“Dreams of Fire and Gods: Dreams” has entered the editing queue!

Book one of my YA fantasy trilogy has now entered editing!  I just approved the blurb today:

A thousand years ago, two factions of gods, the Stronni and the Taaweh, nearly destroyed the Kingdom of Dasak by warring for the land and the frightened humans who lived there.  Then suddenly the Taaweh vanished and the Stronni declared victory.

Now, as tensions escalate between the emperor and his regent, Vek Worlen, the Vek’s son, apprentice mage Sael dönz Menaük, finds himself allied with a homeless vagabond named Koreh. Together they flee the capital city and make their way across a hostile wilderness to the Vek’s keep, mere steps ahead of the emperor’s assassins.

But Koreh has dreams—dreams of the ancient Taaweh—and he knows the looming war between the emperor and the Vek will be nothing compared to the war that is about to begin. The Taaweh are returning, and the war between the gods may destroy the kingdom once and for all.

I talked to my publisher this weekend about changing the title of the first book from Awakening to Dreams.  This is because it occurred to me when I finished book two that the first book does focus on Koreh’s dreams a lot — they frequently occur at chapter breaks.  And the second book features fire in the form of fireballs being hurled at the city by the Stronni, while the last book has the gods (the Stronni and the Taaweh) finally confronting each other on the field of battle.  Therefore the titles will be:

Dreams of Fire and Gods: Dreams
Dreams of Fire and Gods: Fire
Dreams of Fire and Gods: Gods

Not particularly brilliant, perhaps, but I think it works.

Book one should be released this December!

National Coming Out Day!

In honor of National Coming Out Day, I’ll be giving away a free eBook copy of my historical gay Viking novel, Seidman!  Just post a comment here between now and Sunday night and I’ll pick a winner at random!

In Viking Age Iceland, where boys are expected to grow into strong farmers and skilled warriors, there is little place for a sickly twelve-year-old boy like Kol until he catches the eye of a seið-woman—a sorceress—and becomes her apprentice. Kol travels to the sorceress’s home, where her grandson, Thorbrand, takes Kol under his wing. Before long Kol discovers something else about himself that is different—something else that sets him apart as unmanly: Kol has fallen in love with another boy.

But the world is changing in ways that threaten those who practice the ancient arts. As Kol’s new life takes him across the Norse lands, he finds that a new religion is sweeping through them, and King Olaf Tryggvason is hunting down and executing sorcerers. When a decades-old feud forces Thorbrand to choose between Kol and his duty to his kinsman, Kol finds himself cast adrift with only the cryptic messages of an ancient goddess to guide him to his destiny—and possibly to his death.