THE RELUCTANT QUEEN Comes Out Today!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I'm beyond excited to announce that today is the pub day for THE RELUCTANT QUEEN!!!  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!  It's book two of my epic fantasy series The Queens of Renthia, published by Harper Voyager.  (Book one, THE QUEEN OF BLOOD, is available now in paperback.)

Renthia is a world of extreme beauty: sky-piercing mountains, endless glaciers, and towering trees with cities nestled in their branches, all thanks to an overabundance of nature spirits.  But the spirits who created all this glorious beauty aren't sweet, frolicking pixies.  These spirits want to kill all humans, and only certain women -- the queens -- have the power to control them.

THE RELUCTANT QUEEN is the story of three women: a young queen who is dying, a powerful queen who hungers for war, and a middle-aged woman who wants nothing to do with the power she could wield.   It continues the story of Daleina and introduces Naelin, a woman who is (rightfully) afraid that if she uses her power, her two young children will die.

At their heart, these books are about power: who has it, who wants it, what you do with it, and what it does to you.  But they're also about choosing your own destiny and who you want to be.  And they're about soaring on a zipline through a massive forest, befriending a wolf, fighting murderous trees, concocting a few poisons, and trying to save the world.

If you're interested, more information can be found on my website, including the first two chapters.

When I was a kid, I used to "borrow" all the scrap paper in the house, tape it together, and draw massive maps of fantastical lands.  I doodled invented plants in the margins of my school notebooks.  And I kept a file box full of index cards, each card with a made-up name, paired with a magical power and a talking animal sidekick.  (I really, really wanted an animal sidekick!)  I buried myself in books by Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Mercedes Lackey, and Tamora Pierce, and I dreamed of someday writing my own epic fantasy with a sprawling world and danger and adventure around every corner.

Many years later, this is it!  My epic.  And writing these books has been every bit the magical, incredible experience that I hoped it would be.  Usually when I finish a book, I'm sad -- you live with the characters, fall in love with them, and then you have to say goodbye.  But when I finished writing THE QUEEN OF BLOOD, I didn't have to say goodbye (except, you know, to the ones I killed off -- sorry!).  I was able to immerse myself in their lives and their world again with THE RELUCTANT QUEEN, and I loved that.

So I'd like to invite you to visit Renthia again with me.  Just watch out for the trees.  They bite.