#winter's blight

The Stolen Vow is live!

Deirdre and Iain are trapped in the Winter Court after the young faery was lured there by the Winter King. He assigns an unwilling Raisa, the Winter Queen, to train Deirdre to control her wild, unstable magic, a task that is fraught with peril for both women. Iain is isolated, encased by protective magic – but it may not be enough to keep him safe from all the dangers and schemes of the Unseelies. As the Unseelies embark on their Wild Hunt and pave the way for an invasion, the Iron Guard moves to recall their people from the area of the Summer Court, led by Edgar Windsor, the heir to the throne and Alvey’s uncle. He and his men are on a collision course with both the Seelies and their captive, General Alan Callaghan, who is guilty of high treason. With his fate uncertain, Alan dreams of reconciliation and forgiveness from his family. But he must first grapple with his crimes against the Seelie faeries and the human army. 

You know what I like about Deirdre (the girl)? Her finely tuned sense of tact.

Deirdre is a faery raised in a human orphanage (with no clue of her faery nature), and James is a half-Romani city boy (and human) who is a huge nerd fascinated by studying faeries. His father is an extreme anti-faery general, who would like to kill all the faeries in Neo-London (and in England), but James doesn’t let that stop him.

Though it does become a problem when the two decide to leave the city, searching for James’s disappeared Romani mother, and, at that time, Deirdre’s long-dormant magic is activated and starts shooting off, breaking things and wrecking cars.

Not really subtle, is it? But neither is she, as shown above, so I suppose it suits her.

These two kids are from my YA urban fantasy/dystopian book The Changeling’s Fortune, and while the book isn’t technically a comedy, it’s still got a lot of character-driven humor. So I wanted to share this comic and the book with ya’ll, just in case you enjoy my sense of humor/books about faeries/books about magic-obsessed nerds/or even just books with ginger and/or Romani characters.

Deirdre’s sense of tact and subtly is really exemplary.

Drew this to celebrate the release of my YA urban fantasy/dystopian book The Changeling’s Fortune today! This is a scene that would have been included if the book was a bit more of a comedy (though it still has plenty of character-driven humor throughout). My co-author (wisely) stopped me from making the book too silly.

Check out the first three chapters of the book HERE.

Only six days remain until the release of The Stolen Vow, the 6th book in the Winter’s Blight YA fantasy series!

Shuddering, Deirdre followed the king down a winding, narrow corridor. [...] Eventually... the ceiling above arched high and was hidden by fog. It was exactly like being underneath a winter sky of grey clouds pregnant with freezing rain. But the cold breeze that slithered through the area was not fresh. It was stale air that had been trapped underground for too long and pined for the sky and the wild wind.

“There are many rooms in the Winter Court, but none shall take you out of it.”

“Are you prepared to pay the price for power?”

After standing trial in the Summer Court, James is sent on a quest to kill the Cait Sidhe, the monstrous faery cat who manipulated him into betraying the Seelie faeries and destroying the magical barrier that protected them. When the time comes to kill the beast, James decides to trick him into helping undo his mistake. But the man beneath the beast, Cecil Morris, is just as dangerous, and his manor, Heatherfield, is full of wild and deadly magic. In trying to reach Cecil, James risks being pulled into the darkness with him.

The Thrall’s Gambit, the fifth book in the Winter’s Blight Urban Fantasy series, is released -- just in time for Halloween! It’s got witches, ghosts, dark magic, (giant) black cats, faeries, and more!