The storm has broken

My first novel has been released.

It combines fantasy, romance and steam engines. You can see everything but the steam engines on the cover, and even then some of their cogs ended up behind my name. :) It's the story of a battle fought with cannons against magic, and of a man whose rising star met a fallen woman.

My editor says, "The book didn’t let go." It didn't let go of me either, when I was writing it, but don't take our word. Read the first chapter here.

And if you'd like to find out what happened after that, Before the Storm is available at...

My publisher's bookstore in the following formats : Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat for Sony, eBook ETI-2, EPUB, HTML, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket/Kindle, Rocketbook

Amazon

Lybrary.com

Drive Thru Fantasy

I'll keep adding to the list. :)

Getting Before the Storm to where it is right now was a roller-coaster ride that left me sometimes excited and sometimes exhausted, but never regretting a moment of it. I had a lot of fun coming up with this book's characters and story and world. I hope you have fun reading it!

Before the Storm cover art

It's here!















Odd though this might sound, my favorite part is the gears at the bottom (behind my name). They're the final, subtle touch that really makes the cover work for me. :) Samhain did an excellent job.

My first contract

I’m happy to announce that I’ve signed a contract with Samhain Publishing for my manuscript Before the Storm.

Before the Storm isn’t the first novel I’ve written (it’s the sixth, actually). But it’s the first one where I kept the requirements of agents and editors in mind – so, no chapter-long flashbacks and no great epic unfolding over three novels, which featured in previous work. Instead, it’s a romantic fantasy with a scientific twist, contained in a single manuscript that was always under 120K words. I’m fond of it and always hoped to write the sequels (During the Fire and After the Rain) as well some day.

This summer I quit my job as a customer service agent for a medical laboratory network. I’d been accepted into college, and the job was best summed up this way:









And I thought it would be good to have some vacation time before classes started. So I handed in my resignation and ran away, just like the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

With the time and the energy to research publishers once again, I looked into Samhain. I’d heard good things about them from authors like Christine Norris, Kimberly Nee and Maria Zannini. So I decided to send Samhain my manuscript, since Before the Storm is a romantic romantic fantasy. Yes, it’s got one of those scenes I wouldn’t want my mother to read.

This post gave me an idea of which editor to email with my manuscript. I always like sending queries or submissions to specific people. One month later, I had a reply.

So… that’s the story of my first story.

It's a good end to the summer.

The lightbulb game

A fun thing I tried with different races from my stories. How many _____ does it take to change a light bulb?

Glores

A whole flag, but they’ll get bored halfway and start juggling the bulb. Then they’ll quarrel about who gets to keep the pieces.

Argesi

Just one. She shoots all the Glores from a safe distance, steps over the bodies, changes the bulb and requests payment.

Weaponbearers

Three: one to change the bulb, one to reflect that in the past, they were elite bodyguards rather than changers of bulbs, and one to divide the metal parts of the old bulb equally for them all to eat.

Watchers

Only one, as long as he has a monkey familiar to do it.

Liquari

None; they can see in the dark.

Lightbringers

None; they can glow in the dark.

Dracolytes

Two: one to thank the dragons for giving them the light of truth that will never fail, not even in their darkest hours, and one to order a slave to change the bulb.

Fairfellans

One; she reverses time to the point where the bulb was still lit, sits back and waits for admiration.

Iternans (Outward Way)

One; he uses telekinesis to remove the old bulb and fit the new one in.

Iternans (Inward Way)

One; he used psychic coercion to make the first Iternan change the bulb.

How many of the races or species in your work would it take to change a lightbulb?

My manuscripts : Dracolytes

One day I tried to come up with a fantasy featuring dragons that weren’t mounts, friends, foes or simply wild creatures. The result was Dracolytes.

The world

Karne isn’t as distinctive geography-wise as lands in other manuscripts of mine, but its people make up for that (it’s based on the beehive model). The Karnish population is skewed gender-wise, with three times as many women as men, and relatively few people of each generation are chosen to breed. Broodmothers produce over a hundred offspring and then die.

The ruler of Karne, the Immolated Queen, reigns in the west of the land. She survives birth since she only has to produce six or seven daughters, who fight each other to the death when they are old enough. The single survivor, who is called the Lady of Sulphur and who is the crown princess of Karne, governs in the east, since there’s always a cool cautious detachment between mother and daughter.

The story

Morava Siyyan is a soldier of Karne. The Karnish are called Dracolytes since they worship the dragons who once ruled over them and who are responsible for Karne being the most powerful nation in the land. Long ago, the dragons defeated the enemies of Karne in war, and the Dracolytes took the survivors as slaves.

There is only one living dragon left, though, and the Karnish have waited fifty years for him to come to them. So when a foreigner called Julon Rule approaches Morava with news of this dragon, she’s skeptical at first. And when Julon tells her the dragon is in the hands of their enemies, she’s livid.

Julon, for his part, is hoping the Dracolytes will pay him for the news. He studies the science of the mind, and is in need of money to fund his experiments. Morava arrests him for blasphemy instead, and the Lady of Sulphur interrogates him. She decides that although he’s lying about the dragon, she would like to know who put him up to it.

So she releases him and sends him back to his homeland – without any money, but with Morava as an unsociable traveling companion. But it’s a long way from Karne to anywhere else, and the best-laid plans of dragons and Dracolytes can go astray…

The characters

Morava Siyyan is brave, loyal and fanatically religious, like most Karnish. As long as people show dragons the deference due to them, those people are her friends or at least equals. But one reason she dislikes and distrusts foreigners is their lack of faith – or, as in Julon’s case, outright atheism, which is even worse.

Morava’s dream is to do something for her homeland that no one has ever done before. She isn’t sure what this could be – given that in in the hierarchy of Karne, she’s just a foot soldier, not to mention a little hot-headed and impulsive – but she’s happy with her life so far.

Julon Rule is a psychologist trapped in an asylum – or at least, that’s how Karne appears to him. He’s frustrated that they refuse to believe him, though he’s even less pleased to be saddled with Morava when he’s released. Julon is educated, sarcastic, cautious and an unbeliever in the divinity of the dragons, so his dearest wish is to return home safely. Though if he can sell information – behind Morava’s back – to someone who may or may not be a spy for an enemy of Karne, he won’t hesitate too long. He does need funds for his research, after all…

Dragons + religion + psychology = Dracolytes. What I like most about it is the friendship that slowly develops between Morava and Julon – though I don’t think either of them would admit to that in public. There’s the dragon, the last living deity of Karne, and those who hate him. And it’s the only one of my manuscripts which has a twist in the last sentence.

”Death has no lasting power over gods.”

Dracolyte proverb

My manuscripts : Before the Storm

A little description of one of my fantasy manuscripts, the one which gained representation from an agent.

The world

Dagre, one of the lands in the continent of Eden. Dagre is Victorian England's bastard child by medieval fantasy, so people might sit down to a properly laid dining-table and discuss magic-using Iternan fugitives over the white wine (and imports from Lunacy over the red wine). Dagrans are physically identical to humans and can't use magic. This has led to their progress in science, to the point where the land is on the brink of the Industrial Revolution, but it also means that they're highly xenophobic and distrustful of foreigners who do have magic. Dagre's social development is still considered backward by other lands, since women and foreigners do not have the same rights as Dagran men.

The story

Alex is a mare, a woman kept for the use of the nobility and considered lower than a prostitute. Hardened though she is to this existence, she is still terrified when the overlord Stephen Garnath gives her to Robert Demeresna, who is called the Bloody Baron for the atrocities he's supposed to have committed. Alex forces herself to stay calm as Robert orders her to strip, burns her clothes and gives her a sedative drug. Once she's unconscious, Robert and Mayerd, the Iternan captain of his household guard, discuss what to do with her. Even though it's evident she's not carrying any weapons on her, she might still be an assassin. Stephen Garnath is not known for his generosity, and Robert's reputation is an act intended to lull Garnath's suspicions while Robert secretly tries to rally the east of Dagre against him.

With no choice but to take his new gift with him, Robert returns to the east while Alex makes plans to escape from him. But both of them are unaware that this mare is a Trojan horse, carrying magic that Garnath plans to use against his enemies. Meanwhile, Robert's efforts to unite the east against Garnath have attracted the attention of the Quorum, the church of Dagre. The Quorum has developed crude machines such as steam-carriages and calcium carbide cannons, but refuses to give these machines to Robert unless he makes a stand against Garnath's army. Pointing out that Garnath's forces outnumber his own ten to one doesn't work, and even Alex's insider knowledge of Garnath's troops and tactics won't be enough - especially when Garnath orders the magic trap she unwittingly carries to be activated...

The characters

When I first thought of Before the Storm, I wanted it to be a romantic fantasy, but as cliche-free as possible. So Alex isn't a virgin, nor is she an ice princess who never experienced pleasure before she met the hero. She's also sterile, since otherwise she'd have to worry about pregnancy interfering with her duties as a mare. She's cold, proud, manipulative and unscrupulous - but at the same time, she's intelligent and tough and not in need of self-esteem boosts from anyone.

Robert isn't handsome - in fact, her first impression of him is that his attempt to conform to current fashion calls even more attention to the plainness of his appearance. He's also sexually inexperienced compared to Alex (but that goes for pretty much anyone), and that inhibits him from making the first move. However, he's loyal, generous and warm-hearted, with a sense of humor that's directed at himself as much as at others. He'd be good for her, in other words, if not for his also being conservative and traditional about the kind of woman he'll marry - one who, at a minimum, will give him an heir.

Fantasy and romance, thunder and lightning, machines and magic, psychic powers and chemical explosives - all that and more in Before the Storm, which is now out on submission to editors.