This is my newest project, an original fantasy series, to be published by DAW. Check here for sneak previews and release dates!
I first began developing and exploring this world in a series of short stories published in Sword & and Sorceress. They include:
- "The Spirit Arrow" (Sword & Sorceress XIII, DAW, 1996)
- "A Single Soul" (Sword & Sorceress XIV, DAW, 1997)
- "The Phoenix Blade" (Sword & Sorceress XV, DAW, 1998)
- "Enaree" (Sword & Sorceress XVI, DAW 1999)
at the dawn of time, an evil melding of the elements of Fire and Ice tried to destroy all creation, and a band of courageous brothers and their magical Shield defeated it?
with the passage of ages, the magic imprisoning Fire and Ice wore thin, and an ambitious, paranoid King smashed the final bonds?
the heir to the magical Shield, consumed with grief and vengeance, fell under the spell of Fire and Ice, becoming a ravening conqueror who threatens all the living world?
the only ones standing in the way of the ultimate triumph of evil were a mother thought dead, a dispossessed prince, a demented prophet, and the warrior princess whose love alone can reach the heir to the magical Shield?
the fate of the world turns on the heroism of one man?
an ambitious Emperor conquers a tiny mountain kingdom, he shatters the magical boundary between the human and elemental worlds, and an ancient evil, an unholy fusion of Fire and Ice, is reborn. The Seven-Petaled Shield is a three-volume epic fantasy, roughly corresponding to the time of the Romans and Scythians, with the magical Seal of Solomon, a supernatural embodiment of evil, and Genghis Khan's Mongolian Horde providing a world filled with action, suspense, and romance.