YA Epic Fantasy: The General (Heroes of the Empire Book 2) by Israh Azizi

We are thrilled to share the second epic installment in the Heroes of the Empire series, The General by Israh Azizi!

The General (Heroes of the Empire Book 2)
by Israh Azizi
November 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy/ Epic Fantasy
THE EMPIRE IS CRUMBLING, AND THE FATE OF A KINGDOM RESTS IN THEIR HANDS.
Tropes:
Morally Grey Characters, Mistaken Identity, Royal Intrigue, Multiple POV, Chosen One, Slow Burn Romance, Found Family, Warring Kingdoms, Forbidden Love, Hidden Powers, Character Driven

Mordon dedicated his life to his father; his only dream was to prove himself worthy of Verin’s general. But with the ruthless Tariqin attack comes a brutal awakening. Captured by enemy forces and dragged into a war camp full of the people he was trained to kill, his hopes of proving himself worthy are dashed to pieces. When the enemy offers him a chance for a grand future, he’s faced with a test that stretches him beyond his limits.

Coralie’s burden has never been heavier. After the Dark Lord Prolus’s recent assault and her uncle’s declining health, it is up to her to keep her kingdom together. The inevitable return of the Tariqin army lurks at their doorstep and her time is running short. Coralie turns to the newest residents of Verintown for assistance. Branded traitors and hated by many in the castle, they may very well be her downfall. Using their pledge for change in her favor, she tasks them with a mission most would consider a death sentence.

Two determined warriors separated by a river of blood. Mordon must risk everything to become the man he yearns to be, and Coralie must fight to become the queen she was born to be.

GET IT HERE

IG: @heroes_of_the_empire @rrbooktours
Tags:
#rrbooktours #rrbtTheGeneralTour #heroesoftheempire #hote #thecavalier #thegeneral #yafantasy #youngadultbooks #yafantasyseries #booktours

Excerpt: The Staff of Beckoning (A Symphony of Spheres Book One) by Praneet Menon

The Staff of Beckoning (A Symphony of Spheres Book One)
by Praneet Menon
September 18, 2024
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Publisher: Kaaran Publishing
ASIN: B0DDVVN76P
Number of pages: 437
Word Count: 115,000
Adir Nathar’s search for safety ignites a battle against ancient forces, where survival means confronting the shadows of fate—and his own destiny.

In the meticulously-crafted world of Leakarha, where epic fantasy, mythos, and ancient prophecies intertwine, the existence of its inhabitants is shaped by forces beyond their control.

Adir Nathar's tough childhood and prescriptive, quiet life in the village of Marafel made him yearn for more. He got what he wished for, but not in the way he expected. His proximity to an inexplicable death made him the target of revenge, forcing him to flee from his family and home, seeking only safety and a fresh start. But existence had other plans. The Khasmia Shadow, a secret society with a divine purpose, is hunting Adir, unbeknownst to him. Their purpose: rid the world of a destructive creature called a venna, using the sacred Staff of Beckoning. Leakarha itself is undergoing a seismic shift. Rakhor, terrible demonspawn, are being seen in increasing numbers!


As the Khasmia Shadow closes in on him, Adir is thrust into an existence-altering journey across Leakarha with companions new and old. As he is pushed deeper into his own shadows, Adir realizes that he may not merely be a piece to be moved but rather the key to the game itself.

Amazon-Books2Read

 

Excerpt:
"Where are you going?” Tia’s eyes were wide with anxiety.

“Out.”

“But I don’t know this town at all.”

“Don’t leave the inn then!”

As soon as he stepped out into the night, all of his warmth left him. However, the wheat ales—much stronger than he was used to—had begun to take effect. That, combined with the fact that his last meal had been hours before, made the cold a distant sensation. Strapping his staff to his back, he picked a direction and wandered off—his mind getting mushier and more vulnerable to his increasingly foul mood.

Tia had always been a very supportive girl. What had changed? Or had she always been like this and her support was just an act? Did she really think that he would abandon her? I would never do such a thing, he thought indignantly. He wasn’t his father. Sure, yea, he could be a little flirtatious, he admitted. But that was harmless. Why couldn’t Tia see that? After all, he’d asked her to run away with him. Didn’t that imply he wanted to start a life with her? Didn’t that mean anything to her? His mind was plagued with too many questions and not enough answers.

Abruptly, he found himself in a dark, dimly lit alley, with buildings rising up around him.

Everything seemed ... slightly off. Hesitantly, he walked down the alley and made a few turns. A few moments of wandering later, he admitted that he was lost and decided to retrace his steps, but it all looked unfamiliar. With no other option he kept walking, hoping to find his way back, when he came upon three men in a dark corner.

“Give it up, you unworthy bastard!” said one of the men, who had a lilting accent. He was clutching another man’s collar in one hand while wielding a knife in the other. A third man stood and watched.

“I did not steal it! He gave it to me!” cried the captive man.

“Do not lie, you swinespawn!”

“I swear by the names of the Miakos. He gave it to me!”

The third man still just stood and watched.

Adir wasn’t sure what came over him. Maybe it was his anger and he just needed to let it out. Or maybe he understood how the captive man felt; after all, he had been ambushed a couple of times himself. Whatever the reasoning of his drink-addled mind, he unstrapped his staff and charged.

The man who’d been watching noticed Adir and whirled around, pulling out a knife of his own. However, knives were a poor defense against the long reach of a staff. Adir whipped his staff sideways, cracking the man in the skull, who dropped to the ground, motionless.

The man who held the captive by his collar was startled by the sudden attack and shoved his captive to the ground. The captive lay on his stomach, face cupped in his hands as if trying to shut out his current plight.

Adir felt a surge of energy course through him as he pulled his staff back, preparing for a thrust.

He lunged, briefly catching a look of horror on the man’s face, and thrust his staff square into the man’s chest. The impact sent the man flying a few paces before he slammed into a wall and slumped to the ground.

For a moment that lasted one flap of a bee’s wing, Adir saw a rain- bow-colored haze on his hand, creeping up his arm. Fearfully, he jerked his hand to his face for a closer examination, but the haze was no longer there.

The once-captive, now-free man looked up from his prone position and surveyed the scene, then stood. “Thank you, master,” he said, bowing and scraping. “I am forever in your debt.”

The man’s words seemed to tumble out of his mouth in a clatter, or maybe Adir couldn’t understand him on account of being severely drunk. “What did you steal from them?” Adir asked, eyeing the man suspiciously, his inebriation fueling his paranoia. Sure, he’d saved the bearded man, but that didn’t mean the man was harmless.

“I did not steal anything, master,” the man said, still pronouncing every word oddly.

Adir looked at him, trying to force his eyes to focus. “All right,” he said, realizing that he’d do nothing even if the man admitted to stealing something. All he really wanted to do was get back to the inn and sleep. “Do you know the way to The Soft Pillow?” he asked, trying and failing miserably to strap his staff onto his back.
“Ya, master,” the man replied with enthusiasm. “I will take you there.”

 

 About the Author:
Website-FB-Instagram

Goodreads

Born and raised in India, Praneet’s life began immersed in a medley of cultural, linguistic, and spiritual traditions that sparked his passion for storytelling. Then, he moved to the United States and has now spent more than half his life there. The two cultural backgrounds have led him to embrace a fusion of Eastern and Western philosophies that deeply influence his writing.

Praneet also spent the better part of two decades working as an engineer and flight instructor, which instilled in him a precision that he brings to his existence-building, pursuing that perfect blend of reality and fantasy. His exploration of philosophy and psychology at an early age allows him to imbue his stories with age-old themes of identity, purpose, and destiny. These themes play a central role in his debut novel, The Staff of Beckoning, Book 1 of the series A Symphony of Spheres.

Praneet lives in Vermont, embracing a homesteading lifestyle, community involvement, and writing while pursuing a master’s in counseling.

 

Halloween/Days of the Dead tour- Author Gail Z. Martin talks Costumes, Candy, and Characters

Costumes, Candy, and Characters
By Gail Z. Martin

I love to see creative costumes at Halloween, especially the off-beat, homemade ones. A boy once came to our door wearing a table (completely with tablecloth) that had a big serving dish on top. When he lifted up the lid, his own head—with plenty of gory makeup so it looked severed—lay on a plate. He definitely got extra chocolate for that!

The most adventurous I ever got was dressing up as a Roaring Twenties flapper when I was in graduate school. At the time, the town had an amazing costume rental store!

That got me thinking about what the characters in my series would wear if they went trick-or-treating or to a costume ball.

For the medieval series (Chronicles of the Necromancer, Fallen Kings Cycle, Ascendant Kings Saga, Assassins of Landria), ‘costumes’ are usually disguises, used to help collect information or avoid being arrested. In peacetime, the characters might have attended a costume ball, but the stories are set during times of upheaval, so elegant events need to wait until order has been restored. The same is true of the characters in our Wasteland Marshals near-future, post-apocalyptic series. For Jake Desmet and his friends from our steampunk series, going to a costume party would probably mean dressing up like historical figures or characters from books.

In the modern-day stories (Deadly Curiosities, Night Vigil, Spells Salt and Steel, and Joe Mack), it’s fun to think about how the characters might approach Halloween and what costumes they might consider.

My Deadly Curiosities crew would have fun with the concept. They use magic and psychic skills to stop the things that go bump in the night, but they wouldn’t hesitate to decorate Trifles and Folly, Cassidy’s antique shop, for the season, or give out candy.

I can definitely imagine Cassidy, Teag and their friends dressing up on Halloween as the cast of Buffy, knowing that most people won’t get the in-joke that Cassidy and her team really do fight monsters.

Sorren, the nearly 600 year-old vampire who is Cassidy’s business partner, wouldn’t pick a Bela Lugosi costume. He’d be more likely to dress like the real European nobility he mingled with hundreds of years ago.

Travis and Brent from the Night Vigil might take the easy costume choice of dressing like the Winchesters from Supernatural, since they also fight demons. Or they could go as characters from The Walking Dead, because they’ve dealt with more than their share of zombies as well. If they felt particularly sarcastic, Travis still has his old suits and clerical collar shirts from when he was a priest, and Brent could do a dark suit and fedora as a private eye.

If Mark Wjocik from the Spells, Salt, and Steel series went to a bar that threw a Halloween bash, he could be a zombie hunter (since he hunts monsters in real life) and pay homage to Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead which were filmed not far from his corner of Pennsylvania.

Joe Mack, who is immortal after being brought back from the dead by a Slavic god in the late 1800s, could pick from any of the eras of his long life. I think he might favor dressing up like Eliot Ness from the 1920s.

One thing I’m sure of—they all like Halloween candy and would never turn down chocolate! 

Deadly Curiosities (6 books)

 

Night Vigil (2 books)

Jake Desmet Adventure (2 books)

Joe Mack Chronicles (4 books)

Spells, Salt and Steel (2 books)

Chronicles of the Necromancer (4 books)

The Darkhurst (3 books)

Assassins of Landria (6 books)

 

Wasteland Marshals (1 book)

 

 The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (4 books)

The Fallen Kings Cycle (2 book)

About the Author
Website-Square store
Follow me on Facebook in the Shadow Alliance reader group (www.Facebook.com/Groups/MartinShadowAlliance), X/Twitter, @MorganBriceAuthor on Instagram and @MorganBriceAuthor on TikTok!Gail Z. Martin writes urban fantasy, epic fantasy, steampunk and more for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, Falstaff Books, SOL Publishing and Darkwind Press. Urban fantasy series include Deadly Curiosities and the Night Vigil (Sons of Darkness). Epic fantasy series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles Of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, and the Assassins of Landria.

Together with Larry N. Martin, she is the co-author of Iron & Blood, Storm & Fury (both Steampunk/alternate history), the Spells Salt and Steel comedic horror series, the Roaring Twenties monster hunter Joe Mack Shadow Council series, and the Wasteland Marshals near-future post-apocalyptic series. As Morgan Brice, she writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance, with the Witchbane, Badlands, Treasure Trail, Kings of the Mountain and Fox Hollow series. Gail is also a con-runner for ConTinual, the online, ongoing multi-genre convention that never ends.

Heroika: Dragon Eaters (Heroika Volume 1) Edited by Janet Morris + giveaway

The art of dragon killing.
Seventeen writers bring you so close to dragons you can smell their fetid breath.

 

Heroika: Dragon Eaters (Heroika Volume 1)
Edited by Janet Morris
Genre: Epic Historical Fantasy Adventure Anthology
The art of dragon killing:

Dragons have been eating humans for centuries. Now heroes throughout history stalk their legendary foe. Learn how to hunt, kill, and eat the wild dragon. Never before has revenge tasted so good. A literary feast for the bloody-minded.

In Janet Morris' anthology on the art of dragon killing, seventeen writers bring you so close to dragons you can smell their fetid breath. Tales for the bold among you.

HEROIKA 1 -- DRAGON EATERS, an anthology of heroic fiction edited by Janet Morris, features original stories by

Janet Morris and Chris Morris, The First Dragon Eater

S.E. Lindberg, Legacy of the Great Dragon

Janet Morris and Chris Morris, Bring Your Rage

Walter Rhein, Aquila of Oyos

Cas Peace, The Wyght Wyrm

Jack William Finley, The Old Man on a Mountain

A.L. Butcher, Of Blood and Scales

Travis Ludvigson, Night Stalkers

Tom Barczak, Forged

JP Wilder, Rhyme of the Dragon Queen

Joe Bonadonna, The Dragon’s Horde

Milton Davis, Wawindaji Joka (The Dragon Hunters)

M Harold Page, Sky Tomb of the Earth Kings

William Hiles, Red Rain

Beth W. Patterson, La Bétaille

Bruce Durham, Arctic Rage

Mark Finn, Sic Semper Draconis

**Heroika: Dragon Eaters is Perseid Press' featured book this month! On sale for Only $2.99 on Kindle!!**

Amazon-Apple-B&N-Kobo-Bookbub-Goodreads

About the Authors
Bookbub-Amazon-Goodreads
Best selling author Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 30 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.

Bookbub-Amazon-Goodreads
Christopher Crosby Morris (born 1946) is an American author of fiction and non-fiction, as well as a lyricist, musical composer, and singer-songwriter. He is married to author Janet Morris. He is a defense policy and strategy analyst and a principal in M2 Technologies, Inc. He writes primarily as Chris Morris, but occasionally uses pseudonyms.

Website-Facebook-Twitter-Instagram

Giveaway
choice of print or ebook copy of Heroika: Dragon Eaters, $10 Amazon giftcard – 1 winner each!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fantasy Author Gail Z. Martin: It’s a Wrap—Writing the Final Book in a Series

It’s a Wrap—Writing the Final Book in a Series

By Gail Z. Martin

As a reader, I love series. When I find characters and a world that I really love, I want to pitch a tent, move in, and stay for a long time. I’ve always loved immersive fictional worlds and characters with sufficient depth that you learn new things about them and see new angles as you get to know them better.

So it made sense that as an author, I wanted to create those detailed worlds and characters so I could share that kind of experience with readers. I knew that, as a reader, finishing a series left me with ‘book drop’, a sense of loss and emptiness, missing and even grieving fictional characters. I hadn’t realized that the same would be true, even more so, as an author.

I’ve wrapped up two fantasy series recently, Darkhurst and Assassins of Landria. On one level, they couldn’t be more different. Darkhurst is dark and gritty. Assassins of Landria is epic fantasy bromance, Butch and Sundance as medieval assassins. I loved writing both series, and the characters will always live in my mind.

The Darkhurst trilogy is the story of the Valmonde brothers, undertakers who become tangled up in much bigger issues when monsters start killing their family and friends. Once they begin fighting the monsters, they realize that the stakes are higher, the lies bigger, and the reality much darker than they ever imagined. While Darkhurst is a bit darker than my other series, there is always hope and the bonds of family and friendship are strong enough to overcome all obstacles. Although I don’t have plans at the moment for anything else in this universe, I never say never!

The Assassins of Landria is different from my other epic fantasy series in that the books are shorter (about 250 pages), fewer point-of-view characters (two instead of four or five) and a little more humorous. I have had so many people come up to my table at conventions and heft one of my doorstopper books in hand and tell me that they used to love to read epic fantasy but no longer have the time.

So I wrote Assassins to be a little shorter and funnier than my regular epics, but with all the feels and worldbuilding of the longer books. It’s buddy-flick epic fantasy. Orphan best friends Ridge and Rett rise through the ranks of the army to become the most feared assassins in the land, tasked with protecting the king. But when a wandering mystic foments treason among the aristocrats, Ridge and Rett go rogue to save the kingdom—and find themselves on the most-wanted list!

Over their six-book series, Ridge and Rett stop the bad guys, protect Landria, and redeem their reputation, with a lot of humor and swashbuckling adventure along the way. There will be four more series-adjacent books set in the same world as prequels that tell the stories of two important pairs of allies. The books will be released under my Morgan Brice pen name.

I love my characters even as I put them through all sorts of anguish on their path to triumph. Now that these series are finished, I have plenty more tales to tell and worlds to build that I hope you’ll enjoy!

Be sure to watch for my new books coming soon in the Deadly Curiosities and Night Vigil worlds, as well as the Joe Mack Chronicles, Wasteland Marshals, and Spells, Salt and Steel series that I co-write with Larry N. Martin!

And please check out the newly updated Chronicles of the Necromancer books (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven, Dark Lady’s Chosen) now in trade paperback and hard cover (for the first time!) as well as ebook and audiobook. Two different limited-edition seventeenth anniversary editions with new cover art are available only on our Square store.

The Darkhurst Series

Amazon

Assassins of Landria Series

Amazon

Website-Square store
Follow me on Facebook in the Shadow Alliance reader group (www.Facebook.com/Groups/MartinShadowAlliance),  X/Twitter, @MorganBriceAuthor on Instagram and @MorganBriceAuthor on TikTok!

Gail Z. Martin writes urban fantasy, epic fantasy, steampunk and more for Solaris Books, Orbit Books, Falstaff Books, SOL Publishing and Darkwind Press. Urban fantasy series include Deadly Curiosities and the Night Vigil (Sons of Darkness). Epic fantasy series include Darkhurst, the Chronicles Of The Necromancer, the Fallen Kings Cycle, the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, and the Assassins of Landria.

Together with Larry N. Martin, she is the co-author of Iron & Blood, Storm & Fury (both Steampunk/alternate history), the Spells Salt and Steel comedic horror series, the Roaring Twenties monster hunter Joe Mack Shadow Council series, and the Wasteland Marshals near-future post-apocalyptic series. As Morgan Brice, she writes urban fantasy MM paranormal romance, with the Witchbane, Badlands, Treasure Trail, Kings of the Mountain and Fox Hollow series. Gail is also a con-runner for ConTinual, the online, ongoing multi-genre convention that never ends.