The Qwillery

Happy last Monday in October and Happy Halloween Eve! We had a very windy and wet storm yesterday into this morning. It's still raining but the wind has died down some. School was cancelled here due to power outages and impassible roads. We've had some terrible storms around Halloween including an early Nor'easter that left the area without power for a week. I'm thankful for just a one day wind/rain event and hope everyone's power is back on soon. Obviously this nothing like what our friends in the Caribbean and other areas are going through. If you are so inclined you can head over to Charity Navigator and check out ways to donate to Relief for Puerto Rico and Areas Impacted by Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Harvey Relief, and Hurricane Irma Relief.


Please note that I am not including November titles in this post. A full list of November books, etc. will be posted on November 1st.


There are two debuts this week:

Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns;

and

The Astonishing Thing by Sandi Ward.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Malice of Crows (The Shadow 3) by Lila Bowen;

Siege Line (Shadow Ops: Gemini Cell 3) by Myke Cole;

New Pompeii (New Pompeii 1) by Daniel Godfrey is out in Mass Market Paperback;

The Trouble With The Twelfth Grave (Charley Davidson 12) by Darynda Jones;

A Darker Shade of Magic Collector's Edition (Shades of Magic 1) by V. E. Schwab;

and

Eagle and Empire (The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 3) by Alan Smale is out in Mass Market Paperback.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

October 31, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Time After Time	Karl Alexander	SF/TT/SP/Th
Shattered Memories	V.C. Andrews	Gothic - The Mirror Sisters Series 3
How Fear Departed the Long Gallery: A Ghost Story for Christmas	E. F. Benson	GH/LF/SupTh - Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories
The Empty House: A Ghost Story for Christmas	Algernon Blackwood	GH/LF/SupTh - Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories
Malice of Crows	Lila Bowen	F - The Shadow 3
The Golden Gate (h2mm)	Robert Buettner	SF
The Fall of Dragons	Miles Cameron	F - The Traitor Son Cycle 5
Dawn in Damnation	Clark Casey	H
Siege Line	Myke Cole	MF - Shadow Ops: Gemini Cell 3
Vacation	Matthew Costello	H
The Official Supernatural Coloring Book: Monsters, Demons, and Spirits	Insight Editions	CB
1636: The Ottoman Onslaught (h2mm)	Eric Flint	AH - Ring of Fire 21
The Final Day (h2mm)	William R. Forstchen	Th/SF/AP/PA - John Matherson 3
The Rift Frequency	Amy S. Foster	SF - The Rift Uprising Trilogy 2
Halloween Carnival Volume 5 (e)	Brian James Freeman (Ed)	H - Anthology
Dark Screams: Volume Eight	Brian James Freeman (Ed) Richard Chizmar (Ed)	H - Dark Screams 8
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier	Mark Frost	SupTh/MTI - Twin Peaks
New Pompeii (tp2mm)	Daniel Godfrey	SF - New Pompeii 1
The Silent War (tp2mm)	Laurie Goulding (Ed)	SF - The Horus Heresy 37
Shadows in the Night & Never Sleep with Strangers	Heather Graham	R/Gothic/PsyTh
Dead Man Walking: A country house murder mystery with a supernatural twist (h2tp)	Simon Green	SupM/Occ - An Ishmael Jones Mystery 2
Extinction Biome: Dispersal	Addison Gunn	SF
The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death (h2mm)	Kim Harrison	UF - The Hollows
The Toll House: A Ghost Story for Christmas	W. W. Jacobs	GH/LF/SupTh - Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories
The Trouble with Twelfth Grave	Darynda Jones	PM - Charley Davidson 12
The Mongrel Mage	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	F - Saga of Recluce 19
The Parafaith War	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	SF
Gwendy's Button Box: A Novella	Stephen King Richard Chizmar	SupTh
Nightmares & Dreamscapes	Stephen King	H - Collection
Bubba and the Cosmic Blood-Suckers	Joe R. Lansdale	H
Dispatch	Bentley Little	H
The Association	Bentley Little	H
The Burning	Bentley Little	H
Joe Ledger: Unstoppable	Jonathan Maberry (Ed) Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Ed)	Th/H - Anthology
Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker	Gregory Maguire	LF
Subhuman	Michael McBride	SupTh/SF/AC/H - A Unit 51 Novel 1
Tales from Greystone Bay	Robert McCammon	H
Hasty for the Dark: Selected Horrors	Adam L. G. Nevill	SpecFic/Sup/H - Collection
When Parallel Lines Meet	Mike Resnick Lezli Robyn Larry Hodges	SF
Cold Spectrum	Craig Schaefer	DF - Harmony Black 4
A Darker Shade of Magic Collector's Edition	V. E. Schwab	HistF - Shades of Magic 1
Heroes and Villains	Lewis Shiner	SF - Collection
First-Person Singularities: Stories	Robert Silverberg	SF - Collection
Eagle and Empire (h2mm)	Alan Smale	F/HistF/AH - The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 3
Extinction Aftermath	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/AP/PA - The Extinction Cycle 6
Barbary Station (D)	R. E. Stearns	SF
Kill Creek	Scott Thomas	GH/SupTh/H
The Astonishing Thing (D)	Sandi Ward	FL/CW/LF
Hard Breaker: A Beauty and Beast Novel	Christine Warren	PNR - Gargoyles Series 6
At the Sign of Triumph (h2mm)	David Weber	SF - Safehold 9
Booke of the Hidden	Jeri Westerson	UF/F/PNR - Booke of the Hidden 1
The Sea King	C. L. Wilson	FR - Mystral 2
Last Year (h2tp)	Robert Charles Wilson	SF/TT/AH

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
Illus - Illustrator
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CB - Coloring Book
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
Fem - Feminist
FL - Family Life
Folklore - Folklore
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
Gothic - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MF - Military Fantasy
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Noir - Noir
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Phil - Philosophy
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
R - Romance
Sc - Science
SH -Superheroes
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SocHis - Social History
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
UFR - Urban Fantasy Romance
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Happy Monday!

There are 3 debuts this week:

You Were Here by Gian Sardar;

The Empire's Ghost by Isabelle Steiger;

and

The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles (Warlock Holmes 2) by G.S. Denning;

Low Elf Esteem (Pax Arcana) by Elliott James;

Breath of Passion (Muse Chronicles 3) by Lisa Kessler;

Eagle and Empire (The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 3) by Alan Smale;

and

The Raft by Fred Strydom is out in Trade Paperback.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.


May 15, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Breath of Passion (e)	Lisa Kessler	PNR - Muse Chronicles 3

May 16, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The X-Files and Philosophy: The Truth Is in Here	Robert Arp (Ed)	Philosophy/ SF/F/P - Popular Culture and Philosophy 108
Behind the Moon	Madison Smartt Bell	LF/Psy/Occ/Sup/MetaVis
Seeing People Off	Jana Benová	LF/CW/R/Absurdist
The End of Magic	Amber Benson	F/CF/UF - An Echo Park Coven Novel 3
Vanguard	Jack Campbell	SF - Genesis Fleet 1
Full Wolf Moon	Lincoln Child	Sus/SupTh
Light Radiance Splendor	Leah Chyten	Hist/VisMeta
The City of Mirrors (h2tp)	Justin Cronin	Sus/Th/SF/AP/PA/LF - Passage Trilogy 3
Nebula Awards Showcase 2017	Julie E. Czerneda (Ed)	SF/F - Anthology
Zero K (h2tp)	Don DeLillo	LF
The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles	G.S. Denning	F/P/HistM - Warlock Holmes 2
Sleepers: Book One, Book Two, Book Three	Jacqueline Druga	SF/AP/PA - Sleepers
Dark Cities	Christopher Golden (Ed)	H - Anthology
Blaze: Volume 2: A Dragon Romance (e)	Donna Grant	PNR - Dark Kings
Firestorm (e)(ri)	Nancy Holzner	UF - Deadtown 6
Low Elf Esteem (e)	Elliott James	CF - Pax Arcana
The Queen's Dance	Nicole Elizabeth Kelleher	FR/HistF - The Aurelian Guard 2
Hunger	Eve Langlais Kate Douglas A.C. Arthur	PNR - Anthology
Catch a Tiger by the Tail (e)	Eve Langlais	PNR
LARP	Boris Leist (Photographer)	Photography/ PopCul/Role Playing/F
A Guide for the Perplexed (ri)	Jonathan Levi	MR
Septimania (h2tp)	Jonathan Levi	MR
Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall	Suzette Mayr	Satire/LF/F
Martial Law	Deborah D. Moore	PA/Sus - Journal 6
Gravity Changes	Zach Powers	Absurdist/MR/F/CF - American Readers Series
Behind the Mask: A Superhero Anthology	Tricia Reeks (Ed) Kyle Richardson (Ed)	F/SF - Anthology
Substrate Phantoms	Jessica Reisman	SF/AC
You Were Here (D)	Gian Sardar	Psy/Gothic/CW
Eagle and Empire	Alan Smale	HistF/AH - The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 3
The Empire's Ghost (D)	Isabelle Steiger	F
The Raft (h2tp)	Fred Strydom	SF/AP/PA/Dys
The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist & the Psychic Thief (e)	Lisa Tuttle	Sup/GH/F - From the Casebooks of Jesperson & Lane 1
Greedy Pigs	Matt Wallace	UF - A Sin du Jour Affair 5
The Scribe of Siena (D)	Melodie Winawer	Hist/TT
Barren Cove (h2tp)	Ariel S. Winter	LF
Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories	Chavisa Woods	LF/MR - Short Stories

May 17, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Alien Innkeeper	Roxanne Barbour	SFR - Out Of This World Series 1
The Ant Men (ri)	Eric North	SF
Sanctuary: A Tor.com Original (e)	Allen Steele	SF
We All Fall Down (e)	Ian Tregillis	HistF - Witch Who Came In From The Cold Season 2 #13

May 18, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Never King	James Abbott	F
Strangers of the Night: Touched by Passion / Passion in Disguise / Unexpected Passion	Megan Hart	PNR - Collection
Exodus (e)	Alex Lamb	SF
The Erebus Sequence (e)	Den Patrick	DF - The Complete Trilogy

May 20, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Body of Sin (e)(ri)	Eve Silver	PNR - Sins 5

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CB - Coloring Book
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CM - Cozy Mystery
CulH - Cultural Heritage
CyP - Cyberpunk
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HistTh - Historical Thriller
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisMeta - Visionary and Metaphysical

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Anna Smaill (2016)

The Chimes
Quercus, April 4, 2017
Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Hardcover and eBook, May 3, 2016

After the end of a brutal civil war, London is divided, with slums standing next to a walled city of elites. Monk-like masters are selected for special schooling and shut away for decades, learning to write beautiful compositions for the chimes, played citywide morning and night, to mute memory and keep the citizens trapped in ignorance.

A young orphan named Simon arrives in London with nothing but the vague sense of a half-forgotten promise, to locate someone. What he finds is a new family--a gang of scavengers that patrols the underbelly of the city looking for valuable metal to sell. Drawn in by an enigmatic and charismatic leader, a blind young man named Lucien with a gift for song, Simon forgets entirely what originally brought him to the place he has now made his home.

In this alternate London, the past is a mystery, each new day feels the same as the last, and before is considered "blasphony." But Simon has a unique gift--the gift of retaining memories--that will lead him to discover a great injustice and take him far beyond the meager life as a member of Lucien's gang. Before long he will be engaged in an epic struggle for justice, love, and freedom.

The Chimes is an impressive work of speculative fiction, an imaginative adventure elegantly told. The Chimes reveals the human capacity to create both beauty and terror, in art and in life.

Alan Smale (2015)

Eagle in Exile
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book II
Del Rey, August 30, 2016
Mass Market Paperback, 624 pages
Hardcover and eBook, March 22, 2016

Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove, Alan Smale’s gripping alternate history series imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has survived long enough to invade North America in 1218. Now the stunning story carries hero Gaius Marcellinus deeper into the culture of an extraordinary people—whose humanity, bravery, love, and ingenuity forever change his life and destiny.

In A.D. 1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus is ordered to conquer North America and turning it into a Roman province. But outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia, his legion is destroyed outright; Marcellinus is the only one spared. In the months and years that follow, Marcellinus comes to see North America as his home and the Cahokians as his kin. He vows to defend these proud people from any threat, Roman or native.

After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, Marcellinus realizes that a weak and fractured North America won’t stand a chance against the returning Roman army. Worse, rival factions from within threaten to tear Cahokia apart just when it needs to be most united and strong. Marcellinus is determined to save the civilization that has come to mean more to him than the empire he once served. But to survive the swords of Roma, he first must avert another Iroqua attack and bring Cahokia together. Only with the hearts and souls of a nation at his back can Marcellinus hope to know triumph.

Eagle and Empire
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book III
Del Rey, May 16, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 560 pages

The award-winning author of Clash of Eagles and Eagle in Exile concludes his masterly alternate-history saga of the Roman invasion of North America in this stunning novel.

Roman Praetor Gaius Marcellinus came to North America as a conqueror, but after meeting with defeat at the hands of the city-state of Cahokia, he has had to forge a new destiny in this strange land. In the decade since his arrival, he has managed to broker an unstable peace between the invading Romans and a loose affiliation of Native American tribes known as the League.

But invaders from the west will shatter that peace and plunge the continent into war: The Mongol Horde has arrived and they are taking no prisoners.

As the Mongol cavalry advances across the Great Plains leaving destruction in its path, Marcellinus and his Cahokian friends must summon allies both great and small in preparation for a final showdown. Alliances will shift, foes will rise, and friends will fall as Alan Smale brings us ever closer to the dramatic final battle for the future of the North American continent.

Matt Solomon (2012)
Chris Pauls (2012)

The Giant Smugglers
Feiwel & Friends, May 17, 2016
Hardcover, 288 pages

Charlie Lawson's only summer excitement in small-town Wisconsin came from kicking butt in video games, where he's the undisputed Total Turbo champ. Now it's time to go back to middle school, where nine long months of boredom await.

But then Charlie stumbles onto something big happening inside the abandoned warehouse across the street from his house. Specifically, someone big. He befriends Bruce, a twenty-foot-tall teenage giant, who Charlie must keep a secret.

Charlie isn't the only one in town who knows what's hiding in the warehouse. Powerful, ruthless forces are closing in, and they'll stop at nothing to acquire a giant. But Charlie will do whatever it takes to protect the biggest and best friend he's ever had.

Gabriel Squailia (2015)

Viscera
Talos, October 4, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 304 pages

The Gone-Away gods were real, once, and taller than towers.

But they’re long dead now, buried in the catacombs beneath the city of Eth, where their calcified organs radiate an eldritch power that calls out to anyone hardy enough to live in this cutthroat, war-torn land. Some survivors are human, while others are close enough, but all are struggling to carve out their lives in a world both unforgiving and wondrous.

Darkly comic and viciously original, Viscera is an unforgettable journey through swords-and-sorcery fantasy where strangeness gleams from every nook and cranny.

Happy last Monday in August!


There are 2 debuts this week -

The Forgetting Moon (The Five Warrior Angels 1) by Brian Lee Durfee;

and

Curioddity by Paul Jenkins.




And from formerly featured DAC Authors:

Harsh Gods (Shadowside / Conspiracy of Angels 2) by Michelle Belanger;

Impact (Outer Earth 3) by Rob Boffard;

The Lazarus War: Origins (The Lazarus War 3) by Jamie Sawyer;

Eagle in Exile (The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 2) by Alan Smale is out in Mass Market Paperback;

and

Shadow Falling (The Scorpius Syndrome 2) by Rebecca Zanetti.








August 29, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Poseidon & Cleito (Ke only 8/29 -11/20/16)	Andrew J. Peters	F - Poseidon & Cleito 1

August 30, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek	Mark A. Altman Edward Gross	SF - Television
Twilight Dreams	Amanda Ashley	PNR - Twilight 2
Harsh Gods	Michelle Belanger	DF/UF - Shadowside 2
The Aylesford Skull (tp2mm)	James P. Blaylock	SP - Langdon St. James 3
Impact	Rob Boffard	SF - Outer Earth 3
The Empty Ones	Robert Brockway	H - The Unnoticeables 2
Gatefather (h2mm)	Orson Scott Card	CF - Mither Mages 3
Formic Wars Trilogy Boxed Set: Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens	Orson Scott Card Aaron Johnston	SF - The First Formic Wars Trilogy
The Subsidiary	Matias Celedon	Dys
Son of the Black Sword (h2mm)	Larry Correia	F - Saga of the Forgotten Warrior 1
The Forgetting Moon (D)	Brian Lee Durfee	F - The Five Warrior Angels 1
Willful Child (h2mm)	Steven Erikson	SF - Willful Child 1
Unraveled	Jennifer Estep	UF - Elemental Assassin 15
Doctor Who: The Official Cookbook: 40 Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Recipes	Joanna Farrow	SF - Cookbook
So I Married A Demon Slayer (ri)	Angie Fox Kathy Love Lexi George	PNR - Anthology
People of the Songtrail (h2mm)	Kathleen O'Neal Gear W. Michael Gear	Hist - North America's Forgotten Past 20
Sex and Death: Stories	Sarah Hall (Ed) Peter Hobbs (Ed)	SF/LF - Anthology
Frost Line (h2mm)	Linda Howard Linda Jones	RSus/P
Curioddity (D)	Paul Jenkins	SF
Made for Sin (e)	Stacia Kane	UF
The Tommyknockers (ri)	Stephen King	H
Sixth Watch	Sergei Lukyanenko	CF - Night Watch 6
Dead Man's Song (ri)	Jonathan Maberry	Th/H - A Pine Deep Novel 2
Of Beauty and Darkness	Peggy Martinez	UF/DF - A Reapers Grimm Novel 1
The Winter People	Jennifer McMahon	Th/Sus/GH
Succubus Shadows (ri)	Richelle Mead	CF - Georgina Kincaid 5
Wolves	D. J. Molles	SF/AP/PA
The Wolves of London	Mark Morris	DF/UF/CF - Obsidian Heart 1
Plunder of Gor	John Norman	F /DF - Gorean Saga 34
The Dark World	S.C. Parris	DF - The Dark World 1
Poseidon's Wake (h2mm)	Alastair Reynolds	SF/SO/AC - Poseidon's Children 3
The Lazarus War: Origins	Jamie Sawyer	SF - The Lazarus War 3
The Jersey Devil	Hunter Shea	Sus/SupTh/H
Eagle in Exile (h2mm)	Alan Smale	HistF - The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 2
Chasing the Phoenix (h2tp)	Michael Swanwick	SF/AP/PA
Legacies: Book 3: Purgatory's Key	Dayton Ward Kevin Dilmore	SF - Star Trek: The Original Series
Hell's Foundations Quiver (h2mm)	David Weber	SF - Safehold 8
Trucker Ghost Stories: And Other True Tales of Haunted Highways, Weird Encounters, and Legends of the Road	Annie Wilder (Ed)	Sup - Anthology
Shadow Falling	Rebecca Zanetti	R/SF/AP/PA - The Scorpius Syndrome 2

August 31, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Key to the Coward's Spell: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Alex Bledsoe	UF
Clockwork Secrets Boxed Set	Dru Pagliassotti	SP
Early Days: More Tales from the Pulp Era	Robert Silverberg	SF - Collection

D - Debut
e - eBook
e2mm - eBook to Mass Market Paperback
e2tp - eBook to Trade Paperback
Ed - Editor
Ke - Kindle only eBook
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade to Mass Market Paperback



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tale
FolkT - Folk Tale
FR - Fantasy Romance
GH - Ghosts
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PNR - Paranormal Romance
R - Romance
RSus - Romantic Suspense
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy
YA - Young Adult
Z - Zombies

Note: Not all of these genres are represented in the book above.

TQ:  Welcome back to The Qwillery. Your new novel, Eagle in Exile (The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 2), was published on March 22nd. Has your writing process changed (or not) from when you wrote Clash of Eagles to Eagle in Exile?

Alan:  It’s changed a lot. Writing Clash of Eagles was quite a gentle, meandering process. I took my time with it and enjoyed playing with the story, feeling it out and figuring out where I wanted it to go, trying out ideas and discarding some, taking the strongest themes and reworking them. Then once I got an agent (the terrific Caitlin Blasdell from Liza Dawson Associates) and editor (the equally awesome Mike Braff at Penguin Random House) I worked on it some more to tighten it up and improve pacing, make character arcs more consistent, and so forth. And during all of this I was also planning out the future volumes in the series. Even before I started Eagle in Exile I had already done the major structural thinking for both the second and third books, but I had to write them to a deadline. So I was much more focused when I was writing Eagle in Exile. I did still sometimes career down blind alleys and produce large gobs of text that had to be discarded or reworked, but overall I was much sharper and better organized.

I’ve just finished the third book, Eagle and Empire, and that was different again: I wrote it more quickly and in a more assured way, because by now I know the characters inside and out and it often felt as if they were speaking for themselves. There were scenes in Books Two and Three that I’d been waiting years to write, and I loved getting to them at last.

Another, shorter answer is that I’m better at the craft now. I’m essentially the same writer, but these days there are things I handle automatically in my first draft that in the past I’d have only thought to fix in the edit.



TQ:  What do you wish that you knew about book publishing when Clash of Eagles came out that you know now?

Alan:  How supportive everyone was going to be. Before the launch of Clash I had a lot of fear. I really didn’t know what it was going to be like, but most everyone I came into contact with – editors, publicists, and especially readers – were helpful, friendly, interested. I guess they’re a self-selecting population, and I don’t tend to hear from the people who don’t care for my kind of fiction. I do get some critical emails from time to time, but even those are framed politely.

And other writers are awesome. I don’t know how it is in other genres, but in the science fiction and fantasy fields, authors are incredibly supportive. We’re collegial rather than competitive. We’re all in it together. Everyone celebrates everyone else’s successes, and that’s as true for the established authors who’ve been around forty years as it is for the new folks who are making their debuts. It’s a great community.



TQ:  Tell us something about Eagle in Exile that is not found in the book description.

Alan:  I do think the cover copy is great on both Clash of Eagles and Eagle in Exile. I’ll confess that I didn’t know how Del Rey was going to pull it off, but they did. They get right to the core of the story and present it in the most exciting way possible, without being too spoilery.

What’s not so easy to do in cover copy is explore subtlety and nuance. Amidst all the battles and action and derring-do, my hero Gaius Marcellinus has to navigate his way through a series of tricky moral and emotional situations. He’s a Roman, and he’s sworn to never raise a sword against an army of Rome. He’s not a man to cast aside his heritage and his oaths just because he’s made some new allegiances. And yet, Rome will once again invade North America. How does Marcellinus deal with that? His whole life is a high-wire act, and the difficulties and uncertainties exist at the personal level with his friends – and enemies – in Cahokia as well as at the large-scale, world-spanning level described in the cover copy.



TQ:  Which character in the The Clash of Eagles Trilogy series (so far) surprised you the most and why? Who has been the hardest character to write and why?

Alan:  The biggest surprise was Enopay. When Marcellinus first arrives in Cahokia its paramount chief, Great Sun Man, assigns three children to learn his language. Children soak up languages more quickly than adults, so it’s a smart move on his part. But those children grew in ways I wasn’t quite expecting. By the second book, one of them has reached adulthood. By the final volume two are essentially adult and the third – Enopay – has become far more pivotal to the story than I thought he would. When I hear Tahtay, Kimimela, and Enopay in my head they each have very distinctive voices and attitudes, and they don’t necessarily get along well together. They’re solid and opinionated characters in their own right. But Enopay’s development, and his importance, were things that I didn’t quite see coming, even when I finished writing the first book.

I suppose Sintikala is the most difficult person to write. After Marcellinus she’s the most important character, but we’re in close point-of-view on Marcellinus throughout. We never see into Sintikala’s head. All we know about her is what Marcellinus knows, plus what we can intuit from her actions and words. There’s a lot going on that Marcellinus is oblivious to, but that the reader needs to be aware of. Sometimes Sintikala’s actions surprise Marcellinus, but they need to be believable to the reader. That can be tricky.



TQ:   The Clash of Eagles Trilogy series is Historical Fantasy and Alternative History. Why did you chose the Roman Empire as the historical basis for your trilogy?

Alan:  It was a very fast decision. As soon as I knew that I wanted to write about the great Mississippian city of Cahokia, I realized I needed an outsider to serve as the reader’s eyes and ears. I needed a culture clash to throw everything into sharp relief. And somehow it was apparent to me right away that the invading culture had to be Rome. A Roman invasion of North America would look very different to the Spanish, French, or British incursions we know from our own history, but would cast an interesting new light on them. Rome would be an imperial, annexing culture, but the process would be completely different. I knew that that “the Roman Empire invades North America” was the elevator pitch, and that I had to write it, even if nobody else ever read it. It was what I wanted to do. It was what I cared about.



TQ:   Please give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Eagle in Exile.

Alan:

Dark:
        [Sintikala] turned on him, eyes flaring. “Can I not? You do not remember what I told you? When my husband was killed, when he needed me most, I was not with him, I was not there. Today-now, once again I was in the wrong place. Not there. It is my life, to never be there. To fail. And then men die. Men die.”

Flippant:
        Hurit looked worried. “If he keeps wandering around by himself, a bear will eat him.”
“Eat Tahtay?” Dustu snorted. “Tahtay is so bitter that the bear would spit him right out again.”


        “Just because you argued with your girlfriend, there’s no need to fall on your sword.”

        “Please step back, [name]. I would not want you to slip and accidentally slay Gaius Marcellinus before he has run out of ways to entertain me.”



TQ:  If you could have dinner with three deceased historical figures who would they be and why?

Alan:  I’d be really interested to meet Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Adolf Hitler, but I certainly wouldn’t want to eat a meal with them. There’s been so much written about each of those terrible historical figures that it’s impossible to envision the human being inside any more. I do wonder what they were like as people. I’d like to know whether they sound smart in conversation, whether they’d seem charismatic at all when removed from their time, or whether they’d just come off as dreadful, banal, hateful, manipulative, and small-minded. I feel that I might understand some of the pivot points of history better as a result.

But not for dinner. It would be a really terrible dinner, and I’d have to scrub my brain with bleach afterwards.

For dinner I’d probably go with the Emperor Augustus, Shakespeare, and Leonardo da Vinci, because it would be so much fun to explore their minds and hear their stories. It would have to be a very long Roman-style dinner with multiple courses, so Augustus would be in charge of the catering.

If you did give me a time machine, though, there would be lots of other dining possibilities, and I might have to think for longer. Aristotle. Alexander the Great. Elizabeth I. Cleopatra. Teddy Roosevelt. They’d all be fascinating dinner companions. It’s an almost impossible question.



TQ:  What's next?

Alan:  A short answer for once: I don’t know! I’m sure there will be a series of edits on the third book, Eagle and Empire, and more publicity work for the trilogy as a whole. But I don’t have my next book project all outlined and researched and ready to jump into. I have ideas brewing, but they’ll take a while longer to come into focus.

I may work on shorter fiction for a while, exploring some of those brewing themes. And I’ll read. A lot. Over the last couple of years, the day job and the writing deadlines haven’t left a whole lot of time for reading fiction, so that’s the area I’ve been seriously neglecting. I have a huge pile of SF to read, some of it by friends of mine – and yes, it’s very cool to be able to say that! I’m looking forward to diving in.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Alan:  Thank you for having me!

Eagle in Exile
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book II
Del Rey, March 22, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 576 pages

Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove, Alan Smale’s gripping alternate history series imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has survived long enough to invade North America in 1218. Now the stunning story carries hero Gaius Marcellinus deeper into the culture of an extraordinary people—whose humanity, bravery, love, and ingenuity forever change his life and destiny.

In A.D. 1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus is ordered to conquer North America and turning it into a Roman province. But outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia, his legion is destroyed outright; Marcellinus is the only one spared. In the months and years that follow, Marcellinus comes to see North America as his home and the Cahokians as his kin. He vows to defend these proud people from any threat, Roman or native.

After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, Marcellinus realizes that a weak and fractured North America won’t stand a chance against the returning Roman army. Worse, rival factions from within threaten to tear Cahokia apart just when it needs to be most united and strong. Marcellinus is determined to save the civilization that has come to mean more to him than the empire he once served. But to survive the swords of Roma, he first must avert another Iroqua attack and bring the Cahokia together. Only with the hearts and souls of a nation at his back can Marcellinus hope to know triumph.

Clash of Eagles
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book I
Del Rey, September 1, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 464 pages
Hardcover and eBook, March 17, 2015

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

About Alan

Alan Smale grew up in Yorkshire, England, and now lives in the Washington, D.C., area. By day he works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a professional astronomer, studying black holes, neutron stars, and other bizarre celestial objects. However, too many family vacations at Hadrian’s Wall in his formative years plus a couple of degrees from Oxford took their toll, steering his writing toward alternate, secret, and generally twisted history. He has sold numerous short stories to magazines including Asimov’s and Realms of Fantasy, and he won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History.




Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @AlanSmale

Happy Monday. We have snow! Fortunately not enough to shovel. Perhaps this is Winter's last gasp in the wake of Spring's arrival. March weather, though, is always odd around here.

There are no debuts out this week. There is one novel from a formerly featured DAC author - Eagle in Exile (The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 2) by Alan Smale.






March 22, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Wild Things	Jennifer Ashley	PNR - Shifters Unound 7.75
Insistence of Vision	David Brin	SF - Collection
Titan's Fall	Zachary Brown	SF - Icarus Corps 2
Act of God	Jill Ciment	Sus/H/Hu
World's End	Will Elliott	CF - The Pendulum Trilogy 3
Smoke and Fire: Part 2 (e)	Donna Grant	PNR - Dark Kings
Transgalactic	James Gunn	SF
Dust (ri)	Hugh Howey	SF - Wool 3
Shift (ri)	Hugh Howey	SF - Wool 2
World of Water (e)	James Lovegrove	SF - Dev Harmer 2
Shadow and Flame	Gail Z. Martin	F - The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga 4
Discognition	Steven Shaviro	LC/SF/F
Eagle in Exile	Alan Smale	HistF/AH - The Clash of Eagles Trilogy 2
Tears of Abraham	Sean T. Smith	SF
The Emperor Expects	Gav Thorpe	SF - The Beast Arises 3
Doctor Who: Rain of Terror	Mike Tucker	SF - Doctor Who

March 23, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Weather: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Caighlan Smith	DF

March 25, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Art and Science of Intergalactic Warmongery	Field Marshal S. Myrston	SF

e - eBook
ri - reissue or reprint


AH - Alternate History
DF - Dark Fantasy
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
HistF - Historical Fantasy
Hu - Humor
LC - Literary Criticism
PNR - Paranormal Romance
SF - Science Fiction
Sus - Suspense

Peter Newman (2015)

The Vagrant
The Vagrant 1
Harper Voyager, May 10, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

The Vagrant is his name. He has no other.

Years have passed since humanity’s destruction emerged from the Breach.

Friendless and alone he walks across a desolate, war-torn landscape.

As each day passes the world tumbles further into depravity, bent and twisted by the new order, corrupted by the Usurper, the enemy, and his infernal horde.

His purpose is to reach the Shining City, last bastion of the human race, and deliver the only weapon that may make a difference in the ongoing war.

What little hope remains is dying. Abandoned by its leader, The Seven, and its heroes, The Seraph Knights, the last defences of a once great civilisation are crumbling into dust.

But the Shining City is far away and the world is a very dangerous place.

Robert Repino (2015

Morte
Soho Press, February 9, 2016
Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Hardcover and eBook, January 20, 2015

The “war with no name” has begun, with human extinction as its goal. The instigator of this war is the Colony, a race of intelligent ants who, for thousands of years, have been silently building an army that will forever eradicate the destructive, oppressive humans. Under the Colony’s watchful eye, this utopia will be free of the humans’ penchant for violence, exploitation and religious superstition. As a final step in the war effort, the Colony uses its strange technology to transform the surface animals into high-functioning two-legged beings who rise up to kill their masters.

Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend—a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth’s creatures.

[description from Hardcover edition]

Katie Schickel (2015)

The Mermaid's Secret
Forge, June 14, 2016
Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and eBook, 288pages

Alan Smale (2015)

Clash of Eagles
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book I
Del Rey, September 1, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 464 pages
Hardcover and eBook, March 17, 2015

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

A.F.E. Smith (2015)

Goldenfire
The Darkhaven Novels 2
Harper Voyager UK, January 14, 2016
eBook, 400 pages

In Darkhaven, peace doesn’t last long.

Ayla Nightshade has ruled Darkhaven for three years since the tragedy that tore her family apart. She has left her father’s cruel legacy behind and become a leader her people can believe in – or so she hopes.

Tomas Caraway is no longer a disgraced drunk; he’s Captain of the Helm and the partner of the most powerful woman in Darkhaven. He will do everything to protect Ayla and their adopted son against all possible threats.

But a discovery has been made that could have profound consequences for the Nightshade family. There is a weapon so deadly, it can kill even the powerful creatures they turn into. And now, that weapon has fallen into the wrong hands.

An assassin is coming for Ayla, and will stop at nothing to see her dead.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Alan:  My mother taught me to read early, which meant that I read faster than other kids and quickly got through the (limited) supply of books available at my primary schools. I’ve always thought this must be why I started making up my own stories, though I can’t know for sure. But I did start writing when very young; my first story was called “The Mountain Children”, and it was about two girls and a boy, Val, Su, and Chay, who lived in the jungle. It was obviously completely derivative, based on the Tarzan movies and cartoons, but I apparently had fun with it at the time. By my teen years I was writing novels about intrepid men of action while hiding in my room. I took a break from writing while I was getting my degrees and moving from England to the U.S., but I knuckled down and got serious about writing for publication in the mid-1990s.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Alan:  When I write short stories I’m definitely a pantser. I find a character or a setting I like and start free associating, and see where the story takes me. I’m often most of the way through before I figure out how it should end. Now I’m writing novels (and quite long novels, with a substantial cast of characters), by necessity I’ve switched around to being a rather careful plotter. In the giant wildernesses of ancient America, even getting my characters to where they need to be through the forests and along the rivers and all at the right times of year when such travel is possible, requires planning and a bit of arithmetic. Plus, for the Clash of Eagles books there’s an intricacy about the plotlines and the various relationships that it would be tough for me to wing. The details of the scenes unfold in real time while I’m writing them, and I’m often forced to make course corrections when my characters insist on doing things I hadn’t originally intended, but I always know my end-points.

I’m also fond of Kurt Vonnegut’s definitions of Bashers and Swoopers: bashers go one sentence at a time getting everything right and when they get to the last word of the story, they’re all done. Swoopers write quickly in a torrent of words and then go back to fix “everything that is just plain awful.” I’m 100% Swooper.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Alan:  Finding the time and the quiet to get into the deep concentration mode that works best for me when I’m writing scenes for the first time.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

Alan:  When I was twelve I read War and Peace and Lord of the Rings in the same summer holiday. I still think I broke myself a little bit doing that, but it did give me the taste for large-panorama epics, centered around a few critical characters. I think ever since then I’ve been more interested in stories set in the past than those set in the future.

For influences, I’d have to list some of the more inventive and offbeat writers: Stephen Baxter, John Kessel, Ursula Le Guin, James Morrow, Tim Powers, Keith Roberts, Michael Swanwick, Harry Turtledove, Jo Walton, Walter Jon Williams, Connie Willis. I also have a weakness for pulp time travel novels, but don’t tell anyone. These days I try to read as broadly as possible, but I’m very aware that I don’t have time to read as much as I should. Once I finish this trilogy I’m going to put myself on a hardcore reading program to try to catch up.



TQ:  Describe Clash of Eagles in 140 characters or less.

Alan:  When Gaius Marcellinus’s legion is destroyed deep in newly-discovered North America, he struggles to find a place and purpose in this strange new world.



TQ:  Tell us something about Clash of Eagles that is not in the book description.

Alan:  There are a lot of small, personal, human moments. The book description (correctly) focuses on describing the world and the major conflicts, the broad brush-strokes of the story, but beyond the legions and battles, adventures and culture clashes there are also quiet scenes of human beings trying to understand one another better, work together, solve problems, make things happen. I’m actually rather fond of a number of these scenes.



TQ:  What appeals to you about writing alternate history? How easy or difficult was it to go from the short form, the "A Clash of Eagles" novella, to the novel length for Clash of Eagles, which is set in the same world?

Alan:  Knowing the real history adds depth and resonance to the altered history. I believe that a great deal of history is contingency. When you read the recorded thoughts and feelings of people who lived in a particular place and time, and what they believed was going to happen next, their predictions are often very sane and sensible and equally often completely wrong. History can go off in all kinds of different directions. I find it fascinating to consider other paths that human history could have taken.

In this case it was very easy to transition from short-form to long-form. The novella version that won the Sidewise Award is actually not all that short: as published in the Panverse Two anthology it ran to about 25,000 words. I did a fairly extensive rewrite when it became the first part of the novel, but the characters, setting, and ambience of the novella are still rather similar. I knew very early on in the novella-writing process that I would be going further. I knew this was the story I wanted to tell.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Clash of Eagles?

Alan:  Now that I’ve become a fanatical plotter I’m also an obsessive record-keeper, and so I know that I’ve read over 120 books in the course of researching this series. Many of them have been about Cahokia, Rome, the Norse, everything I would need for the series, even tangentially. I’ve been reading about ancient Rome all my life, but I needed a much greater depth of knowledge about Roman armies, weaponry, and so on, to be able to write about them effectively.

Without doubt, the areas that required the most research were related to the pre-Columbian civilizations of North America. In the era when Clash of Eagles is set the Mississippian culture dominated the Mississippi valley and much of the Ohio valley. Its central city of Cahokia covered an area of over five square miles and had a population of twenty thousand people or more. The Mississippians were a mound-building culture, and Cahokia had at least 120 mounds of various types: square platform mounds, conical mounds, ridge mounds. You can still see its remains at the Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site, near St. Louis. I’ve read everything I can find about Cahokia, from popular books to quite dense academic works, and also quite widely about Native American cultures in general to try to make the details of the city and its people as authentic as I can.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Alan:  My hero, Gaius Marcellinus, is the easiest to write, because he’s the most like me. He comes from a triumphalist European culture, he’s well-traveled, a cynic, a pragmatist. I think it’s relatively easy to put myself into his Roman mindset. The hardest characters are the Cahokians, because despite all my research they inhabit a culture that’s greatly separated from me in space and time. There would naturally be many differences between us in how we view the world – but I think there would also be some similarities. Adding to the mix, the story is told from the close perspective of Marcellinus, so we only directly discover what the Cahokian characters are thinking if they choose to tell him. We’re limited by his perceptions. And since Marcellinus is career military, and is coming very late to some of the ideas of family and community, there are places in Clash where things should be apparent to the reader that Marcellinus himself completely misses or misinterprets. That requires a bit of care while I’m writing.



TQ:  Which question about Clash of Eagles do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Alan:  I’m always surprised that people don’t ask me if I really believe the Roman Empire could possibly have survived until the thirteenth century. In fact, I do believe that, quite strongly. Historical trends and events tend to look inevitable when viewed in hindsight, but I believe there’s no inherent reason why the Roman Empire had to fall when it did. With the kind of strong leadership the Empire had in the first and second centuries A.D. it might well have been able to weather the Crisis of the Third Century. And without the civil wars and the economic decline of the third century Rome would have been stronger, it’s borders better guarded, and the Empire as a whole more able to deal with the “barbarian” migrations of the later period. Rome had dealt with much worse in the past. I’ve written in more detail about that elsewhere.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Clash of Eagles.

Alan:

         Every day took the Legion farther from the coast and stretched their provisions even thinner. Battle was ahead, a city to be sacked, spoils to be had – but how far? His men grumbled, and even Leogild’s sunny Visigoth humor began to cloud over.

and

         [The new Emperor, Hadrianus III] had figured that if he set the wheels moving quickly enough and remained popular enough to die of old age, he might leave as his legacy a world where the sun never set on the Roman Imperium.
         Candidly, Marcellinus thought the man was cracked.




TQ:  What's next?

Alan:  Clash of Eagles is the first of three books. I’ve already turned in the second to Del Rey, and I’m currently writing notes and drafting scenes for the third. I’m really excited about writing the concluding book in the trilogy; it contains scenes, adventures, and emotional resolutions that I’ve been looking forward to writing for years. Aside from that, I’m collaborating on a short story with another writer – it’s only the second time I’ve co-written a story, and it’s a very different process. A novella of mine, “Visionaries of Bedlam”, has just appeared in the Apollo’s Daughters anthology, and a novelette called “English Wildlife” is scheduled for the big fall issue of Asimov’s. “English Wildlife” is a bizarre secret history that’s completely different from Clash and from most other things I’ve written, and I’m looking forward to seeing what reception it gets. After that? I’m wondering if people will be interested enough in Clash for me to be able to write more stories in that world!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Alan:  Thank you for inviting me!

Clash of Eagles
Clash of Eagles Trilogy 1
Del Rey, March 17, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 432 pages

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.  

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

About Alan

Alan Smale grew up in Yorkshire, England, and now lives in the Washington, D.C., area. By day he works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a professional astronomer, studying black holes, neutron stars, and other bizarre celestial objects. However, too many family vacations at Hadrian’s Wall in his formative years plus a couple of degrees from Oxford took their toll, steering his writing toward alternate, secret, and generally twisted history. He has sold numerous short stories to magazines including Asimov’s and Realms of Fantasy, and he won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History.





Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @AlanSmale

Happy Day After the Ides of March - or March 16th. There are 2 debuts this week:

Reluctantly Charmed by Ellie O'Neill

and

Clash of Eagles (Clash of Eagles Trilogy 1) by Alan Smale.


And from formerly featured Debut Author Challenge Authors:

Into The Fire (The Detainee Trilogy 2) by Peter Liney;

and

The Forgotten (An American Faerie Tale 2) by Bishop O'Connell.






March 15, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Werewolf Cop	Andrew Klavan	Oc/Su

March 17, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Bite Me (e)	Robyn Bachar	UF
The Mermaid's Child	Jo Baker	F/FairyT
The Darkside War	Zachary Brown	SF - Icarus Corps 1
Less Than Hero	S.G. Browne	Su/H
Ragamuffin (ri)	Tobias S. Buckell	SF
Equinox	Christian Cantrell	SF - Containment 2
Prudence	Gail Carriger	SP - The Custard Protocol 1
Path of the Dark Eldar (ri)	Andy Chambers	SF - Warhammer 40,000: Path of the Dark Eldar Omnibus
Teranesia	Greg Egan	SF
Night's Blaze: Part 2: Part 2 (e)	Donna Grant	PNR - Dark Kings 5
Dark Detectives: An Anthology of Supernatural Mysteries	Stephen Jones (ed)	Su/M/F
Into The Fire	Peter Liney	SF - The Detainee Trilogy 2
The Forgotten (e)	Bishop O'Connell	UF - An American Faerie Tale 2
Reluctantly Charmed (D)	Ellie O'Neill	F/FolkT
A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction	Terry Pratchett	F - Collection
The Witch of Painted Sorrows	M. J. Rose	Go/F/Hist
A Quick Bite (ri)	Lynsay Sands	PNR - Argeneau 1
Lockstep (h2tp)	Karl Schroeder	SF
Clash of Eagles (D)	Alan Smale	AH - Clash of Eagles Trilogy 1
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn: One More Last Rite for the Detective Genre	Boris and Arkady Strugatsky	SF
The Curse Keepers Collection (K e)	Denise Grover Swank	CF - Curse Keepers
Thirteen: Stories of Transformation	Mark Teppo (ed)	F - Anthology
Arcadian Gates (D) (Ke)	T.A. Wardrope	SF/Dys
The Others, The Complete Collection (e)	Christine Warren	PNR - Others
Guardian	Erik Williams	Mil/Su
Robogenesis (h2tp)	Daniel H. Wilson	SF - Robo 2

March 18, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Feminine Future: Early Science Fiction by Women Writers	Mike Ashley (ed)	SF
The Revolt of the Angels	Anatole France	LF/F
The Museum and the Music Box: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Noah Keller	F

March 19, 2015

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Darkling Lord (e)	Shona Husk	PNR - Court of Annwyn 4
Old Man's Ghosts	Tom Lloyd	F - Empire of a Hundred Houses 2

D - Debut
e - eBook
ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
K e - Kindle eBook only
ri - reissue or reprint

AH - Alternate History
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
Fairy T - Fairy Tale
Folk T - Folk Tale
Go - Gothic
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
LF - Literary Fiction
M - Mystery
Mil - Military
Oc - Occult
PNR - Paranormal Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SP - Steampunk
Su - Supernatural
UF - Urban Fantasy