#lksteven

Ascenfall map by Francesca Baerald 🪄🩸🌙🐉⏳

The pale-stoned Academy was perched on a hill just on the outskirts of Atherin, and the capital’s skyline blurred with heat, smudging together the purple sapphire domes of Augurest temples, the towering crimson-and-gold obelisks honoring the patron saints, the carved marble pantheons with sapphire spires, the gleaming emerald tiles and pale sunbaked walls of the slouching townhouses. A sultry, jewel-toned riot of a city.

In Vallin, pleasure was not just pleasure—pleasure was a force of nature, as vital as water, as integral as air. Pleasure healed, nourished, enlivened. Pleasure was downright constitutional.

Pleasure was magic, and magic was pleasure.

But pain was also magic, and magic was also pain, and therein lay the problem.

The Order of the Silvercloaks had been founded two centuries ago in an attempt to bridle the chaos and debauchery wracking the country. Ever since the founding of Vallin, there had always been a streetwatch, always a trial-by-jury system and always a crude dungeon into which criminals were tossed, but House Veliron were the first rulers to truly explore what magic could do in the prevention and solving of major crime.

Because in a world built on pain and pleasure, there were always going to be those who pushed the very outer limits of it—who exploited the fact that magic could not exist without those twin pillars. Street gangs who peddled narcotics to mages desperate for pleasure, Compellers who manipulated other mages into intimacy and submission, torturers who tried to siphon the potency of their victims’ pain for themselves.

oh you're my PEOPLE ❤️

some of the (many!) easter eggs in the first two Silvercloak Saga books (I haven't written the third yet):

💫 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

💫 Star Wars

💫 The Name of the Wind

💫 Lord of the Rings

💫 Avatar: The Last Airbender

💫 Sid Meier's Civilization V

"The Killorans’ front door changed color depending upon who knocked.

Sky blue for a charming acquaintance, heart red for a lover present, past, or future. Clover green for a spiteful enemy, or a rich, jammy plum for an old friend. Mustard yellow for family and, due to a slight inaccuracy with the spellwork, traveling salesmen.

The day the Bloodmoons paid a visit, the door turned as black as the bottom of a well . . ."

🪄🩸🌙🐉⏳

I knew I wanted a whimsical, Diana Wynne Jones-esque cadence for Silvercloak's prologue. Something that captured the nostalgic wand-and-cloaks magic of the series, while also introducing our main character's deeply emotional stakes, and the arcane criminal organisation terrorising their world.

at a few different points in the process I was encouraged to cut the (short!!) prologue and get straight to the action, but for me, there is no story without it. it's the beating heart of the whole series.

cackling that this is the first question!

okay, so first I want to clear up that I would not describe the series as romantasy—it is plot, character and world driven before it is romance driven. that said, the first book in particular hits some major romance beats, and there's both f/f and m/f on-page sex. the magic in this world is fuelled by pain and pleasure, after all 😈

and a note on my style when writing spice—I get the ick VERY easily, and am quite particular with the language I use. the acts and scenarios depicted are super explicit (Publisher's Weekly described it as "lightly kinky"), but when describing body parts, I tend towards the more poetic/euphemistic.

using this scale as a guide, I'd probably describe it as 3.5 chilli peppers? there are three sex scenes in book one, but as I say, my prose in those scenes is not massively graphic.

jaded detective Saffron Killoran and tortured kingpin's son Levan Celadon duelling on the streets of Atherin, the debauched capital city of Vallin 🪄🩸🌙🐉⏳

is it coincidence that both characters have Pokémon Red references in their names? absolutely not. the Bloodmoons—the arcane criminal organisation in this world—are extremely Team Rocket coded. think campy villainous speeches, corrupt enchanted gamehouses, and a fascination with magical beasts such as fallowwolves (Rasso pictured here by Levan's heel!).

there are SO many Pokémon easter eggs in this series, and I can't wait to see how many readers uncover...

behold, the UK and the US special editions of Silvercloak! both have coloured map endpapers (the dream of all dreams), but we have different covers and different spredges. which do you prefer? 🪄🩸🌙🐉🌶️

official blurb:

An addictive new fantasy series set in a world where magic is fuelled by pleasure and pain, in which an obsessive detective infiltrates a brutal gang of dark mages – knowing that one wrong move will get her killed…

Two decades ago, the Bloodmoons ruthlessly murdered Saffron’s parents, destroying her idyllic childhood. Hellbent on revenge, she lied her way into the elite Silvercloak Academy of detectives with a single goal: find a way to bring the Bloodmoons to justice.

But on the eve of her graduation, her deception is exposed, and she’s given only one option: go undercover and tear the Bloodmoons down from the inside. Descending into a world where pleasure and pain are the most powerful currencies, Saff must commit some truly heinous deeds to keep her cover – and her life. Not only are there rival gangs and sinister smuggling rings to contend with, there’s also her growing feelings for the kingpin’s tortured son, and a curious prophecy foretelling his death at Saff’s hand.

With each day testing her loyalties further, Saff’s web of lies becomes harder to spin. And when one false step could destroy everything and everyone she’s ever loved... the mage who dedicated her life to vengeance might just have to die for it.