Books

I'm a writer, folks! I write books. Fantasy novels, to be exact. Here's what's on my mind:

The Chaos Queen Quintet
The Chaos Queen Quintet (previously The Rising) is a project I began, sort of, back in January 2008 as an assignment for Brandon Sanderson's ENGL 318R class. Then the class ended, and I stopped writing the thing. I kept thinking about it, though, coming back to it in small ways, writing down ideas and so forth, but essentially dropped it for two years.

In Fall of 2009 I began some prewriting and more worldbuilding for the project, and then in January of 2010 I re-started it from the beginning, with some completely different ideas and goals in mind. I finished the first draft of that particular novel--Duskfall--in June of 2010. (For more on what that was like, check out this post.) That novel actually got me an agent, that agent got me published, and, well, the rest is history. Er, will be history? O.o

The Chaos Queen Quintet consists of five main novels:

Duskfall (often abbreviated DF on this site), the first novel in the series, introduces three characters: Knot has no memories of anything before a year ago, when he was found floating belly-down in the Frozen Gulf--and his occasional, confusing flashbacks indicate a dangerous past life. Winter belongs to the oppressed tiellan race, an elf-like people who were enslaved for centuries and emancipated only recently; she uncovers a raging power within her that could change--or destroy--the world, depending on whether she can control her addiction to the drug that makes the power possible. And Cinzia, a priestess in the universal Cantic Denomination, experiences a crisis of faith when the leader of the heretic uprising she is tasked to investigate turns out to be her own sister. Knot, Winter, and Cinzia's lives quickly weave together as they discover the world's fate rests squarely on their shoulders.

Dark Immolation (DI): My current project, and the sequel to Duskfall. Knot, Winter' and Cinzia's stories continue as they try to figure out what they can do about a world that is, literally and figuratively, slipping into hell.

Midnight Void (MV), book three in the Chaos Queen series.

Fear the Stars (DtS), book four in the series.

Dawnrise (DR), the fifth and final book in the Chaos Queen Series.

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Other projects in the Chaos Queen world include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Dead Night (DN) is an indirect sequel to DF and follows Sarca Agostino, a young princess sent to live on the resort island of Arro until her illegitimate pregnancy comes to term. Because of the events that take place at the end of DF, strange forces begin to manifest themselves on the island, and Sarca soon finds herself trying to survive--and protect her unborn child--in complete chaos as dark magic, a sinister cult, the rising dead, and the worst of human nature do all in their power to destroy her world. Think Downton Abbey meets The Walking Dead in a fantasy universe, and you'll get the tone of DI.
• "Nadir" is a novelette I've written going into some of the consequences of what happens at the end of DF. It's a story about madness, magic, and mental illness, but I've only got the first draft done and haven't gone back to it yet, so it still needs a lot of work.
• "Wretched Queen" (WQ) is another novelette I wrote a couple years ago that takes place a few millennia before DF, detailing some of the mythos and backstory of what is taking place in the Chaos Queen series. I actually really love this novelette, but it definitely takes some literary risks, so it's been tough to find a home for it.