The post Light Urban Fantasy and Fantasy Romance Books appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

To thank you for your support and your interest in my stories, you can get Demon Witch for just 99 cents through Saturday, August 12, 2017. On Sunday morning, the price will go to $3.99.

You can find Demon Witch at the following retailers:

• Amazon.com (UK, AU, CA, DE)
• BarnesAndNoble.com
• iTunes.Apple.com
• Kobo

About Demon Witch

Amanda Clark didn’t set out to be a troublemaker. She developed a werewolf exorcism with only one goal in mind: to save her brother from the lupusdaemon that possesses him. But her new ritual threatens the fragile peace between the werewolves and the Ternion Order, an organization of paranormal hunters of which she’s a member.

Kyle Nelson owes Amanda his life. Afflicted by a lupusdaemon, he had only one month to find a cure before the demon took over his body completely. Amanda’s experimental ritual surprised everyone when it saved him and drove the demon back into the abyss. Now Kyle will do whatever it takes to help Amanda with her mission to save her brother.

But figuring out a way to trap Reggie and exorcise him is the least of their challenges. Siding with the werewolves for reasons that aren’t clear, a dark coven defiles Amanda’s moon shrine and threatens the lives of everyone she knows and loves. With only Kyle for support, Amanda must choose between saving her brother and protecting the lives of her friends.

What’s Next?

I’m currently working on the first draft of the third Ternion Order novel. After that, I plan to return to the Vaetra Chronicles story world for a brand new trilogy.

I’m also working on a tabletop role playing game loosely based on the Vaetra Chronicles story world with elements of other d20-based fantasy role playing games. In a few months, I’ll be posting a sample adventure for play testing on the Roll20.net web site. If you have an interest in participating, let me know through my contact page.

Never Miss a Release

I’m not the fastest writer, so my releases tend to be fairly spread out. The best way to hear about a new release is to join my New Releases email list. I only use that list to notify readers when I release a new book—it’s not a newsletter list in disguise. If you change your mind later, it’s easy to unsubscribe using a link at the bottom of every message I send. The best part is that you’ll always get in on the release promo price, so you’ll never pay full price for one of my books again!

The post Announcing the Release of Demon Witch: Ternion Order Book 2 appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

Darklight is now under contract for publication, and while he’s waiting for the slow wheels of traditional publishing to make his novel available, Greg has released a couple of short stories that are also set in the Darklight story world: The Job and Uprising.

Greg is currently celebrating the recent release of The Job, which you can download for free through his web site (more information and links are available at the end of the interview). You can also get a digital copy of Uprising for free by signing up for his newsletter.

On to the interview!

Interview with Greg Turnquist

My interview questions are in bold, and Greg’s responses follow. When I had additional comments, they are prefixed with “Daniel says.” Have fun!

What inspired you to write a prequel?

In my novel, Darklight, there is a moment of revelation. One of the characters makes reference to an event predating the novel. I have always had details of this event in my mind as part of the backstory. It was at the 2015 Clarksville Writers Conference where I was challenged to write a short story, and I ran with this idea.

I have shared this story with my critique group with hopes of someday sharing it with the world. When I learned about the idea of giving away a piece of your work to help discover your fans, I leapt at the idea of sharing this fun story.

How was writing a short story different from writing a novel? I’m guessing you enjoyed it, since you’ve now written two short stories in your Darklight Chronicles series.

When you write a novel, the experience can take a really long time. I remember crossing the 50,000 word boundary, and suddenly worrying. “What am I doing?” With a short story, I didn’t spend as much time thinking about setup and chaining together tension. Since my short story is one scene, I instead thought about the tension of each place they were in and making you want to “turn the paragraph” to see what would unfold.

Do I enjoy it? Sure do! Like I said, this short story was about a back story element that had been percolating in my mind for a couple years. The other (Uprising, available for free if you join my newsletter) tells the story of how my characters got into the calamity they now face in my main novel. This turned out to require five scenes, though it’s all from the same character’s point of view.

Daniel says: I know what you mean by the “what am I doing?” feeling. After years of writing non-fiction, I wrote the first act of my first novel as an experiment to try my hand at fiction. It was fun, but I reached a point where I knew I had to learn more about the craft before I could figure out how to shape the rest of the story.

Tell me a bit about your main character and what drew you to expressing your story through her.

For the backdrop, I had always been inspired by underdogs and people thrown into challenging places. Great works like Dune by Frank Herbert come to mind with the people of Arrakis surviving the hostile desert. I imagined a world buried underneath a city. A vast set of large tunnels in pitch black. Exactly who could survive such a claustrophobic place? Someone who had spent their whole life slinking around in darkness!

Having played D&D as a kid, I imagined a thief that had grown up on the streets. To dial up the contrast, I dismissed some hunk dude, and instead picked a small slip of a girl, maybe 19 years old. And as I wrote her first scenes, it became clear that she wouldn’t just fit into this dank, dark world. She would relish it. And who doesn’t chuckle at a thief’s ability to pilfer things when no one is looking?

Daniel says: D&D has “informed” many of my imaginings, I’m sure. Every once in a while, I still drag out my old Monster Manual when I’m looking for ideas about myths, legends, and paranormal abilities.

Did you find it difficult to write from a female perspective? On a related note, how were gender roles defined in your story world? Did you model them on The Real World?

To kick things off, I wanted Snitch to be confident, talented, and slick. In my character template, it reads, “No one gets the jump on Snitch”.

After reading all the scenes, my wife asked if there was going to be any hint of relationships between Snitch or any of the other characters. I had not considered that! But noodling over it for several weeks, I went back and worked that into my novel. And it felt richer. Stemming from that is a hint of something between her and James in THE JOB, as well as in my later writing. You’ll have to read the rest to find out!

When it comes to gender roles, to be honest, I didn’t sit down to write thinking “here is how I want to depict men and women”. I rather wanted to escape from the tension we experience in today’s news. I am happy to have depicted my world’s ensemble cast with a mixture of men AND women, each with important roles to fill (plot roles, not gender roles). But I’m not here to make a statement, just have a little fun stirred in with adventure.

Daniel says: As readers, we often think of sci-fi/fantasy as a way to escape the modern world, but I think that’s true for writers as well. I know that was part of my motivation for also “trying to have a little fun stirred in with adventure.” Another motivation for me was that I was getting really tired of the direction fantasy was going, and I wanted to see a return to pre-Grimdark times when stories were more adventurous than angsty and had happy endings that weren’t “at the cost of everything we loved.”

We’ve covered your setting and protagonist a bit, so let’s flip to the other side. What can you reveal about the villain in Darklight?

I want to clarify something real fast. The villain in Darklight is only mentioned in passing in my short story, The Job. It’s in Darklight itself that you get to discover who this man is.

To delve into the details, I remember reading On Writing by Stephen King how he spent a lot of time thinking about the senator in The Dead Zone that Johnny ends up shooting. King mentions that he wanted to take the whole idea of someone being assassinated and “turn the tables” by making the victim the villain while the shooter was the hero.

In a sense, our villains are a lot more life-like when the reader is challenged to hate them whole heartedly. If the reader can “see his point of view,” it draws us in and seems less force fed. I wanted my villain, Melicose (mentioned in the first scene, so no spoilers there) as someone who saw a problem early with the old system and rose to combat it, but the choices he made led him down an evil path. And ultimately, he stumbled onto something that took his evil to the next level, all the way to final chapter.

Without revealing too much, I can tell you this. He’s a bad dude when it comes to combat. He spars daily to keep up his training. Melicose is a master of weapons and is quite charismatic. He leads from the front meaning that when he mounts his horse to lead a unit, everyone follows him. He demands much from the men serving under him, which living in a military town, I can respect. When he confronts anyone, he always has the upper hand. How can the heroes possibly defeat this man?

Daniel says: Good stuff. I like villains who have credible passions and motivations, even if I can’t personally relate to them. When writing my own villains and supporting characters, I try to remember that every character is the hero of his/her own story.

* * * * *

I hope you enjoyed the interview. It was derived from a fun process of back-and-forth emails between Greg and I. It takes longer to do an interview that way, but I think it results in a more interesting exchange than when using a set of “canned” questions.

Thanks for reading!

About The Job, A Darklight Chronicle

What if a pickpocket had a change of heart?

Snitch and her partner in crime decide to knock over a pawn shop. But something goes wrong. What should she do next?

Download The Job for free!

About Greg Turnquist

Greg has read scifi since he was a kid including Asimov, Herbert, Saberhagen, and Del Rey. Years ago, the idea of a futuristic world reduced to a medieval existence began to bounce around in his head. He also loves slinging code as a software geek, and has written several non-fiction books. He lives in middle Tennessee with his wife and family.

Learn more about Greg at his web site.

The post Interview with Darklight Chronicles Author Greg Turnquist appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

The Self Publishing Roundtable has put together a multi-author ebook sale with a Halloween theme that runs from October 29 to October 31. You can choose from a selection of more than 50 supernatural, paranormal, and horror stories that will spook up your Halloween spirit. Download one book or download them all. There’s nothing to lose except maybe some sleep when you find a story you can’t put down (or one that scares the beeboops out of you). While you’re there, be sure to enter the giveaway drawing.

Click here to visit the sale page now and see all of the books.

I’ve included First Moon in the offerings. It’s the first novel of my contemporary paranormal series, The Ternion Order. If you’ve been wanting to give it a try, now is the time! First Moon will be free during the Halloween sale and for the days on either side: October 28 to November 1. If you want to know more about the story, visit The Ternion Order series page on my publisher site or the First Moon book page on Amazon.com.

Multi-author sales events like this one are a lot of fun because they are full of energy. You have authors excited about finding new readers and readers excited about finding great stories at a discount. Everybody wins!

The post Get More than 50 Free Halloween-Themed Books appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

One of my favorite aspects of writing fiction is getting the chance to research subjects that interest me. With First Moon, one of those subjects was the Jaguar E-Type automobile. I’ve always thought it was one of the sleekest and sexiest cars ever made. It was a perfect fit for Clarissa, the woman who seduces Kyle at the beginning of the story. Clarissa’s Jag was black, but the image below shows essentially the same car:

Image courtesy of User:brooksbro69 / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Why Jaguar?

I didn’t choose the Jaguar E-Type randomly. The encounter between Kyle and Clarissa was inspired by the song “Howl at the Moon” by an obscure 1970s band named Klaatu. (For what it’s worth, Klaatu is my second favorite band of all time, after Electric Light Orchestra.) In the song, the woman drives a Jaguar, so Clarissa could do no less. What was I going to do? Have her drive a Tercel? No way.

I still had to decide what kind of Jaguar she drove, so off I went in search of Jaguar images. The E-Type instantly stood out to me as the quintessential Jaguar, so I dug deeper into its history. I learned that the car was produced from 1961 to 1975 in three versions/series. After reviewing the details of each series, I picked the E-Type I’d personally like to own: a 1969 Series 2 convertible.

A Sensory Experience

While the history and statistics of the car were interesting, the story demanded a compelling sensory experience that would accurately reflect Clarissa’s personality and enhance her grip on Kyle’s attentions. The problem was that I’ve never actually driven a Jaguar E-Type.

It seemed unlikely that I could locate such a car and convince the owner to let me drive it, so I did the next best thing. I interviewed someone who had driven one. As it turned out, one of my neighbors does auto restoration and customization and has worked on many Jaguars over the years. His wife, also a fan of the make, agreed to speak with me about the driving experience. An hour on the phone and many notes later, I had a better appreciation for what it might be like to take my dream car out for a spin.

Here’s an excerpt from First Moon to give you an idea of how it turned out:

Clarissa turned the key in the ignition and the motor started on the first turn, settling immediately into a low purr. She buckled her seat belt and Kyle followed her example. Kyle caught her watching him with a secret smile while he soaked up every detail of the Jag’s interior. She backed out of the parking spot and rolled through the lot toward the exit. As she swung the long front end onto the highway, Kyle sat back and enjoyed the powerful and smooth acceleration. The car reached for more road with every shift of her practiced hand, and in no time they were cruising at sixty miles an hour.

All for Twenty Paragraphs

No matter how interesting the research might be, the majority of what I learn never makes it into the story. An important aspect of applying research is winnowing out the details that will best serve the story and revealing them at the moment they become most important to the reader.

All told, Kyle’s ride with Clarissa in her Jaguar encompasses about twenty paragraphs of First Moon. It was a joy to combine my notes regarding the driving experience together with the statistical details I’d found and weave them into the interaction between the characters. My hope is that anyone who has actually driven one of the cars will read that part of First Moon and think, “Yep. That’s what it’s like.”

The Quest for a Vicarious Thrill

In some ways, it’s dispiriting to think about how many hours of research are often distilled into just a few paragraphs, or even just a few words, of story. Occasionally, research turns into a rabbit hole that sucks up time uselessly as my interests distract me onto pathways that have nothing to do with my original quest for knowledge. But most of the time, the details I need for the story are not conveniently gathered together in one spot. In fact, I sometimes don’t know exactly what I’m looking for until I find it.

My Jaguar research may seem like it took up a lot more time than twenty paragraphs would warrant, and perhaps that’s true. All I know is how I feel when I read over the resulting passage. I hope my readers get the same vicarious thrill that I do.

The post Jaguar of Destiny appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

I’ve read many forum discussions about whether or not fantasy writers should include classic races such as elves or dwarves. Some people are bored with them while others can’t get enough. The bottom line for me is that anything goes as long as you do it well. If you are going to write about dwarves and elves, make them your own. And that’s exactly what I did.

A Dwarf by Any Other Name

Any fantasy reader who reads my Western Geomancer series would instantly recognize the delvans I created as having been based on a classic dwarf. They are stocky in build, tend to have facial hair, and they spend a lot of time underground. But from there, I did plenty of tweaking to make them my own.

The term “delvan” originally came from a twist on the word “delving” (to delve is to dig or excavate.) The grammatical variations are similar to the word human, with delvan as the singular and adjective forms and delvans as the plural form. For example: he is a delvan; this is a delvan rock hammer; and those delvans seem annoyed.

Physically, delvans differ from classic dwarves in that they are an albino race, thanks to millennia of living almost entirely underground. Their pink eyes are extremely light sensitive, so they generally visit the surface only at night. When it is necessary to travel during the day, they wear tinted goggles (aviator style) to protect their eyes and long clothing to protect their pale skin. In Geomancer’s Bargain, the popular style for above-ground delvan attire is a loose-fitting grey robe with long sleeves and a deep hood. When underground, they wear thick linen clothing and a leather helmet that serves as a hardhat.

Delvans are resistant to magic and largely uninterested in it. Few delvans have attempted to cast a spell, and none have succeeded. However, delvans are born with a few innate elemental magic abilities. They have an excellent sense of position within the earth, knowing approximately how far they are below the surface and where they are located relative to the rest of their tunnel system. Delvans can also smell precious metals, such as gold and silver, when the materials are present in sufficient quantity.

Unlike the dwarves from Dungeons and Dragons, delvans do not have “infravision” that allows them to see in total darkness. Their eyes are very sensitive to light, but they still need some light to see. They illuminate their underground habitat sparingly with candle lanterns.

Delvans in Society

Delvans and humans generally get along and build cooperative communities that consist of a human town and an affiliated delvan “subtown.” Centuries ago, delvans and humans warred constantly, but relations have been relatively peaceful and mutually beneficial for the past three hundred years or so. Everything goes smoothly as long as humans, who the delvan often referred to as “topsiders,” keep to the surface. Humans are happy to oblige, leaving subterranean “delvan work” to their albino cousins. When gold was discovered in the West, delvans handled all of the hard-rock mining while humans transported and processed the ore.

Delvans govern their own communities. Large communities elect a headperson who is supported by three alderpersons. The community leadership cooperates with local human communities, particularly with regard to medical and legal matters.

Delvan Religion

Delvans have their own religion based a holy trinity. Mother Earth rules the surface of the planet and makes things grow. Father Earth rules the underground, providing safe haven and giving Mother Earth a medium with which to nurture life. The stars in the heavens are their children, the Sky Children.

Most delvan’s worship Father Earth, who gives them a home and protects them from the perils of the surface. Although delvans need Mother Earth for sustenance, they visit her domain while she sleeps at night. Among the delvan, the sun is known as Mother’s Light.

Delvan Territory

Delvans strongly believe that the underground world, which they have often carved out with their own sweat and blood, is their domain. Most have little sympathy for humans who visit their communities and complain about the low ceilings and lack of illumination. Topsiders should remain topside.

Similarly, delvan disdain for magic results in a bias against all kinds of magic users, particularly earth wizards (geomancers). The most religious delvans believe that earth magic is sacrilege and a misuse of Father Earth’s divine power.

Delvans in Geomancer’s Bargain

The setting for Geomancer’s Bargain is a small mining community in the Arizona Territory. A small group of delvan miners work a gold and silver mine called the Commonwealth, while the human population that supports the mine lives in the nearby town of Pearce. Within the mine, the delvans have carved out a small living space called Commonwealth Subtown. The delvans mine the ore and bring it to the surface where human teamsters take over and transport the ore to a railroad depot.

At the start of the story, the delvans learn that the mine manager has hired a human geomancer to help increase production at the mine. Given delvan biases against humans underground and “earth wizards” in particular, our hero Carleton Kazimer, Wizard of Geomancy, steps into a hostile environment when he arrives to begin his new contract for the Wizard Guild.

Geomancer’s Bargain tells the rest of that story.

The post Delvan Miners of the Old West appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

For a limited time, I’m offering Geomancer’s Bargain at an introductory price of just 99 cents in the U.S. and at a comparable price in other markets. Don’t delay, or you’ll miss out on this special deal. I’ll be raising the price to $3.99 on Monday morning, February 29.

Get your very own copy of Geomancer’s Bargain today from
Amazon.com (UK, DE, CA, AU).
See * below for non-Kindle editions.

Geomancer’s Bargain is the first novel in my new western fantasy series. If you are a fan of weird westerns, steampunk, or historical fantasy, you’ll enjoy the adventures of Carleton Kazimer, Wizard of Geomancy. (In case you aren’t familiar with the term, geomancy is the practice of elemental earth magic.) The series is set in the Arizona Territory during the Victorian Era (specifically, the mid-1890s), but while the story world will be familiar to fans of the Old West, I’ve added a few new elements you won’t find in the history books, such as magic and several fantasy species—including dragons!

If you’d like to know more about this new series, visit the series page on LogicalExpressions.com, the publisher’s site. For your convenience, I’ve included the description and cover for Geomancer’s Bargain below.

About Geomancer’s Bargain

Like many settlers, Carleton Kazimer traveled to the western frontier to escape something. In Carleton’s case, it was a notorious criminal gang who put a price on his head. But the young earth wizard quickly discovers that new and unfamiliar dangers await him in the wild west.

A promising contract at a gold and silver mine in the Arizona Territory turns sour when the delvan miners who work the ore reject the assistance of a human geomancer. While trying to prove his worth to the impatient mine manager and the delvans, Carleton’s efforts lead to conflict with the indigenous avens who populate the local mountains and revere the area’s dragons.

With few allies to back him up, Carleton must find a way to salvage his contract and build a new life in the lawless desert far from the civilization of home.

# # # # #

Geomancer’s Bargain is a western fantasy adventure of approximately 80,000 words or 300 printed pages.

For now, Geomancer’s Bargain is available exclusively in Kindle format* through Amazon.com (UK, DE, CA, AU).

* If you want a copy for a device that can’t read Kindle books, get in touch with me through my contact page for instructions.

The post Geomancer’s Bargain Now Available appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

Geomancer’s Bargain has been my most difficult book project to date for a variety of reasons. I’d say it was even harder than my first novel, Vaetra Unveiled. It certainly took longer, in spite of the fact that I already had four novels under my belt! I learned the hard way how much work it is to build a fantasy world within a historical context.

Things are finally starting to come together, so I figured it was time to offer an update on my progress and a teaser of things to come. My designer put together a wonderful cover, and I’d like to share it:

I think the designer did a great job of capturing the feel of the novel. It has a good balance of historical western influence, fantasy flair, and hints of mystery. I’m sure readers of steampunk, weird westerns, and historical fantasy will recognize the vibe and know they’ve found something worth checking out.

The book description is still a work in progress, but here’s what I have so far:

Like many settlers, Carleton Kazimer traveled to the Western Frontier to escape something. In Carleton’s case, it was a notorious Baltimore criminal gang who put a price on his head. But life in the Wild West has its own challenges for a young earth wizard.

A promising contract at a gold and silver mine in the Arizona Territory turns sour when the delvan miners who work the ore reject the assistance of a human geomancer. Determined to prove his worth, Carleton’s efforts lead to trouble with the indigenous avens who populate the local mountains and revere the area’s dragons.

With few allies to back him up, Carleton must find a way to salvage his contract and build a new life in the lawless desert that is far away from the civilization of home.

Between production tasks for Geomancer’s Bargain, I’m writing the first draft of my second Ternion Order book. Kyle and Amanda will return with more adventures as they fight a powerful dark witch who tries to destroy everyone and everything related to Kyle’s exorcism.

In the meantime, watch this space for the Geomancer’s Bargain release notice and more posts related to the story world for the Western Geomancer series.

Thanks for visiting and happy reading!

The post Cover Reveal for "Geomancer’s Bargain" appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

Fantasy has also been a part of my entertainment life for as long as I can remember. I’ve enthusiastically consumed games, books, television shows, movies, and even music with fantasy elements.

I suppose it was inevitable that I would eventually merge my two interests at some point in my writing life and create a fantasy western series. My forthcoming book, Geomancer’s Bargain, is the first volume of that series.

Weaving Fantasy Elements into the Old West

When I sat down to create the story world for Geomancer’s Bargain, I had many decisions to make. I picked a real-world region (Cochise County, Arizona) and set the story among many real-world landmarks. I had no intention of including any genuine historical characters in the stories, but I did borrow several surnames from the history books. I chose the mid-1890’s as the base time period from a technology standpoint.

Then came the fantasy elements. I added two fantasy races and three fantasy creatures to the Geomancer’s Bargain story world. It took quite a bit of work to figure out how to weave those elements into an alternate Old West. (I wrote about that in my earlier article on the throes of world-building.) This article focuses on my version of golden dragons.

Introducing Golden Dragons

Adding dragons to a western may strike some readers as an odd thing to do. But if there’s anything the Southwest has, it’s heat and lizards. I think fire-breathing dragons fit right in.

Golden dragons have lizard-like bodies, but they don’t have wings. I modeled the dragons after the golden armadillo lizard, except they weigh about 1,500 pounds and have scales as tough as boiled leather. They lair in underground cave systems, coming to the surface to hunt and to sun themselves. They avoid civilization, but can be dangerous to humans traveling alone in remote locations.

Roasted Diet

Golden dragons are omnivorous, eating a wide variety of plants and animals. They are particularly fond of creosote bushes and desert broom. Both plants contribute resins to their miraculous digestive system.

I use the term miraculous because golden dragons are mobile, biological, bio-fuel generators. Their digestive process produces a flammable oil that is stored in a large gland near their lungs. When a dragon feels threatened or encounters large prey, it exhales a mist of the flammable oil. The mist is ignited by a hard, flint-like tooth at the front of their mouth that creates a spark when the dragon shifts its jaw forward in a specific way. The result is similar to what one can do with a flame-thrower. Not surprisingly, golden dragons have a fondness for seared meat. Most dragons can manage up to four good flames before emptying their fuel gland. It can take up to a month for the gland to fully recharge, although they can usually muster enough oil for a single flame within a week.

Behavior and Reproduction

Golden dragons are generally solitary, although males seek out females in the fall to mate. The females lay one or two eggs in an underground lair, usually in late-October. The eggs mature over the course of winter, and in the spring, the hatchlings emerge hungry. The hatchlings are typically two to three feet long and are capable of hunting their own food immediately.

Female dragons vigorously defend their eggs and their lair. Although females do not directly feed their hatchlings, they often leave behind part of their own meals for the hatchlings to consume. Male dragons do not eat hatchlings, although when hungry, they may chase the hatchlings away from food left behind by their mother.

Within a year, hatchlings grow to be about ten feet long, at which point their growth slows. They reach their full size of twelve to fifteen feet within five years, and their life expectancy is typically thirty years. They usually leave their mother’s territory and establish their own at the start of the new mating season, which begins approximately nine months after their birth.

Golden dragons are territorial. Males and females establish and defend separate territories that vary in size from approximately ten to forty square miles. Lair entrances are usually located high in the foothills of Southwestern mountain ranges. During the September/November mating season, female territories shrink to the area immediately around the lair, allowing male dragons to travel about. Females remain close to their lairs until they lay eggs, at which point they return to defending their entire territory.

Relationship to the Avens

Avens are the native people of the Southwestern mountain ranges. Golden dragons (known as Nadi Gaman in their language) are sacred to the avens, and all treaties stipulate the protection of these rare creatures. When establishing territorial borders, the avens often include known dragon territories to reduce the likelihood of conflict with settlers.

I’ll reveal more about the interaction between the avens and golden dragons in a future article on the avens.

* * * * *

I hope you enjoyed learning about golden dragons. They are the first dragons I’ve written into any of my works, and it was fun to offer a new take on a classic fantasy standard. If you would like to know when I publish another article about the Geomancer’s Bargain story world, the easiest way is to use the “Subscribe to new posts via email” option in the right sidebar. If you want to know when I release Geomancer’s Bargain, please sign up for release notices.

Happy reading!

The post Golden Dragons of the American Southwest appeared first on The Vaetra Files.

I hope you enjoy Jamie’s article. I think it shows how imaginative authors can be when it comes to inventing a magic system. At the end of the article, you can find out more about Jamie and her new release, The Soul Stone, Book Two of the Kronicles of Korthlundia.

Happy reading,
Daniel R. Marvello

The Magic of the Joined Kingdoms

by Jamie Marchant

The most important thing to remember about magic is that it results from mixed blood, usually a mix of races, but occasionally a mix of classes will work. The more mixed the blood or the more unusual the mixture, the more powerful the magic. The requirement of mixed blood is the primary reason there is so little magic in the joined kingdoms any more. Korthlundia is a small, isolated country with a mostly homogenous population. To make things worse, the church in Lundia, the southern half of the joined kingdoms, insists that the mixing of blood is an abomination to the goddess. The clergy refuse to believe that the great Sulis would bless such an outrage against all that is sacred with her holy gift. Sulis is the goddess of healing, and her clergy are supposed to be able to heal both body and soul, but because of the ignorance of the clergy, there are few Lundian priests with true healing magic. The Korthian church, the northern half of the joined kingdoms, has a more tolerant view of mixing blood, so they have a higher percentage of true healers among the clergy.

There are three main classes of magic users. The first, as I have mentioned, are healers. Healers are able to go into a trance and join their consciousness with that of the patient. In this way they are able to feel the disease or injury and manipulate the tissue to promote healing, or they can as easily use their gift to harm. Healing is exhausting, but produces intense pleasure for the healer. Most healers exist outside the church and are looked down because of their mixed blood; they are seen as witches or demons and are not infrequently killed. One of the two main characters in The Soul Stone, Robrek, is one such healer. Slavers kidnapped Donella, Robrek’s mother, from her homeland, a far distant land whose people had never mixed with those of Korthlundia. Because of the unusual mixture of his blood, Robrek grows into the most powerful healer the joined kingdoms has seen for centuries. However, having such power is not without its drawbacks. Because of his power and dark coloring, he is often called “demon seed.” The local priest wanted him exposed at birth and tried to have him burned at the stake as a young man.

The second class of magic users are the auroras. An aurora can see the multi-colored aura that surrounds all people and reveals their character, including their honesty. Since the magic of an aurora rests in the womb, they are always female. The onset of an aurora’s power happens when she first bleeds in the way of a woman. However, she cannot fully control her power until she has given birth to a child. Samantha, the crown princess of Korthlundia, is an aurora. One might think that such an ability would be invaluable in a monarch, but there is a problem. To be an aurora, a woman must have a mixture of common and noble blood. Since Samantha’s mother was indeed noble, the fact that Samantha is an aurora means that she is not the true daughter of the king. She is, in fact, a bastard. Her gift, therefore, becomes a liability that she must hide to preserve her position and even her life.

The final class of magic users are the Bards. Bards are able to affect the emotions of their audience with their music. There has not been a true Bard in Korthlundia in over a century, and little is known about them. That is why the Bard Alvabane is such a powerful enemy of our heroes—an adversary that nearly succeeds in wiping out life in the joined kingdoms. Since Robrek and Samantha do not understand bardic magic, they have great difficulty figuring out how to stop her.

The Soul Stone

Book Two of The Kronicles of Korthlundia

The Crown Princess Samantha and Sir Robrek struggle to solidify their rule in the aftermath of the king’s murder and Duke Argblutal’s attempt to usurp the throne. They are thwarted at every turn by those who seek power for themselves and desire to prevent their marriage. Just when they think their problems are solved, a deadly curse begins to spread throughout Korthlundia and Samantha becomes pregnant.

Samantha must fight off priests, enemies, and her closest advisors while Robrek discovers the reason the goddess chose him as king, to defeat the Soul Stone, a stone capable of sucking the soul out of its victims, which threatens to obliterate all life in the joined kingdoms. Their archenemy, the Bard Alvabane, awakens the Soul Stone and plans to use its power to reclaim Korthlundia for her people (a people driven out over a thousand years ago by the hero Armunn). Armunn had to sacrifice his life and soul to contain the Soul Stone. Will Robrek have to do the same? Will the young couple have only a few short months to love each other?

Where to find The Soul Stone

Book information page at Black Rose Writing
Order from Amazon.com
Order from Barnes and Noble

About Jamie Marchant

From early childhood, Jamie has been immersed in books. Her mother, an avid reader, read to her, and her older sister filled her head with fairy tales. Taking into consideration her love for literature and the challenges of supporting herself as a writer, she pursued a Ph.D. in American literature, which she received in 1998. She started teaching writing and literature at Auburn University. But in doing so, she put her true passion on the backburner and neglected her muse. Then one day, in the midst of writing a piece of literary criticism, she realized that what she wanted to be doing was writing fantasy novels. Her muse thus revived, she began the book that was to become The Goddess’s Choice, which was published in April 2012. The second volume in the series, The Soul Stone, was released this June.

She lives in Auburn, Alabama, with her husband, son, and four cats, which (or so she’s been told) officially makes her a cat lady. She still teaches writing and literature at Auburn University. Her short fiction has been published on Short-Story.Me, and her story was chosen for inclusion in their annual anthology. It has also appeared in the anthologies—Urban Fantasy (KY Story, 2013) and Of Dragon and Magic: Tales of the Lost Worlds (Witty Bard Publishing, 2014)—The World of Myth, A Writer’s Haven, and Bards & Sages.

How to contact Jamie

Website: jamie-marchant.com
Blog: jamie-marchant.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Jamie-Marchant-Author/164706710298768
Twitter: @RobrekSamantha
Goodreads: Jamie_Marchant

The post The Magic of Jamie Marchant’s Kronicles of Korthlundia appeared first on The Vaetra Files.