Announcing Sons of Brightwill

While I've been working on the last two parts of the Spinward Fringe Rogue Element Trilogy, I have also quietly been writing a new fantasy novel. The big surprise here is that working on something completely different here and there has helped the Spinward Fringe series immensely. I feel like I've broken out of a box that's been slowing the series down and creatively limiting where I can take the story. The last two books in the Rogue Element Trilogy are looking a lot better because of my side project.

Now, back to that fantasy novel. It's time to make it official as a piece of work that will see daylight. It's called Sons Of Brightwill.

This book is about a pair of homeless brothers who live in a bustling city near the heart of Brightwill, a large, heavily populated continent. Magic is fairly common in lesser forms amongst the educated, and the various races well known to fantasy run rampant. Many of them have been cross breeding for centuries (elves, pygmy folk, humans, etc...), while the royal lines have tried to remain pure of blood. There are five Kings and two Queens ruling over the continent while numerous Great Houses play at politics beneath them. That sort of thing isn't much concern to the main characters however, as they simply try to survive in a city where they have few, if any advantages and even fewer friends. To be poor in Brightwill is to be alone.

One of the brothers is a natural student, learning his first written languages from the facade of the All Souls Temple, he does his best to improve his knowledge of the arcane and everything around him. Thanks to his reading skills, average height and nearly pure blood looks (luck of his mixed ancestry more than anything), he slaves away at a repository cataloging documents to earn an income that affords him food but no lodging.
His companion and brother is more the scrappy sort, willing to steal to survive and the victim of his cross bred heritage. With mismatched eyes, a thin, short frame and a tendency to get himself into trouble, he would live a life of crime if it weren't for his brother. Instead of picking pockets he does more menial work that Houses Great and Minor wouldn't even force their servants to do for a little coin.

All their trials and toiling has been piling up, and when a well known Knight trods on a crowd of starving peasants, one of the brothers stands up to him with crass disregard for his superior's station. That's when things get complicated.

Told with a strong narrative voice, the Sons of Brightwill has been a joy to write, and I'm taking a couple of weeks to finish a draft so I can get back to Spinward Fringe with a much needed fresh perspective. The first chapters are going out to beta readers and my editor this week. It's a one shot novel, meaning that the story begins and ends in this book. If there's call for another, I'll be happy to revisit Brightwill, but it'll be another one shot.

I'm looking to break the cliff hanger habit this year.

2010 is already looking insane on my end, with the release of two new Spinward Fringe books speeding my way and the impending arrival of The Sons Of Brightwill. It's starting to look like 2008 all over again, release-wise, which brings a great big smile to my face.

RL