SNEAK PEEK: Queen of the Sylphs

Coming November 2010!

Blurb (from author's website):

Life in the Valley is mostly peaceful, and newcomer Gabralina is settling in happily with her Battle Sylph Wat. The only problem is, not everyone in the Valley is interested in letting things stay the way they are and the council that advises the Queen is being targeted.

Tensions mount when even the Battle Sylphs can’t find the culprit, and a creature no one was ever expecting starts to study the Gate from the other side.

Excerpt (Unedited):

Sixteen Battle Sylphs crouched on top of poles for the night lanterns, all of them perched like giant blue and gold birds.  Used to them, the people who lived in the Valley went on their way, only glancing up periodically at the outwardly human creatures.  They in turn were ignored by the Sylphs.  Newcomers, however, gaped in amazement. The Battlers didn’t appear to pay any attention to them either, though that wasn't true.  Outsiders were alien to a species that didn't like change.  To safeguard the hive, they hunched on their poles, looking around at the growing town and speaking to each other in silence while they watched and waited.  There wasn’t a single one of them who didn’t like the visibility being on the poles gave them, relying on their eyes to watch for danger as much as they did their empathy.

Seated on his heels with his hands resting lightly on his knees, Mace studied the street.  It was market day in the Valley and a large caravan had arrived with merchants from Eferem and Yed.  Thanks to them, there were several hundred new people in the town, all jostling their way through the market with its plethora of  merchant stalls and all shouting.  None of the Battlers were happy about it.  Given their own way, there would be no one new allowed into the Valley unless they cleared them first, but the town would never survive that.  Without trade, they wouldn’t grow, and if they didn’t grow, they wouldn’t be able to survive.  They needed to.  Theirs was a people against the rest of the world and they had no allies.  There were people who would trade with them, certainly,  but other kingdoms who agreed with their Queen’s philosophy?  So far, none of them even acknowledged her.  The merchants who came to this place weren’t the representatives of their Kings after all.  In the case of Eferem, Mace had no doubt that they were coming directly against their King's command.  The Valley was a good place to trade with though and the Queen made sure that everything was kept fair.  No one cheated anyone in the Valley, not with the Battlers watching.

Mace shifted on his pole, watching the crowd with more than his eyes.  To anyone who saw him like this, he was a tall, heavy boned man of indeterminate age, his balding hair short and his face not given to smiling.  He looked more strong than attractive, but there was a certain hard confidence to him that he knew appealed to women.  He could feel it, though he never took advantage.  Not anymore.  His loyalty lay with two women; the Queen, who commanded him before all, and the Widow Lily Blackwell, who owned both his body and his love.  All of the Battlers had their women and would take no others while they lived.  It was for them and for the hive itself that they guarded the Valley.

As the day wore on, he studied the people who made their way down the street and felt their emotions.  Amusement, contentment, impatience, worry.  A tapestry of a thousand different feelings washed through him and left him unmoved.  Empathy was something Battle Sylphs had in abundance.  Compassion they had not at all.

Mace searched for anger, for violence and hate.  A man about to cause harm would broadcast it, giving himself away to the Sylphs.  The Elemental Sylphs and Healers wouldn’t react to that, except to run, but the Battlers would attack.  If a man felt rage, they came.  If a woman felt fear, they came.  Even the Queen wouldn’t deny them that deep instinct.  Battlers protected the hive.  It had always been that way. 

Below him, a man in an ordinary travel tunic with a pack on his back passed by,  not noticing Mace on his silent perch.  The man felt... determined.  He was looking at the Elemental Sylphs who walked in the form of children with surprise and then contempt.  He saw the women who wore clothes like men and bartered or sold as equals with disgust. 

Mace leaned forwards, balanced unnaturally on his toes as he stared at the man who was heading through the market.  He looked over at the other Battlers and saw them watching the newcomer as well, their emotions interested.  Mace nodded at the closest; a blue-haired, nervous creature named Claw. 

We follow, he said silently into the other Battler’s mind and Claw nodded spastically.  He was a shivering, broken creature who’d been ruined by years of slavery.  Mace would never send him on a mission alone, but even if Lily hadn’t said to include him, he still had his uses and he was a Battle Sylph.  Nothing would change that. 

Mace jumped down, landing easily before a woman carrying a basket of potatoes.  She yelped and nearly dropped it, staring up at him in fright.  Mace nodded at her and set off, making his way through the crowds behind the man, people getting out of his way at the sight of the gold trimmed blue uniform he wore.  The Battlers all wore the same clothes, making it easy for the people who didn’t know what they were to identify them.  The Queen felt that was a kinder announcement than the aura of hatred they otherwise projected to anyone nearby.  That wasn’t needed, she felt;  not in a peaceful place like the Valley.  Mace wasn’t inclined to argue with her, even if arguing with a Queen or a master wasn’t incomprehensible to him.  People in the Valley knew what they were and if they didn’t, they learned quickly.

They stepped out of his way now, which was all that mattered.  The ones who knew him started to speak, perhaps to say hello, but stopped when they saw the look in his eyes and Claw following at his heel.  He felt whatever emotion they had turn to fear and kept going, following the man.  He was easy to catch up to, what with having to push his way through the crowds that parted for the Battlers, but they didn’t catch up all the way, instead just following.  One of the Queen’s rules was that they not attack on instinct.  They needed a reason; not much of one, but a reason nonetheless. 

The man reached the end of the wide road and headed into a square that was even more filled with stalls than the street he’d just left.  Everything from food to tools to jewellery was being sold, but Mace didn’t care.  Neither did the man, apparently.  Above, a Battle Sylph named Wat perched on the edge of a building, watching Mace and Claw. 

He feels like he’s looking for something, Claw sent to Mace. 

Yes.  The man did and it wasn’t anything the merchants were selling.  He looked at the faces of the women he passed instead and Mace could feel his annoyance and determination at not seeing what he wanted, along with a determination that led towards violence.  He felt like a predator and Mace let a low growl sound in his throat.

A little girl toddled out of the crowd and grabbed his leg, beaming up at him.  “Play with me!” she cried, her happiness a dizzy salve to him.  Mace scooped her up, tickling her under the chin, and passed her back to Claw. 

Take her to her mother, he ordered, seeing the woman not far away.  She was one of the original Community members, there since the Valley was settled, and her emotions were content, trusting the Battlers with her child.  Claw hurried over to her and Mace turned back to his target.

He was nowhere in sight, lost in the emotions of the excited, happy crowds that gathered around a street performer with a dozen juggling balls.  Mace snarled, looking around, reaching with his senses, and glared up at Wat on the rooftops.  Where? 

The Battler on the roof, dark-haired, slim, and gorgeous by any human standard, stared right back at him.  Huh?  

The big Battler snarled and shifted form, dropping the human shape he’d chosen years before and going to his original one.  Formed of dense black smoke laced heavily with lightning, his eyes were swirls of ball lightning, his teeth pure electricity.  Black, drifting wings spread out and he rose, lifting dozens of feet in moments.  People who saw him screamed in fright, even those who knew him.  Some of those ones screamed even louder. Battlers only took their own shape to travel or to attack, but Mace didn’t care.  He had no proof, but he knew exactly where the man was going.  Determined, violent, searching for a woman.  Not expecting to find her in the market but watching regardless, just in case.  Mace rose high and confirmed where he was going, just as he'd thought.  On the other side of this square was another road that led eventually to a stone building, the walls as thin and delicate as candy floss, the windows tall with coloured glass.  It rose high in the air, the stone a creamy white.  Wide stairs led to the great double doors, both open now as they always were open when the Queen held court.  A woman that Mace could easily see a determined, violent man looking for.

Mace spotted the man, already nearing the stairs, though the entire building was mostly built for show.  For all its beauty outside, its interior led only to a staircase into the underground complex where the Queen's throne room really lay.  Mace roared, his call a command to every Sylph, whether Battler or not. 

PROTECT THE QUEEN. 

The Battlers answered the cry, all of them immediately in the air.  The other Sylphs shrieked, going to their own forms to escape, many of them dragging their human masters to safety with them.  People from the Valley saw them retreating, heard the Battlers roar, and fled themselves, all of them hurrying to stairwells at every corner of the square.  They led into the corridors underground, the hive that existed underneath the Valley.  Strangers to the Valley didn’t know to follow them, but Mace didn’t care about that, not nearly as much as he did the safety of the human Queen who was master to them all.

At the foot of the stairs, the assassin started, looking back up at Mace in fear.  At all of them, as the other Battlers rose behind Mace, creating a storm layers high.  Behind the man, the doors closed, sealing shut at the touch of an Earth Sylph.

Mace opened his jaws wide, hissing.  He couldn’t speak in this form to the man.  He could only project his voice to other Sylphs, or his master, or his Queen.  He projected it to her now. 

There is danger, my Queen.  A man has come to kill you.  We have him. 

Don’t kill him, she sent back immediately.  No one dies. 

Mace hated it, but as he dropped down to take the assassin, he obeyed.

~ o ~

Review of The Battle Sylph, Book 1 of The Sylph Series

Excerpt of The Battle Sylph

Excerpt of The Shattered Sylph

Interview with L.J. McDonald 

LAST DAY for the contest. You may make your comments in this post or in any of the posts above. L.J. is also around to answer your questions, so ask away! More importantly, have fun!

SNEAK PEEK: The Shattered Sylph by L.J. McDonald

Blurb (from author's website):

Years after Eferem and the battle on the Cliffs, Ril is a free Sylph, living with the man he still calls his master in Sylph Valley. Only Ril doesn't care about his freedom. Instead he's a broken creature, crippled in that final battle and, in his own mind, useless.

However, when Leon's oldest daughter Lizzy is kidnapped by slavers and taken halfway across the world, Ril is the only one who can track her. Together, he and Leon follow to a world alien to both of them, following a bond Ril's not willing to admit to, even in the depths of his own heart.

Excerpt: 

A man known for crudity and violence, Cherod Mash came to Sylph Valley looking for a drink, a fight, and a tickle, in any order he could get them. Mostly, however, he came as one of the drovers of a trade caravan willing to give the new kingdom a try.

The place was said to have money—gems and metals dug from the heart of the world by sylphs. But no sylph could make those things into anything useful. For that, artisans were needed, and Cherod drove a wagon piled high with woven carpets and other crafted commodities from the southern kingdom of Yed. These had been commissioned for a good weight of those gems he'd heard about, and once the trade was complete, the caravan would continue through the mountains to Para Dubh and see if maybe they could buy some even more valuable goods brought across the sea from Meridal, which they'd take home and sell for tremendous profit.

Not that the logistics really mattered to Cherod. He left that kind of thinking to his employer and focused on driving his oxen—at least until they reached a town where there was beer to drink, fights to start, and women to bed. He'd never been to Sylph Valley, but from what he'd heard it was chock full of whores. He'd even heard they slept with the sylphs, which made no sense to him. Those damn things weren't even solid most of the time.

The convoy arrived in the Valley in late afternoon, the oxen blowing and men shouting over the creaking of the wagons. Yelling at his own beasts, Cherod guided them through the streets in the direction a local had pointed the boss, to a huge building towering over everything else at the end of the street. It didn't look like any warehouse Cherod had ever seen before, though. It was made from a solid piece of stone, veins of metal running through it like some sort of disease. It loomed before them, its front a massive door that stood open.

The buildings they passed to get there were exactly the same in that they were all totally unique. Cherod saw shops where the walls were transparent or where the roof reached into the sky a dozen or more stories. The roads were smooth stone, the sidewalks raised, and every block had a stairwell leading underground. To see people going in and out by way of those stairs was bizarre. What kind of man lived underground, or in a building that looked like the wind could knock down? All of the buildings seemed almost sickeningly fragile. The whole place might fall on you! Better was a proper house made of wood or stone, with a real thatched roof.

Still, he thought, this place mightn't be so bad. He watched a trio of women cross the street, darting past his wagon while the way was clear. They were laughing over something, their faces bright with smiles. One of them even wore pants like a man, and Cherod appreciatively regarded the place where her legs met her body. They had to be whores to dress like that.

An earth sylph trundled past, looking like a little mud-shaped girl. Cherod gave it a quick look, but otherwise kept his eyes on the women. He whistled at them. They looked back but kept walking, giggling. He grinned. This would be a good night.

Ahead, the wagons turned to pass through a wide doorway leading into the warehouse. Standing by the door, a fat man with sweat on his face gestured them all inside, shouting for them to pull to the right, for the gods' sake, pull to the right or there'd be no room for them to get their wagons out.

Cherod turned his wagon with the others, still thinking of those women, and nearly ran into the wall. The fat foreman screeched and Cherod swore, yanking the reins hard to the side to steer his oxen. They bellowed in protest and turned, the wagon wheels scraping the wall but finding clearance. That made Cherod forget about women; the boss would have his hide if he scratched the paint on those damned wheels.

Just inside the warehouse, a dark-haired man stood with his arms crossed, watching. He was dressed in blue trousers and a long blue coat edged with gold trim. Cherod's first thought was that he was a lord, but the boss had said this place didn't have lords. His second instinct was that the man was the law.

As the wagon rolled past him, the blue-coated man looked up but didn't say anything. Cherod kept staring forward. He'd spent far too many nights in lockup, and the boss had warned he'd be fired if it happened again. Cherod instead drove the wagon to the rear of the warehouse, where the first was already stopped. Another door loomed beyond, one for them to drive out of once they unloaded, and the entire ceiling was made of glass, letting in more than enough sunlight to see. It was a nice setup, if a bit unnerving. Usually he'd have to unload his damn cargo outside, no matter what the wind or rain.

What was even nicer was that air sylphs were doing the unpacking. Cherod couldn't see them, but carpets and other goods were flying off the wagons, vanishing among huge shelves while Cherod's boss screamed at the foreman over how much was there and in what condition.

Stretching his back, Cherod climbed down and walked over to the next wagon. There, Frem was watching the sylphs with his mouth hanging open. Cherod grinned. "Not bad, eh?"

"Yeah," Frem agreed, his mouth still agape. "Wish we got this everywhere. Damn, this place is different."

"Yep. Can't wait to see what the women are like."

"I think I'm afraid to know," Frem admitted. In all, it only took ten minutes to unload everything, which to Cherod's mind made it a record. Even better, it was still too late to start off again before morning. While the boss was too much the skinflint to pay for rooms—he was of the opinion that his men could sleep just as well under their wagons—this meant they'd have the evening to themselves. They just had to make sure they were back before the convoy left.

They'd also been paid since the last stop. Cherod had coin in his pocket and a powerful urge to drink.

"Want to go find a tavern?" he asked Frem. It was always good to have a buddy along, mostly on the theory that he could be convinced to buy a few rounds.

Frem shook his head. "Sorry, I'm gonna get a bath and some sleep."

Coward. He just didn't like Cherod's reputation. Cherod himself didn't really mind, though. He was more interested in a different kind of company tonight. "Your loss," he grunted.

The boss waved them all over. A huge man who'd been a drover for thirty years, Thul Cramdon was one of the few men Cherod respected; Thul had nearly broken his hand for throwing a drunken punch. The boss was fairly open-minded, though, willing to have a drink himself and not caring what Cherod did, so long as he wasn't late and didn't cost Thul any money.

"There's a place we can store the wagons and oxen for tonight," Thul told them. "We get paid on the morrow, then we're out of here." He scratched his hairy chin. "Foreman here says there's a hotel of sorts down the road with a bar. Y' can stay there if you want, but it's right expensive." There were groans at that. "Otherwise, the blacksmith lets men sleep in the loft of his barn for a penny." That sounded better, though Cherod didn't really like picking hay out of his clothes. "Only other thing he said was, 'Leave the sylphs alone, leave the women alone, 'less they say otherwise, and stay the hell away from the men in blue and gold.' That's it. Settle yer animals and be back at dawn."

The men obeyed, discussing what they'd do while they drove their wagons out of the warehouse, following the boss to the empty lot provided for storage. A large paddock nearby was good for the animals. Cherod didn't join their conversation. He was going to find that bar—and as for a place to stay, women had rooms, didn't they? He'd just sack out with whoever took him home.

Waving at the others, he headed out and down the street, passing other warehouses and places to buy or repair farming equipment. All of the buildings had the same oddly organic look. More, everything seemed to be laid out according to some master plan . . . and it didn't take him long to realize that most of the buildings were going unused. It seemed crazy to build a bunch of places before you needed them, but he supposed if you had a whole bunch of sylphs to do the work, there was no harm done.

It didn't take him long to find the tavern the boss mentioned. The rooms above were overpriced, but the drinks were plentiful and cheap. The beer was made by a water sylph, the barman told him proudly—which explained the weird aftertaste. It was still pretty good beer, but unnatural.

The whole place was. Cherod had never seen so many sylphs as he had on the walk over. There were three in the bar itself, with the owner's water sylph washing glasses when she wasn't mixing hops, malt and water in midair. She looked like some sort of freaking kid, except kids weren't see-through.

Cherod didn't much care for her. More interesting was how there were two barmaids, one of whom was fat and middle-aged, while the other was much younger and pretty. They both carried drinks and bowls of stew to customers, chattering with the men as much as serving them. This meant Cherod had to get his first beer from the barman, but he took this time to watch, downing the mug and gesturing for another.

"Might want to slow down a bit," the barman laughed. "Pond puts more oomph in her beer than most folks. It's stronger than it looks."

"Just pour," Cherod growled. He drank half the results in a single gulp and gestured toward the younger woman with the stein. "She available?"

The barman blinked. "Cherry? Nah, she don't date customers."

Why not, with a name like that? Cherod smirked and drained his beer, slamming it down in front of the barman, who shrugged and filled it again, but with the warning, "I'd leave her alone. She's quick to yell for help."

That sounded even more interesting. After Thul nearly broke his hand, Cherod hadn't got into any fights with his fellow drovers, and fighting was his favorite hobby, next to drinking and whoring. "I'll take that under advisement," he told the barman, and lurched off his stool, swaying for a moment. "Shit, this stuff is strong."

"Told you." Cherod ignored him, lurching across the floor toward Cherry. She had her back to him, chatting with some stupid customer who'd brought his wife to the bar and was ordering dinner. The barman, realizing what Cherod intended, shouted for him to stop, but Cherod flung an arm around the maid, his hand latching onto her breast.

"Hey, girl," he slurred. "Let's go find someplace we can get naked."

Cherry screamed, trying to pull away, but Cherod just laughed, tightening his grip and taking another swallow from his mug. The barman was shouting for him to let go, rushing around the side of the bar, but he was a skinny little nothing, and everyone else was staring in shock. As if none of them would ever grab a whore for a tickle!

"You wanna try something?" he sneered at the barman, his grip tightening on the girl's breast until she started to cry. "Stop yer bitchin'," he snapped at her. "You know you want it."

The door crashed open. Immediately, all of the patrons turned white, scrambling out of their chairs and shoving each other as they fled to the back of the establishment. The barman went with them, while his water sylph gave a bizarre shriek and vanished, leaving her half-made beer to splash on the floor. The other sylphs who'd been wandering around vanished as well, or stood between their masters and the door.

Surprised, Cherod turned, Cherry swinging around with him. She saw who was there and started sobbing, reaching out.

The man in the blue and gold from the warehouse was entering the bar, his face so devoid of expression that Cherod hesitated before he started to laugh. From the look of it, he outweighed the newcomer by a hundred pounds or more, and the blue-coated fool didn't have a weapon.

"You have to be joking," he laughed.

A second man came in, then a third and fourth. In all, seven men in blue and gold entered, none of them speaking as they spread out to fill the bar. They advanced.

These weren't odds Cherod liked, but from experience, the worst he would get was a lump on the head and a night in jail. He glared, though, seeing his job leaving in the morning without him. Thul wouldn't wait for him again.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" he shouted. "Who gives a shit about some slut barmaid?" Somewhere behind him, someone groaned.

The men didn't seem to care. "The hive's in danger," one of them said in a soft voice.

"Yes," several more answered.

"The queen gave her permission."

"Oh, yessss." They all hissed it, the sound continuing after they should have run out of breath, and Cherod looked around at them, suddenly nervous.

"Look," he said. "I'm letting her go. See? I'm letting go."

He released Cherry and immediately she ran to the men, still crying. Half of their number converged around her, holding her and actually cooing. The rest kept advancing.

"Look," Cherod said. "I—"

He didn't get to finish. A blast of emotion hit him all at once, focused and deliberate, and he felt his bladder release as his tankard fell to the ground. His eyes widened and he screamed in terror. Hatred that wasn't his filled him, crippling his courage, leaving him shaking and helpless and his heart threatening to burst in his chest. But this didn't last long. The men's focus narrowed and something else came at him, something invisible and very deliberately aimed.

Cherod's right arm blew off at the shoulder. It was the one he'd grabbed the girl with, intending nothing but some harmless fun, though if she felt bad about it in the morning, oh well. He drew breath to scream again, and his left burst off as well. He did scream then, his voice so high-pitched he couldn't recognize it—and then the blue-coated battle sylphs he'd been warned about took off his head.

~ o ~

Review of The Battle Sylph, Book 1 of The Sylph Series


Excerpt of The Battle Sylph


Interview with L.J. McDonald

The contest is still ongoing. You may make your comments in this post or in any of the posts above. L.J. is also around to answer your questions, so ask away! More importantly, have fun!

GIVEAWAY and INTERVIEW with L.J. McDonald

We have here with us today L.J. MCDONALD, author of The Sylphs series. THE BATTLE SYLPH is currently available, while the second in the series THE SHATTERED SYLPH will be out next month (April). And in November 2010, we'll have the third book, QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS. Yay, so much to look forward to!

The Raving Readers (TRR): LJ, thanks so much for gracing us with your presence here at The Raving Readers. Before anything else, we’d like to know about you! What can you tell us about yourself?

L.J. McDonald (LJM): Well, I'm thirty-nine. I'm a clerk in the Canadian military and I've been married to my fantastic husband for fourteen years. We don't have any kids. Instead we have two cats, a bunch of fish, and a snake. I’m currently living just outside Ottawa in Ontario, Canada (and loving it) and I've been writing since I was fifteen years old. I also spend my time knitting, painting, and reading.

TRR: We understand THE BATTLE SYLPH is your first published book and we can attest it's an awesome debut! How did you come up with the idea for this series?

LJM: The idea for the first book had its germination in a couple of concepts I've been playing with for a long time. I like the idea of dealing with characters who aren't quite human. I like how you can exceed human limitations with them and I'd specifically been wanting to write a book with a shape-shifter in it for a while. I'd even made a failed attempt at writing one, where it just didn't work. I shelved that book, which I’ll probably come back to and reinvent since it still has some ideas in it that I like, and started tossing around the idea of shape-shifters again. Around that time, I read something about the legend of the Japanese Tengu, who is a bird-type spirit that can change shape and has really big noses. I obviously didn't go with the big nose, but I did like the concept that the tengu can be controlled if you know their name. That suddenly flipped all around in my head and suddenly I had the empathic, shape-changing battle sylphs. The other sylphs just came from brain storming, as did the world itself, a lot of it while tossing ideas back and forth with my husband Oliver. He's really good for that.

The plot and ideas for THE BATTLE SYLPH came out so strongly that I had the first draft written in a month. I wish it always worked that way.

TRR: Wow, looks like you have a very supportive husband. I'm sure a lot of people would like to know how many books have you got planned for the series? Can you give us a hint about them?

LJM: There are five existing books right now. Dorchester has currently bought three. I have ideas and a few scenes for a sixth book that I'll be writing. So right now there are six. I don't know that there will be more. I didn't intend to write more than one. Then I didn't intend to do more than three, then four. And I certainly never expected to be thinking of six.

As for hints, the first one is obvious, so no need to get into that. What can I give as teasers for the rest?

THE SHATTERED SYLPH – Leon Petrule's oldest daughter Lizzy is kidnapped by slavers and it's up to Leon and his battle sylph Ril to track her down. That one comes out next month.

QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS – Solie discovers she has a problem she isn't sure Heyou can help her with while strange accidents start happening in Sylph Valley, a lot of them targeting the members of the ruling council. Meanwhile, something no one was ever expecting starts examining the gate from the valley into the sylph world, from the other side.

These three are definitely coming out. I won't say that the next two are, because I don't know, but I do know there's interest. But as I was told, until you have a signed contract in your hand...

HUNTER OF THE SYLPHS – In Shattered, Leon and Ril had to go to a foreign land. Now Devon, who is phobic about battlers, returns there in their stead, just in time to find out exactly why battle sylphs need to be so horrendously dangerous. He's also just in time to meet the love of his life, as well as the battle sylph who's decided he wants to claim her for his own.

WAR OF THE SYLPHS – There have been tensions between the king of Eferem and Sylph Valley for years (he did try to have Solie sacrificed, after all). When the Eferem king finds he has a secret weapon, those tensions turn into full bloodshed.

LOSS OF THE SYLPHS - this one isn't even written yet. Massively subject to change or my getting distracted by other shiny things to write. Can't say much about it other than that humans are going to see the sylph world up close. VERY up close.

All of the books have romance in them, since it's fun to write, and I hope that they all hit the shelves and people like them. I'll write them regardless. I'm still recovering from the shock that people want to read them. :)

TRR: So exciting! We definitely want to read about Devon. Looks like a great triangle there. Or would that be a square (including Airi)? Anyway, back to THE BATTLE SYLPH, the pivotal/main characters, Heyou and Solie, are portrayed as young and untried. Did you deliberately create them this way? Why? Will we see them grow over the series?

LJM: I did. I didn't see any reason not to. The only way I saw for Solie to not have already been married off to someone in a medieval society was for her to be young. Having Heyou young as well just worked well. They will definitely grow over the course of the series, especially Solie. Heyou will as well, but sylphs live much longer, so mature more slowly than humans. He'll definitely have matured by the end of the series, but then anyone should change over time.

TRR: We certainly didn't think of that. It proves that a writer's mind works differently from that of a reader. So what makes Heyou perfect for Solie and vice-versa?

LJM: That’s tough.... I think Heyou is perfect for Solie because he believes in her, and supports her no matter what. He has no doubt whatsoever that she can do whatever she wants to. For Heyou, Solie is perfect because she lets him be himself without abusing him. Given how he absolutely must obey her without question, the fact that she doesn't take advantage shows how strong a person she is. They balance each other. He's her sense of fun, she's his sense of reason. Plus they each think the other's kind of hot.

TRR: We know how hot! *wink* What about the other characters in the story, such as Mace, Ril, Leon, Devon and Galway? Will we see them take center stage in your next books?

LJM: Yes, to just about all of them. Especially Leon and Ril, who are unabashedly my favourite characters in the entire series, and Devon, who gets his very own story in book four. Mace and Galway are around, but they're more background characters, though Mace will be starring in a novella coming out next Christmas.

TRR: That's great! With so many characters in your books, did you ever find yourself arguing with any of them, like when they decided the story has to go in the opposite direction for what you've planned? How do you handle such an event?

LJM: Usually, I lose.... When I first wrote THE BATTLE SYLPH, Leon was supposed to be a villain, plain and simple, and he and Ril were both supposed to die. Leon flat out refused to have anything to do with any of that and turned himself and Ril into what I think are the most interesting characters in the series. They even got themselves a stay of execution, though I do love to be evil to them, and I am.

If characters want to write themselves, I'm not going to argue with them. The best stories are those that write themselves. THE BATTLE SYLPH was like that nearly all the way through. The only thing I did manage to keep control of was Heyou's complaints that he really should have had sex sooner....

TRR: LOL. We're inferring that you like fantasy since you’re writing in this genre. What books/persons have inspired you to write in this genre?

LJM: I think the first true fantasy novel I read was ELFSTONES OF SHANNARA by Terry Brooks. I got it for Christmas. I hadn't even known the genre existed and it was so much more exciting and terrifying than my horse books. I don't know that any specific author has inspired me to write fantasy, since my favourite authors are Stephen King and Charles de Lint, neither of whom do much fantasy. It's just the genre as a whole that pulled me into it. I love the opportunity to world-build and fantasy offers you the best chance to do that. Certainly it does me, since I’m not all that good at science.

TRR: Well, you seem to be good at fantays. *wink* What has your experience for the whole process been like—from writing the stories to publication?

LJM: The writing has always been there, since I've always done it. The publishing part was a total surprise. I never expected to be published. I never expected to try. It was my husband nagging me to enter my work in a contest Shomi was offering that finally got me out there. I certainly didn't expect to win, and I didn't, since they were looking for something very different, but I did sell the trilogy. I’m still reeling. People want to read my work? Why?

It's been fun, but it's also been a huge amount of work. Writing the books is the easy part. It really is.

TRR: To answer your question, well, we here at TRR are always searching for good books to read, books that would take us out of our humdrum lives into exciting worlds like yours. So, would you encourage budding writers to take the same path that you did? Or if you could do something differently, what would it be?

LJM: Follow my example? Not likely. Not given my answer to number nine. I guess the only thing I'd do differently would be to have really worked on getting published sooner, such as twenty years ago? I should have had more faith in myself. That's my suggestion for budding authors. Have faith in yourself. And write lots. At least I got that part right. I've got something of a backlog to send to my agent, once the Sylph books are all sorted out.

TRR: Backlogs are good. We readers also get our books sooner. *grin* We've come to the end of our questions. L.J., do you have any last words for us?

LJM: My website is at http://www.ljmcdonald.ca/. I have a blog there, but it’s not updated that often, due to sheer incompetence on my part. And I never know what to say in a blog. I don’t know how you guys manage to do it.

TRR: Well, there are three of us. Thank you so much! Doing this interview with you is a real pleasure!

LJM: Hey, I enjoyed it. Thanks for the opportunity.

~ o ~

Want to win a copy of THE BATTLE SYLPH?

Here's how: 

Answer today's question: Because of Heyou's youth, Galway became his mentor and influenced him, to a certain degree. In your life, who influenced you the most? How?

Extra chances to win:

+ 3 if you're a follower of this blog

+ 2 if you follow us on Facebook or Twitter

+ 2 if you take our poster (located on the right sidebar) about this contest and post it

          on your blog/website with a link back to us

+ 1 for every time you spread the word about this contest via Facebook, MySpace, 

          Twitter, your blog, website or other form of social media. For example, you 

          tweeted about this contest twice and also announced it on your Facebook. You also

          wrote a blog post. That's 4 additional chances! However, for these to qualify, be 

          sure to come back here and post the links. Like, if you tweeted twice, give me 

          both links.

If you do all of the above, at a minimum, that's 9 chances to win!

Contest ends on March 12 (Friday), 1159pm EST.

Winner will be picked via Randomizer.org and announced on March 13 (Saturday).

Good luck!

EXCERPT and GIVEAWAY: The Battle Sylph by L.J. McDonald

ISBN 9780843963007

Series: The Sylph Series, Book 1

Genre: Paranormal Romance

(c) March 2010, Leisure Books, Dorchester Publishing

L.J. McDonald's website

Buy Links (paper): Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble

Buy Link (ebook): Barnes and Noble Ebook

Blurb (from author's website):

In a world where Elemental Sylphs are used for slave labour, Solie thought her biggest problem in life was avoiding an arranged marriage with an older man. That is, until she finds herself kidnapped for use as a human sacrifice in the luring and binding of a Battler, the most dangerous kind of Sylph there is. Terrified but determined not to die, Solie fights back and finds herself suddenly the master of an immensely powerful, shape-changing creature who can take on any form she wishes.

Heyou, however, isn't the only Battle Sylph around, and the two of them are forced to run, pursued by men determined to destroy them both. With no other options left to her, Solie flees with her newfound allies to the only source of sanctuary left to them, but death is tracking them down and Heyou is filling her with desires that threaten to change the world.

Excerpt:

They brought the sacrifice in before dawn, while the streets were mostly empty and the roads still dark. Only the castle and its inner environs were lit, the fire sylphs mostly concerned with keeping the buildings warm in the frigid winter air. Keeping the streets outside the walls lit was less important.

Devon watched them bring her in from where he stood on the ramparts of the castle, huddling in his cloak and waiting for the ship that was soon to arrive. At least, he assumed it was a sacrifice in the cart driven through the old back gate, three armed men sitting inside before something covered in canvas. Whatever it was, it moved. There had been whispers that another battle sylph was to be summoned. The prince was of age, and no simple sylph would ever be considered good enough for him.

Devon sighed, glad that his sylph at least hadn’t needed anyone to die before she could be bound to him. He could feel her, hovering incorporeal in the air around him, waiting as he did. When she wanted, she could take on solid shape, as all sylphs could, but she preferred to be invisible most of the time, dancing on the air that she could control. First summoned by his grandfather, she’d been passed down to him through his father for a gift of music, bound to him for the rest of his life. She didn’t mind. Devon felt her contentment in the back of his mind. It was said the men bound to battlers felt nothing but their sylphs’ hate. Certainly everyone near them felt it.

The breeze was cold, enough so for an autumn night make him think unhappily that soon it would be snow blowing across his body as he stood there, huddling deeper against the lee of the castle. “Hey, Airi,” he called, teeth chattering. “It’s freezing. Can you do something about the wind?”

Her presence grew closer, a face forming out of the air. It’s a big ship, she reminded him.

“I don’t think keeping me from freezing to death will use up too much of your energy,” he replied, and the wind stopped around him, the air not quite warm but not so bitterly cold anymore either. “Thank you.”

A silver laugh answered him, and Devon shook himself, straightening his cloak and looking up. Where they stood, there was a wide space a hundred feet across, easy for a ship to land on. Usually they docked during the day, but this wasn’t a standard trade ship. It was rumored it had been bait for pirates instead. Three ships these brigands had attacked so far, taking the cargo and releasing the crew, but the king wasn’t known for tolerating anything, and this latest craft had gone out armed with two battlers.

Whatever they’d found, they were on their way back now, damaged. Devon’s job was to use Airi to help Tempest, the ship’s official air sylph, land. His superiors hadn’t told him when the craft would be arriving, however, and he’d already been out half the night, waiting.

He wouldn’t complain, he admitted with a sigh. The same as he wouldn’t ask what had happened to damage the ship, or about that cart he’d seen. Air sylphs were easy enough to get, as were those of earth, fire, and water. Someone like him could be replaced if they started questioning too much, and it had happened before, especially when battlers were involved. They were rare. Fortunately. Devon didn’t like to think about what kind of damage even one could do.

Despite knowing better, and though he had just finished reminding himself how expendable he was, he looked back down over the ramparts at the cart now vanishing inside. A ship sent out for bait with two battlers on it? A sacrifice brought in to summon a new battler for the prince? That upset the normal world Devon was used to, where he didn’t have to worry about anything but his work and Airi. Devon was happy being an air-sylph master. He didn’t want to think about anything else. He felt sorry for the girl who was going to be killed, though.

“Do you sense Tempest yet?” he asked.

No.

Devon sighed, leaning back against the rampart again. At least he wasn’t cold anymore. He closed his eyes, trying to catch a bit of rest. Late night or not, he would still have a full day tomorrow. Airi would wake him if anyone came. Sylphs rarely slept.

They’re here.

Devon looked up. Enough time had passed while he dozed that dawn was starting to break, and on the skyline he could finally see a ship floating toward them. It was huge, its hull rounded on the sides like an ocean-going vessel, but the bottom was flat and the sails rigged to the sides. The only waves this ship sailed were those of the sylph who bore it. Tempest was a major sylph, one much more powerful than his little Airi. Devon was almost envious as he watched the thing glide silently in.

I’m just young, Airi told him, though she was almost a hundred years old. Sometimes that made him wonder just how old creatures like Tempest were, or how long Airi would live. He’d never asked her. In a lot of ways, Devon just didn’t want to know.

“I know,” he soothed, not wanting her upset. An upset sylph was nearly painful for its master. He didn’t know how the battlers’ masters handled it. “If you weren’t, we’d spend all our time on a ship.” He’d hardly see his father again.

The ship slowed to a stop overhead, and he felt Tempest’s winds beat harshly against him as Airi went to help her fellow sylph. Together, the two lowered the vessel toward the stones of the castle and lifted a ramp up to it.

As he walked forward, Devon noted that the ship’s sides had gaping holes and one of the sails was torn. It was no wonder extra help was wanted to land her. He looked at the burn marks and felt a cold that didn’t have anything to do with the weather. A man came down the newly set ramp, pulling his coat closed. In his wake stomped a behemoth in full armor, light gleaming out through the eyeholes of his helm. Recognizing both, Devon bowed deeply.

The man swept past without slowing. He was dressed like a dandy, his face pinched with pride, and he didn’t even see Devon: Jasar Doliard, a minor landowner and one of the courtiers in favor with the king and the council. Enough in favor at least to win himself a battle sylph, the second figure, who Devon hoped would ignore him as well. He wasn’t that lucky. Immediately, those glowing eyes within the helm locked on him. At least, it looked like a helm. It was very probable that the armor was physically a part of the battler and not separate at all. Devon could feel the hate rolling off the creature, yet Mace didn’t do anything, not without his master’s command. Mace usually didn’t do anything other than hate. He just stood near his master and looked impressive. It would have seemed a waste of a battler if the creatures weren’t so horrific when they did act.

Behind Jasar came the second battle-sylph master. He was a well-built blond man, though nowhere near the size of Mace, and his sylph did go into battle. Leon Petrule had been the king’s head of security and lead battler master for years. Leon’s battler took the form of a red-feathered hawk, perched on his shoulder, and Devon felt its hate as clearly as he had Mace’s.

Ril’s loathing was sharp, and the bird’s grip tightened on his master’s shoulder when he saw Devon, talons cutting into the leather. Devon bowed deeper, not wanting any attention. The only thing battlers knew how to do was hate. All they were good for was killing, and he was beyond grateful no one ever suggested he master one, though a man could only be master to a single sylph at a time, and the Chole family already had Airi to care for. Even if that weren’t so, he didn’t have the spirit for it. You had to have a certain hardness to your soul to hold one in thrall. Leon had it. For all his frilly clothes and brownnosing attitude, Jasar had it. Devon wondered if the king’s pansy son would, and found himself doubting it.

Airi flowed around him, taking shape as a whirlwind of leaves, when Leon, to Devon’s dismay, stopped before him. Ril shifted on Leon’s shoulder, looking at Airi out of one eye. Devon bowed again. “My lord.”

“You didn’t see anything tonight,” the king’s battler master told him. “Understood?”

Devon bowed even deeper. “Yes, my lord.” “Good.” The battler master continued on his way. Devon waited until he was gone before straightening. His hands were shaking. “Airi,” he managed. Her attention focused on him, a breeze in his mind. “Tell no one about tonight.”

There was no argument. That’s what it meant to be a master. She was beholden to him, unable to disobey. Should Devon and his father both die, she would return to the otherworld from which she came, never to return, unless he passed her on to a new master first. If Devon died before his father, Airi would return to the old man. She’d been his father’s and his late grandfather’s before him, and the old bonds still held, but Devon owned her loyalty now. She’d still obey any former master, though. Once someone owned her, they would always do so. Even the battlers followed that rule.

Devon shuddered, turning back to the ship to help unload as the crew started to emerge, but as he did, an explosion shocked him to his knees. Gasping, he scrambled to his feet and ran to the edge of the castle ramparts. Looking down, he saw a massive hole blown out of the side of the keep, near the base, and heard the cry of something inhuman. It was an outraged scream, like one he’d heard only once before, on a day that he still couldn’t forget in his dreams. A moment later, a winged cloud shape shot from the hole, wings stretching out as it angled upward. Devon gasped as he felt its hate.

The lightning-filled cloud flew up into the sky, already vanishing in the early-morning light. It was carrying something with long red hair and pale limbs, something that shrieked with fright and clung to it.

“Airi,” Devon gasped, not knowing what he was thinking or why he did so. “Follow them.”

In a moment his sylph was gone, chasing along after her quarry through the air currents. Devon stood alone on the ramparts, staring after the escaped pair and wondering how any girl could manage to handle a battler.

Review for The Battle Sylph

~ o ~

Because we here at The Raving Readers love this book so much, we're giving away one copy of The Battle Sylph to a lucky winner! What's more, Dorchester Publishing has offered five additional copies for giveaway, so there will be six (6) lucky winners instead! Yay! Thank you, Dorchester!

And there's no geographical restriction, so everyone who lives on planet Earth, even the penguins in Antarctica, is welcome to cast your name into the hat.

How to enter?

Today's question is: Which writing contest did L.J. McDonald enter the first three chapters of THE BATTLE SYLPH?

Hint: L.J. McDonald website

Extra chances to win:
+ 3 if you're a follower of this blog
+ 2 if you follow us on Facebook or Twitter
+ 2 if you take our poster (located on the right sidebar) about this contest and post it
           on your blog/website with a link back to us
+ 1 for every time you spread the word about this contest via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter,
           your blog, website or other form of social media. For example, you tweeted about
           this contest twice and also announced it on your Facebook. You also wrote a blog
           post. That's 4 additional chances! However, for these to qualify, be sure to come
           back here and post the links. Like, if you tweeted twice, give me both links.

If you do all of the above, at a minimum, that's 9 chances to win!

Contest ends on March 12 (Friday), 1159pm EST.

Winner will be picked via Randomizer.org and announced on March 13 (Saturday).

Good luck!

REVIEW and GIVEAWAY: The Battle Sylph by L.J. McDonald

ISBN 9780843963007

Series: The Sylph Series, Book 1

Genre: Paranormal Romance

(c) March 2010, Leisure Books, Dorchester Publishing
L.J. McDonald's website

Rating: 4.5 stars




Buy Links (paper): Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble

Buy Link (ebook): Barnes and Noble Ebook

"Fantastic worldbuilding, diverse characters, magic and a magnificent fantasy adventure in a whole new world!"

With the prevalence of vampires and werewolves and demons, L.J. McDonald's unique worldbuilding blew me away. She has created a fantastic world of sylphs and the humans to whom they were bound. The sylphs were elemental spirits (air, water, fire, earth and healing sylphs) and of course, there were the battle sylphs that protected the hive. Sylphs lived in hives with a queen as the leader and she could take one or more battlers as mates. Think bee hive with the queen bee and her drones and worker bees and soldier bees.

Actually, the sylphs originally lived in another world and they were lured over to this Earthlike world (the action mostly take place in the kingdoms of Eferem and Para Dubh) and bound to one human master. The battle sylphs were attracted to the promise of the woman used as a sacrifice, and this woman was to be their queen (their love and mate), but the human man who was to gain the battler would kill the woman and bound the battler to him instead.

Read more about the sylphs.

The characterization is wonderful and unique for the characters being portrayed. Because the story is told from several points of view, we note how the narrative and the conversation differed for each character based on the character's age, background, experience and individual personality and circumstances. This makes for a holistic reading experience, wherein the reader gets to see the world from different sets of eyes.

For example, both Heyou and Solie are young, and we are made aware of this in their individual narration and in their actions. Whereas Leon Petrule as the king's head of security is an adult and seasoned soldier, and this can be seen in the way he acted and make decisions and in his thought processes. Not only that, but he is certainly not a sterotypical villain. He might well be the character that underwent the most radical change in the story.

The pivotal characters in this story are Solie, who defied the sacrificial death appointed to her, and Heyou, the battler who became bound to her.

Solie is seventeen years old, and she is young and sheltered, having never gone beyond her own and her aunt's villages. However, she is taught by her aunt to be strong and independent in the sense that she didn't need a man, if she didn't want one. This served her in good stead when she was captured to be a sacrifice to lure a battler over for the crown prince.

Heyou isn't your common hero as well. Though he is a battler, he is young and untried when he first crossed the gate to be bound to Solie. Yet for all that, he knew his duty is to defend and protect the queen and the hive with all that he has, even to the point of death. I like the part where he had established a bond with Galway, a trapper who had rescued him when Heyou was near death. Because Heyou is young and reminds him of his son, Galway acts like a mentor and father figure to him, something unheard of in the usual relationship between a battler and his master, which usually includes lots of hate.

Both Solie and Heyou did grow some over the course of the book, especially Solie as she needed to adjust to her new role. For all that she's young, Solie is smart, and she knew that she needed help and wasn't too proud to ask for it. Even in her inexperience, she rose to the occasion when needful and that is something to admire. Having such young protagonists who act their age would've taken away much of my enjoyment from the book had it not been for the balance provided by the adult characters surrounding them, like Leon, Galway and the two battlers Mace and Ril.

However, lest I give you a wrong impression, the story doesn't just focus on Solie's and Heyou's romance. No, there is so much more going on, like how they'd unwittingly made an enemy of the king and the possible consequences of that, and about how the sylphs are making a new hive in Eferem and the ways they're going to impact the world. That said, I'm interested to see how Solie and Heyou would have grown over the years, and I'm especially curious to know how Ril's and Lizzie's fate would play out in the next book, The Shattered Sylph.

Buy Links (paper): Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble
Buy Link (ebook): Barnes and Noble Ebook

And this review marks the start of our new feature called Author Week!

This week, we have L.J. McDonald here with us, who will grace us with excerpts from her books (the sequel THE SHATTERED SYLPH is out next month, in case you're interested to know) and an interview! She'll be around, so if you have any questions, ask away!

Because we here at The Raving Readers love this book so much, we're giving away one copy of The Battle Sylph to a lucky winner! What's more, Dorchester Publishing has offered five additional copies for giveaway, so there will be six (6) lucky winners instead! Yay! Thank you, Dorchester!

And there's no geographical restriction, so everyone who lives on planet Earth, even the penguins in Antarctica, is welcome to cast your name into the hat.

How to enter?

Today's question: What is the best paranormal story/series you've read? Why do you love it?

Extra chances to win:
+ 3 if you're a follower of this blog
+ 2 if you follow us on Facebook or Twitter
+ 2 if you take our poster (located on the right sidebar) about this contest and post it
           on your blog/website with a link back to us
+ 1 for every time you spread the word about this contest via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter,
           your blog, website or other form of social media. For example, you tweeted about
           this contest twice and also announced it on your Facebook. You also wrote a blog
           post. That's 4 additional chances! However, for these to qualify, be sure to come
           back here and post the links. Like, if you tweeted twice, give me both links.

If you do all of the above, at a minimum, that's 9 chances to win!

Contest ends on March 12 (Friday), 1159pm EST.

Winner will be picked via Randomizer.org and announced on March 13 (Saturday).

Good luck!