In Gadlin, Crislie’d had a crush or two, but they were always fleeting and unreciprocated. Girls who ended up bad-mouthing her family behind her back. Boys who didn’t want to be associated with her unruliness. There was too much of the world left unexplored for her to fuss over romance, anyway.

Thought I’d join in on the “crappy powerpoint” meme and give you guys an actual introduction to Shadow Herald! It’s a delightful story, and I’m happy it’s so close to being published.

I'm supposed to be working on Frostbitten Prophet right now, but I had a flash of inspiration for the third book in the series instead, Ember Warrior. Have a bit of Mep accidentally meeting a goddess!

In the middle of the fountain was a statue of a woman, hewn out of celestial quartz. The quartz shimmered in blues, purples, and blacks. Glints of light danced off of it, like tiny stars. While the statue’s carved head was bald, there was a little hole in the top of her skull, and water flowed from it like hair.

The architecture was beautiful but alien to Meparik. He’d never seen anything like it.

Suddenly, the statue moved. She cocked her head at him, water falling over her face. Her eyebrows and mouth furrowed in calm confusion. When he looked into her eyes, Meparik tasted petrichor and cold water, saw stars when he blinked, and felt an otherworldly comfort envelop him. He felt a strange urge to weep. As if he’d lost a close relative, and needed someone to confide in.

A voice issued from the statue, flowing like water. “Why do you pray to me, child?”

Alluari was talking to him.

Crislie meets a god too, but it goes, uhhhh, a little more poorly than this, which is pretty par for the course for her.

“No they’re not!” Crislie insisted, squishing the direwolf’s terrifying jowls between her hands. Daughi’s tongue lolled out of her mouth. “Does this face look scary to you? Nuh-uh! Daughi’s as sweet as raspberry pie — come down from that tree and give her a pat.”

“Look at her teeth! She could eat me and a raspberry pie all in one bite!”

I got a little writer’s blocked yesterday and today, so I decided to sort through the “scraps” section at the end of Frostbitten Prophet’s manuscript. Finding lots of cute little gems like this.

Navaeli learns that she needs to play rough sometimes, that she has a right to self defense. Crislie learns that jumping thoughtlessly into action — into violence — can seriously put herself and her friends at risk. Meparik learns that subterfuge can only take him so far because some people genuinely want to help and actually talking about your problems is the first step towards addressing them.

Crislie kissed her gently. “The Shadow Herald is struggling with the demands of her role, is she?”