I'm so excited to have announced last week that Book 2 of the Ethra Born series, Strengthening Spirit, will be released on Friday 15th January! Pre-orders will be available on Amazon from the 15th December.
I've been working on the cover art this week. Strengthening Spirit is mostly set in ancient Karnoss Forest where ancient spirits walk. Karnoss is the shape-shifting spirit of the forest. He has mesmerising eyes, mahogany brown ringed with holly green. This has been the basis for the cover art. The final version is still in development.
Also, I've updated my website, adding a new page for 'books', which sets out the four books in the Ethra Born series, and now separate pages for Gathering Darkness and Strengthening Spirit where you can read the first chapter of each book.
Here's an exclusive exert from Strengthening Spirit. This is one of Lowenna's first interactions with Karnoss.
Lowenna found herself standing in a clearing deep in a forest. She saw movement on the far side of the clearing and a large stag stepped out through the trees. He held his head high, proudly displaying his magnificent antlers. He looked at Lowenna intently and she felt as if she were laid bare before him, all her achievements and mistakes, fears and loves exposed. His eyes were a strange deep mahogany that bled out to a holly green.
A mottled brown owl swooped down and landed on the stag’s antlers. The stag did not break its stare from Lowenna. The bird ruffled its feathers then it too turned to gaze at her.
The undergrowth rustled as a large brown bear ambled into the clearing to the right of the stag. On the other side, a sleek russet wolf padded out silently and next to him snuffled a bristly, dark brown boar. The creatures stared at Lowenna.
She squirmed under their intense gazes. As she looked at each in turn, she realised that they were an eerily similar shade of brown and that they all had exactly the same eyes; mahogany ringed by green.
