Song of the Beast - Resung!

It's almost here! The new trade paperback edition of Song of the Beast will be released in October 2011 with a broody new cover and a new Introduction by the author.


Song was not my first book published, as my editor wanted to release the Rai-kirah series before releasing the standalone. So, although it was my fourth book out, its writing predated Transformation.

After several years of writing, this was the book that told me "maybe someone out there might want to read this." For the first time in my (then) brief writing journey, I felt like I got it.




Some people say they see similarities between the two books. Possible, as the ideas for Transformation were germinating as I wrote Song. But they are two very different stories and two very different heroes.

As for the follow-on Song of the Beast novella? More will be forthcoming over the next few months, once I get The Daemon Prism wrapped up.
Read more of this post!

Writing Evil

Blogging on my agent's livejournal today. The topic is Writing Evil.

I talk about how I try to avoid the Snidely Whiplash or anonymous Dark Lord kind of villains and aim to introduce ambiguity, choice, and realism into my work. Read more of this post!

Peeking out from under

Spring of 2011 has vanished. No magic in my books could have done it so effectively. I have been immersed in The Daemon Prism, the third and last novel of the Collegia Magica, emerging every once in a while to attend a conference or convention. When at the computer, I've been working on the book. Two weeks ago now, I sent a first, very rough version to my editor. Whee! The freedom of having the story on the page is huge. Now I can start revising and make it a real story. But for a few days I've had to play catch-up: family, house,yard, plus one of teh most fun conventions I've ever done - MisCon, a regional sf/fantasy convention in beautiful Missoula, Montana. This is no podunk con - I blazed a trail for one George R.R. Something-other who will be the Writer Guest of Honor next year. (More about MisCon in another post.)

Now I've had a little vacation, it's time to get back to revising The Daemon Prism, as well as catching up on the blog, updating the website, and other tasks that feel by the wayside. Here is a teaser for what I've been working on. (Warning: possible spoiler if you've not read The Soul Mirror.)





Thou’rt Fallen, Dante. Born in frost-cold blood; suckled on pain. Thy repentance was ever a lie…

Dante the necromancer is the most reviled man in Sabria, indicted by the King, the Temple, and the Camarilla Magica for crimes against the living and the dead. Yet no judgment could be worse than his enemies’ cruel vengeance that left him crippled in body and mind. Dante seeks to salve pain and bitterness with a magical puzzle - a desperate soldier’s dream of an imprisoned enchantress and a faceted glass that can fill one’s uttermost desires.

But the dream is a seductive trap that can drive a man to murder. Its tendrils have ensnared Dante's own past and his one-time partners, threatening to unleash the very cataclysm he fears. Aided by the unlikeliest of allies, the mage embarks on a journey into madness, slavery, ancient magic, and sacred legends, only to discover the appalling truth of his own role in divine mystery…




Read more of this post!