Return to the Darkness of Erentyr

Hey gang, so the latest on The Treacherous Fire, book 2 of the Raven’s Tale: I’m finished with all 5 drafts and now it is in the alpha and beta reading phase. So far I’m getting very positive feedback for it, so that’s very exciting.

The Treacherous Fire

The story is, of course, a sequel to King of the Forgotten Darkness, set twenty years later, where an investigator in Midworld is trying to track down Liam and his Dream Stone, but Liam turns the tables on him and drags him into Erentyr. There he is forced to join the last defense of the Brendanians against the armies of the Sorcerer King Ozremorn in an epic siege defense to the finish!

An Epic Showdown

One of the most frequent compliments I got about King of the Forgotten Darkness was the attention to detail in medieval battles, and here you’ll see that even moreso, as I used actual medieval sieges as a template for the battle, adding in the magical elements of course! And just as in King of the Forgotten Darkness, the story can be read on multiple levels. If you like, you can just enjoy the ride, and vibe with a fun adventure story with lots of magic, mayhem, and action, with a little romance on the side. But on a deeper level, I explore the nature of suffering, the tendency we all have to try to control our environments and the consequences of that, and a lot deeper levels that deal with the hard realities of trauma and recovery from it.

In the Treacherous Fire, I continue this approach. One one level, you can just enjoy the ride, and there is plenty there for fans of fantasy, action, and adventure. But on a deeper level, I'm exploring the concept of moral injury: when soldiers are asked to do terrible things for war, and the ways they attempt to deal with it--or not deal with it. This ties into the theme of the mysterious link between love and hatred. As always, I write in a way that explores deep philosophical themes but I try not to make a lot of noise about it. This gives readers and fantasy fans plenty to chew on--if they want to. And if that's not their jam, they can just stay for a ripping good yarn.

The Raven's Tale

If I had to describe the Raven's Tale series, I think you can sum it up as a grown-up Narnia meet's Pan's Labyrinth. There are nine books in this series that I have planned out. And they are thoroughly planned out. I won't pull a George RR Martin or a Patrick Rothfuss and just drop the series because I'm out of ideas. At this point four of the nine books are actually already written: books 1 (King of the Forgotten Darkness), 2 (The Treacherous Fire--with beta readers now), book 4 (Children of the Autumn Spell) and book 6 (the Doomed Crusade). So have no fear, if you like my novels, I will finish the series.

Anyway, as always, stay here and subscribed for more updates on not only my fiction writing, but also my non-fiction writing. I have a new article on archetypes that is out for peer review right now, and of course, you can check out my stuff on folktales, the psyche, mental health, storytelling and fantasy, and all things imagination on my youtube channel The Imaginarium, and I'm also on Tiktok, Facebook, and Instagram.

See you next time!

EG