Graced by Amanda Pillar – Guest Post
A big thank you to the Warrior Scribe, Alan Baxter, for posting this blog entry on my debut novel, Graced! [Aw, shucks! You’re welcome. – Alan]
Graced by Amanda Pillar
Graced is an urban fantasy story that follows the journey of four diverse characters; it features vampires, weres, humans and a race called the Graced.
But, rather than another synopsis, I thought I’d share some of the background research that helped me develop the Graced universe!
- It could take only 10,000 years for evidence of a society of our technological level to disappear and become nothing more than archaeological ruins
- Blue eyes do not have blue pigmentation to make them blue
- Speciation is occurring all the time in nature; there are animals even now in our world that are evolving new adaptations (the Australian yellow-bellied three-toed skink is changing from laying eggs to having live young)
- Gun powder was originally developed in China and used for fireworks
- The general ranking of the English peerage was King/Queen, Duke/Duchess, Marquis/Marchioness, Earl/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Baron/Baroness
- The colour of mourning varies from culture to culture in today’s world (red, white and black among other colours are worn)
- Marriage was often once a political alliance, rather than an exclamation of love
- Eye colour inheritance isn’t the simple four step process we were taught in school eg a brown (B) eyed parent, and a blue (b) eyed parent equals BB, Bb, Bb, bb. It actually does not.
- Aside from dire wolves having a dramatic name, it was the largest canis species although it has been extinct for at least 10,000 years. Grey wolf males on average weigh up to 45 kgs.
So while the above points may have had a hand in the development of the Graced world, not all of them are apparent in the book. But that’s the beauty of world-building. All of these things helped shape Dante, Elle, Clay and Anton’s world.
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Amanda Pillar is an award-winning editor and author who lives in Victoria, Australia, with her husband and two cats, Saxon and Lilith.
Amanda has had numerous short stories published and has co-edited the fiction anthologies Voices (2008), Grants Pass (2009), The Phantom Queen Awakes (2010), Scenes from the Second Storey (2010), Ishtar (2011) and Damnation and Dames (2012). Her first solo anthology, Bloodstones (2012), was published by Ticonderoga Publications. Amanda is currently working on the sequel, Bloodlines, due for publication in 2015.
Amanda’s first novel, Graced, was published by Momentum in 2015.
In her day job, she works as an archaeologist.
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SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest and Blurring the Line
The last couple of months have been a bit quiet on the publishing news front, then I just got two tremendous acceptances in the space of three days. It tends to go like that.
So I’m very excited that I’ll have a story in the next SNAFU anthology from Cohesion Press, this one entitled SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest, edited by GN Braun and AJ Spedding. My story is called “In Vaulted Halls Entombed”. It sounds like an album by a death metal band, and I’m just fine with that. But it’s not. It’s a story of cosmic horror. The full line up for this book is:
Badlands – S.D. Perry
Cold War Gothic II: The Bohemian Grove – Weston Ochse
After the Red Rain Fell – Matt Hilton
Show of Force – Jeremy Robinson & Kane Gilmour
‘Untitled’ – Joseph Nassise
Of Storms and Flame – Tim Marquitz & J. M. Martin
In Vaulted Halls Entombed – Alan Baxter
The Slog – Neal F. Litherland
Sucker of Souls – Kirsten Cross
Fallen Lion – Jack Hanson
They Own the Night – B. Michael Radburn
Now that is some absolutely radical company to be sharing a Table of Contents with. And that cover is bloody superb. The SNAFU series focuses on military horror stories. It might sound like a limited theme, but it’s really not. I had the pleasure of reading the original SNAFU anthology and writing the Foreword for it. The range of story and style in there was mind-blowing. I’m sure this volume will be the same – all kinds of historical periods, all kinds of genre, yet all featuring soldiers, war and horror. How can you go wrong?
The other acceptance also came from Cohesion Press, but a very different book, called Blurring the Line. This one is edited Marty Young, himself a great horror writer. He’s also a great editor, being half of the editing team (with Angela Challis) of the groundbreaking Macabre anthology from a few years ago. That book was special in that it covered Australia’s landscape of horror by reprinting literary greats of the past, then featuring new stories from established horror writers of today, and up and comers recently emerging and making a name for themselves. Marty has also edited Midnight Echo and was the founder of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association and its president for five years. He’s what we call a horror pedigree.
Blurring the Line is described thusly:
Do you know what’s real and what isn’t?
There are many tales and urban myths of monsters that shouldn’t exist, of demons and devil possession, of serial killers wearing human skin, of ghosts terrorizing families…
But these tales also sound like fiction, don’t they?
We hope so.
But…
But what if…
Blurring the Line will take you into the far reaches of your darkness, without letting go of reality. It will make you believe.
You can probably understand why I just had to write a story for that book and I’m ecstatic that my yarn, “How Father Bryant Saw The Light”, has been accepted. The anthology will also feature internal illustrations, non-fiction articles and more. The full Table of Contents hasn’t been released yet, but I think it’s going to be a pretty fucking special book. And again, look at that astounding cover. You can click on both the covers in this post for a bigger version.
These books are due out later in 2015, so I’ll be sure to shout about it when they’re available.
Now please excuse me while I Snoopy dance.
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Bound and Clara nominated for Ditmar Awards
I got a very nice surprise this weekend when the 2015 Ditmar Award ballot was released and I saw my name on there twice. I had to do two Snoopy dances! I’ll list the full ballot below, but a little about the awards first.
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (the “Natcon”) to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction (including fantasy and horror) and science fiction fandom. The award is similar to the Hugo Award but on a national rather than international scale. They are named for Martin James Ditmar “Dick” Jenssen, an Australian fan and artist, who financially supported the awards at their inception.
So you can imagine how happy I am to be shortlisted for two of them this year. I got nominations for BOUND: Alex Caine #1 in the Best Novel category and “The Darkness in Clara” (originally published in SQ Mag #14) in the Best Novelette or Novella category. You can read “The Darkness in Clara” for free online by clicking above, and Bound is still only around $2 in ebook and available in print in all bookstores. If you’re eligible to vote, and you’ve enjoyed either or both of those, I’d greatly appreciate your vote.
Anyone who is a member of Swancon 40 (including supporting members) and anyone was who a member of Continuum 10 last year (who was eligible to vote in the 2014 Award) can vote in this year’s award. I strongly recommend that anyone who is eligible to vote exercises that right, as the more people voting, the better the views of readers are represented in the winners. You don’t have to vote in every category. Voting has opened, and will remain open until one minute before midnight AWST (ie. 11.59pm GMT+8) on Sunday, 22nd of March, 2015.
If possible, please vote online at:
The online voting system provides a passworded facility to adjust your vote at any time before the close of voting.
Alternatively, votes will be accepted via email to:
An official ballot paper, including postal address information, will be made available shortly, and may be downloaded as a PDF format file from:
http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2015/
The 2015 ballot is as follows:
Best Novel
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* The Lascar’s Dagger, Glenda Larke (Hachette)
* Bound (Alex Caine 1), Alan Baxter (Voyager)
* Clariel, Garth Nix (HarperCollins)
* Thief’s Magic (Millennium’s Rule 1), Trudi Canavan (Hachette Australia)
* The Godless (Children 1), Ben Peek (Tor UK)
Best Novella or Novelette
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* “The Ghost of Hephaestus”, Charlotte Nash, in Phantazein (FableCroft
Publishing)
* “The Legend Trap”, Sean Williams, in Kaleidoscope (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Darkness in Clara”, Alan Baxter, in SQ Mag 14 (IFWG Publishing Australia)
* “St Dymphna’s School for Poison Girls”, Angela Slatter, in Review of Australian Fiction, Volume 9, Issue 3 (Review of Australian Fiction)
* “The Female Factory”, Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter, in The Female Factory (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Escapement”, Stephanie Gunn, in Kisses by Clockwork (Ticonderoga Publications)
Best Short Story
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* “Bahamut”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Phantazein (FableCroft Publishing)
* “Vanilla”, Dirk Flinthart, in Kaleidoscope (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Cookie Cutter Superhero”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Kaleidoscope (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Seventh Relic”, Cat Sparks, in Phantazein (FableCroft Publishing)
* “Signature”, Faith Mudge, in Kaleidoscope (Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Collected Work
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* Kaleidoscope, edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios (Twelfth Planet Press)
* The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013, edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)
* Phantazein, edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)
Best Artwork
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* Illustrations, Kathleen Jennings, in Black-Winged Angels (Ticonderoga Publications)
* Cover art, Kathleen Jennings, of Phantazein (FableCroft Publishing)
* Illustrations, Kathleen Jennings, in The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings (Tartarus Press)
Best Fan Writer
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* Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work
* Tsana Dolichva, for body of work
* Bruce Gillespie, for body of work
* Katharine Stubbs, for body of work
* Alexandra Pierce for body of work
* Grant Watson, for body of work
* Sean Wright, for body of work
Best Fan Artist
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* Nalini Haynes, for body of work, including “Interstellar Park Ranger Bond, Jaime Bond”, “Gabba and Slave Lay-off: Star Wars explains Australian politics”, “The Driver”, and “Unmasked” in Dark Matter Zine
* Kathleen Jennings, for body of work, including Fakecon art and Illustration Friday series
* Nick Stathopoulos, for movie poster of It Grows!
Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
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* Snapshot 2014, Tsana Dolichva, Nick Evans, Stephanie Gunn, Kathryn Linge, Elanor Matton-Johnson, David McDonald, Helen Merrick, Jason Nahrung, Ben Payne, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Helen Stubbs, Katharine Stubbs, Tehani Wessely, and Sean Wright
* It Grows!, Nick Stathopoulos
* Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Andrew Finch
* The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
* Galactic Chat, Sean Wright, Helen Stubbs, David McDonald, Alexandra Pierce, Sarah Parker, and Mark Webb
Best New Talent
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* Helen Stubbs
* Shauna O’Meara
* Michelle Goldsmith
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
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* Reviews in The Angriest, Grant Watson
* The Eddings Reread series, Tehani Wessely, Jo Anderton, and Alexandra Pierce, in A Conversational Life
* Reviews in Adventures of a Bookonaut, Sean Wright
* “Does Sex Make Science Fiction Soft?”, in Uncanny Magazine 1, Tansy Rayner Roberts
* Reviews in FictionMachine, Grant Watson
* The Reviewing New Who series, David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Tehani Wessely
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Fiction submission advice
Every now and then I take on a guest editing spot. It’s not something I could ever do too much, because I’m a writer and that’s where my focus lies, but I enjoy trawling through a slush pile occasionally to find some gems that deserve publication. I’m currently reading slush as a guest editor for issue 2 of Another Dimension magazine. This is a new magazine that’s subject to a successful Kickstarter to get up and running, but it comes with a strong pedigree. It’s the brainchild of Angel Leigh McCoy, of Wily Writers fame. She knows what she’s doing, let me tell you. You can find the submission guidelines and all you need to know here.
However, while looking for those gems in the slush you do have to dig through a lot of… not gems. My reading recently drove me to Twitter for a little bit of a rant. I thought I might repeat my key points here. These things apply to every kind of submission, so bear them in mind regardless of market.
- When submitting a story to a magazine, ensure your opening sentence isn’t missing an entire word.
- When submitting a story to a magazine, don’t use both 1st and 3rd person in your opening paragraph. Pick one.
- When submitting a story to a magazine, ensure your story contains, you know, a story. Not just a sequence of events.
- When submitting a story to a magazine, first try reading your dialogue aloud. That’s right, *no-one* speaks like that.
- When submitting a story to a magazine, READ THE FUCKING GUIDELINES!
I realise that those few points above might seem bloody obvious, but you’d be amazed how many submissions fail to comply to one (or many!) of them. If you get those things covered then believe me, you’ll immediately jump ahead of a lot of your competition. Pay extra special attention to the last one. It’s in all caps for a reason.
Now get writing and submitting and good luck!
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Dream Shadow at Tales To Terrify
I love it when my stories get podcast. It’s so great to hear a reading of something you’ve written and to hear that reader’s interpretation of your words. In this case, those wonderful people at one of my favourite podcasts, Tales To Terrify, have just posted a fantastic reading by Graeme Dunlop of my story “Dream Shadow”. It was originally published in the Winds of Change anthology from CSFG Publishing, edited by Elizabeth Fitzgerald. It’s a bit of very Australian flavoured horror.
This is my second appearance at Tales To Terrify – they podcast my ghost western story, “Not the Worst of Sins”, last year. And this is the second story of mine that the good Mr Dunlop has narrated – he also read my “The Seven Garages of Kevin Simpson” for Pseudopod. You can find that story here.
Here’s the latest Tales To Terrify, episode 155, “Dream Shadow”.
I collate all my podcast stories and a list of my favourite podcast magazines on this page here.
Enjoy!
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Video interview – dark fantasy, martial arts and more
The wonderful Joanna Penn pinned me down for an interview over Skype recently. Of course, I was more than happy to chat about some of my favourite things, like writing dark fantasy and horror, novels and short stories, martial arts, travel and so on. We had a good chat. You can watch the video below. And be sure to check out Jo’s books – she writes kickass supernatural thrillers under the name J F Penn. You can see why we get along, right? Hope you find this one interesting. Feel free to share it far and wide.
EDIT: Jo Penn has posted a full transcript of the interview on her site here.
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On posting award eligibility lists, including mine
It’s that time of year again when all the various awards open for nominations. It’s also that time of year when a bunch of people start bitching and moaning about authors shilling their published work. But fuck those people. Awards are all about talking up the stuff you’ve enjoyed, and that includes your own work. As authors, especially these days, it’s our job to promote our work and try to get as many reading eyes on it as possible. There’s no shame in posting a list of your stuff and saying, “Hey, look what I did last year. I’m damned proud of myself.” And so you should be.
Also, it’s hard to remember everything that was published and the stuff you’ve enjoyed. Sometimes a story or a book just sticks with you, but often it’s not until you see a mention of a story that you think, “Hell yeah, that was awesome!” I really appreciate seeing eligibility lists around this time of year, because I love to nominate stuff that I think is worthy, but I’m also fundamentally lazy. And forgetful. If you make my job easier, I’m happy about that. So if you’re not comfortable making posts like these, just don’t. If you’re okay with it, then great. It’s useful and there’s nothing wrong with it. If you spend the next three months all over social media saying, “Vote for me! Vote for this!” then you’re being a dick. But making a list available and making people aware of that list is fine and dandy. People need to vote for the things they’ve really enjoyed and try to signal boost the good stuff. That’s one of the main functions of awards, in my opinion.
(If you’re an Aussie fan, get started by nominating work for the Ditmar Awards, which are now open. Go here: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2015/nominations.html (Nominations will be accepted from natural persons active in fandom, and from full or supporting members of the national convention of the year of the award. If you may not be known to the Ditmar subcommittee, please provide a brief explanation of why you are eligible (eg. “Full member of Swancon 40”), or the name of someone known to the subcommittee who can vouch for your eligibility to nominate.))
So, with that in mind, here’s my list. Often, when you’ve had several things published in a year, your votes can be split across several titles, so I’m also going to mention my favourites among my published stuff. Afterwards, I’m going to list some of my favourite books by other people from 2014 and where at least some of my votes will be going. It’s not all about me!
NOVELS
All three of my Alex Caine books were published this year, so they’re all eligible in the novel category of awards. If you’ve really preferred one over another, that’s great and you should vote that way. But if you’ve enjoyed the series in general, I’d really appreciate it if you could direct your vote to Bound, the first in the series.
NOVELLA/NOVELETTE
In the novella/novelette category, I only had one story published in 2014, but I also think it’s one of the best stories I’ve ever written. It’s called “The Darkness in Clara” and was published in SQ Mag #14. It’s free to read online, so head on over and have a look if you haven’t already. I’d love to see this story get some more attention.
SHORT FICTION
In the short fiction category, I had six stories published in 2014:
“Thirty Three Tears To A Teaspoon” – Postscripts 32/33: FAR VOYAGER (PS Publishing, November 2014)
“Autumn of the Greatest” – Superpow! anthology (Red Penny Papers, October 2014)
“Shadows of the Lonely Dead” – Suspended in Dusk anthology (Books of the Dead Press, September 2014)
“Upon a Distant Shore” – Dimension6, issue 2 (4th July 2014)
“Mephisto” – Daily Science Fiction (23rd June 2014)
“All the Wealth in the World” – Lakeside Circus, issue 1 (January 2014)
The ones with links are available to read online. The one I’d really like to see get some more attention is “Shadows of the Lonely Dead” from the Suspended in Dusk anthology. This, I think, is possibly my best short story to date and it’s also an intensely personal story for me. I’m really pleased to see that it’s been getting a lot of positive mentions in reviews of what is a truly brilliant anthology. This story is also the first time I’ve had strangers email me to say how much they enjoyed it. That’s happened with my novels before, but never a short story.
(If you haven’t read it, I really suggest getting Suspended in Dusk. It’s cheap as chips at the moment too. Start looking here for your copy.)
Now, what about other people’s work? I’ve read and enjoyed a lot of great fiction throughout 2014. Some will be Australian and some international, so my nominations will depend on what awards the stuff is eligible for and where I’m allowed to nominate. So far I’ve only started thinking about novels, anthologies and collections. This is not a definitive list, as there will definitely be more added to it, and I haven’t even started looking at short stories yet. As for Aussie stuff, check out the Ditmar Eligibility List here, as that’s a great resource for everything Australian published in 2014. Meanwhile, some of my favourite books from last year include:
The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough (novel)
Fearful Symmetries anthology, ed. Ellen Datlow (anthology)
The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings by Angela Slatter (collection)
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (novel)
Suspended in Dusk, ed. Simon Dewar (anthology)
Echopraxia by Peter Watts (novel)
Guardian (Veiled Worlds #3) by Jo Anderton (novel)
Last Year, When We Were Young by Andrew McKiernan (collection)
SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror, ed. Geoff Brown and AJ Spedding (anthology)
I’ll be adding to this list as I gather my thoughts and get to voting.
Lastly, please nominate and vote on any awards you’re eligible to be a part of. The more people there are involved, the more the awards will reflect the opinions of the reading public rather than the authors who shout loudest or who have the biggest social presence. Awards are very imperfect beasts in any case, but the more people are involved, the less imperfect they become. And if you do vote for me anywhere, thank you! I genuinely appreciate it.
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Guest post from Gillian Polack – Medieval Military
I’m starting the new year with a guest from Gillian Polack. She’s been here before, has very interesting things to say and has a new book out. Take it away, Gillian.
Gillian Polack
Thank you, Alan, for hosting me. I thought I’d talk about the military side of my novel, because I rather suspect that anyone here is more interested in that side of thing than in how I worked out my time-travel technique for my new novel. Let me introduce my novel, however, and maybe me, so that it all makes sense.
I write cosy science fiction and fantasy. Some readers claim it has a bit of horror in it, while others think it’s got a sense of humour. I don’t see it as either humour or horror: I see it as about the stories of individuals. It doesn’t matter how big or small the landscape, my novels are about the small lives of people.
About the same time I started writing science fiction and fantasy (with just a smidgeon of horror and humour), I started becoming a historian. Eventually (meaning about 25 years ago) I became a Medievalist. To achieve this latter, I have many pieces of paper and can be rude in an astonishing number of languages, most of which are rather dead. Everyone but me assumed that it was inevitable that one day I would write a novel set in the Middle Ages. This is one of those circumstances where everyone but me was right, and I am eating so many words that I’ll soon be quite obese.
So, I’ve written a novel set in the Languedoc in 1305 (Langue[dot]doc 1305, published by Satalyte). The thing about the Middle Ages in western Europe is that they were religious, but the whole social system was underpinned by matters military. Knights were important not only in war, but in the legal system, for instance.
I decided to exploit this difference rather than to combat it and try to write modern. I have my modern characters, and one of them is enviably full of modern empathy and snark (my hero!) and the others are maybe a bit more mixed. Those modern characters (my time travellers) gave my readers guys they could identify with if they wanted, which meant I could be as historically proper as was possible for my Medieval characters and still the book would be readable.
I do a lot of research for my novels. I am research-prone the way some people are ice-cream prone. This means that when I thought “How the heck do I get Medieval military values and how they affect daily lives into a modern novel without it sounding absolute garbage?” I hit the books. “The books” in this case, were some lovely modern studies of Medieval masculinity and a bunch of work on what warfare was and how people dealt when they weren’t fighting and just what it all meant in social terms and how it affected the lives of individuals.
Six months later, I was a bit more educated. It became really obvious to me that it wasn’t matter of my knight putting down his sword when not at war. He carried his values everywhere. Given the right trigger and he would see a military threat and would take proper action. ‘Proper action’ turned out to be something quite fascinating and shaped the plot. This was what I was after: I didn’t want to superimpose Medieval culture on a plot, I wanted to integrate it so that the plot could only happen the way it did in that place and at that time.
This is when Langue[dot]doc 1305 became my kind of novel, where the landscape plays its own role and the cultures of the characters informs what they do and makes events happen. I love the potential uniqueness of novels.
There was an odd side to this. I had to be honest to my Medievalist self and not push for war when there was none. It turned out that there was no big military action. In fact, it’s the least action-related time travel novel I’ve ever seen. It turns out that Medieval masculinity and a military culture doesn’t mean battles and fighting all the time.
One day I should put my research bibliography on the net, in case anyone wants to explore this for themselves. Not yet, though. I want the novel to be read on its own terms, first.
Gillian Polack is a writer, editor, historian and critic. Recently, she signed up seven novels with Satalyte: Langue[dot]doc 1305 is the first of these. Gillian’s second novel Ms Cellophane was recently republished by Momentum and was shortlisted for a Ditmar, as was her anthology, Baggage. One of her short stories won a Victorian Ministry of the Arts award and three more have been listed as recommended reading in the international lists of world’s best fantasy and science fiction short stories.
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The year that was and the year to come.
I posted this on my Facebook page and then decided to copy it here too. Mainly it’s for my own reference – a reminder of successes to buoy me up in those times of doubt and rejection. Because those doubt and rejection times are the norm, while successes are infrequent beacons that flare now and then. That’s normal and with any luck the successes will continue to occur and only get bigger and better. Meanwhile, it’s important to celebrate not only those successes you’ve had, but also the work you’ve put in. So here’s my writing year in review:
My writing and publishing stats are pretty good for this year. In 2014 I had three novels published (The Alex Caine Series – Bound, Obsidian and Abduction), one novelette (The Darkness in Clara, SQ Mag 14), and six short stories. Four new short stories are sold and due for publication during 2015, so I’ve already got a jump on the year to come!
I have five short stories currently out on submission, two of which are shortlisted, and I’ve got a novella out on submission with my agent.
For 2015 I have one novel “finished” that I will redraft when I hear back from a beta reader and then send that to my agent. I have another novel started that I will finish in the first half of the coming year. And I’ll certainly write and submit some more short stories. I also have plans for another novel that’ll get started at some point and hopefully finished in first draft before the end of the year. I intend to write at least one new novel every year along with as many shorts/novelettes/novellas as I have time and inspiration for.
Goals for 2015 include seeing Obsidian and Abduction in print in Australia, all three Alex Caine novels in print globally and at least six published short stories. I’d also love to see the latest novel, after a final polish, sold in 2015. Even published by year’s end if I’m lucky. The same goes for the novella currently with my agent.
So I’m staying busy and will continue to work my butt off.
Thanks to everyone who’s bought and read my work in 2014. I plan to do even better in 2015. Happy new year to you all, and may you exceed all your goals and achieve your wildest dreams.
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BOUND free everywhere in the world over Christmas and New Year
HarperVoyager, the publishers of my dark urban fantasy/horror books, The Alex Caine Series, are running a special Christmas and New Year promotion. This means that Bound, the first book in the series, is free everywhere in the world in ebook until January. Free. Nada. Nothing. Go to your favourite ebook retailer of choice and grab your copy now. Obsidian and Abduction, books 2 and 3, are less than a fiver each too, so you can get a pretty good deal on the whole trilogy right now.
Here are direct links to all the stores you need:
AMAZON | AMAZON UK | AMAZON AUS | KOBO | iBooks US | iBooks UK | iBooks Aus | Google PLAY
So if you’ve been tempted to check out the series, but haven’t yet, you can grab book 1 now for nothing. If you do take up this offer, I hope you enjoy the read. Please help me out by sharing this post around as much as you are able. The more I can get the word out, the better. Thanks! Here’s the full blurb about the book:
Bound (Alex Caine #1)
Alex Caine, a fighter by trade, is drawn into a world he never knew existed — a world he wishes he’d never found.
Alex Caine is a martial artist fighting in illegal cage matches. His powerful secret weapon is an unnatural vision that allows him to see his opponents’ moves before they know their intentions themselves.
An enigmatic Englishman, Patrick Welby, approaches Alex after a fight and reveals, ‘I know your secret.’ Welby shows Alex how to unleash a breathtaking realm of magic and power, drawing him into a mind-bending adventure beyond his control. And control is something Alex values above all else.
A cursed grimoire binds Alex to Uthentia, a chaotic Fey godling, who leads him towards destruction and murder, an urge Alex finds harder and harder to resist. Befriended by Silhouette, a monstrous Kin beauty, Alex sets out to recover the only things that will free him – the shards of the Darak. But that powerful stone also has the potential to unleash a catastrophe which could mean the end of the world as we know it.
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