Witchbreaker, 20941

I've started the third book of the Dragon Apocalypse, Witchbreaker. (It was originally titled Sorrow, but this was a downer of a title.) December is a horrible month for writing, since it seems like every week has two or three evenings where we are going to some holiday gathering or another. I'm not complaining about these events; I like hanging out with my friends and family! But, it does tend to shred up my "free" hours.

Making matters worse, I caught the flu near the beginning of the month, and spent many of my days off sleeping 18 hours a day. I actually had to use three sick days for, you know, being sick. That sucks! Sick days are ordinarily a valuable secret weapon in any writer's arsenal, especially when under a deadline. Fortunately, my actual deadline for this book is July. If I produce 10k words a week through January and February, I'll have a 100k first draft with plenty of time for rewrites.

Witchbreaker follows the young witch Sorrow, who is introduced in Hush. In that book, she taps into the elemental spirit of a dragon, giving her tremendous power, which she intends to use to destroy the Church of the Book in revenge for it's centuries long campaign of wiping out all witches. Unfortunately, the magical forces she's accessed are so strong she's lost control of them, and her quest to destroy the church instead becomes a quest to save her own life. She's joined in this quest by an unlikely ally--a five-hundred year old amnesiac super-warrior who may or may not be the legendary Witchbreaker, the famed knight who almost single-handedly vanquished the once mighty kingdom of witches. Sorrow needs to find the immortal Queen of Witches so she can learn to control her powers. The possible Witchbreaker wants to find the Queen to kill her. But, at least on the finding the Queen part of the job, their are benefits to them working together.

This book builds to the most important battle with a primal dragon yet, one that will forever change the balance of power among the dragons and place all of mankind in the crosshairs of destruction.

And, you only have to wait until January 2013 to read it!

Coming soon: News about new appearances I'll be making once Greatshadow is released. Cons! Classes! Discussion panels! Book launches! I'm going to have a busy start to 2012!

The first six chapters of Greatshadow, now available on Goodreads!

Want to get a headstart on The Dragon Apocalypse? Interested in seeing what all the fuss is about? My publishers have graciously supplied me with a preview of the first six chapters of Greatshadow, now available as a download from Goodreads!

Most standard previews Solaris provides are just one chapter, but I lobbied hard to get a six chapter preview because the first six chapters form a more or less complete story arc, introducing most of the cast and building to the books first big dragon battle in chapter five, and revealing Infidel's secret origins in chapter six, as the stage is set for the most dangerous mission of her life. Goodreads only allows the preview in epub format for download, but even if you don't have an epub compatible reader, you can still read the whole excerpt online!

Enjoy!

Final Greatshadow Cover

Behold! The final cover! The back text reads:

The warrior woman known as Infidel is legendary for her superhuman strength and skin tough as chain mail. She’s made few friends during her career as a sword-for-hire, and many powerful enemies. Following the death of her closest companion, Infidel finds herself weary of life as a mercenary and sets her eyes on one final prize that will allow her to live out the rest of her days in luxury, the priceless treasure trove of Greatshadow.

Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire. His malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every flickering candle, patiently waiting to devour victims careless with even the smallest flame. The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the quest who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who dream only of Greatshadow's vast wealth. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?

Greatshadow is the first book in an exciting new adventure series from a master of dragon fantasy.

Greatshadow is now available for preorder on Amazon! But, for followers of my blog, if you're willing to write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, and don't want to wait until January 31 to get your hands on a copy, drop me a line at nobodynovelwriter(at)yahoo.com. I have ebook editions available now, and will soon have a small supply of actual books.