I hope you all had a very happy Christmas and new year. Welcome to 2014! Here's hoping that this is a much better—happier, safer, healthier—year for everyone. I have finished moving house, although I still have one box left to unpack, and I'm still living on very limited internet, which makes me a very sad person. I'm hoping the internet issue will be resolved in a good way very soon, but for now, I'm in a holding position and waiting and hoping.
Over the end of December and now into January, I have been working on edits of books in "The Archangel Chronicles." Second editions with substantial edits in terms of tightening up the narrative, new scenes and dialogue and overall cleaning up the story have been released of the first three books,
No Quarter; No Surrender, No Retreat and
No Shadows Fall, and are now available for purchase. This is all leading up to the second trilogy in the series, which will be released through 2014.
The first book of the second trilogy is
The Wind-Up Forest. This is book four of the series and the blurb reads: Archangel Gabriel is hoping for a quiet period in his life to enjoy his relationship with Archangel Michael, but someone has other ideas. New dangers arise when the Holy Grail is stolen. Gabriel, Michael, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Archangels and their allies must somehow thwart the twisted desires of the thief.
Their search for the Grail takes them all over the world, calling on old friends like Uriel and Raziel and forging powerful new alliances. Though they face a fresh set of perils in pursuit of the thief, the enduring comfort Gabriel needs so much, that of his beloved Michael, never abandons him.
Book five is
The Crystal Lake, and book six is
The Bone Cup. I've ventured into Arthurian Legend with this trilogy, as that's a whole set of mythology that I've always adored and been fascinated by. There are a lot of ties to angels within those legends, too, which is great when one is writing about angels!
What is most interesting, I think, are the new characters. This trilogy picks up where the first left off, placing it around the year 2085. The Venatores, the elite force of shifters that are trained and led by Michael feature more prominently, and so do some of the residents of Hell and Purgatory. The new characters were a lot of fun for me to write and develop. I'm currently working on the third trilogy, and many of these new characters are in the third trilogy, too. Of course the angels and Archangels are all there, too—it wouldn't be "The Archangel Chronicles" without them!
So who's new? Well, here's a short list.
Primary New Characters.Angelique: Alpha of a Venatores pack. Formerly US Air Force and is of Mexican descent, raised in Texas. Her shifter shape is a dark gray wolf.
Lily: Beta of Angelique’s pack, is an Englishwoman, formerly of the British Army. Her shifter is a grey wolf, and she is married to Danny, another member of the pack.
Baxter: Kappa of Angelique’s pack. Formerly a US Marine, suffering PTSD. His shifter shape is an Arctic white wolf.
Danny: Kappa of Angelique’s pack. Also a former US Marine, born and raised in Georgia. His shifter shape is a grey wolf, and he is married to Lily, another member of the pack.
Riley: Omega of Angelique’s pack and the pack medic. Formerly a US Marine medic. His shifter shape is a red rock wolf.
Declan Jones: Shifter and older brother of Liam. Raised in Puerto Rico, he and his brother were both taught the ways of magic, Hoodoo and Santeria by their guardians, a Hoodoo priestess named Selana and her husband, Jack. During the Seventy Years War, Declan in the US Army for some years.
Liam Jones: Necromancer and younger brother of Declan, raised in Puerto Rico, and educated in the same things as his brother by their guardians. He is one of the strongest necromancers alive in the world. Worked as a police officer before he and Declan set out together to work as demon trackers.
Minnie: An Australian witch. Formerly a thief, known as No-Hands Minnie.
Max/Mobius: Extremely talented hacker known for being able to dig up hidden information. His partner is Minnie, and he lives with her and their cat.
Lilith: The first wife of Adam, and prior to that, the consort of God Himself, Lilith is the first scorned woman and the first woman to say no to a man. After she left Adam, she wandered in the wilderness and mothered giants, the monsters of ancient mythology. Originally named Lilitu by the Akkadians, she met Lucifer in the desert and they spent a long time in conversation. Lilith is the oldest of the Four Sisters of Succubi. Agrat, Eisheth, and Naamah are her sisters. Her titles are: Consort of Lucifer, Eater of Infants, The First Adulteress, Consort of Yahweh, Mother of Giants.
Secondary New Characters.Camael: An Angel of War under the command of Gabriel.
Asaf: Angel of Evening Hymns. Under the command of Gabriel.
Vel: Angel of Wednesday. Under the command of Gabriel.
Arkady: A Russian shifter. Has ulterior motives to what he says and is as slippery as a fish.
Olga: A Russian shifter.
Vasily: A Russian shifter.
Larissa: An Armenian shifter.
Horace: A member of the Order of Midnight, an extremely expensive group of assassins.
Anna: Venatores, Russian, lives in the building owned by Michael in Oregon. She is a wolf shifter, mother to two young children, and married to Robert.
Robert: Venatores, American, lives in the building owned by Michael in Oregon. He is a fox shifter, father to Anna’s children, and married to Anna.
Eisheth: Youngest of the Four Succubi Sisters, spent her time living among the stars, comforting those who fell to earth as they died.
Naamah: One of the Four Succubi Sisters, she used to live in the seas of the Earth, but moved to Purgatory during the Seventy Years War. Has two children, twins, whose father is unknown. Her twin children are named Arthur and Morgana, after the Arthurian legends.
I've been working hard with Lynn and Erika from Dreamspinner Press, and while the editing has been intense, it's been really good and I've really enjoyed the whole process. I came to a conclusion that I'd been rolling around in my head during the edits, and I'd like to share that with you all now. The best way to view the series as a whole is in sets of three, or seasons. So the first trilogy has the theme of coming together and being united; the second trilogy has the theme of the Holy Grail; and the third trilogy (which I'm working on) has the theme of isolationism and prejudice and fighting against those. The underlying theme of all sets of three is the Seventy Years War and its aftermath. So each set of three is slightly different in point-of-view and narrative structure, with different elements of magic and romance added into the story as well.
So where to get 'em? Link time! And don't you guys love the gorgeous covers Anne Cain did for me? I'm so thrilled with them, they're beautiful.
No Quarter: eBook |
Paperback.
No Surrender, No Retreat: eBook |
Paperback.
No Shadows Fall: eBook |
Paperback.
The Wind-Up Forest: Watch the
coming soon page for this and
The Crystal Lake and
The Bone Cup.
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Archangel Chronicles Bundle Volume One
The Wind-up Forest
The Archangel Chronicles
Blurb: 
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