“Herald Rising” – in Mages & Magic

I mentioned this earlier, but I wanted to go into more detail “about the story”.

The latest in the Blue Kingdoms books is now available digitally (the print run will be available later this year). My story, Herald Rising actually adds a completely new aspect to the shared world of the Blue Kingdoms. I try to answer (or begin to answer) this question: “What if something like the Cthulhu mythos had taken place in a fantasy universe?”

So here’s the thing. The story – like so many do for me – came with an image – a cthonic golem, rampaging across the island. But it came with a problem.

But how to tell the story?

It took four tries for me to finally hit on the obvious: Tell a Lovecraftian story like a Lovecraftian story! Suddenly Allica the scribe jumped into my head, inheriting her uncle’s papers and discovering the truth that no-one else had really seen. And that truth is only the tip of the iceberg.

And on top of all of that, I’m a bloody left-leaning liberal (mostly). I hate Lovecraft’s racism and xenophobia. I hate the smug western european superiority throughout his works. But yet… there’s something about Lovecraft’s works that continue to speak to me.

So I had the challenge of writing this story while being fully aware of Lovecraft’s issues… and avoiding them all. I think I did a pretty decent job of it, and I’d love to hear what you think.

You can read a sample of the book online at Smashwords, and pick up a ePub copy there, or a Kindle copy at Amazon. Perfect for that eReader you just got (or are about to get) – over six hours of reading pleasure for less than the price of coffee at Starbucks.