Ashley Van E

author copies!! more than two weeks earlier than I expected them!! which was a really nice pick-me-up during a week when I've been grumpy and irritable!!

anyway The Lord of the Wood is a queer cozy horror about a lonely clockmaker who meets the hero of his childhood bedtime stories after getting lost in an enchanted forest, only to find a grim man turning slowly into a beast and losing power over a dying forest rather than the mythical figure of his dreams. and also it's about his sister, who goes into the wood to find him with the most annoying woman she's ever met

there's a beast and a sentient bundle of plant life and a slutty butch. there's undiagnosed autism! there's grappling with being newly physically disabled! there's people needing to unlearn the idea that Being Useful is the most important part of being a person! there's drop caps which has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the book design team but I love drop caps so I am very excited about this!!

the book releases on July 21st in paperback, ebook, and audiobook, so here are some preorder links:

paperback

Gathering Volumes (signed preorders)

Books-a-Million

Bookshop

Indigo

ebook

Bookshop

Kobo

audiobook

(it's gonna have dual narrators!)(I'm so excited!)

LibroFM

and ☝️ you can also ask your library to buy it and add it to a TBR!

Pagebound

TheStoryGraph

accelerated aging

anxiety and a constant feeling of dread

disorientation / blurred vision

bones cracking and breaking

bruising around hands and arm

burn marks on palms and finger tips

cognitive decline / memory lapses

debilitating migraines

exhaustion / fatigue

eyes reddening when veins pop

greying hair due to strain / eyes losing vibrancy

joint, muscle and limb pain

losing hair, teeth and finger nails

loss of body heat / constantly freezing

nose bleeds / ear bleeds

numbness / slowed reflexes / brain fog

requiring a lot more nutrition and rest

sensitive eyes and ears / raspy, raw voice

twitches and muscle spasms

clockmaker Arthur Throckmorton lives a quiet life with his sister and her children, only dreaming of adventure. so when a wealthy client offers him a job that involves traversing Shiftleaf—an enchanted forest that claimed his father decades ago—he reluctantly accepts. the forest is treacherous, but the money will change his family's lives.

the journey quickly turns perilous. fleeing monstrous birds, Arthur stumbles upon a hidden vale where he meets the Lord of the Wood—a figure from his father's many stories. instead of the fairy prince Arthur always imagined, Ira is a morose man, slowly transforming into a beast, his power over a dying forest waning.

Arthur enjoys the safety of the vale, and Ira's company. but he yearns for his family. to safely return home and rescue Ira from a cursed and lonely existence, Arthur and Ira must reach the heart of the wood to heal the forest. except the farther they venture from the vale, the more beastly Ira becomes. if they can't complete their mission before he turns completely, Arthur could lose the man he's falling for—and never see his family again.