Grimbriar releases November 21st

Books don’t come easy. Even the most throw-away pulp fiction takes effort to typeset, print, and get out to the public. And some books, like Lord of the Rings and Dune, for example, are years in the making.

Grimbriar, book 3 of the Swordspeaker Saga is my most ambitious work yet. Clocking in at 510 pages, this story consumed my focus for over a year. It went through six drafts. And with all those pages, the time to its release seemed as though it would never come.

But now it has.

The story thus far

If you’re new to the Swordspeaker Saga the story takes place in the Four Wards, also known as Warding, a land of faded glory and fractured kingdoms. Yet just as war returns to the land, two heroes arise from an obscure northern village, accompanied by their vibrant and unforgettable friend, a diminutive blacksmith with a penchant for hats.

Each story centers around one of the legendary glaives of old. These are living weapons, but only a swordspeaker can hear their voices and unlock their secrets. , book 1, tells the story of a flaming sword while , book 2, tells the story of an ice dagger. Together with their glaives, the swordspeakers Kion and Tiryn seek a way to bring an end to the war and defeat the enemy leader, the hulking Vayd Mokán.

After darkness, light

Now comes Grimbriar, the story of how a massive spiked morningstar comes to find its swordspeaker.

I’m pretty sure this is the only book about a sentient morningstar in existence. So there’s that. History will be made!

With Grimbriar you’ll find more adventure, more peril, and more wonder than ever before. I crafted the world of Warding to be familiar and yet mysterious, with a rich history that unfolds slowly with each new story. I wanted to create a world that harkened back to the great fantasy adventures I read in my youth.

It is a place where you can find true heroes to cheer for. Heaven knows there are precious few of those running around any more.

Yet it is also a harsh world where death is very real and war takes its toll even among those of noble heart. Here you’ll find betrayals, hardships, edge-of-your-seat duels, malicious monsters, and insidious evil.

But be not dismayed, my friend. The light shines brighter in the darkness.

Shadows, shadows everywhere

Here are the opening few paragraphs of the novel:

Shadows, shadows everywhere. No matter where he looked, Kion’s eyes met with shadows pooling upon the ground in liquid darkness, black wounds upon the land. The full moon did little more than deepen the stains. Its wan light shrank from the edges, unable to penetrate the darkened wells.

They had arrived late into the night. Trekking to Whitewind across Rimewinter’s bridge of crystal blue ice had made for slow going. They had to watch their footing to avoid slipping into the sea. Tinesplitter Bay had been easier to cross when covered by snow.

The travelers had expected to arrive in the dark, but not a darkness like this. Kion unsheathed Truesilver shortly after the sun went down. A familiar reddish glow enveloped the sword. Beside him, Tiryn’s dagger, Rimewinter, shone with a clean blue light of its own, though of a lesser degree, for the naked blade remained strapped snugly across his sister’s chest. Where the two glaive-lights met, they blended in purplish harmony. The light brought Zinder’s canary-yellow hat into vivid contrast against the encroaching darkness. The fashionable nyn had wanted to look especially striking for their triumphal return, and the giant bulbous headpiece was nothing if not eye-catching, but the way the brim drooped almost to his shoulders after a long day subjected to sweat and sun made him look like a tulip with wilted petals, giving quite a different impression from the one he’d intended. Behind these three, and towering over the nyn, though they were all of fourteen years old, came the twins, Trik and Trak, their Frin guides. These two scanned the dark patches of the village with troubled eyes, but could tell no more of them than the others. Scriff, their pet frost fox, circled their legs. The animal’s milk-white fur stood on end. A low growl rumbled in its throat. Not since the clash with the snowslither had the frox (as Trik and Trak called him) displayed such agitation.

“What black arts are at work here?” Zinder pushed his sagging hat up away from his eyebrows.

“I thought the curse was lifted,” Trak said. “The snow’s gone, but something else has taken its place, something even more unnatural than endless winter.”

“Maybe we’re just…tired,” Trik said and faked a yawn. He was as wide awake as any of them. “Sometimes my eyes see spots when I’ve gone too long without sleep.”

“Everything looks so different. Not at all the way I remembered,” Tiryn said, trailing the others down the paved street, her eyes roving the darkened houses. 

Whitewind, once gripped in the unending snow and ice of the Longwinter, had been released at last to summer’s healing warmth. The thatched roofs of the triangular, timber-framed houses lay exposed to the air for the first time in centuries and the stone paths between them showed no trace of winter’s touch. But a new kind of chill now permeated the air, invisible and daunting, and it sank its talons deep into the bone.

The launch event giveaway

To celebrate the release of this epic tale, I’m hosting a contest.

This being the third book in the series, I’m giving away three hard copies of the book to anywhere in the world. Two paperbacks and one hardback.

Entry is free. The deadline is December 15th.

You can sign up by clicking here:

Grab hold and start swinging

The release date for the ebook is November 21st.

Rhe paperback and hardbacks will release in December. Still no hard date on those. You can sign up for my newsletter to be notified as soon as it drops.

I’d like to thank my wonderful cover designer, Janette Ramos for her work on this book. All of her covers are so vibrant and beautiful and capture the whimsy and wonder at the heart of these tales. You can find amazing wallpaper versions of the art from the saga over on the downloads page.

I’d also like to thank my incredible editor Deborah O’Carroll. She not only has an eagle eye for typos and grammatical errors, she provides invaluable feedback on her experience as a reader interacting with the story. She “gets it” when it comes to fantasy and why it is the highest, most creative, and most satisfying form of art when it’s done well.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey.

Get ready. The adventure is about to begin.