One year to the release of HIGH MAGA



an image that reminds
me very much of the
captivating Rishona

We are now officially one year away from the release of High Maga, the long-awaited companion novel to Eolyn. The launch party will be on or around April 25th, 2014, with the release date a couple weeks earlier.

Fans of Eolyn are in for a very special treat with this sequel.  Many of your favorite characters will return -- Eolyn and Akmael, of course, lead the cast of characters.  Mage Corey will be back, along with a host of people who were minor characters in the first novel, but now have the opportunity to step foreward with their own stories: 

Adiana, the lovely and talented musician of Selkynsen; Rishona, beguiling warrior princess of the Syrnte; the noble Sir Drostan and troubled Renate, mage and maga of the Old Orders; and the handsome Sir Borten, a loyal knight of the Mage King. 

Among its new characters, High Maga features a most wonderful villain in the person of Lord Mechnes, a ruthless and brilliant Syrnte general.  We also have a new generation of magas with Eolyn's students, from oldest to youngest:  Sirena, Mariel, Catarina, Tasha, and Ghemena.  (And yes, that's a little bit of author-imposed karma there, that Eolyn's youngest student should have the same name as her beloved tutor.)

If someone out there should ever
decide to design an Eolyn tarot,
Lord Mechnes would make an
excellent King of Swords 

High Maga will be Hadley Rille Books' first release in 2014.  The manuscript is ready to go, though it has yet to be run through the copy editing mill.  Tom Vandenberg, artist for Mark Nelson's Poets of Pevana and King's Gambit, will do the cover art for High Maga.  I am so very excited to see what he puts together!  If everything goes as planned, we will have advanced reading copies ready -- and perhaps start some giveaways -- as early as next fall. 

As we begin the countdown toward release day, I want to take a moment to extend my deepest gratitude to all the loyal followers of Eolyn, especially those who have been with me from the beginning.  I appreciate your patience in waiting for the sequel, and I promise you that very shortly after the release High Maga next spring, we will start the one-year count down to third and final novel of the series, Daughter of Aithne. 

The coming months are going to be a very exciting.  I'll be talking about different characters, posting selected scenes from the new novel, making audio recordings of excerpts, and of course keeping you updated at every step on the road to publication. 

In truth, when I first wrote Eolyn, I did not envision expanding her story into a trilogy. 

Now not only am I glad to have written the second -- and started the third -- book; it's hard for me to imagine this epic journey as anything less than three complete novels.  I am very excited to share the next stage of Eolyn's story with you.  The adventure has only just begun!