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Geographical Quirks
The Strains of Malice follows a 15-year-old girl baker’s daughter in Ghantiss, who is pursued by authorities after rescuing an ill-fated dog from a bloodsport ring. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
Emilya (the baker’s daughter) is just one of many character threads, which cover royalty, miners, druids, astronomers, gladiators, naval captains – and a baker’s daughter! I wanted to start the story with Emilya so that it begins grounded in ordinary folk – but who soon have the misfortune to cross paths with the entitled elite.
As for the idea for the novel, I sat down in December 2019 and designed my world first. Next came an outline of what was originally intended to be a five-book series, with a catastrophic event right at the end. Alongside this, I began creating the characters, and that was when Emilya and her pathway through the book was established. I even created timelines for my main ten POV characters, all mapped together a bit like a Gantt chart!
I then started designing the secrets of the world of Thera – and which will be revealed in a book called Decoding the Hidden World of Thera, which I plan to release at around the same time that Books Three and Four in The Nessemiah series are released. Only two other people know about these secrets, and they are bursting with impatience for the cat to be let out of the bag!
Finally, just to clarify, The Nessemiah is now a four-book series that only covers what was originally intended to occur in Books One and Two of the five-book series I planned back in 2019! The final three volumes of that story will now form the sequel series to The Nessemiah!
As the opening book of a series, what did you most want readers to understand about this world in the first installment?
It was important that the world of Thera itself should be slowly revealed in Book One, along with the pending catastrophe that ultimately ends the series. Thera is a world of some ancient mystery and interesting geographical quirks that I loved creating and slowly begin to reveal in Book One. Indeed, one reviewer who was being very generous about the depth of my human characters declared that Thera itself is almost a character in its own right. That said, there is nothing fantastical about Thera. There are no dragons, elves, magical powers or thousand-year-old prophecies waiting to be revealed/fulfilled. It is a hard, gritty world, for which the publisher uses the strapline, “Poldark meets Gladiator…on another world.” That is very apt.
The strapline refers to the temperate polar islands which resemble British regency times, and the brutal Theran Empire further south, which is a throwback to Ancient Rome. These are two cultures which are destined to collide, but which are currently kept apart by one of my favourite geographical quirks!
It is also worth adding that many reviewers have picked up on the depth and quality of my world-building, given the book is front-loaded with detailed maps, layouts of monasteries, explanations of geographical features, temperature charts, the daily and monthly cycles, and even Thera’s solar system. This is all important information that is going to come significantly into play as the four-book story unfolds.
Where did you get the inspiration for Prince Magnus’s traits and dialogue?
Every book needs at least one villain. Mine has several – hence The Strains of Malice. But Magnus does seem to be everyone’s favourite. I guess he must be a little bit of every nasty villain I’ve ever read about myself, from several thousand novels. Of course, his traits and dialogue have been dictated by his privileged upbringing: entitled, never been disciplined, and can do whatsoever he pleases with whomsoever he pleases. And, of course, he does!
I can tell you that he was an absolute joy to write! I suppose if I were to be pushed on an inspiration, it would have to be A Song of Ice and Fire. There have been review comparisons to Prince Joffrey, but as one wise reviewer pointed out recently, Joffrey was still boy, albeit an incredibly cruel one; Prince Magnus is very much a man – and far darker than Joffrey. Maybe there’s a bit of Cersei in him as well, if that makes sense? But not Jaime Lannister; there is absolutely no good in my Prince Magnus!
As for the dialogue, I guess he is very British. But again, he isn’t cliché’d. As one reviewer recently said, “He does not monologue. He does not twirl his cape. He is simply a man who has never once in his life been told that his desires have consequences.”
I suppose that if there is one character from literature for whom there is perhaps a fair likeness to Prince Magnus, it would be a certain character from my childhood called Count Grendel of Gracht – and you would have to go all the way back to 1978 to find out who he is! I hated him, back in the day, and I think he must have hidden in my subconscious for over forty years before covertly embedding himself into The Strains of Malice!
Can you give readers a glimpse inside Book 2 of The Nessemiah?
Book Two of The Nessemiah, Cold Sanctuary, is essentially a continuation of the various plights of all of the POV characters introduced in Book One, but with the threat of Nessemi becoming ever-more real as their storylines progress and The Event draws nearer. I also significantly ramp up events in the supercontinent of Epanaga, with brutal gladiatorial fighting pits taking centre stage alongside Emperor Calidius’ Expurgatio – a cruel and callous purge of various demographics of Theran society in preparation for the arrival of Nessemi.
Pretty much every reviewer has stated that Cold Sanctuary is better, deeper and darker than The Strains of Malice, and reviews so far have been out of this world – with most reviewers desperate for Books Three and Four. Happily, they will both be released shortly.
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Is anywhere on Thera safe from Nessemi? Or the hell that lies beyond?
“I’m afraid there are good and bad everywhere, Emilya. It’s a fact of life that wherever you look, there are strains of malice.”
Fifteen-year-old baker’s daughter, Emilya Luca, is in serious trouble with the Glennadian Crown. Her crime: to prevent a small dog from being torn apart by hounds belonging to the callous Prince Magnus. Having been rescued by former naval captain, Jake Oscom, the unlikely pair become fugitives, hunted across Glennad – initially for cruel sport but latterly after Oscom is framed for a heinous crime committed by Magnus himself.
Elsewhere, in a world with unusual geographical quirks and subtle energy lines, hardships endure for a close-knit community of miners and unimaginable foul play befalls a Glennadian princess – but these trials pale into insignificance compared to what northern astronomers have just discovered. Four hundred leagues south, in the ancient city of Thera, the cruel eyes of Calidius Antoninus Dominius have seen the same thing – but to him it merely expedites his imperial ambitions and presents a justified opportunity to brutally murder thousands of his subjects.
Honor, Regret, and Loyalty
Dark Wolf’s Howl centers around a young woman holding an ancient secret who finds herself on the run after helping with a theft that goes terribly wrong. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
The idea for the novel was that I wanted to take the traditional epic quest and spin it a little differently. I love the tabletop role playing game Shadowrun, and some of the themes and ideas come from the adventures I had with a group I ran with years ago.
Many characters wrestle with honor, regret, and loyalty. Why were those themes so central to this story?
I wanted to write a story that didn’t necessarily follow the epic quest trope, where a group is out to save the world. While they are out to save the world, I wanted the book to center more on their personal journeys. Honor, regret, and loyalty are all things I feel like people can relate to, whether it is dealing with a bad decision or struggling with a friend or family member who made such a decision and now needs help.
Dark Wolf’s Howl mixes adventure with political intrigue and class tension. How did you balance those elements while keeping the story focused on the characters?
Varya is supposed to be a fantasy version of our own world, where things are more complex than just right or wrong. Sometimes, in our world, you aren’t sure who the bad guys are, and I wanted my story to have a similar feel. You might start with one assumption and then change how you feel as you learn more information, letting the reader journey with the characters, their own thoughts and feelings on Varya changing as the character’s views change.
Can you give us a peek inside the second installment of the Varya series? Where will it take readers?
Diadrilath Selda, book two in the Varya series, the war is over, and our heroes struggle to reclaim their lives. So much has happened that they can’t just go back to doing what they were doing before, and in the midst of their personal struggles, there is a new mystery. Something else is happening, and they have to navigate the new threat while also still dealing with the aftermath of the events of the first book. The readers get to see more of the history of Varya, as well as dive deeper into the characters.
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When a reckless heist goes terribly wrong, a young woman finds herself branded a traitor by her own government, hunted not for her crime, but for the ancient secret she’s stumbled into. A secret powerful enough to shatter the kingdom’s foundations.
Now, as a long-exiled enemy rises to unleash vengeance and civilization teeters on the brink of annihilation, she must join forces with a mysterious rogue agent and a thrill-seeking adventurer. Together, they’ll face conspiracies, betrayals, and the weight of history itself.
But can one unlikely heroine find the courage to undo her mistake before it unleashes the end of the world?
Called “an ambitious and heartfelt modern fantasy” by Independent Book Review, Dark Wolf’s Howl blends modern society with familiar fantasy themes in an action packed adventure story.
A Stargazer
A Stargazer, by Tuula Pere, follows Aylin, a child laid low by a fierce fever, who becomes convinced she’s been visited and healed by Vesper, a star boy carrying real stardust. What begins as a strange nighttime encounter turns into something quieter and more grounded: a story about being disbelieved, teased, and gently pushed toward “pure science,” even as wonder keeps burning inside her. Aylin reads space books, saves up for a telescope, studies the night sky with her father, and finally finds, in the observatory’s elderly janitor, the first adult who meets her imagination with recognition instead of correction. It’s a small book, but it carries a tender argument about how a child’s inner life can survive skepticism without hardening into bitterness.
What I liked most is the book’s emotional logic. It understands that ridicule doesn’t always arrive as cruelty. Sometimes it comes as a smile from a teacher, a worried glance from a parent, a brisk appeal to common sense. That felt true to me. Aylin’s hurt at being waved off, especially when she tries to speak about Vesper at school and gets turned into a joke, gives the story its real ache. I was especially moved by the recurring image of stardust lingering on the windowsill, on her blanket, later even shimmering on her cheeks. Those touches keep the mystery alive without insisting on one interpretation, and that restraint gives the book more depth than a simpler fantasy would have had.
I also found the book interesting in the way it holds imagination and inquiry together rather than setting them at war. Aylin doesn’t become interested in space instead of believing in wonder. She becomes interested in space because of wonder. I loved that she goes to the library, learns constellations, saves for a telescope over months, and arrives at the observatory with actual written questions, only to be shut down when she asks the one question that matters most to her. I think the writing is strongest when it is simple and luminous. It leaves room for the wonderful full-page illustrations and for the book’s central idea, which is lovely and unexpectedly mature: some people are starry-eyed not because they reject reality, but because they notice more of it.
A Stargazer offers young readers a defense of curiosity, solitude, and the fragile dignity of a child who knows what she saw, whether or not anyone else believes her. I’d recommend it for reflective children, for adults reading with sensitive or imaginative kids, and for anyone who’s ever felt both thrilled and lonely in the face of mystery. This is the kind of picture book that leaves you glowing.
Pages: 42 | ISBN : 978-9528202325
Lycan Lineage
Lycan Lineage, by Dorianne Ashe, begins as a high-school love story and then sheds its skin fast: June, a cautious senior counting down to graduation, is attacked in a park by a police officer who turns out to be a werewolf, only to learn that she herself belongs to an ancient lycan bloodline. From there, the book widens from local panic to hidden councils, hunter ancestry, supernatural politics, and a deeper reckoning with lineage, desire, and power. It starts with lockers, gossip, and band rehearsal, then opens into a paranormal world with old hierarchies and older wounds.
I enjoyed this book most when it trusted its feral pulse. The early attack sequence has real momentum, and June’s voice carries a jittery, intimate urgency that makes the danger feel close to the skin rather than merely cinematic. I also liked the way the novel lets adolescence and monstrosity overlap instead of treating them as separate tracks: hunger, embarrassment, attraction, secrecy, self-invention, all of it gets folded into the werewolf mythology. That overlap gives the book its best voltage. Even when the prose leans melodramatic, it often does so with conviction, and conviction counts for a great deal in a paranormal romance. There is something unabashedly moon-drunk about the whole enterprise, and I mean that as praise.
Ashe’s writing is strongest in propulsion and mood. At times, the dialogue states emotion rather than letting it smolder, and some turns in the mythology arrive in a rush, taking June from shock to destiny quickly. But even there, I found myself pulled along by the author’s willingness to go full tilt: secret councils, bloodlines, hunters, Egypt, betrayal, desire, war. The novel does not nibble; it lunges. And while I wanted a bit more polish in places, I never had the bored, beige feeling that plagues so much genre fiction. This book wants to entertain you.
I’d hand Lycan Lineage to readers who like paranormal romance, urban fantasy, werewolf fiction, supernatural coming-of-age, and romantic fantasy with a strong first-person heroine and a taste for danger. Fans of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight will recognize the charged human-monster attraction, though this novel is wilder, pulpier, and less interested in chasteness than in appetite. Lycan Lineage is messy in the way a storm is messy, loud, darkly glittering, and hard to look away from.
Pages: 307 | ASIN : B0GNCD1Q6Z
Escala’s Wish
David James’s Escala’s Wish is an epic fantasy told as a tavern performance: a gnome bard, Wigfrith Foreverbloom, promises his crowd a true story about a pixie princess whose impulsive kiss ripples outward until it nearly unthreads two realms. Escala Winter slips through a fey crossing, charms a mortal for the sake of curiosity (and vanity), and triggers a brutal chain of consequences, a wolf attack, blood on fern-fronds, and the death of her closest friend, Rihanna. The fey justice system is a cold machine, exile or erasure, and Escala is cast out with a maddeningly cryptic “quest” to remove “boulders” obstructing the True Cycle. What begins as a personal reckoning grows into a campaign of alliances, betrayals, and escalating Void-magic, ending in the shattered ruins of Blackthorn Tower and a final wish that costs her dearly while buying one fragile second chance.
What grabbed me first wasn’t the lore (though there’s plenty), but the audacity of the framing: the book keeps winking at the idea of story as currency, Wigfrith isn’t merely narrating, he’s working the room, shaping grief into something an audience can hold without dropping their mugs. That choice gives the novel a lively pulse: the big concepts, law, fate, the ethics of interference, arrive braided with humor and performance instead of dumped like a lecture. Even when the fey court’s rules turn severe, exile, the Wane, the pitiless weight of consequence, the voice keeps the pages turning, as if the book knows that dread lands harder when it’s delivered with a grin that’s one degree too bright.
My strongest reaction, though, was how insistently the story treats “love” as both weapon and wound. Escala’s first choice is selfish, almost childish; she wants to feel something, to test a myth with her own mouth, and the fallout is not abstract. Later, when the conflict widens into Void-storm spectacle and hard-won camaraderie, the book keeps tugging back toward the intimate costs: guilt that doesn’t wash off, loyalty that frays under pressure, and the particular cruelty of memory, what it preserves, what it erases, what it refuses to forgive. By the time the climax cracks open at Blackthorn Tower, the action is ferocious, but the emotional argument is sharper: power without care becomes hunger, and hunger becomes apocalypse.
Escala’s Wish is for readers who want epic fantasy, fae court intrigue, portal fantasy, and romantic adventure with a storyteller’s swagger and a moral spine, especially if you like your magic system half-mythic, half-legalistic, and always ready to bite. If The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss hooked you with its tavern-born narration and legend-making, Escala’s Wish offers a tale that knows performance can be a form of truth.
Pages: 662 | ASIN: B0G1XRP6DW
Cowboys, Wizards, & Liars
Cowboys, Wizards, & Liars is a genre-blending fantasy western that follows Noah Farmer, a young wizard and new private investigator, as he goes looking for a missing woman named Gloria and gets pulled through a magical rupture into a version of the Arizona Territory shaped by myth, outlaw energy, and time-bending consequences. What starts as a search mission opens into something bigger: a lost-gold legend, a second story unfolding inside an enchanted paperback, a growing mystery around identity and fate, and a long ride through a past that feels both dusty and unstable. By the end, the book becomes a story about how greed warps people, how stories rewrite the world, and how Noah slowly learns that solving a case is not the same thing as understanding it.
The story has that friendly, front-porch voice that makes you want to keep going, and Noah is a big reason why. He’s funny without trying too hard, unsure of himself in a believable way, and just self-aware enough to keep the story grounded. I also liked how author VJ Garske lets the western and fantasy elements sit side by side without making a big show of it. Horses, ghosts, guns, spells, prospectors, con men, and enchanted books all share the same trail dust. That mix could have felt gimmicky, but here it mostly feels natural. The book has a steady charm to it as well. It’s not slick, not overly dark, just confident in its own odd little weather.
I also appreciate the author’s choices around structure. The story inside the story could have been a mess, but instead it gives the novel an extra pulse. It creates this feeling that the ground is shifting under Noah even when he thinks he has his footing. At the same time, the book is strongest when it slows down and lets character do the work. Noah’s bond with animals, his awkwardness with people, and his reactions to figures like Jack and Fisher gave the novel its real heart for me. I liked how ambitious the book is with its many moving parts. The plot keeps introducing fresh turns and new layers, which gives the story a lively, restless energy. I found myself wishing a scene would linger a little longer, not because it lost me, but because I was enjoying the world and wanted to stay in it. I was engaged the whole way through. The whole thing has the pull of a campfire story told by someone who knows exactly when to grin and when to lower their voice.
I’d recommend this most to readers who enjoy fantasy westerns, light historical fantasy, and adventure stories that care as much about voice and companionship as they do about magic and mystery. It feels like a good pick for someone who wants genre fiction with personality, humor, and a strong sense of place rather than grimness or heavy lore. I think readers who like their fantasy a little scrappy, a little heartfelt, and a little strange will have a good time here. And if you’re the kind of reader who hears a title like Cowboys, Wizards, & Liars and immediately thinks, well, that sounds like fun, this book is very much for you.
Pages: 279 | ASIN : B0GKQSPS7J
A World of Lithomancy
Dark Bringer follows a cypher cop, an archangel, and a miner’s daughter whose paths cross with the grisly murder of a corrupt consul. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
So Dark Bringer is actually the start of a prequel series that ties into my Nightmarked books. I’d always wanted to tell the story of how that world, called the Via Sancta, came about. When I finished that series (and fans wanted more), I knew it was time to go back and explore the origins. Kaldurite plays a large role in the Nightmarked books, and after much brainstorming, and tossing out storyline after storyline, I decided to focus on this very special gemstone that repels magic in a world of lithomancy. Where it came from, who found it, and how it ultimately shook the foundations of Sion—Cathrynne and Gavriel’s world. Of course, their love story is also a big element, and one that is touched on in the later Nightmarked books, too.
What is the most challenging aspect of planning a fantasy series?
Everything! They have so many moving parts. But having muddled through a few over the last ten years, I’ve learned to think the choices I make all the way through (as far as this is possible—there are always surprises). You’ll have to live with those choices (who survives, who dies, what are the limits of magic, etc) for many books to come, so be sure they’ll work with the larger story down the line. Some choices open doors, and others close them forever. It can be a daunting process, and I think that’s why it takes me longer to plot than it used to. I’ve made plenty of mistakes I regretted and don’t want to do that again! Oh, and here’s another one: don’t write TOO many characters, and TOO many storylines. That still tends to be my downfall, haha.
Do you have a favorite character in this first installment of The Lord of Everfell series? One that is especially fun to write for?
I’ll say it straight: Gavriel starts as an arrogant, uptight prig who needs to be taken down a notch, so I’m actually enjoying writing him more in the next book, War Witch, where he’s forced to reckon with the sins of his past. Kal is funny and smart, but she, too, is mainly focused on her own problems in Dark Bringer, and becomes more altruistic in the next one.
Cathrynne, who is both pragmatic and vulnerable, and just a decent person, is my favorite.
Can we get a glimpse inside Book 2? Where will it take readers?
I have not written the blurb yet, and it would entail massive spoilers to discuss Gavriel, but I can say that he becomes a lot more human (for an angel), Cathrynne goes on a quest to find the witch goddess Minerva, and Kal heads to Iskatar under the fake name Kayla Jentzen, which lands her in fresh trouble. Levi and the White Foxes are still in pursuit, but that’s all I can say for now!
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Cathrynne Rowan is half witch, half angel. Such unions are forbidden, and the offspring – called cyphers – are reviled as abominations. But Cathrynne’s powers are indisputable, so when Lord Morningstar is nearly killed by an assassin, she’s summoned to serve as his bodyguard.
In Sion, all magic derives from gems and metals. Cathrynne and Gavriel must hunt down a mysterious stone that’s left a trail of bodies in its wake. Along the way, they forge an unlikely kinship that threatens to blossom into something more. Something decidedly dangerous.
Then Cathrynne starts having visions of a fallen angel who will tear the empire from its moorings. It seems impossible that the upright and honorable Lord Morningstar could be this Dark Bringer. But if it is Gavriel… How far will she go to stop him?
Taking place a thousand years before the events of the award-winning Nightmarked series, Lord of Everfell is set on the sprawling continent of Sion, where witches, angels, and humans populate seven vibrant realms surrounding the Parnassian Sea. Get ready for epic intrigue, dragons, and a love affair for the ages!
