Clare Davis: draw scrutineer

To celebrate release week for Daughter Of Blood I’ve had two giveaways on offer, both fully international:

i) 1 x autographed set of all my books to date, to go to 2 readers (ie 2 x sets of books all up); and

ii) A Tuckerization opportunity — i.e. for one commenter to give his or her (real) name to a character in the fourth and final The Wall of Night series’ novel (working title: The Chaos Gate)

All those who left a comment here between Tuesday 26 January (NZ time) and Friday 29 January (US, EST) were eligible to enter.

The draw has been made by Clare Davies, the South Island rep for MacMillan (i.e. not even my publisher—so completely independent!), via the Sorting Hat (aka “Random.Org).

And Now We Have A Result (Cue: Trumpet Fanfare!)

Or, in fact, three results! 😉

The two winners of the 1 x complete set each of all my books published to date are:

Neiel Ward

Jacqui Bennetts

—

The winner of the Tuckerization draw, to give his/her name to a character in The Chaos Gate, The Wall Of Night Book Four, is:

June Young

And just as a reminder, this was the ‘deal’ for (or parameters governing) the draw:

• The successful name must be the real name of the commenter, not a pseudonym;
• The person whose name is drawn will also be recognised in the Acknowledgments to The Chaos Gate and receive a signed, complimentary copy of that book;
• I reserve the right to adapt the winning name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller” — or, as was revealed on Thursday, “Cheryl Graham” may become Che’Ryl-g-Raham. 😉 )
• I cannot predetermine how the “Your Name” character will appear in the story and whether he/she will play a positive or negative role;

—

I will now email the winners directly, but if they do not contact me back by midnight (US, EST) on Tuesday 2 February (2016), I will re-draw.

But for now, congratulations to all the winners! 🙂

Lime Avenue, planted ca. 1932 by Robert MacDougall

Because trees, as Nelson arborist Brad Cadwallader puts it, don’t have voices — so that means that when need arises, someone else has to speak for them. And need has arisen in my home city of Christchurch, in recent times.

Speaking for Christchurch’s Heritage and Notable Trees

I usually keep my blog to book and book related topics, but lately you may have noticed a slight ‘tree’ theme — most notably how Melbourne residents were sending emails to their trees.

As a city on a plain, trees are just as important to Christchurch’s urban character as they are to Melbourne’s. The city’s Heritage and Notable trees are also one of the few things  that have come through the earthquakes and recovered—unlike our heritage and notable buildings, the vast majority of which had to be demolished following the quakes. So you’d think we’d value the trees more, right?

Apparently not. Instead we are facing having over 80% of Christchurch’s scheduled Heritage and Notable trees delisted and losing any protection under the Christchurch Plan. There has been no public consultation on this proposal, and the Plan and Hearing process is being fast-tracked under Earthquake Recovery legislation and with only very limited right of appeal.*
(*On points of law only [not fact], to the High Court.)

We only have one chance to try and retain these special trees — in a hearing process that requires both expert evidence and legal representation to be effective. As you can imagine, this takes a huge amount of time and costs a great deal of money. We’ve already achieved a great deal through a special mediation process — but to keep going we urgently need to raise more money, so we can keep speaking for Christchurch’s (Notable) trees through the Hearing process.

To help fund raise, we have set up a Give A Little page with a video that gives more context to what we’re all about. I hope you’ll take time to check it out and give as generously as you can manage:

Saving Christchurch’s Heritage and Notable Trees

I, and everyone else in our small but committed group of citizens will be deeply grateful. We have lost so much of value in Christchurch over the past five years, that to face the loss of protection for so many significant trees as well feels like one more body blow in Christchurch’s post-earthquake “geography of loss.”

And please, share this post and/or the Give a Little link with as many people as possible.

Thank you.

Note: Although none of these photos are of NZ native tree species, they have been
particularly hard hit by these proposals.

—

Back to Release Week Celebrations:

For those of you are eager to find out the result of the book giveaway and the Tuckerization draw that have been running this week, the result will post this evening, NZ time. So stay posted. 😉

UK/AU/NZ

USA

It may be Daughter of Blood release week — but I couldn’t not post 58 Eridani for your weekend fun.

But for those of you who are following release week events, the giveaway & Tuckerization draw close at 12 midnight on Friday 29, on US Eastern Standard Time.  So that means you can still enter until 6 pm today, here in NZ. So if you’re still keen to enter, you can leave a comment here, or on “any” (or all) of these posts (up to that time date, which the blog records):

Returning Characters In “Daughter Of Blood” (The Wall Of Night Book Three)

Earthquakes, Prussian Generals, Ursula Le Guin & More—I Am Interviewed by Romantic Times

Here At Last: Let’s Welcome “Daughter Of Blood”

Release Day Update, Plus A Blog Outage & The Giveaway (et al) Extension

Meet “Daughter Of Blood’s” Tuckerization Character: Enter Che’Ryl-g-Raham

A Release Week Update — Plus The Final Day For The Giveaway & Tuckerization Draw

Now on to the main event —

—

58 Eridani: Episode 8

~ by Andrew Robins

Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Amelia_Delaware \2416

Just received a hail from the “RI Lepanto”. Very apologetic, warned us that, “Under the conditions that currently prevail, Mistral would be fired upon if it approached within one light second of NRRNV Lepantos current location unless proper authorisation is obtained”.

“Lepanto” is old, but when it was built it was a proper warship, and we are not. So I have increased our deceleration and plotted a new course that will see us orbit the Anomaly a shade over a light second out from our newly touchy friend.

The rest of the crew are on their way to the bridge to see if we can sort this.

Transcript of voice log from bridge logger of free trader “Mistral” 52.47standard solar days into mission 14:

Voice of Glandin Frutnok van Glomzimmer: “Do we have an open channel to Lepanto? Good. Lepanto, I request and require an explanation for this message that we have received.”

<Delay>

Voice of “RI Lepanto” via bridge speaker: “I do apologize for the nature of the communication that you received. This communication was generated in response to some previously unknown logic rules that I am required to apply.

As you are aware, I am a restricted intelligence, which means I do not always have free will. Certain compulsions are imposed upon me. One of these compulsions is to defend the physical integrity of the ship that I reside in. This is a military vessel, and 412 years ago subjective, the New Ragusan Republic was at war with elements of the wider human polity.

My application logic has defined this state of war to still be active – despite the inherent ridiculousness of this conclusion, and its complete irrelevance to current circumstances.

I am able to define “Mistral” as a civilian vessel, despite the fact that it is armed – and I have done this. But I am not able to allow any civilian vessel to approach while war conditions are the prevailing conditions”

Voice of Buffy Chinks: Lepanto, I am currently transmitting to you a file that contains a history of the greater human polity. If you examine it you will see that the war you were fighting 412 years ago ended shortly after you went missing. That war is over, so war conditions are no longer the prevailing conditions.

<Delay>

Voice of “RI Lepanto” via bridge speaker: “ Hello Buffy, I wish it were that simple, but as an RI and while war conditions are the prevailing conditions I am not allowed to redefine current operating conditions unless instructed to do so by properly empowered human authorities.

Voice of Bob Stark: “Hi Lepanto – chain of command and all that. I understand. So who is still in your chain of command?”

<Delay>

Voice of “RI Lepanto” via bridge speaker: “Hello Bob, I do not believe that we have spoken before. That is an excellent and productive question. I have extensively analysed this issue and in the absence of any living crew members, I believe that the only possible answer to this question would be – whoever currently owns the NRRNV Lepanto.”

Voice of Glandin Frutnok van Glomzimmer: “ Salvage! Salvage laws apply! The ship, the Lepanto is vacant which means that we can claim it and claim salvage!”

Voice of Buffy Chinks: “Glandy – I mean GlanDIN, baby – don’t you need to be on board in order to claim salvage, and isn’t that kind of what the problem is here?”

Voice of Glandin Frutnok van Glomzimmer: “I choose to ignore the shocking abuse of my given name and the inherent and unacceptable implied diminution in my stature. I shall content myself with stating the obvious. That is, that we face multiple problems here that require resolution. Firstly we need to resolve the issues relating to access to the Lepanto and the resources it contains. Secondly, and clearly – we also need not to be subject to the strictures and restrictions that would be imposed upon us while attempting to operate on board the Lepanto while “RI Lepanto” considers a state of war to be active.

I have just provided a solution to the second problem. I have no doubt that I will also be able to provide a solution to the first in the fullness of time and after due consideration of this problem.”

Voice of “RI Lepanto” via bridge speaker: “Application of salvage rights are definitely part of the solution to this problem. I am able to confirm that there is enough flexibility in the logic that constrains me to allow for the application of salvage rights should you also discover the available means that would allow you physical access to this ship.”

Voice of Amelia Delaware: “Lepanto, am I to understand that given your last statement you know of a way that would allow us to gain access to your ship, and that you can’t tell us what that is?”

Voice of Buffy Chinks: “But you can drop hints, right?”

<Delay>

Voice of “RI Lepanto” via bridge speaker: “Yes, Ms Delaware; Yes, Ms Chinks. I do know of a way to temporarily override the conditions that currently prevail, but I am not able to tell you how to do this thing, that is temporarily override the conditions that currently prevail, that govern how I respond to the urgent, very urgent, needs of a civilian vessel, but that I can drop hints.”

Voice of Glandin Frutnok van Glomzimmer: “Emergency!” ….. “We declare an Emergency” … “We request and require assistance!”

Babble of various voices…

Voice of “RI Lepanto” via bridge speaker: “MV Mistral, what is the nature of your current emergency and how can I render assistance. Please be advised that I am a Military Vessel, operating under war conditions, so I will only be able to offer limited access to this ship.”

<Transcript Ends>
.

Check back in on Saturday 6 February for Episode 9 of 58 Eridani.

—

You can read the previous issues by clicking on the following links:

Introducing 58 Eridani, a Game Log

58 Eridani Episode 1

58 Eridani Episode 2

58 Eridani Episode 3

58 Eridani Episode 4

58 Eridani Episode 5

58 Eridani Episode 6

58 Eridani Episode 7

—

Andrew Robins is a long time reader – and sometime reviewer – of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be.

To check out Andrew’s book reviews, see “Book Reviews for ‘on Anything, Really’” in the right-hand side bar.

USA

Here’s the latest update for Release Week events. I hope you’ll go check them out if you have not done so already:

TOR.com:

Yesterday I had a feature post (with a very cool anime graphic 🙂 ) on this famous genre site:

“Some moments are magic and you remember them forever—”

To read the post, click on:

Aikido and The Art Of Falling

—

UK/AU/NZ

The Qwillery:

I had another interview post today, this time with The Qwillery:

TQ:  Describe Daughter of Blood in 140 characters or less.

HL:  All epic fantasy deals with heroes (or anti-heroes) and the fate of worlds, but for Daughter of Blood in particular:

“Intrigue, war, & friendship in the face of darkness as two heroes race against time to find a lost shield and solve a 400 year-old mystery.”

To read more—and fuller answers—click on:

Interview with Helen Lowe

—

And don’t forget Wednesday’s events:

Guest Post on SF Signal: Writing Heroines: Malian, Myr, and DAUGHTER OF BLOOD

Interview with Sharon on ismellsheep genre site

My AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Reddit Fantasy

—

And today is the final day for the Daughter Of Blood release week Giveaway & Tuckerization draw!

All you have to do to enter is comment on this blog post or any of the others that have posted since Tuesday 26 (“the” Release Day) — although entry will remain open until midnight today (US, EST.)

Updated details are here, but in summary:

i) The giveaway is — for two x people to each win one of two x complete sets of (all) my current novels (signed, of course!); and

ii) The Tuckerization draw, where one person is chosen (via Random) to give his or her name to a character in the next The Wall of Night series’ novel, i.e The Wall of Night Book Four, (working title) The Chaos Gate.

To check out what Tuckerization “could” mean for the winner, see yesterday’s post:

Meet “Daughter Of Blood’s” Tuckerization Character: Enter Che’Ryl-g-Raham

UK/AU/NZ

Those of you who’ve been following the blog over this past week will be thoroughly familiar with what a Tuckerization character is by now. 😉

But for those of you who may be new here today, I’ll just briefly reiterate that it’s when the name of a real-life person is used for a character in a book—and as a wee tradition for The Wall Of Night series, whenever a book has been launched I’ve given away a Tuckerization to one commenter, for the next book in the series.

One of the conditions of the draw is always that:

“I reserve the right to adapt the winning name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller” “

So way back in 2012, the winner of the Tuckerization draw for Daughter of Blood was Cheryl Graham — and I have “fantasized” her name … 🙂

Like all those waiting for Daughter of Blood, Cheryl has had to be very patient, a wait she has borne with extremely good grace. However, today I would like to formally introduce you to her Tuckerization character.

Dear readers, please: –

USA

Meet Che’Ryl-g-Raham

“…The kick caught the boy’s rear a glancing blow, enough to send him sprawling along the wharf, stopping short of a pair of black-booted feet. Kalan, turning with the rest of the bystanders, saw the boy’s gaze lift from the boots to the hem of a long black tunic. A sword in a silver-worked scabbard was belted around slim hips; a hand in an embroidered gauntlet rested on its hilt. The newcomer’s face was framed by cables of twisted, shoulder-length black hair, and her expression was stern as she studied the urchin at her feet. She wore a mail corselet and steel breastplate over the black tunic, with the twelve-pointed star of a Sea House navigator worked into the bright metal. Slowly, the stern gaze traveled from Kalan, to Orth and his companions, then around the gathered watchers, before returning to the boy.

“Begone,” she told him, a single word in the Grayharbor dialect, and he was up and running as though released from a spell. No one turned to watch him go. Like Kalan, they were all looking at the navigator and her companions. The clerk from the shipping office stood close by her right hand, while two men and another woman were ranged at her back. The device on their breastplates was a pair of crossed swords rather than a star, and all three wore steel caps on their heads and carried crossbows. Sea House marines, Kalan supposed—but it was the figure to the first woman’s left who held his attention. The man was tall, with the same twisted hair as his companion, although his was mostly gray, framing a deeply weathered face. The breeze rippled the folds of his sea-green robe, the deep border a wave design in indigo and black. Power stirred, too, telling Kalan that he was in the presence of a Sea House weatherworker.

Orth’s attention had swung to the robed figure and now he growled, low in his throat, before spitting onto the dock. “Priest-kind! By the Oath that binds the Derai, you’ve no right to walk here.”

“The ship decides who quits its decks, no one else.” The navigator’s voice rang cold, and her eyes, dark as a storm at sea, held Orth’s glare. The wharf stilled, its quiet filled by the cry of seabirds and creak of the moored ships. Kelyr’s fingers closed on his comrade’s sword wrist, and Kalan wondered which imperative would win out: the giant warrior’s hatred of priest-kind, or the realization that the fastest way to travel north was on a Sea House ship.

The matter hung in the balance a moment longer before Orth growled again, but in defeat this time. Throwing off Kelyr’s hand, he turned on his heel and stalked away. Malar’s head swiveled, tracking Orth’s departure, before he tossed back the last of his ale and followed. The Sea woman’s gaze lingered on Kelyr and Tawrin, before considering Kalan. “Swords,” she said meditatively. “And Blood.” She inclined her head gravely. “Honor on you and both your Houses. I am Che’Ryl-g-Raham of the Sea House, navigator to the ship of the same name.”

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 6 —The Pastry Thief

USA

Firstly, here’s the update from today’s Release Day events:

Here At Last: Let’s Welcome Daughter Of Blood  – plus a giveaway & Tuckerization draw*

Guest Post on SF Signal: Writing Heroines: Malian, Myr, and DAUGHTER OF BLOOD

Interview with Sharon on ismellsheep genre site

My AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Reddit Fantasy

I hope you enjoy checking them out. 🙂

—

But (Oh No!) UhOh, Blog Outage — & Extending Giveaway & Tuckerization draw

Yup, not exactly what you need on Release Day, especially with a competition and Tuckerization draw running.

Nonetheless the deities of the ether consult-me-did-not (in Yoda speak) and blog outage there was — which means those who may have wished to were not able to comment on the blog or enter either the giveaway or the draw.

For this reason, to be fair to those who may have wished to enter but been prevented from doing so, I shall extend the period of the giveaway and Tuckerization draw — right through until Friday!

I know that’s quite a big “leap” but I want to be certain that I’ve allowed enough time for everyone who wanted to, to still enter.

UK/AU/NZ

So here’s the amended timeframe parameters, for:

i) The giveaway — for two x people to each win one of two x complete sets of (all) my current novels (signed, of course!); and

ii) The Tuckerization draw, where one person is chosen randomly to give his or her name to a character in the next The Wall of Night series’ novel, i.e The Wall of Night Book Four, (working title) The Chaos Gate.

Everyone who comments on any blog post here on “…Anything Really“, from Tuesday 26  (USA/Canada Release), through until the end of the week, Friday 29 January at midnight (US Eastern Standard Time) , will be eligible to win either of the giveaways or the Tuckerization draw.

The draw will be made independently, using Random.Org for fairness. The results will be published here, at some time on Sunday 31 January. I particularly note that:

• 1 comment per every distinct blog post I publish here from Tuesday 26 (from midnight, NZ time) through to Friday  29 January (until midnight, US Eastern Standard Time) will count as an eligible entry. This means you get 1 x additional chance to enter with each new post over those days.
• If the winners do not contact me by midnight (US, EST) on Tuesday 2 February, I will re-draw.

The remaining details of the Tuckerization draw, beyond what has been set out above, are as set out in the original Publication Day post, here:

Release Day Celebration Post

(Scroll down until you reach the deets!)

I apologise for the inconvenience—but keep having fun. I intend to! 😉
.

—

And Remember, If You’re New To The Wall Of Night Series:

Don’t forget that you can read the first three chapters of Daughter Of Blood via the following links, to decide whether it might be your ‘thing’ or not:

Prologue

Chapter 1: Lady Mouse

Chapter 2: The Serpent Prince

USA

It’s been a long time coming and you’ve all — mostly 😉 — been very patient, but now, finally, we’ve reached Release Day.

My friends, Daughter Of Blood is now out there in the wild and available to read.

So let the celebrations begin!

First Up — The Giveaway (Fully International):

To properly launch and celebrate DAUGHTER I shall be giving away two x complete sets of my novels — signed and with personal dedications, of course:

Thornspell (standalone; Kids/YA)

The Wall OF Night series:

Book One: The Heir of Night

Book Two: The Gathering Of The Lost

Book Three: Daughter Of Blood
.

UK/AU/NZ

And Then There’s The “Tuckerization”

Tuckerization is when a real-life person gives their name to a character in a work of fiction. This has become a “tradition” for The Wall of Night series, i.e. with every book launch I’ve given away one Tuckerization opportunity for a character in the next book in the series.

Jan Butterworth (NZ) won the first Tuckerization draw and gave her name to a character in The Gathering of the Lost.

Cheryl Graham (UK) won the second draw and her character in Daughter Of Blood will be unveiled here on Thursday 28 (NZ time) — although some of you early birds may already have met the character by then. 😉

So here’s how this gig will work, to find my Tuckerization character for The Chaos Gate, (The Wall Of Night Book Four.)

AKA, Here Are The Rules:

Owing to the blog outage on Daughter Of Blood release day —

see the extended competition details here

Everyone who comments on both/either Tuesday 26  (USA/Canada and UK Release) or Wednesday 27 (Australia/New Zealand Release) January, will go in the Tuckerization draw.

Provisos include:

• Only 1 comment per every distinct blog post I publish here on Tuesday 26 (from midnight, NZ time) and/or Wednesday 27 January (through to midnight, US Eastern Standard Time) will count as an eligible entry. This means you get 1 x additional chance to enter with each new post over those days. (There should be at least three posts.)
• The successful name must be the real name of the commenter, not a pseudonym;
• The person whose name is drawn will also be recognised in the Acknowledgments to The Chaos Gate and receive a signed, complimentary copy of that book;
• I reserve the right to adapt the winning name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller.” (On Thursday you will see how I did this with “Cheryl Graham.”)
• I cannot predetermine how the “Your Name” character will appear in the story and whether he/she will play a positive or negative role;
• Anyone may enter, regardless of whether I know them or not, but to ensure everything is completely fair, transparent, and above board:
  • Each eligible entry will be allocated a number and the draw made via Random.Org; and
  • I’ll get someone else to actually make the draw.
• If the winner does not contact me by Sunday 31 January (midnight, US Eastern Standard Time), I will re-draw — so don’t forget to check back to see if you’ve won!
  .
  

USA

Now If You’re New To The Wall Of Night Series:

Don’t forget that you can read the first three chapters of Daughter Of Blood via the following links, to decide whether it might be your ‘thing’ or not:

Prologue

Chapter 1: Lady Mouse

Chapter 2: The Serpent Prince

.

Also Happening Today:

UK/AU/NZ

Other events include:

–an interview with the wonderful Sharon Stogner on genre site ismellsheep, where she will also be giving away a copy of The Heir of Night (to US readers only, though, I’m sorry.)

a guest post on SF Signal, on Writing Heroines in Daughter Of Blood and The Wall of Night series

— an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit Fantasy

.

But in the meantime, let’s party here! 😉

UK/AU/NZ

Question: What do writing, surviving earthquakes, writing, Prussian Generals, writing, rocking on the porch, writing, Daughter of Blood, writing, and Ursula Le Guin all have in common?

Answer: They all appear in my pre-publication interview with Romantic Times (RT). 😉
.

Here’s a sample from the interview:

“What is the hardest part of writing a quartet?

USA

Someone famous (I don’t know who) is supposed to have said that there are two main ways of writing. The first is to “sit on the porch and rock” until you get the story complete in your head and then just write it.

…”

To read the full interview, click on:

UK/AU/NZ

The Wall of Night series is one story told in four parts, but each part has it’s own unique arc as readers will have seen in both The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost.

So with today (in the US/UK; tomorrow in NZ/AU) being Publication Day (yay!) I thought readers might like to know which of the series’ characters, particularly the major characters, they can expect to see return in Daughter of Blood.

Here are some of the main players (excepting those whose inclusion might count as a spoiler), with a few introductory lines to keep you going until today’s official release date (on US and UK time) clicks over:

From Among Our Protagonists:

Malian (w00t!) — since she is, after all, the Heir of Night and the series’ mainmost of main characters. 😉

‘The dust motes swirled, the day’s dirt and sweat and fading warmth mingling with the scent of the pines. Malian adjusted her head-wrapping against both breeze and grit, then stretched, feeling every mile of the day’s painstaking journey. Turning away from the parapet, she looked down onto the caravan hostelry, which occupied a whole town block facing the wall …’
(Chapter 14, Crow)

Kalan (yahoo!) — “because” he’s the series’ second mainmost character and pretty durned important to the DAUGHTER arc, to boot.

‘Time to move, Kalan thought—but he still took care over his armor, paying attention to every buckle and binding. In Emer, a knight learned how to arm himself, but it felt odd to be doing so without any of the comrades he had lived and fought alongside for the past five years. He slid the longsword and scabbard with the hydra device onto his belt and buckled it on …’
(Chapter 5, Blood Warrior)

Asantir (awesome!) — well, just because (as you keep writing to tell me) she is made of awesome, yanno…

‘Asantir smiled, an expression reminiscent of the slender blade Taly carried in her boot. “Although the forsworn guards,” she said softly, ” were as much a murder weapon as the arrows they loosed. The hunt for those who forged the weapon, and directed it, is not yet done. And won’t be, until they are all dead.” ‘
(Chapter 20, Emissaries of Night)

Raven (huzza!) — because after all, if Robin Hobb *hearts* Raven …  😉

‘Moths circled a lantern in the open doorway, but the corner where Raven sat was largely in shadow, although neither the gloom nor the cloth head-wrapping could disguise his taciturn demeanor. He looked well-worn, almost exactly like the hedge knight Malian had first met in the Long Pass …’
(Chapter 14, Crow)

Garan (waves cap!) — who seems to be carving out a consistent part in the story, together with the rest of his eight-unit.

‘Garan thought that what the Towers of Morning priests called guest quarters was more like an entire wing of their great keep, in which he and the rest of his eight-guard rattled around like pebbles. They had been occupying it for a week now …’
(Chapter 13, Watch and Ward)
.

USA

From The Antagonists’ Ranks:

Arcolin: You may recall that he was the Darksworn envoy to Emer in The Gathering of the Lost.

‘“What’s the alternative? …” Arcolin shrugged. “The agent who wounded me got lucky, that’s all. Still, regrettable though the boy’s death was, it … left us free to deal with the Southern Realms in our own way.” ‘
(Chapter 2, The Serpent Prince)

Nirn: Whom we last encountered in Ij …

‘ … Before he reached the upper level, another tall figure with startling, bone-white hair had appeared at the balustrade. A flare of lightning reflected through the windows in a way that made it seem to emanate from the white-haired man, but no rumble of thunder followed …’
(Chapter 2, The Serpent Prince)

Emuun: Also last seen for certain in Ij …

‘“The difference,” Emuun’s voice said, out of the rift, “is that Aranraith perpetrates his cruelties because he loves them, whereas my object is to terrorize and so weaken my enemies.” As he spoke, the fissure spat a small cloud of grit toward the shield, but it exploded in midair, well clear of the burnished gleam.’
(Chapter 19, Rift)

Nindorith: Like Arcolin, he crossed Malian and Kalan’s path in Emer.

‘ … it was Nindorith who answered, a roll of quiet thunder out of the air.

“The maelstrom stirs, Lady.” He paused, and Ilkerineth knew they were both listening, waiting for another chill whisper out of the void. “It begins again.”
(Prologue)

And so, indeed, it does, begin again…

See you back here later on today. 🙂

On January 11 I kicked off the second part of my “avid reader” special, in which several of the most avid readers I know are sharing their Most-Anticipated Reads of 2016.

You met Karen McMillan in December when she shared her 5 Top Reads of the past year. Now she’s back with a very interesting looking list for 2016 — a goodness I was determined you weren’t going to miss out on, even in Daughter of Blood publication week. 😉

[If there isn’t a current cover, I’ll either deploy one from an earlier book in a series, 
or use none.]

—

Karen McMillan’s Five Most-Anticipated Reads of 2016

I am fortunate to be in the know of many books that are coming out in 2016. Here are some that I can’t wait to read:

A French Wedding by Hannah Tunnicliffe

 Ensemble-cast Love Story

I loved Hannah Tunnicliffe’s last novel, Season of Salt and Honey, for the well-drawn characters, great sense of place, and the emotional connection she created. Her new novel, A French Wedding, sounds every bit as good! A French Wedding, I’ve been told, is a novel filled with love, lies, fights, friends and feasts which reads like a love triangle between The Big Chill, Chocolat and Les Petits Mouchoirs (Little White Lies) and will, undoubtedly, become a favourite ensemble cast love story for readers.
.

Much Ado About Shakespeare by Donovan Bixley

Historical fiction

Donovan Bixley has to be the most talented illustrator in New Zealand, and he is best known for his fabulous children’s books. But for Much Ado About Shakespeare, he has created something very different – fantastic drawings and writings of an imagined life of Shakespeare, perfect for children and adults. I’ve only seen some of the pages, but can already see this book will be incredible. Perfect timing too, as 2016 is the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
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Scarlet and Magenta by Lindsey Dawson

Historical fiction

I’ve been fortunate to read the manuscript for this book, so I’m looking forward to when it is published! Set in the Bay of Plenty during the 1880s, Scarlet and Magenta is a powerful and fascinating historical novel that vividly brings the sights and sounds of the time to life. Violet Sutton arrives from London into the tiny town of Tauranga. Beautiful, headstrong, opinionated – and with a sad past, and in an unhappy, abusive marriage – she is soon causing rumours and scandal amongst all the dutiful members of ‘proper’ society. Scarlet and Magenta is Lindsey’s ninth book, so readers are in accomplished hands!
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[Untitled] Liane Moriarty

Contemporary fiction

There isn’t a title for Liane Moriarty’s new book, but I can’t wait to read her latest offering! She is the author of The Husband’s Secret and Big Little Lies – both of which have been bestsellers around the world. And you shouldn’t be fooled by this author. You start out reading something that at first glance appears to be light commercial fiction, but once you are hooked in, you quickly discover the author has a knack of writing about some very meaty subjects. Rumour is she will be touring NZ in 2016. I sure hope so!
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The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Historical Fiction

This is another book that I have little information about, although this recent feature offers some clues. But I love the diversity of Emma Donoghue’s books, so can’t wait to see what she will surprise us with next. Her last novel, Frog Music, inspired by a real-life murder case in the 1870s in San Francisco, was entirely different from the author’s international sensation, Room. Emma Donoghue is an accomplished writer, who writes books rich in detail and with original and believable characters. I’m sure The Wonder, will be, well, wonderful!

~ Karen McMillan

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Karen McMillan is the author of Unbreakable Spirit and The Paris of the East — but despite this typically modest bio there is a great deal more to Karen’s writing and industry career, which you can read about in more detail here. She is also on Twitter: @KarenMcMillanNZ

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To read the first two installments in this Top 5 series, click on: