New addition to the family. 🙂
The Channel War, Book V of the Norothian Cycle, is now available.
I will be taking a nap. 😉
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4YU0R8
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C4YU0R8
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-channel-war-m-edward-mcnally/1046372725
So barring disaster or Acts of Dragons, Book V of Norothian Cycle – The Channel War – should be available right after the weekend, on April Fool’s Day (funny how that works out).
A friend suggested this idea by way of a “preview,” posting one line of dialogue from each of the 38 chapters. I admit, it’s a weird idea, but I sort of found it amusing, and so here you go. Hope to see you next week when I’ll be posting (gasp!) active links to where the book can actually be had, but until then, here is the entirety of The Channel War, via the mouths of those characters living it.
—
“There are days of sun and days of rain.”
“Fire shells, Lord Mayor. Your city yields, or it burns.”
“Sometimes there is a trumpet or something, but I did not think to bring a minstrel.”
“Reveal thyself.”
“I am willing to be searched if you would like, Miss.”
“There is betrayal behind us, and trouble all around. Staying in this place is standing still with our neck in a noose.”
“What in the hell is wrong with you, woman?”
“The rest are novice priests, though experienced villains.”
“Even should nothing happen, I suppose the damage to my reputation is done.”
“Your human blood makes you so stupid.”
“There is always a pretext that will move men toward war, it is just a matter of finding the right one.”
“We do not truck with demons nor devils.”
“I know what you did to me.”
“Do not laugh. She will cut you.”
“Be a dear and shoot the archers first, will you?”
“Give their masters something to think about before they try this again.”
“I assume you have something important to say, or else I am guessing you would not have risked having someone throw a net over your head.”
“I’m not getting on a horse for a while, but I’ll be fine.”
“Seems too heavy for any sort of cooking fire.”
“Lambs have no sense but to walk themselves to the slaughter.”
“I am sure he would have liked to see you again. He would be happy you are here.”
“You cannot hope to avoid a long and agonizing war by attempting to stay out of it. You must win it, and swiftly.”
“Take a breath and relax yourself, Captain. I am here to talk, if you will stop blustering and posing for a minute’s time.”
“Handsome or not, you have to teach a boy to work for it. The fisherman does not respect the easy fish.”
“Though it is worth remembering that the anchor which is cut away, may not be used again.”
“What was that? Are you shot?”
“I stand around a lot with no real idea of what I’m doing.”
“Congratulations. It only took you a week to summon the courage to ask that.”
“And who is this little charmer?”
“What do words mean to the dead?”
“Fantastic. I suppose the whole of the Empire now knows I am the puppet of that horned bastard in Devil Town.”
“Have I told you that you talk too damn much?”
“I hate and love you so much right now I could break both your legs.”
“That sounds rather dangerous.”
“I am backing my faith with my life and my steel.”
“Time for me to bleed a little?”
“That was not the deal, Kitty.”
“A woman has to talk. Or why did you think men pick up swords in the first place?”
“For every moment of triumph, for every instance of beauty, many souls must be trampled.”
– Hunter S. Thompson
I thought about that quote a lot as I was finishing a draft suitable for editing of the fifth book in the Norothian Cycle. As you might guess, The Channel War is about exactly what it sounds like: War. I am something of a military history buff, which some might mistake as being a fan of war. That really couldn’t be further from the truth, as even fascination does not always imply affection. There really isn’t anything about war that I like, neither as an idea nor as a reality. But I will admit that it holds my interest.
As readers of the Norothian Cycle undoubtedly know, the first four books have brought the continent of Noroth and the characters who “live” there up to the yawning precipice of what a red dragon named Bith-Kal describes to John Deskata as a war that “will not only set dragon against dragon, but nation against nation, and man against man.” (Book III, The Wind from Miilark). By Book V that war has erupted, and there are no characters in the series who remained untouched by the strife. There were parts of the book I found really hard to write, for I have come to care more than I even realized for Tilda Lanai, Phin Phoarty, Kendall Heggenauer, and the rest of the cast o’ thousands. Delivering troubles to their doors wasn’t fun, but I felt like it had to be done to tell the story as I wanted it told. Thus the Thompson quote above, which I take to mean that even in fiction, nothing good comes without price. That price is paid in this book, and I humbly hope a bit of triumph and beauty may come with it.
The last section of The Channel War is now being edited, and I hope to have it available by the first of next month, which turns out to be April Fool’s Day, 2013. There is something so right about that. 🙂 Oh, and the cover by Tamra Westberry looks a little something like this:
The northern nation of Tartheagu continues to be referenced with increasing frequency as Book Five of the Norothian Cycle – The Channel War – rolls along, but it has thus far only appeared on maps in large scale without much detail. In order to rectify that, here you go.
This map displays the far northwest corner of the continent Noroth, with most of the Empire of the Code visible to the south, and the coastal edge of the Il-Tasardom of Kantantanalace on the eastern edge. The Tarthagars and Kantans, it may be recalled, jointly invade the western half of Old Daul (southeast of this map, visible here) way back in Book Two and occupied a region known as The Protectorate. By Book Four the T-K alliance has fractured, leaving Tartheagu in sole occupation of most of those lands.
In other news, Book Five remains in progress. The first “Part” (roughly a third) is with Beta readers, the second is going out to them this weekend, and the final part should be ready for editing within the next several weeks. Tentatively then, still shooting for a March release, likely toward the end of the month. But it is getting there. 🙂
Cheer up, Emo Kids. The seven authors of the Eclective are offering THE APOLCALYPSE COLLECTION for the low, low price of FREE, today through Saturday on all Amazon platforms. Fell FREE to help yourself to some tales about the End of All Things.
My own contribution is a post-apoc style short story called “Seeds,” goes a little something like this:
——-
The body was stiff and we could smell the dry rot even through our respirators. Specs stood watch and I rolled it for a pat-down. It was definitely a feral, male, hard to guess age but with skin all cooked and paper thin. No obvious injuries, but ferals tend to just drop dead after a while with their lungs full of grit, or because they got hungry enough to eat the straggly, poison plants out here. The body was too far gone to drag back to the Feeders, but the pat-down turned up a shotgun with the barrel sawed off, some home-load ammo, and five knives though only two that weren’t all rusty. Box of matches, broken compass, and the can.
I held it out so Specs could see it. It was about the size of the fifty-round drum load on his XM8 assault rifle, but a scratched-up silver color. Made out of metal and screwed shut about three-quarters up the side.
“What you got there Meats?” Specs asked. He’d flopped his respirator aside just long enough to pop the left-side end of the throat tube from his camel pack into his mouth, while squeezing the belly pouch through his fatigues and camo gear. You’ve got to carry the nush the Feeders cook up like that so your body heat keeps it from turning solid. Specs sucked a mouthful of the brown paste through his tube and put his respirator back in place.
“Don’t know,” I said. “Looks like a can.”
Specs doesn’t give me as much crap as a couple of the others in our billet do for being stupid. He looked around the hills again before stepping over and hunkering down, pushing at his goggs to straighten his glasses on his nose inside them. His eyes are so bad, they are why the Priests sterilized him. Don’t want to pass on being blind-as-a-feral-at-noon to the next generation Up the Hill. They did me because I’m stupid.
I holstered my .45 and got a good grip on both ends of the can, but even with the tack pads on the fingers my gloves wouldn’t grip the smooth metal. I took them both off while Specs gave the hillside another glance, and still had to squeeze the can against my chest and tense up my shoulders before it loosened enough to unscrew. When it did I held out the bottom part and me and Specs blinked down at a bunch of itty-bitty little beige things.
“What’s that?” I asked, but Specs just stared at them for a while before he answered, voice still muffled through his respirator though it sounded like he was whispering anyway.
“Those are seeds, Meats,” he said. “Those are seeds.”
——-
Like I said, the rest is free, US, UK, and all Amazon venues. 🙂
Thanks much to Julianne Snow for letting me drop bey her blog, the FlipSide for an interview where I pontificate about, um, me. I combed my hair and cleaned up first, I promise. <– that is a ‘before’ picture.
Is it only happenstance that the interview consists of nine questions, while the pantheon of my fantasy setting has nine deities, and nine characters all assemble by the end of Volume One, The Sable City? Yes, it is just a coincidence. 😉
The Riven Kingdoms, 1396 NC
Slowly but surely getting more maps converted from old chicken-scrawl handwritten versions. This one is of the Riven Kingdoms which are often referenced but have so far only appeared on the eastern edge of maps of Daul (which is “The Protectorate” by 1396 NC) or the northern edge of Ayzantium (where civil war still rages at the same time). This map does however include the birthplaces of five characters from the series: Zebulon Baj Nif was raised in Wakminau, one of the three cities at the Bifurcation, where the Dranner River divides into the Ghendal and the Riddle. Captain Block was born in the Dwarf Mountain’s of Garak-Tor while the Gnomish mercenary Fitzyear Coalmounderan is from the neighboring hill country of Nom. Finally, Nesha-tari was born in the north Ayzantine desert at the bottom of the map, known in Zantish as The Hakalya (“the Desolation), while Durkashil Karza’s “Focaru” tribe inhabits the valley of the Fox River to the northeast.
New today from Tara West, the FREE prelude volume of her Keepers of the Stones series gets a shiny new cover, that would be Feira over there. <–.
Do stop by Tara’s blog for a bit more background, along with links to everywhere Witch Flame is available for free. 🙂
Thanks much to Free Kindle Books and Tips for featuring The Sable City among today’s featured FREE titles. And of course as always, all unKindled e-readers are welcome to a free copy as well. 🙂
Feel free to jump aboard the Norothian Cycle, and see where Tilda Lanai takes you.
– Ed
Thanks to all who entered the 2013 New Year Hop here at the Sable City blog, and took a shot at the question:
<<< How many characters speak at least one line of dialogue in THE SABLE CITY? >>>
And big congratulations to both islandkayaker & Rachel, who both guessed 63 and were thus within one of the right answer, 64. I’ll be e-mailing you both today to arrange just how you would like to receive your prize books of The Norothian Cycle. Thanks to everybody who entered and took part in the overall New Year Hop, and good look with the Grand Prize drawings. 🙂
– Ed McNally. Read the rest of this entry »
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