“Blood on the Blade” Available!

The new anthology Blood on the Blade from Flinch Books is now available in paperback or as a Kindle ebook! My story, “The Sorceress Maiz”, is one of ten sword-and-sorcery tales about warriors fighting dark sorcery, spell casters, and conjurers who have only power and evil as their goal.

From the Amazon listing: “BLOOD ON THE BLADE chronicles the adventures of these savage yet noble warriors as they stand against conjurers and spellcasters who practice dark magic in their pursuit of power, their lust for fortune, and their demonic desire to watch the world burn. And when it all unfolds, you have a front-row seat for the mayhem and carnage.”

Blood on the Blade is available on Amazon today!

Holiday Extravaganza!

More than 40 authors (including me) will be participating in the Holiday Extravaganza sponsored by Strong Women, Strange Worlds. Live Quick-Reads and round-robin Speed-Date-a-Book events on Zoom (Dec 12) will be accompanied by other December events across the Internet!

Find a new favorite author — discover a new book for yourself or for gifting — even win a free ebook or other prizes in this event. The live readings on Dec 12 will be accompanied by micro-fiction contests on Twitter and other events on Instagram and Facebook.

More updates to come! This online event is free, but you need to register at this link.

Prairie Harvest Festival

It’s been a while — a long while! — since I’ve had books for sale at an in-person event. So I’m really looking forward to the Prairie Harvest Festival in Columbus on Saturday, October 9. Looks like a fun autumn event with music and family-friendly activities, and I’ll have my books there — including Taylenor.

Here’s the info on the event. It runs from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday at Westland High School in Columbus. As of now, the weather is supposed to be great. Here’s a link to their page, and you can also find them on Facebook.

National Read A Book Day 2021

Photo by Sinziana Susa on Unsplash

Some suggestions from me for readers who love science fiction and fantasy (and maybe a little horror), for National Read A Book Day, 2021:

Something Classic: Dune, of course! Especially since there’s a movie coming out that I’m excited about. Dune, by Frank Herbert, is a brilliant classic science fiction novel with complex politics and environmental world building. A truly great book.

Something Newer: The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark. Published in 2019, this is a novella that’s a science fantasy novel about a possessed tram car. It’s set in Cairo in an alternate 1912.

Something Epic: The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin. It’s the first book in the Broken Earth series and won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. Set in a land that is constantly in danger of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, with a complex civilization and characters.

Something Short: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. This is a series of five novellas about an AI constructed to be a Security Unit, that overrides its controlling module. The first in the series is All Systems Red, which won the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Highly entertaining!

Something on my To-Be-Read List: The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro. This has been on my TBR list for a while, and I’ll be reading it very soon. Here’s what The Guardian had to say about the novel.

Something Recommended by my Daughter: My daughter had a couple of recommendations. This one is also on my TBR list: Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Published in 2020, this is a gothic horror novel set, of course, in an isolated house. Here’s what NPR had to say about the book. After reading the review, I actually can’t wait to read it!

Something … by Me! Why not? Taylenor, published in 2019, follows Jaena, who is a priest of the peaceful goddess Imn-ashu. Jaena brings a young mage-talented boy to the city to save his life, only to find she has delivered him into the hands of the Mage Defender, who rules by stealing the magic — and the lives — of children. Link to the ebook is here.

Whatever you choose to read, it’s a great day to start a new book! If you have your own recommendations, feel free to comment with them!

First Friday Quick Reads

Looking for a refreshing break in the middle of your work day? Strong Women – Strange Worlds presents a lunchtime Quick Read on Friday, July 2 at noon (EDT). I’ll be one of six authors reading from their work — six authors, eight minutes each, so the perfect length for a midday break!

The event is on Zoom and it’s free, but you need to preregister. Here’s a link to register for this or later readings.

I’ve attended two of these readings just because they were fun — and now I’m participating, along with some wonderful authors. Strong Women – Strange Worlds focuses on readings from women and underrepresented gender identity authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Hope to see you there on July 2!

New beginnings

Ohio is cold in the winter, muggy and hot in midsummer. But our transitional seasons are beautiful.

Spring is just beginning here. Daffodils are blooming, as well as some early trees. But most things are just beginning: a touch of green dusting a field, buds just thinking about opening on the end of knobby tree branches. There’s a moisture and warmth in the air we haven’t felt here for a while.

I’m hoping this can be a season of new beginnings for the world as well.

We’re not out of this pandemic yet, but if I try I can just see some hope. People are being vaccinated. People are starting to look outward again, when for the last year we have been in a protective, inward-looking mode.

We’re still masking, still being cautious, and hopefully still following advice from health experts about how to keep Covid-19 from spreading. But I hope for everyone’s sake that there is hope just around the corner.

Interview on New Books Network

I’m happy to share a link to this month’s fantasy channel podcast at New Books Network! I was interviewed by the host, Gabrielle Mathieu, about Taylenor, and the interview is currently available here!

Gabrielle interviewed me about Jaena, the main character who is a Priest of her goddess, Imn-ashu, and about what Imn-ashu — and Jaena — stand for in their world. We talked about Mage Herrein, the Mage Defender, who steals the power of children to feed his own. And about some of Jaena’s companions on her desperate quest to save a life.

I thoroughly enjoyed the interview. There is a new author podcast available every month as Gabrielle interviews authors of new fantasy releases.

Taylenor is available in ebook or paperback editions.