don't have a newsletter, so if someone assures you they "read it in her newsletter," they're lying. Always come straight to the source with questions, y'all!

Book five is titled Fortunes of War, and I'll be working away on it (along with other projects) in the weeks to come.

Happy Tuesday, and happy reading :)

Updates & Such

 Is #FlowerFriday a thing? Can I make it one if it isn't? These are from last night's garden sniff-and-wander through the garden with the dog. He does the sniffing, I should clarify. I do the picture snapping while he strains at the end of his leash. It works. Sorta. 

The two weeks since I blogged last have been crazy. We lost my grandfather and my great-aunt within days of one another last week, and things have been a little understandably topsy turvy. We held a visitation for my grandfather Wednesday night, and will have an internment ceremony next month (backlog at the military cemetery). Next week is visitation and funeral services for my aunt. 

In the midst of all this, the weather's been dangerously hot. We've had severe thunderstorms two nights in a row - Wednesday night, rain and standing water on the road forced me to pull over on the way home from the visitation and sit in a church parking lot until the rain eased up. It's been horses out early and in by two. Lots of Miracle Gro in the garden. And, somehow, quite a lot of writing. 

Sometimes, writing feels like the drudgery of a day job - which it is - but in times of stress, I fall back on it the way I always did pre-publication, when it was a wonderful escape from real life stress. 

Hence, updates:

I'm nearly finished with book four in the Drake Chronicles, Demon of the Dead. I'm writing the final climax, now, and then it will be on to edits. Expect an announcement soon. This book has a slightly different feel than the others, mostly because it's so heavily entrenched in the magic of this series. We travel to the Fault Lands with Nali and his Dead Guard, where we learn a whole lot more about the history of the North, its feud with Seles, and what threats lie ahead for our heroes. It's an integral part of the ongoing story, and while it does have some fun moments with Erik and Oliver, Tessa, Leif, Ragnar, and Amelia in the South, Nali's story dominates most of the page time, and will lead right into the next installment. 

I've also started work on the next Dartmoor offering. This one will actually be a Lean Dogs Legacy installment, a smaller, more intimate story starring Melissa Dixon and Pongo, who we met in New York during The Wild Charge. A step back from the big, multi-book action of the last few books, it will be more of a thriller/mystery. I'm going for a Law & Order meets Silence of the Lambs vibe. It'll be my next main project once I finish with DOTD.

So that's what's coming up next. Feeling grateful for family. Hoping for a break in the heat. And hoping to have lots more words to offer soon. 

Have a lovely weekend, everyone. 💓

Dartmoor Futures: Violet Part 3

 Uncle Ten is my fave.

You can read Part One and Part Two of this little future-set Dartmoor story in previous posts. 

It was alarmingly easy to get spoiled for life’s normal drudgeries when your honorary uncle was filthy stinking rich. The club leaned on Ian when necessary, but tended to push back against some of his more lavish offers of assistance. Vi was glad Walsh’s stubbornness had given ground in this instance; even gladder that a miserable twelve-hour car ride turned into a quick, cushy flight back on the jet, laid out on a plush leather seat with a movie playing half-watched in the background.

A Little Devin Green Never Hurt Anyone (Unless It Did??)

 

I think The Wild Charge has out been in the wild (ha!) long enough for me to safely discuss more spoilery topics. But I’ll still put the majority of this post under a cut for those who haven’t read it yet. You can grab the book HERE or HERE if you still need to get caught up with Dartmoor book nine.