Cover reveal for Heart of Fire!
The old eddas speak of dreki—fabled creatures who haunt the depths of Iceland's volcanoes, and steal away fair maidens.
Freyja wants none of such myths. Dreki seducing young ladies? Ha. They probably eat such foolish girls. But when the local dreki steals her last ram—costing her any chance of feeding her ill father through the winter—Freyja intends to confront the fearsome myth.
Sentenced to a life of exile from his clan, Rurik is fascinated by the furious woman who comes to claim her ram. She reeks of mysterious magic and challenges him at every step. He intends to claim the passionate firebrand, but to do so he must take mortal form.
It's the only time the dreki are vulnerable, and with a dragon-hunter arriving on the shores of Iceland, he can barely afford the risk—but lonely Freyja, with her elf-cursed eyes and pragmatic soul, tempts him in ways he's never felt before. Is she the key to reclaiming his heritage? Or will she be his downfall?
A quick FAQ:
Release date?
Available exclusively in the Myths and Magic Box Set, which releases on August 22nd, 2017. Want to pre-order for only .99 cents? Click here. You get 21 Sci fi, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance stories for .99 cents in this cool deal. This set WILL go into Kindle Unlimited a week after it's release, so if you're an iBooks, Nook or Kobo reader, I'd recommend pre-ordering!
So dragons?
In no particular order Heart of Fire features: huge, fire-breathing dragons (or *cough* dreki, to be more precise); a heroine who is so done with taking shit; running jokes about rams and the ownership thereof; a sexy dragon-hunter, who may or may not have a woe-is-me background; a missing dreki prince (more on that later); virgin sacrifices that don't quite go according to plan; volcanoes; lots of magic and pissed off storm-mages.
Does not include: Jokes about “Is that your big, scaly tail, or are you just happy to see me?” Sorry, it's set in 19th century Iceland. But I was tempted.
Where do you get your ideas?
A writer friend asked me where this came from. All I remember is reading a travel brochure about 5-6 years ago that was advertising a Ring Of Fire tour in Iceland, and this whole story practically leaped out of my head and mugged me. I had 25,000 words written before I even asked myself where I was going with this. The sub-conscious is a powerful tool, my friends.
Full length or novella?
It's 70,500 words almost exactly (: Which means a full length novel, though it is slightly shorter than my other works. My Burned Lands books come in at 90,000 words, for example.
Cliff-hangers or full story?
Full story, with plot and romance resolved, but certain questions left hanging. I liken it to Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter novels, purely for the fact that Raphael and Elena end up with each other in book one, and wrap up that story, but they have subsequent novels, and there is definitely more to happen in the world. Freya and Rurik are together at the end of this book, but their troubles are only just starting.
Will this book be release independently of the box set?
I've been asked this a couple of times, so thought I'd better include the answer. Yes. Heart of Fire is something I'm planning on releasing independently—after the box set run is finished. I am locked into the boxed set for a minimum or 3 months, and depending upon how well it's going, that might extend to 6 months. The price will be $3.99 (my pricing scale runs according to length of novel), and the book won't release until next year. If you want it earlier, and for a better price, I recommend buying the boxed set–plus, you get 20 other stories, so win-win?
You're starting another series?
I know, I know. Sucker for punishment here. Heart of Fire, and the series Legends of the Storm was on my agenda. Like, in a year or two. Just in case anyone is wondering I have a spreadsheet, and a set of dates/books I want to release over the next 4 + years, because planning future things gives me happy vibes, and I get to go stare at my multicoloured spreadsheet when I'm having a bad day (:
But then I was offered a cool opportunity. Join a boxed set, aim to hit the USA Today/NYT List, hopefully have a lot of readers read my work, and maybe convert some of those readers to my other books. The problem? I needed a new story. And there was this shiny little half-finished manuscript sitting on my hard drive, just beckoning for me to finish it…
I weighed up the pros and cons. And what they were telling me is that the Dark Arts is a trilogy, which is wrapping up soon, and this is too-good an opportunity to pass up on. Burned Lands is going to be finished at 4 books, unless it takes off in a major way, which leaves me with two soon-to-be-finished series. I'm hoping to spin-off from the Dark Arts trilogy next year (ah, Remy and your intriguing curse), but that means I have room on my schedule to bump Legends of the Storm up by a year. And who does not want to read about dragon princes? If you put your hand up at this, then I am disowning you. Dishonour on you, dishonour on your family… *kidding* I'm ridiculously excited to delve back into my dreki world with all of it's dragon politics, magic, kick-ass heroines, and heroes who are determined to get their woman. Plus get this: Tortured dragon heroes. Who DOES NOT WANT THIS?
LOL.
Plus, who needs sleep? *wink*
