The Bone Collar: Cover Reveal

And... BOOM. Behold the cover to Book 2 of "The Battle for Majadan," straight from Olivia Pro Design. Of all the books I've written so far, this one is my favorite and I can't wait to unleash it. Here's an abbreviated version of the blurb, trimming out any spoilers from The Blood Prayer:

Moth Blackwater is the last of her kind. 

Now that the Wight Lords have murdered her family, Moth is on the run half a world away in an ancient archipelago of sea-faring elves.

The Empress Tatiana, once a prisoner of the Wights, has ruled her island empire for two thousand years, but never has she turned her strength against the Wight Lords' evil.

In the midst of a desperate gamble to survive, Moth stumbles on the secret at the heart of Tatiana's reign and joins a conspiracy to dethrone the Empress herself. 

But when all sides turn against her, when every friend becomes a foe, when the threat of destruction hangs over all she holds dear, can one lonely beggar girl stand against an Immortal?

No matter the odds, Moth will have to try.

The Bone Collar goes on presale June 1, to be published July 15. 

Fantasy Maps, Freebies, and News, News, News

Man, do I love maps in fantasy novels. I love them so much that it’s often a deciding factor on what I read. If I open a book that I might be interested in, and there’s a gorgeous map of some other world inside... Yeah, that goes on my to-read list. Feel free to blame Tolkien; he started it all.

Of course, that means that once I’d scheduled my own fantasy series for publication, I just had to have maps for the books. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself otherwise! However, there’s a reason that I’m a writer instead of a visual artist. Give me a sheet of graph paper and I can produce a map good enough for an evening’s gaming session, but nothing that’s ready for prime time.

Thankfully, my brother Joel Millet shares none of these deficiencies. He took my crude sketches and turned them into the art you see here, that will also be appearing in my soon-to-be-released novel, The Blood Prayer. The map above is that of the world in which my series takes place, while the map below is of the city where all of Book 1’s action occurs.

Speaking of which:

The Blood Prayer is now available for pre-order!

“In a single night, the greatest city in the world is crushed beneath the heel of an angry, vengeful god. Amid the chaos and destruction, a young man fleeing from his past becomes a guide for a desperate band of survivors. When confronted by an enemy that cannot be defeated, they will each be forced to choose between their honor and their lives. The battle for the city of Majadan has begun.”

The Blood Prayer will be available in ebook and paperback on June 1, 2021, but you can go ahead and reserve your ebook copy for the low, low price of 99¢ from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords.

Or... OR... and hear me out... You can sign up for my newsletter and get the book ten days early for FREE.

Fill out the form below and you’ll be sent a link to download my science fiction double feature The Orbit of Mercury: Two Stories for free. Then, on May 20, (barring an unforeseen EMP in low-earth orbit melting all of my digital backups) you’ll get another email with a link to download The Blood Prayer. For free.

If you’re a fan of epic fantasy, if you’re in the mood for some fast-paced adventure, and if you don’t mind having a few cherished tropes of the genre subverted clubbed in the head with a mallet, then I bet you’ll enjoy my next novel.

Here endeth the sales pitch. See you soon!

The Blood Prayer: Cover Reveal

Dear Readers, I can't tell you how excited I am. My next book has a cover and it's awesome!

The artwork was created by Oliva Pro Design, who does book covers and logos on Fiverr. I highly recommend her work. She also created the cover art for The Unwinding House and The Whisper, as well as the art for my friend Theresa Howard's The Reluctant Empress.

The Blood Prayer isn't up for preorder quite yet (I'll let you know when), but for all you Goodreads users out there, please click on through and hit that "Want to Read" button!

The Blood Prayer drops on ebook and in print on or about June 1. Here's the blurb:

The end of the world starts with a celebration.

Led by the greatest heroes of the age, Majadan’s army has driven back the hordes of the Madlands – or so the city’s protectors believe. In welcoming their soldiers home, they allow a foe inside the city gates more powerful than any they could imagine, an evil dark enough to end history itself, greeted with cheers and open arms.

Aust is a young man fleeing from his past, hiding in plain sight as a minstrel for a mercenary guild. His knowledge of Majadan’s secret ways has saved his life before, but this time he isn’t on his own. When the powers of Hell are set loose in the streets, Aust becomes a guide for a desperate band of survivors:

Eris, a warrior fighting to prove her worth; Vandal, a soldier without a cause or country; Jago, a man-wolf caught in a fight not his own; Moth, a nomad girl who is not entirely human; and Jenin, an elemental priestess from the Wild, haunted by sorrow and searching for a reason to die.

When confronted by an enemy that cannot be defeated, they will each be forced to choose between their honor and their lives. The world they know has drowned in blood and fire. The battle for the city of Majadan has begun.

The Whisper is FREE during "Read an Ebook Week"

From March 7 - 13, 2021, you can download my sci-fi noir adventure The Whisper for the low, low price of absolutely free at Smashwords.com. While you're at it, help yourself to many other great books by indie authors, all on deep discount sale. Not to toot my horn too much, but my short story collection The Unwinding House is currently available at half price!

Links galore below:

The Whisper - A phantom vigilante stalks the streets of the nation's capital while reporter Allan "Smithee" Jones chases the scoop of his life: an assassination plot by a sinister cabal using weapons and technology from the future.

The Unwinding House and Other Stories - Science fiction, horror, fantasy, and steampunk: Step into my House and let these tales Unwind!

Read an Ebook Week! Discover over 50,000 deep-discounted ebooks from thousands of authors and publishers before these incredible deals disappear.

Visit the sale now.