Magic Unleashed: Available for Pre-Order

Hi-ho, Champions!

It’s launch week for Magic Unleashed, the final book in the Hall of Blood & Mercy Trilogy!

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It will be out this Friday, April 17th, and, like the rest of the series, it will be available to borrow through Kindle Unlimited!

We have just a few days until it’s available, woohoo! As I have with Book 1 and book 2 in this series, I’ve got a short story I’ll release when Magic Unleashed gets approximately 90 reviews–this counts for both Goodreads, and all the Amazon stores–to celebrate the book’s launch! (This one is from House Medeis’ point of view, and it reveals some behind-the-scene stuff you Champions will love!)

I really appreciate how awesome you Champions are in leaving honest reviews–these really help other potential readers decide if the series will be their cup of tea, which helps me big time! Reviews actually affect marketing, too! There are some sites I can’t advertise on until I get a certain number of reviews. And they’re also a good gauge for the series in general, and when I get 90+ reviews it makes it a heck of a lot easier on my team to compare and contrast the reviews and look for distinctive patterns.

But! I have a some-what final description. I’m still working some of the kinks out of it–nothing like waiting for the last minute, huh? Here’s what I have so far!

Ever had ex-housemates you can’t get rid of?

When Killian and the rest of the Drake vampires kicked me out of their mansion without any explanation, I felt beyond betrayed…

I was livid!

But I refused to waste my energy thinking about them. Thanks to all the free training I got while living with vampires, I had the skills I needed to finally free my family. I even got my house back! Best yet, I can pass on the magic techniques and fighting skills I’ve learned to all the wizards in our group.

As long as I ignore the rotating vampires standing watch on the corner across the street, life is normal again…until the fae risk injuring hundreds of supernaturals just to stage a surprise attack on Killian.

There’s no way I’m going to let the fae get away with this. I may be furious with Killian, but I hate bullies even more.

But, big surprise, my good deed won’t go unpunished. I knew I’d face a fallout for saving the most feared and lethal vampire in the Midwest—I just never imaged the lengths Killian would go through to protect me and win me back…

Magic Unleashed is the final book in the Hall of Blood and Mercy trilogy, which features vampires, wizards, fae, and werewolves. It’s packed with humor, adventure, and a sweet, slow burn romance between a vertically challenged wizard and the deadliest vampire in town.

😉 Just a few more days, Champions, and you’ll learn alllll about the attack and Killian’s antics. BE PREPARED!!! And have a lovely day!

Character Profile: House Medeis and The Paragon

Today we’re going to once again explore some of the secondary characters from the Hall of Blood and Mercy Trilogy!

If it isn’t obvious from all of my backlist books, I’ve got a thing for old buildings with character. I am unapologetically obsessed with libraries–I think they’re the greatest places ever–and in general I just like fascinating architecture, and places that seem to have their own…moods.

House Medeis was built out of my interest in old buildings, and was partially inspired by the dollhouses I played with as a kid in that I wanted things to happen to the people living inside the house that weren’t necessarily their choice.

While the building itself is basically a magical fun-house, when you swirl in a personality that is a mixture of a loving but slightly overbearing grandparent, that’s when things get crazy!

House Medeis will throw your own shoes at your head if you leave them out for other people to trip on. If you make it mad it will only give you cold water for showers. It’s the kind of building that will purposely lower door frames so tall people ram their foreheads into it, and it will raise light switches out of reach of shorter wizards just to get its point across.

Similarly, if it works with an Adept it likes, it is crazy powerful.

House Medeis will adjust itself to the wizards that live within its walls, and the desires of the Adept that leads them. When House Medeis bonds with Hazel, together they create a fortress that seems suspiciously and unnecessarily large…

The Paragon could honestly have his own post. I had so much fun with him!

Given how all the other leaders/monarchs/head honchos of the various supernatural races act stately, poised, and polite–from the individual House/Family/Court/Pack levels all the way up to the Regional levels–I wanted to make the Paragon the opposite of what most people say would make a good leader.

He hates drama and tries to avoid his people as much as possible, but is also super nosy and doesn’t like to be left out. He wears fancy clothes but stores the entrance to his pocket realm in a unicorn coin purse. While he looks like he’s as old as dirt, he speaks using modern slang, has magical artifacts that are older than the country of America, and also proficiently uses his cellphone. Perhaps most importantly, he has the necessary pet that most sassy, mentor-type characters usually possess…except she’s a hairless cat named after a Greek Goddess because it harkens back to the Renaissance’s obsession of painting her without a stitch of clothing.

Josh accidentally subverts most vampire tropes. The Paragon purposely shatters them.

He’s also a good balance for Killian.

Although the Paragon technically has more power than Killian, as he emphatically likes to point out he’s the top fae representative, and isn’t truly their overlord no matter how others view it. Unlike Killian, he avoids throwing his political weight around, and he wants people to overlook him/think of him as an eccentric old man and not the quick-silver, cunning fae that he really is. (Most times, other characters appear to even forget that he’s a fae!)

He’s strong enough to call out Killian on his actions, wily enough to see what’s happening between Hazel and Killian, and yet soft enough that he’s willing to do Killian a favor and shows up to support Hazel when she’s about to enter a show down with Mason.

So, which character do you like more? You’ll get to see more of House Medeis in Magic Unleashed, but I think you’ve got a pretty accurate depiction of the Paragon. 😉

Magiford Universe: Vampires

It’s time for the long awaited supernatural that is today’s topic…vampires!

Vampires are among the upper crust of supernatural society. Because of their immortality they have had plenty of time to amass land, wealth, and power. Matched with their superior senses–advanced hearing, sight, and smelling capabilities–and their supernatural speed, healing abilities, and increased strength, they are frighteningly lethal.

Vampires do, however, possess weaknesses as well. They are especially weak to magic–both wizard and fae magic–and although they can out-pace most shifters, werewolves and the like are physically stronger. Although sunlight will not kill them it does significantly weaken them and makes them easier to kill. Finally, besides their innate abilities–healing, speed, etc–they are incapable of sensing or using magic.

Vampires live in units called Families. The Family gets its name from the founding vampire–in example, the feared Drake Family of the Midwest region was founded by Killian Drake. The founding vampire–or if the founding vampire has died, the strongest vampire in the family–is called the Family Elder, and he/she rules the Family.

Each Family has at least two vampires who serve under the Elder, although the title of those vampires frequently changes depending on the country of origin of the Elder vampire. The Drake Family uses the term First Knight and Second Knight to denote the two next strongest vampires because Killian Drake was originally from Britain. Families with Slavic origins most frequently use the term “bogatyr” while Families with French origins call their top vampires “chevalier.”

The most powerful vampire in a Region is called the Eminence. The Eminence serves on the Regional Committee of Magic, and–to a certain extent–reports to the Ancient—the top vampire in the country.

A tiny minority of vampires don’t belong to a Family, they are called Unclaimed. Few Unclaimed are exiles, but the majority of them are vampires who find vampire society distasteful. Unclaimed who wish to survive long have to be crafty and powerful as they are otherwise easy prey for other supernaturals.

Vampires survive by drinking human blood. They are able to consume human food as well, but it lacks the necessary nutrients they need to survive, and too much of it can make a vampire ill, so it is not uncommon for vampires to partake in human food only once per week, or less.

Instead, vampires receive shipments of blood in prepacked, plastic packs they they can drink like a juice box. Entire companies are built around fulfilling this need–some recruit and pay humans for donating their blood, others specialize in packaging the blood, and every region has a local delivery company that delivers weekly shipments of blood packages to a Family’s house.

Some powerful Families keep individual Blood Donors on retainer. Blood Donors are humans who are paid by the vampires–and often given room and board–in exchange for letting vampires from the Family drink their blood. Vampires receive more nutrients from fresh blood, but given all the laws and requirements for keeping Blood Donors, they are considered a luxury.

While magic is considered the biggest threat to a vampire, in reality if a vampire manages to live through its first century, his/her nature has enough time to settle and they get a distinct increase of power and abilities that make it easier to survive. Unfortunately, once a vampire passes several centuries, their powerful abilities make it harder to survive.

Vampires used to be the biggest powers in the supernatural community, but as time has passed their powers have waned–not from a lack of respect or wealth, but by the choice of the Elder vampires. Weighted down by memories, general weariness of the world, and the sadness they’ve carried by living through centuries of watching their loved ones die again and again, the majority of old, powerful vampires slowly slump into apathy. They lose all interest in politics, sometimes they even lose interest in caring for their own Families. This has repercussions on their Families, who are forced to get by with poor leadership or–in extreme cases–pick a new leader if their Elder falls asleep and won’t wake up/becomes wholly unresponsive.

If the apathy of the Elders wasn’t enough, vampires have been facing a crisis of numbers as they’ve been unable to turn many vampires in the past 50 or so years. As a result, they are unable to replace their dwindling numbers.

Vampires are currently in a precarious position. They still have an abundance of power and wealth, but lack the numbers to use it. Additionally, as they are generally feared it makes other supernaturals less likely to align with him. All of this changes when the Eminence of the Midwest Region, Killian Drake, extends his Family’s protection to Adept Hazel Medeis of House Medeis…