I am pleased to announce the publication of my third novel, Mistress of Land and Sea. It's available as an Ebook and as a paperback from Double Dragon Ebooks. To order your copy, go to this link.
As its name implies, this is the sequel to Mistress of the Topaz. For more information, come with me to the flip side.
For those who haven't read Topaz, this book is the climax of the war between the Hegemony and the Kingdom of Nobalos for control of the imaginary fantasy world of Malga. Both sides are governed by a powerful woman. The Hegemony is led by Promono-Dei the World-Queen, assisted by the Lady Weintî, her lover and the bearer of her seal. Nobalos has a king but the de facto ruler is Councilor Kordo-Strî.
Both the World-Queen and the Councilor have a different magical power. Promono-Dei has the Oracular Topaz, a gem which will answer any question she asks of it, except about the future. Kordo-Strî has the power to plant thoughts on people's heads, but she can't control another's will. As for Lady Weintî, she's armed only with a daring new idea: a former slave herself, she hopes to put an end to slavery. She has already achieved the first step by persuading her Queen to free the slaves of Nobalos.
In her quest to reunite the world and liberate the slaves, the World-Queen fights bloody battles on sea and land, struggles to accommodate roving bands of freed slaves, travels down to the abyss to consult her ancestors in the land of the dead, and even soars up to the Nineteenth Heaven where she meets her god, The Universal Creator. And along the way, she loses the Oracular Topaz, while Kordo-Strî's husband, the philosopher Bashaanîr, has discovered how to make one just like it for Nobalos.
The battle for the future of Malga comes to a dramatic conclusion in Mistress of Land and Sea!
Why did I write this book? Partly because I like the characters I had created. Partly because I liked the fantastic elements. Partly because I thought it would be fun to write a fantasy with rocs and turban-wearing leaders instead of dragons and crowned monarchs. But it was also a thought-experiment. I asked myself what would be the best kind of leader you could have in a hierarchical society where democracy and rule by the people do not exist even as concepts.
I'm marketing this, and all my other books, for the Young Adult market. The books are recommended for ages 15 and up. Not all of the major characters are teenagers. The World-Queen moves from her late teens into her twenties over the course of the two books, but the books are in a YA style. There is no sex described, although there are pre-sex and post-sex scenes.
I foresee a third World-Queen book, but it's only a sperm and an ovary at the moment.
And for fans of my first novel Discarded Faces, I have good news. The sequel, known as Dispelled Illusions, is approaching the point where it can be submitted to a publisher. I'm currently hunting for an agent for my novels, with the hope of securing a mass-market publisher. These days, they no longer care if a novel has been previously published as an Ebook.