[SPOTLIGHT] Lies on the Serpent's Tongue by Kate Pearsall + Excerpt

With Halloween upon us, I’m excited to share a sneak peek at Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue, an upcoming YA horror romance thriller by Kate Pearsall! Set to release January 7, 2025, readers are invited to return to Caball Hollow, the hauntingly atmospheric setting from last year’s Bittersweet in the Hollow. This time, to follow James’s daughter, Rowan, as she embarks on a chilling new adventure.

BOOK 2, in the Bitter in the Hollow Series

Out wherever books are sold, January 7, 2025!

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As Caball Hollow slowly recovers after a tumultuous summer, the James family must also come to terms with their own newly revealed secrets. 18-year-old Rowan James has spent her whole life harboring unpleasant truths—that’s what happens when you can smell people’s lies—and building walls around herself to block them out. Like her younger sister, Linden, who can taste the feelings of others, Rowan has long resented her gift, which has taught her that everyone lies, and no one is who they seem to be. So, when her old nemesis, Hadrian Fitch, the biggest liar of them all, shows up on her front porch—bloodied, broken, and asking for help only she can give—her first instinct is distrust. But something new is stalking the Forest that surrounds Caball Hollow. Now things are disappearing. At first, it’s small stuff—like letters, photos, and keys. But then, Rowan notices people around her are losing their memories. And when the body of a neighbor is found in the middle of town, Rowan knows there’s a link between this death and all the events disturbing the Hollow. Can she find what—or who—the link is before it takes another life?

Lies on the Serpent's Tongue, Book 2 Excerpt

Chapter Seven

 

I turn to look at the door, standing wide open with my pack in front it. Just beyond, I can see the edge of the approaching storm. A rim of thick clouds as dark as night. In two long strides, I cross the room and bolt the lock.

Thunder rumbles off in the distance, and the wind kicks up, howling ominously between the trees. Low pressure makes the air heavy with anticipation, sending birds to find refuge, insects to fly low to the ground on weighted wings, and worms to flee rising groundwater. It’s a silence like the inhale before the howl.

A big gust blows across the ridge, and something strikes the wall with a thud. I move back away from the door. And that’s when I hear it. A footstep just outside, I’m almost sure. Though that’s not exactly right. It was more of a shuffle than a step. It could have just been the leaves, blowing in the walkway. The silence that follows isn’t proof nothing is there. It’s the opposite. And I know I’m no longer alone. Something, or someone is out there. My breath comes faster as I strain to hear. A muted thud. Then a crash against the door hard enough to make it shudder in its frame. I race to the woodstove and reach for the metal poker.

There’s no one to call for help. No one who could get here before a person determined enough could break through the flimsy piece of old wood standing between us. There’s only me. Holding the poker over my shoulder like a baseball player at bat, I slide back the lock and yank open the door. There, lying across the doormat like something the cat dragged in, is a bloodied and unconscious Hadrian Fitch.

***

Book 1 - Available now! 

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In rural Caball Hollow, surrounded by the vast National Forest, the James women serve up more than fried green tomatoes at the Harvest Moon diner, where the family recipes are not the only secrets.

Like her sisters, Linden was born with an unusual ability. She can taste what others are feeling, but this so-called gift soured her relationship with the vexingly attractive Cole Spencer one fateful night a year ago . . . A night when Linden vanished into the depths of the Forest and returned with no memories of what happened, just a litany of questions--and a haze of nightmares that suggest there's more to her story than simply getting lost.

Now, during the hottest summer on record, another girl in town is gone, and the similarities to last year's events are striking. Except, this time the missing girl doesn't make it home, and when her body is discovered, the scene unmistakably spells murder.

As tempers boil over, Linden enlists the help of her sisters to find what's hiding in the forest . . . before it finds her. But as she starts digging for truth--about the Moth-Winged Man rumored to haunt the Hollow, about her bitter rift with Cole, and even about her family--she must question if some secrets are best left buried.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Pearsall is a creative thinker, an award-winning copywriter, and a storyteller. She has a degree in business and public relations and has written for magazines and newspapers. Bittersweet in the Hollow and Lies on the Serpent's Tongue were inspired in part by a childhood listening to her mom’s stories about growing up in the Appalachian Mountains and visiting family in West Virginia.

Connect with Kate!

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Q&A with Christopher Ruocchio, author of The Sun Eater Quartet

You guys are in for a treat! On today's blog, I have the very talented Christopher  Ruocchio here to talk about his latest novel, Howling Dark, the second book in The Sun Eater Quartet. Get all the wonderful deets on the series right here! Christopher even gave us a tiny sneak peek at what's in store for the third book, Demon in White's! It's all very exciting. Without further ado, the interview.

First off, thank you Christopher for taking time from your busy schedule to answer a few questions for this interview. I must admit, I was overly excited when I saw that you were available for interview. I’ve been waiting impatiently since last year for the sequel, Howling Dark…and having just finished it, I am still in awe and blown away by your incredible writing, world building and storytelling.

Empire of Silence was by far the best Science Fiction novel I’ve read, probably ever and one of my favorite novels of 2018. Since its release, debut last year, it’s been my go-to recommendation whenever anyone asks me or doesn’t on what book I’d recommend. There aren’t enough words, it’s just simply, brilliant.

CR: I don’t even know what to say to that! You’re very kind. It’s still surreal to me that other people have read these stories at all. For so much of my life they were in my head and nowhere else. I remember the first time my dad asked me how to pronounce “Cielcin” out of the blue and my first instinct was to ask, “Who told you about them?” But really, that anyone enjoys them at all is all I ever hoped for, and I hope you know how much words like that mean to me and to other writers, so...thank you.

For new readers, can you give a brief introduction to The Sun Eater series? For long-time fans, without spoilers, what can they expect to see in Howling Dark?

CR: The Sun Eater is a space opera science fiction adventure set about 20,000 years in our future. It’s the story—the memoir, in fact—of a man named Hadrian Marlowe. He’s a nobleman in this vast galactic empire who runs away from home to become a scholar and instead finds himself thrust into the midst of an interstellar war between the human empire and the Cielcin, the only aliens who in 20,000 years have ever stood up to our might. Hadrian tells you on page 1 that he is the man who ended that war and killed all the Cielcin, this story is why and how. When I’m selling on the convention floors I like to say, “Imagine Star Wars if Anakin’s being forced to become Darth Vader were right.”

As for Howling Dark, you can expect the unexpected! This book takes Hadrian beyond the borders of the empire. Not the outer border, but into the dark between the imperial stars, where he encounters all the things that hide from the security the empire offers. People got on my case in book one for the empire’s oppressive disdain for machines and for things like extreme genetic augmentation. In this one, we’re going to get to see why the empire is so cautious. But really, the biggest thing to expect is that this one really opens up the world in new and terrifying ways. It’s a bit more Gothic, a bit more Cyberpunk, and there’s even a touch of the old Lovecraftian cosmic horror thrown in for good measure. Those expecting another safe planet-bound story in an epic fantasy space empire will be very surprised.

Howling Dark was full of surprises, in terms of events, outcome and being that Hadrian and the gang are in the midst of war, casualties…while writing the sequel, did you already know how the story was going to play out, at least, this far?

CR: I am actually a fastidious outliner...well, I am now. I worked on Empire of Silence since I was about 8 years old, so I kind of tinkered with it. But this one needed to be done in a year, and that meant I needed a road map. I’ve had the privilege of working with David Drake, the great military SF writer, and the man produces these 50 page enormous outlines. So I copied Dave’s technique for outlining as best I could and plotted it out very carefully. As for the general shape of the story, I knew where I wanted it to end. I knew who was going to die, who was going to leave. I knew about the revelations that were coming, and had obsessed about them for years. A certain character (the one on the cover) has been developing in my head since about middle school, and it was an absolute joy to finally put him down on the page. But there are still surprises. Captain Corvo, for instance, grew sort of out of nowhere and was a very nice surprise. She’s one of my favorite characters now.

You mentioned that Valka was never intended to be in EOS but after revisions she was brought forth. From conception to the finalized version, how much of Howling Dark has stayed the same or changed since you started it? Were there numerous revisions and edits?

CR: This one’s stayed much more true to conception, thanks to the outline. Of course, things are very different than they were five years ago, but the book you’ve read looks almost exactly like the outline I sketched out as I was finishing EOS. The book 2 that I envisioned for the pre-Valka version of EOS was mostly about Hadrian meeting a very different Valka and working with her on Vorgossos alone. (Valka was originally conceived as a literal space witch born on Vorgossos, which was quite a different place). So that changed, but for the better—and it changed a long time ago, before the version of EOS you’ve read was even finished.

I absolutely love how you wrote the books, memoir-style, why that style?

CR: Two reasons! The first is a technical one: because it allows every scrap of narration to also be character-building text. The long digressions and musings on human nature and so forth are Hadrian’s musings and digressions, not mine. Every word on the page is his word, and that makes him a lot more real. Often in third person books I find the POV character the thinnest and least accessible. (Think of the way people make fun of Luke for being boring in Star Wars next to Han and Leia and Lando). This flips it a bit.

The second reason is that I really liked the D.J. MacHale Pendragon books as a kid. Those had a frame narrative and used first person letters the main character was writing to his friend back home in ways that amped up the drama. Then I saw it in some other books. Dracula, for one, and Frankenstein, but also in Name of the Wind and The Book of the New Sun—both notable influences on my own work (although in complicated ways and not really how people expect).

The books are mammoth, were you able to keep everything you wrote or did you have to work within a limited word count?

I think this one got longer as we revised it! My publishers (DAW and Gollancz) have been very forgiving of the long word counts. My editors have stressed repeatedly that I should make the books as long or short as they need to be, and that’s a very rare and precious thing, believe it or not. Bookstores allocate their shelves down to the inch, and big books are a riskier buy in for them, so I’m humbled and grateful they’ve taken the risk with my titans.

I LOVE the covers; did you have any say or input into its creation? I saw on Twitter that you mentioned the color palette for book three is red, white and gold? I can’t wait to see it!

I do! Usually I’ve given my publishers an idea or two and they’ve picked the one they think is most market-friendly and ask me to get details together on what things should look like, and then we’ll go back and forth on sketches and tinker a bit back and forth until they tell me to cool it and stop nitpicking. It’s very generous of them, most publishers (especially historically) want to keep authors as far away from their covers as possible...because some of us writers are not marketing geniuses.

And yes! Small teaser, but the book three cover features His Radiance, the Emperor seated in all his majesty upon the Solar Throne, so the Imperial colors will be out in full force, which will stand out nicely contrasted against these darker, cooler-colored books. I’m really excited. We’ve been working with Kieran Yanner again for book three—and Mr. Yanner is just great. I’ve been a fan since I was a high schooler playing Magic: The Gathering.

The Cielcin are just one of many races within the Sun Eater Universe, as we’ve seen plenty of various beings on Borosevo and March Station. With that said, do you believe in other lifeforms?

Oh, I would be surprised if we were the only life out there in the universe—though we may be the only thing we recognize as intelligent. That’s the real question, I think. The Cielcin are an interesting case, because they’re right on the edge. They look fairly human, they have culture and language and are fairly comprehensible...but their minds just don’t make sense to us. They’re an edge case, and there’s a part of me thinks the odds of finding something that’s as “human” as we are are fairly slim.

When you first received news that Empire of Silence sold, what was happening that day? And what did you do to celebrate?

CR: I was on my way to dinner to celebrate my brother’s engagement, which had just happened the day or two before. And so I sat silently at the table not telling anyone for 2 hours so as not to steal their moment. But we were at the restaurant I’d worked at for 8 years, so I ran into the kitchen to tell my friends.

How much has your life changed since becoming a published author?

CR: Not so much day to day. I write, go to work, come home, write some more—same as before. But I get to travel to shows and do signings—and I actually have Twitter notifications most days, which is new. But most days it’s still breakfast and commuting and office work and listening to too much heavy metal. Some things never change.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

You have to write. I know that sounds stupid, but the biggest hurdle I’ve seen in talking to aspiring writers is that they don’t actually write. They talk a lot about writing, but never sit down and do it. Make a schedule. 500 words a day. 1000. Whatever it takes. People think of artists as chaotic, windblown muse-chasers, but you need a structure like a vine needs a trellis, even if it’s just a little one.

And folks can always tweet me at @TheRuocchio. I’m also a professional editor. I can’t read your work for you, but I can answer questions all day.

I know you’re currently working on book three, Demon in White. Can you tell us anything about it? Or any other projects you may be working on concurrently?

Just a little! Demon in White picks up nearly 70 years after Howling Dark. Hadrian is in the thick of war with the Cielcin and has become quite centrally involved. You’ll see a lot more of the center of the Empire, there’s a lot more political knifework, more archaeological mysteries, and a lot more outright battles. You’ll also meet my favorite supporting character to date, a monomaniacal intus officer named Lorian Aristedes who’s found his way into Hadrian’s circle.

Other projects? I’ve written a 3-chapter novelette called “The Demons of Arae” that goes between Howling Dark and Demon in White, that’s out in October. I’m working on DIW, of course, but I have a couple short stories I owe people, too!

Lastly and randomly, have you met Gene Wolfe yet?

CR: Gosh, no. Mr. Wolfe passed away a month or two ago, and like a fool I sat on a fan letter—too nervous to send it. I’d written it around the time Empire of Silence was coming out, but he fell terribly ill right around then and I held off. I’ve been told by mutual friends that I needn’t have been so nervous, that he was one of the most generous writers in the industry. I wish I’d sent it. Now I’ll never get the chance….(Apologies for the downer answer).

Thank you so much Christopher! Again, I absolutely loved Howling Dark and can’t wait for everyone else to read it!

CR: Thank you very much for having me—it was my absolute pleasure.

THE AUTHOR

Christopher Ruocchio is the author of The Sun Eater, a space opera fantasy series from DAW Books, as well as the Assistant Editor at Baen Books, where he co-edited the military SF anthology Star Destroyers, as well as Space Pioneers, a collection of Golden Age reprints showcasing tales of human exploration. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University, where a penchant for self-destructive decision making caused him to pursue a bachelor’s in English Rhetoric with a minor in Classics. An avid student of history, philosophy, and religion, Christopher has been writing since he was eight-years-old and sold his first book—Empire of Silence—at twenty-two. The Sun Eater series in available from Gollancz in the UK, and has been translated into French and German.

Christopher lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he spends most of his time hunched over a keyboard writing. When not writing, he splits his time between his family, procrastinating with video games, and his friend’s boxing gym. He may be found on both Facebook and Twitter at @TheRuocchio.

Chicagoland Vampires 10th Anniversary Blog Blitz + Giveaway

Ten years ago today, Chloe Neill introduced the world to Merit, a grad student turned vampire. Readers followed along Merit's journey over the years as a young fledgling to House Sentinel, and it's been one helluva ride. After spanning 13 novels and multiple novellas, the series concluded in 2017 with Blade Bound and a final novella, Slay in 2018.

I remember discovering the series late 2009, having stumbled upon it by chance. At that time there were tons of vampire novels saturating the market. However, none of them had a female lead in their early 20's or taking place in a college setting. I was intrigued (I don't believe the New Adult genre was acknowledged yet back then either)! If you're looking for a relatable, funny, and kick-butt heroine then look no further, because Merit has it all. Definitely one of the best Urban Fantasy series ever.

Happy 10th Anniversary Chicagoland Vampires!

Let's take a look at the book that started it all, SOME GIRLS BITE. Don't forget to scroll down to the end of the post for a special giveaway.

They killed me. They healed me. They changed me.

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker–and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she’s traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude–and servitude.

But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan’s attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone’s still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago’s nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war–and there will be blood.

The amazing folks at Penguin Random House is offering one lucky reader the ENTIRE SERIES, yes you read that right, all 13 books in the series!

 To enter please click >>HERE<<! 

Good luck!

Spotlight: Phoenix Unbound by Grace Draven + A Romance Starter Kit Giveaway

In anticipation of the release of PHOENIX UNBOUND by Grace Draven out September 25th, Penguin Random House is hosting an amazing giveaway featuring some of of their most popular Fantasy Romances! The giveaway comprises of "first book" of the most beloved authors in the Fantasy genre such as: Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Nalini Singh, Chloe Neill...and of course today's featured author Grace Draven! To learn more about Phoneix Unbound, check out the synopsis below.

>> ENTER GIVEAWAY <<

Hits shelves on September 25, 2018

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A woman with power over fire and illusion and an enslaved son of a chieftain battle a corrupt empire in this powerful and deeply emotional romantic fantasy from the USA Today bestselling author of Radiance.

Every year, each village is required to send a young woman to the Empire's capital--her fate to be burned alive for the entertainment of the masses. For the last five years, one small village's tithe has been the same woman. Gilene's sacrifice protects all the other young women of her village, and her secret to staying alive lies with the magic only she possesses.

But this year is different.

Azarion, the Empire's most famous gladiator, has somehow seen through her illusion--and is set on blackmailing Gilene into using her abilities to help him escape his life of slavery. Unknown to Gilene, he also wants to reclaim the birthright of his clan.

To protect her family and village, she will abandon everything to return to the Empire--and burn once more.



 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Grace Draven is a Louisiana native living in Texas with her husband, kids, and a big, doofus dog. She is the winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice for Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and a USA Today Bestselling author. 

CONNECT WITH GRACE|WEBSITE|FACEBOOK|TWITTER|BLOG

[Blog Tour] Cassie Scot Series Cover Art Re-Reveal!

Designed by Lou Harper, the beautiful cover art for Frozen is far more than it appears. It is actually the culmination of years of struggle, of adversity, and of serious backlash over misleading, inadequate, and unprofessional series covers.

Let me back up, because this story doesn’t begin with Frozen at all. It begins with the first book in the Cassie Scot series, which has recently had an incredible makeover.

Many of my reviews for the early books in the series say, “Don’t judge this book by its cover!” They go on to say that the cover is awful, but the book is great. Well, obviously, I’m glad they liked the book, but I’ve been discouraged for years by the flack I’ve received for the covers.

One of the worst consequences of my original covers was the mistaken belief (by some) that my books were mid-grade novels, or at least young adult. They are not! These were written with adult audiences in mind.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, let me show you the before and after images:

 

Old Book Covers

New Book Covers

The original cover artwork for the Cassie Scot Series were hand painted originals done just for me. And saying that is bittersweet, because when my publisher first suggested going this route, I felt incredible pride at the idea of having artwork created just for me. It made me feel special. At this point, I have something of a love/hate relationship with the original covers because I can’t deny they were mistakes. Yet, some part of me still sees something special in them, something unique that the modern practice of photo manipulation can’t capture.

Take Secrets and Lies, for instance, the second book in the series and the one with the greatest backlash. “It looks too romantic,” many or my readers said to me. And maybe it does. None of these books are romances, exactly, but there is a strong romantic subplot (like it or not), and that pose on the original Secrets and Lies perfectly captures the tension in that book – Evan wants Cassie; Cassie is unsure.

Photo manipulation is incapable of creating such a scene. To do the same thing with photography, I would have to hire my own models, and a photographer, and do a prohibitively expensive photo shoot to make it happen.

But I get it. I really do. The original cover artwork has manican-like faces, and they lack the sharpness, the zing, the edge of professionalism that people are used to seeing on urban fantasy novels.

I asked my publisher to hire a new cover designer for Madison’s Song and Kaitlin’s Tale, two spin-offs following secondary characters, and she did a nice job. Not so nice that I wanted her to redo my whole series, but definitely an improvement. And at that point, I thought I was done writing the series.

When Cassie told me, “Life doesn’t end when you get married,” and made me write Frozen, the first book in her new plot arc, I knew I needed something different for the cover. My publisher gave me some choices, knowing I was unhappy with the earlier artwork, but ultimately I refused them all and asked her if she would hire Lou Harper, who was recommended by some fellow authors.

We found a stock photo model for Cassie, and when I did, I tried to find someone with enough poses that she could be used on additional books and maybe … if I liked Frozen well enough, on a series overhaul. I told Lou about some magical creatures that appear in the book, including a hellhound, which she depicted beautifully standing atop a frozen lake. The mist obscuring the background is another important plot element, and really holds the scene together.

When I revealed the cover art for Frozen to my loyal readers, I got immediate, positive feedback. Some claimed that Cassie looked just like they’d pictured. Many said it was beautiful, and professional, and when I floated the idea of the series makeover, I was met with enthusiastic encouragement. So I went for it.

The result is … breathtaking, I think. I particularly love the covers to Mind Games and Stolen Dreams (books three and four), though I am enthusiastic about all of these. They are obviously more professional, cleaner, and state clearly, “These are adult urban fantasy novels.”

I hope you like the new covers half as much as I do, and that regardless, you’ll give the books a chance. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but we often do. I sometimes do, even though I know how the process goes, and how hard it is to find the right representation for a book!

I present these before-and-after covers proudly, but know the books are far more than their covers. Cassie Scot is a labor of love that only comes alive when you peak inside. 

The seventh Cassie Scot novel, Frozen is out now!

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Apparently, life doesn’t end when you get married.

When a couple freezes to death on a fifty degree day, Cassie is called in to investigate. The couple ran a daycare out of their home, making preschoolers the key witnesses and even the prime suspects.

Two of those preschoolers are Cassie’s youngest siblings, suggesting conditions at home are worse than she feared. As Cassie struggles to care for her family, she must face the truth about her mother’s slide into depression, which seems to be taking the entire town with it.

Then Cassie, too, is attacked by the supernatural cold. She has to think fast to survive, and her actions cause a rift between her and her husband.

No, life doesn’t end after marriage. All hell can break loose at any time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, which scars the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams. 

Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. In addition to being a writer, she's a mom and freelance editor.

Social Media Links:

Website| Blog| Facebook| Twitter| Goodreads|

[Series Spotlight] Kingfountain Series by Jeff Wheeler + Excerpt

I have another wonderful series spotlight for you guys! Today's series spotlight is on Jeff Wheeler's Kingfountain Series. The Kingfountain Series follows a Duke's young son, Owen, who also happens to be a new prisoner of the King, thanks to his parents for losing a wager. Readers follow along Owen as he navigates the King's castle, delights the castle occupants with his tiles and tries to prove his worth to the king or risk losing it all and forfeiting his life on behalf of his parents.

The Kingfountain Series is a High Fantasy Series that will appeal to all audience; with a protagonist you'll want to root for. The first two books; The Queen's Poisoner and The Thief's Daughter is out now, and the third book, The King's Traitor is out next month on September 6th!

OUT NOW!

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King Severn Argentine’s fearsome reputation precedes him: usurper of the throne, killer of rightful heirs, ruthless punisher of traitors. Attempting to depose him, the Duke of Kiskaddon gambles…and loses. Now the duke must atone by handing over his young son, Owen, as the king’s hostage. And should his loyalty falter again, the boy will pay with his life.

Seeking allies and eluding Severn’s spies, Owen learns to survive in the court of Kingfountain. But when new evidence of his father’s betrayal threatens to seal his fate, Owen must win the vengeful king’s favor by proving his worth—through extraordinary means. And only one person can aid his desperate cause: a mysterious woman, dwelling in secrecy, who truly wields power over life, death, and destiny.

THE QUEEN'S POISONER, BOOK 1 EXCERPT 

Chapter 28

The wild frenzied feeling of plummeting reminded him partway down that he should be terrified, but then the shock of cold water met his face and he plunged into its depths. His feet touched the bottom of the cistern. His hand still gripped hers.

Owen opened his eyes and found himself surrounded by a pile of treasure. He felt a huge burst of excitement in his ribs as he stared at the sword hilts, the jewels and necklaces. The Mortimer girl was tugging at his hand and trying to swim up, but he pulled back, not wanting to lose sight of the treasure. There was so much! But then he noticed something awry. There was a gap in the treasure, as if someone had dragged a rake through it. No, that wasn’t it. One of the chests appeared to have been dragged back towards the stairs. The dragging motion had cleared a path through the bounty and knocked other bits over.

His companion was yanking hard on his hand now, and when he looked up, he saw bubbles were coming out of her mouth, obscuring her face.

Owen wanted to stay down and figure out what had happened to the treasure, but they both needed to breathe. He pushed with his legs and they started towards the surface. As they moved through the water, a loud grinding noise filled his water-soaked ears.

When Owen’s face broke the surface, he gulped in a chest full of air to stop his lungs from burning. The Mortimer girl was spluttering and paddling on the waters.

“Owen! Did you hear that noise?”

Owen looked and saw they were farther away from stairs. In fact, they were gliding away from it at a fast pace.

“What’s wrong?” Owen asked, kicking around. The water was tugging them deeper into the dark cistern. 

Book 2 - Available now! 

Purchase|Amazon|

Owen Kiskaddon first came to the court of the formidable King Severn as a prisoner, winning favor with the stormy monarch by masquerading as a boy truly blessed by the Fountain. Nine years hence, the once-fearful Owen has grown into a confident young man, mentored in battle and politics by Duke Horwath and deeply in love with his childhood friend, the duke’s granddaughter. But the blissful future Owen and Elysabeth Mortimer anticipate seems doomed by the king’s machinations.

A pretender to Severn’s throne has vowed to seize the crown of Kingfountain. But Severn means to combat the threat by using Elysabeth as bait to snare the imposter—and forcing Owen, as a pawn in the dangerous charade, to choose between duty and devotion. With poisoners and spies circling ominously, and war looming on the horizon, Owen must make painful sacrifices to beat back the advancing shadows of death and disaster. Will Owen’s conflicted heart follow the king’s path or risk everything for his love?

 Book 3 - Available September 6, 2016
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Against all odds, Owen Kiskaddon grew from frightened boy to confident youth to trusted officer in the court of Kingfountain—and watched its regent, Severn Argentine, grow ever more ruthless and power-mad. Robbed of his beloved protector, his noble mentor, and his true love, Owen has anticipated the day when the king he fears and reviles, yet loyally serves, will be toppled. Now, as Severn plots a campaign of conquest, the time has come to take action…and Owen’s destiny demands that he lead the strike.

Ordered to incite war with a neighboring kingdom, Owen discovers its beautiful, reclusive ruler, whose powerful magic might even exceed his own. Together they mount a daring plot to overthrow the corrupt monarch, crown the rightful heir, and defeat the prophesied curse threatening Kingfountain with wintry death. But Severn’s evil is as bottomless as the fabled Deep Fathoms. To keep his ill-gotten throne, he’ll gladly spill the blood of enemies and innocents alike. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Wheeler took an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to become a full-time author. He is, most importantly, a husband and father, and a devout member of his church. He is occasionally spotted roaming among the oak trees and granite boulders in the hills of California or in any number of the state’s majestic redwood groves. He is the author of The Covenant of Muirwood Trilogy, The Legends of Muirwood Trilogy, the Whispers from Mirrowen Trilogy, and the Landmoor Series.

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Q&A with The Hike Author Drew Magary+ Giveaway

I have a treat for you guys today; a Q&A with Drew Magary, Author of THE HIKE which hits stores and E-Readers today! Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post!

Q&A with Author Drew Magary
(Provided by Viking)

Your last novel, The Postmortal, was a page-turning apocalyptic Sci-Fi saga, and THE HIKE falls more under the cannon of fantasy and it seems to be rooted in both classic fairy tales and old video games. Was there anything in particular that inspired you to switch genres?

Drew: Nah I just try to follow the best idea and not worry about genre.  I mean, I gladly would have done another sci-fi book if it had worked out but this was just the idea I ended up chasing.  And I swear I’m not one of those annoying people who switches up genres just so they can be like I WON’T BE CATEGORIZED.  In fact, I started two other sci-fi books and ended up stalling on them because I just couldn’t figure out how to advance them.  And while they sat in limbo, I went to a college in PA to give a speech and before the speech, I walked out behind my hotel into the woods and found myself very much alone.  And then I started to worry about getting lost, and bears coming for me, and deranged killers popping out from behind the trees.  And suddenly there was a very clear idea in my head, one that I was able to follow all the way through without any hiccups.  That’s just how it happens sometimes.

How would you describe THE HIKE in one sentence?

Drew: A man goes on a hike and gets very, very, very, very, very, very, very lost.

The novel’s protagonist Ben, an average family man from Bethesda, goes out for a stroll in the foothills of the Poconos and finds himself in an alternate, dreamlike dimension full of talking crabs, flesh-eating monsters, gravity-defying trains, and axe murderers with Rottweiler masks. Were there any artists or books that inspired the world you were able to create?

There’s a lot of influences in there, including old King’s Quest PC games (these were games where you moved from one screen to the next and sometimes clues or important items wouldn’t appear until you randomly entered a house for, like, the fifth time and shit), the Wizard of Oz (because there’s a road to follow), Cast Away (I will watch or read anything about people stranded alone someplace awful), The Princess Bride (which is a great old-fashioned adventure story but has brilliant dialogue and fun characters a kind of modern sensibility and humor to it despite being really traditional), It’s A Wonderful Life (which is fucking creepy as hell at the end, and I liked the idea of a guy being stuck in an alternate dimension and trying to come to grips with it), and more.  I didn’t deliberately fashion anything after those influences, it just came out that way.

Both you and your protagonist are the father of three kids, and many parents might have moments where they fantasize about escaping into an alternate universe which is precisely what happens to Ben. Is this idea something you wanted to investigate in this novel? Did writing THE HIKE make you think differently about your own family?

Drew: My kids are a little older now, so I’m past the phase where you’re always trying to get time for yourself and accepting that this is how parenthood works.  If anything, I tend to be away too often, whether it’s on a business trip (which has become a really lonely experience for me), or whether I’m lost in my own head.  And so I guess a lot of the novel is about the idea of drifting away, and not realizing it until you’re not sure if you can make it back.

You are one of the most widely read columnists on the web, you write critically acclaimed fiction, and you’re a Chopped champion. What do you consider you’re greatest achievement?

Drew: My family.  Okay, are they gone?  Can I stop lying now?  Okay, now that they’re gone: CHOPPED.

In an interview about your memoir Someone Could Get Hurt, US News and World Report tabbed you as the Internet’s Ranter-in-Chief. For those who haven’t read your columns, can you explain the nickname?

Drew: I yell about stuff and use the word FUCK a lot.  Also, I have a whole preseason NFL series where I essentially roast every NFL team, and that has a large following.

Between your Deadspin columns and contributing essays for GQ.com, you have one of the most dedicated following of readers of any writer, online or otherwise. Do you feel any pressure to inject the tone of your nonfiction writing into your fiction?

Drew: Oh sure.  That voice has served me well at GQ and Deadspin and anywhere else where I’ve written, and it comes naturally to me whenever I start yammering on about anything.  So whenever I do a book, I want a little bit of that in there to bring in old readers, but it can’t be the WHOLE thing, you know?  It has to be a great story on its own.  So this book has a bit of that in there, especially with the Crab character, but not so much of the voice that it overpowers it. 

From fiction to memoir, professional football to politics, your writing spans a breadth of topics, genres, and forms. What are you working on next?

Drew: I think I better write another book, eh?  Gotta figure that out.

Publication: August 2, 2016 by Viking
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When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.

On a quest of epic, life-or-death proportions, Ben finds help comes in some of the most unexpected forms, including a profane crustacean and a variety of magical objects, tools, and potions.

Desperate to return to his family, Ben is determined to track down the “Producer,” the creator of the world in which he is being held hostage and the only one who can free him from the path. At once bitingly funny and emotionally absorbing, Magary’s novel is a remarkably unique addition to the contemporary fantasy genre, one that draws as easily from the world of classic folk tales as it does from video games. 

Thanks to the awesome people at Viking, I have three (3) copies of THE HIKE up for grabs! To enter please fill out the Rafflecopter below. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Drew Magary is a correspondent for GQ Magazine, a columnist for Deadspin, and a Chopped Champion. He’s also the author of four books: The Hike, The Postmortal, Someone Could Get Hurt, and Men With Balls. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three children, and enjoys taking long walks.

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