Story Release Day! The Poisoned Crown

The newest entry in my lineup of stand alone fiction is The Poisoned Crown, now available here.

The king is dead, long live the prince, but not for long if his stepmother the Queen Regent has anything to say about it. So he appeals to the one person he can trust, his father’s best swordswoman and the king’s secret lover. Venise wants nothing more than to bury herself in her grief at the king’s death, but her conscience will not allow her to abandon the young man who is so like his father. The only question is whether the two of them can stand against the Queen Regent’s black magic.

Here's what a reader had to say about it: 

As to be expected, I thoroughly enjoyed this brief tale of the struggle of an honorable young Prince to be crowned King while his stepmother, the current Regent, tries everything in her power to prevent it while still appearing loyal to the nation. The main character, a former soldier and woman who had served and loved her King, the Prince's father, loyally for many years, uses her wit, skill, and experience to help the Prince save his country. ... The writing, characterization, and storytelling are excellent and this is an engrossing and fun read. ...This is really a story about family––identifying who you love and choosing to make a life that holds them and your mutual ideals close. Like all her stories and novels, I will remember A Poisoned Crown with great affection and recommend it highly.

Next month's story is The Fallen Man, is available for pre-order. In magical Renaissance Italy, art not only captures reality but remakes it. Shadows gather within the duke’s palazzo, threats that only the gifted young artist Rodiana can visualize through her painting. Danger lurks even closer, as a lecherous noble guest is bent on taking Rodiana for himself. Her best defense against the attack and its aftermath lies in the power of her art to both reveal and conceal the truth.  

New! Single Short Fiction Stories

 

Single Short Fiction Stories   In the past few years, I've put together collections of my short fiction (Transfusion and Other Tales of Hope; Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel; Azkhantian Tales). Now I've embarked on a different project: stand-alone single stories that can be read in a single sitting. The first five have never appeared in a collection, although they are reprints from recent volumes of Sword and Sorceress.   The first one, a novelette entitled, "Four Paws To Light My Way," features a blind swordswoman and her guide dog. The inspiration was our last German Shepherd Dog, a retired seeing eye dog named Tajji. Tajji was not only an amazing companion but a teacher, and I learned so much about what seeing eye dogs can do and the freedom and empowerment they bestow upon their humans.   Tajji (2004-2016) I read the opening aloud at a pre-pandemic convention and everyone wanted to hear more. A few clamored for an entire novel about Jian and Dog. "Four Paws To Light My Way" will release on May 1, 2021, and is available now for pre-order. The others will follow at monthly intervals. Four Paws To Light My Way (May 1, 2021) The Poisoned Crown (June 1, 2021) "The Fallen Man" (July 1, 2021) The Girl From Black Point Rock (August 1, 2021) Sage Mountain (September 1, 2021 -- not yet available for pre-order) Eventually, I'll put them all together in a new collection. Stay tuned for further news! As a special treat, and to launch this project, please enjoy this excerpt from "Four Paws To Light My Way."

Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel – A Journey into Print

I am what’s called a slow adopter of technology. I’m not the draggiest of the late-comers, but I am a far cry from the cadre of those eager to try out all things shiny and new, especially electronic gadgets. I got dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of cellphones when my tempestuous younger daughter started community college and for various reasons it was important that she be able to contact me in a speedy fashion (and vice versa, although less crucial). We tromped down to the physical store and came away with a pair of stupidphones, sequential phone numbers, and a family service plan. Needless to say, one of the first things she did when she was on her own was to get a smartphone with a new number. My stupidphone lasted almost another decade, when I broke down and joined the app-generation. (I am gradually learning new things to do with my device, although I keep leaving it at home or forgetting to charge it, which tells you how important it is to me on most days.)

My relationship with e-readers followed somewhat the same path. I kept having the thought that one would be handy but there wasn’t money in the budget for it (and it wasn’t high enough priority to shove other things lower on the list – I had plenty of paper books to read, after all). That same daughter, now in college, passed on her very-early-version Kindle to me, and I loaded up a bunch of BVC editions and jumped in. I took that Kindle with me while taking care of a friend in the final months of her life. Being able to carry around an entire library in an object the size of a thin paperback opened up a new world for me. Now I tuck my much newer e-reader into my purse whenever I expect to have to wait, and I get a lot of reading done that way.

In these two examples, I was the consumer, the recipient of technology or technological products. As a professional writer, though, I have learned how to actively use this technology. I came of age as a writer long before electronic publishing appeared on the horizon. My first sales, in the early 1980s, were to print markets, mostly mass market books, anthologies, and magazines. Vanity presses existed but were not to be considered by any serious author (money flows to the author, remember?) Fans produced various ‘zines, using mimeograph or ditto machines. Eventually publishing shifted from print-only to the digital era. For a time, neither publishers nor agents considered how to treat royalties for sales of electronic copies, but eventually terms that were more fair to authors became the standard. I watched and tried to stay informed. Then I found myself in the same state as many authors: I had a growing list of out-of-print novels and an even longer list of stories in out-of-print anthologies and magazines.

Enter Book View Café.