#ThrowbackThursday: Three Cities of Seven Hills

 

"Just you wait, Baron Strange. You'll want my help, and you'll want it soon. You'll unlock that door, and you'll enjoy me. You're going to turn the devil loose, and trust me, when you do, you're going to want to be on my good side."

I released Dragon Slayer and Golden Eagle in 2019, and I've both never been prouder of a year's worth of writing, nor more in need of a break from the dense and dark subject matter of the Sons of Rome series. It's not my most popular series, and so I decided I needed to focus on better selling books for a while. I did that, but now that Dartmoor is complete, I very much want to dig back into my paranormal world. Golden Eagle left off on a satisfying note, but there is much more story to tell, across centuries, and across the globe. 

The original timeline has been adjusted a tad: I decided to add in a novella, The Winter Palace, that will run concurrent of Lionheart and follow Nik's pack's adventures in Buffalo, NY while they heal their wounds and decide just how involved they want to be in Vlad's war. It's high time Trina got a little immortal insurance for herself, and Alexei got himself a bound Familiar. And Mia's about to discover that Val's psychic abilities are communicable. 

As for Lionheart itself, I remain torn on just how much of my original idea I want to share. I've waffled: do I trim down the flashbacks, keep them neat and clean, and provide only the gist of the Robin Hood and the Crusades story? Or do I keep to format, and flesh the past out the way I always intended? Honestly, the readers who hate this series are going to keep hating it no matter how much trimming I do. Why not just go hog wild? 

I have no idea how much longer Lionheart might take me, but I'm hoping to release The Winter Palace before year's end. I think it would make for a lovely holiday release (if blood and magic are your holiday vibes of choice). 

If you're a new reader, here's what you can expect from the Sons of Rome Series:

• Contemporary urban fantasy
• Lengthy historical flashbacks (Russian Revolution; WWII; Ottoman Empire)
• Vampires with all the Anne Rice erotica vibes
• Wolf shifters who live to serve their vampire masters
• Fire-weilding mages 
• Necromancy
• Dream-walking
• Police work
• Swordfights
• Real-life historical figures
• Shady government labs
• Romulus and Remus (yes, that Romulus and Remus, vampires raised by a werewolf)
• Epic love stories

Scale-wise, this series is as big, and sprawling, and detailed as Outlander, or Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. It's an ongoing series, with slow-burn character development, a massive cast, and, for me, a daunting amount of research. We meet figures like Rasputin, and Richard I, and in books to come we'll glimpse Julius Caesar and a Norse god or two. It's not for the faint of heart, nor the skimmer of books, but if anything I listed above piques your interest, I hope you'll give it a try.