Today, I have a historical fantasy novel in our book blitz spotlight. Check out Conquist, learn about author Dirk Strasser & enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.  

Historical Fantasy

Date Published: September 1, 2024

Publisher: Roundfire Books

 

 

Capitán Cristóbal de Varga's drive for glory and gold in 1538 Peru leads him and his army of conquistadors into a New World that refuses to be conquered. He is a man torn by life-long obsessions and knows this is his last campaign. What he doesn't know is that his Incan allies led by the princess Sarpay have their own furtive plans to make sure he never finds the golden city of Vilcabamba. He also doesn't know that Héctor Valiente, the freed African slave he appointed as his lieutenant, has found a portal that will lead them all into a world that will challenge his deepest beliefs. And what he can't possibly know is that this world will trap him in a war between two eternal enemies, leading him to question everything he has devoted his life to - his command, his Incan princess, his honor, his God. In the end, he faces the ultimate dilemma: how is it possible to battle your own obsessions . . . to conquer yourself?

About the Author

Dirk Strasser’s epic fantasy trilogy The Books of Ascension—Zenith, Equinox and Eclipse—was published in German and English, and his short stories have been translated into several languages. “The Doppelgänger Effect” appeared in the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology Dreaming Down Under. His historical fantasy novel Conquist was published in 2024. The serialized version of Conquist was a finalist in the Aurealis Awards Best Fantasy Novel category. Dirk’s screenplay version of Conquist won the Wildsound Fantasy/Sci-Fi Festival Best Scene Reading Award and was a featured finalist in the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival and the Creative World Awards. He is the co-editor of Australia’s premier science fiction and fantasy magazine, Aurealis, and was a judge on the 2024 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival Screenplay Awards. Dirk has been a high school teacher, a writer of best-selling textbooks, an educational software developer, a publishing manager, and a soccer club president.

 

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Today, I have an adult historical fantasy in our book review spotlight.  Check out The Old Dragon's Head, learn about author Justin Newland, read my thoughts on the book and enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.

THE OLD DRAGON HEAD Book Tour Giveaway

Today, I have a historical fantasy adventure in our book spotlight!  Check out The Fish The Fighters & The Song Girl, learn about authors Janet & Chris Morris & enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.

The Fish The Fighters and The Song-Girl

This morning, I have a historical fantasy novel in our book blitz spotlight!  Check out The Oni's Shamisen, learn about the Toki-Girl and Sparrow Boy series & author Claire Youmans!

 

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow Boy Series, Book 9

 

Historical Fantasy, Japan, Paranormal

Date Published: April 2022

Publisher: American I Publishing

 

 

Japan, 1877. Toki-Girl Azuki revels in her new-found freedom. But now what will she do with it?

Using her patterns and the looms Western Dragon Prince Iyrtsh makes for Eastern Dragon Princess Otohime's ambitious project—resettling refugees displaced by the failed Satsuma Rebellion—anyone can make her fabulous fabric designs! But what of Azuki herself? Then the Oni, Kukanko, who is sure she's not a demon, calls on the Toki-Girl for help.

Can Azuki, Sparrow-Boy Shota, Dragon Princess Renko and Eagle-Boy Akira find a way to help the Oni? What will a blind musician accomplish using their results? How can they help Uncle Yuta and Aunt Noriko find places for newly freed mill workers with no place left to go? Or help Lady Anko and Lord Toshio defy convention and save their unlucky twins from potentially lethal superstition? What's going to happen to a very special horse?

Eastern Dragon King Ryuujin and Western Dragon Queen Rizantona contemplate the future of their species and the planet, and infant Dragon Prince Susu’s inability to keep a secret has catastrophic results.

Will Azuki and her friends find a way to help others while saving themselves, their friends, and their future? Can Azuki find a new path?

The Oni’s Shamisen is the ninth in the groundbreaking Toki-girl and Sparrow-boy series where History and fantasy and magical realism collide in this latest tale from the Meiji Era, a time and place where anything could happen and probably did!

 

Get the latest novel in this exhilarating series today!

Other Books in the The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy Series:

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 1: Coming Home

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 2: Chasing Dreams

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 3: Together

The Toki Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 4: Uncle Yuta has an Adventure

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 5: Noriko’s Journey

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 6: The Dragon Sisters

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 7: The Eagle and the Sparrow

The Toki-Girl and the Sparrow-Boy, Book 8: The Shadows of War

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CHAPTER ONE

Azuki, the girl who became a toki, laughed as she soared in the thermal. In her form as a Japanese Crested Ibis, she rode the wind. Her powerful white wings, touched with stunning peach accents, worked to carry her far above the mountainous northern Kyushu landscape.

Laughing with her, Akira, the boy who became an eagle, matched her stroke for stroke as they circled each other, dancing in the air. They were close in size, for Steller’s Sea Eagles are proud of being the largest among eagles—no matter what those Harpy Eagles might think—and the Japanese Crested Ibis isn’t much smaller.

Dancing in the air wasn’t limited to birds, Akira thought as the wind softened beneath his wings—only to those who could fly. The Western Dragon Prince Irtysh and the Eastern Dragon Princess Otohime, though divergent in form, had learned to dance together, and Otohime had first learned to do it with her younger and smaller half-sister, their friend, Renko.

But nobody did it like eagles!

“Let’s dive,” Akira cried to Azuki. She didn’t answer, but slowed to nearly stall before tipping her long black beak downward and tucking in her wings. Akira drove the air with his own muscular wings to catch her, and they spiraled downwards, twisting closely around each other, racing towards the land.

They learned this from the dragons, who rejoiced in flight as much as the birds, and were smart enough and playful enough to take any airborne idea and expand on it. They all learned from each other.

As they approached the treetops, Azuki called, “Crossover!” and they changed their courses to hurtle past each other before starting the upward curve of their next ascent. Careful to keep exact pace with each other, they curved their angles inward so they would meet at the top of their arc. Akira thought they might cross over again and descend in lazy twining circles before landing.

Suddenly, right between them, a dragon appeared.

Akira and Azuki both dodged to avoid this obstacle, who was small for a dragon, though large compared to them. He was bronze, brown and gold, and in the classic European fashion, his hide was studded with jewels. When he was a human, he looked Japanese.

“Nice flight, you two,” the dragon said.

“Susu-chan!” Azuki called. “What are you doing here? Don’t pop in like that! It’s dangerous!”

“I wasn’t in your way!” Susu objected. Youngest of the dual-natured dragons, Susu was Renko’s full brother. Otohime was his much older half-sister, child of the Eastern Dragon King Ryuujin. Irtysh was his much older half-brother, child of the Western Dragon Queen Rizantona. Susu was a child prodigy who was afraid of nothing except his fierce and royal parents, and sometimes his grown-up siblings, who could be quite fierce themselves. Renko was young like him and would usually not only let him get away with tricks but teach him new ones. She’d been a child prodigy herself.

“That’s only because we’re good,” Akira said with a mental laugh as the two big birds circled around the hovering dragon. They all spoke in mental speech, convenient for times when their physical beings or their circumstances didn’t accommodate physical, audible speech.

“You did spoil our descent, though,” Azuki added. “Isn’t it good manners for dragons to announce themselves to avoid interrupting others?” Susu looked abashed.

“I should have,” Susu said. “I’m sorry. I forgot. I guess I did come in right in the middle. Is it convenient?” That was a popular dragon greeting. Dragons frequently spontaneously appeared in each other’s presences without announcing themselves in advance, which few of them could manage all the time.

Mental speech did not always work for any- and every-one or at different distances. Dragons vanished promptly if they were told to come back later. They enjoyed spontaneity and were sometimes impulsive. Susu, formally His Royal Highness Prince Suoh-Sugaar, certainly was.

“No, but as long as you’re here,” Akira said with a grin that forgave the dragon child too much and too often, “what can we do for you?”

“Not for me, but for Brother.” In the Japanese fashion, Susu usually referred to his relatives by relationship rather than name. He did have other brothers–both his parents had other children–but when he said “Brother,” as though it were a name, he invariably meant the one he was closest to: Prince Irtysh.

“How can we serve His Royal Highness today?” Azuki asked formally. She’d had just about enough of this childish nonsense. Susu was old enough to use proper manners!

“Did you know Brother has children?” Susu swiveled to try to follow the birds’ line of sight. Birds couldn’t hover like dragons could. “Come land on me!”

Azuki and Akira glanced at each other, then swooped in to circle before landing on Susu’s broad back.

“I didn’t,” Akira said as he banked, “No.”

“I never thought about it,” Azuki admitted. “They don’t live with him.”

“They’re kind of old,” Susu told them. “Grown-ups. They all have their own caverns and their own mountains. All over the place. Galina’s mountain is north of here, really close to Hokkaido! She’s a princess, too. She’s older than me, but we like to swim together. I think I’m her uncle.” Susu frowned at this. That didn’t make sense to him emotionally, though if he worked it out, intellectually, it did. His brother’s children....

“So Prince Irtysh has children?” Akira decided to move the original conversation back on track. He positioned himself to land near where Azuki would light down. While the prince was, by rank, His Royal Highness, he preferred a lower level of formality from those among the dual-natured and humans he seemed to consider part of his social circle, if not his friends. Akira didn’t know if he would ever be able to truly claim friendship with the suave and sophisticated dragon prince, though he admired him enormously.

“Five!” Susu said. “He’s talking to them about those machines he’s building for your refugees! He wants to know how many you’ll need, so I need to get Tsuruko-san. Then she and Kichiro-san can come back with us and we can all talk about going to the Exhibition! It starts in just a few days!”

Susu was a jump ahead of everybody, as he often was, Azuki thought, though he was frequently misdirected. Tsuruko-san, the Crane-Woman, was working closely with Her Royal Highness, the Eastern Dragon Princess Otohime. Both of them joined the fully human Lady Satsuki, her very pregnant daughter, Anko-sama, and all the rest of them, in helping to resettle refugees displaced by the Satsuma Rebellion. Azuki didn't want to think about that. The Rebellion was coming to its end, and its end would be, inevitably, tragic.

“That’s where we’ll find out about the cotton spinning machine.” Akira nodded. “I want to go, too.”

 

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Meet the Author

Claire Youmans was captivated the first time she set foot in the Land of the Rising Sun. After many years of travel to this magical place, the retired lawyer now lives in Tokyo, exploring and writing fiction and poetry. During the Meiji Era, Japan leapt from a decaying feudalism to a modern first world power. How'd they do that? This history holds a key to understanding Japanese culture and character. Like the ocean, Japan changes only on the surface while the depths remain the same. Using folklore and fantasy, Youmans tells this story in an accessible, fun, and exciting way that reveals and explores the true nature of Japan, a culture that is unique, quirkly and one she has ultimately come to love.

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This morning, I have historical dark fantasy, The Empire’s Bladesmen – Forbidden Relics by Clay Vagrant in our book blitz spotlight!  Check out the book and learn about the author!

 

War of the Dragon Throne, Book One

Military Historical Fantasy/ Dark Fantasy

Date Published November 2021

Publisher: Armored History

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  A military historical fantasy set in the late medieval era--15th century Ming Dynasty.

Follow the story of Captain Shao Lian, a battle-hardened veteran of the Ming Dynasty’s imperial army, had become a respected officer in the emperor’s elite bodyguards.

This notorious and politically-powerful secret service organization, known as the Jinyiwei (brocade-clad guards), also functioned as the emperor’s premiere intelligence agency and as an extension of his iron fist. They were the empire's bladesmen.

After Shao Lian was assigned to eliminate a ruthless crime lord after he had seized power over several frontier towns, he discovers that the Blood Foot Syndicate had awakened a powerful and terrifying adversary from a bygone era.

Shao Lian and the soldiers in his command suddenly find themselves waging a harrowing war of survival against allied criminal gangs and an ancient being who commands hordes of monstrous man-eaters.

Shao Lian later discovers the secrets of prehistory and unravels a conspiracy that set ancient mechanisms into motion that now threaten the Ming Empire and the rest of the 15th century world.

 

About the Author

Clay Vagrant is an Asian American millennial who loves martial arts, military history and civilizations, and then reading and writing about them. He helped start the Armored History brand dedicatAmazoned to students and fans of the study of world military history and historical fantasy genres. Clay also does all of his own artwork, design, and illustrations for his books' covers and promotional materials. Visit the website www.armoredhistory.net for his personal updates and what's coming in future books!

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Historical fantasy and Celtic romance fans may want to check out this morning's first book blitz!  Today, I have Druidry and the Beast, the series collection, in our book blitz spotlight!  Learn about the series and author Cornelia Amiri!

 

The Series Collection

Historical Fantasy Romance, Celtic Romance

Published: June 2020

 

Five hot, shapeshifter gods and five passionate druidesses save the tribes of Ancient Britain.

Can these couples overcome the surmountable odds of a romance between mortals and immortals being anything more than a Celtic fire festival tryst? As the wheel of the year, flaming like searing desire both on Earth and the Otherworld, turns with the seasons from:

Samhain with God Gwydion, a wolf shapeshifter, and druidess Seren, as the sensual magic brewing between them could be destroyed by a warning of danger from beyond the grave

Beltane with God Dewey, a dragon shapeshifter, and druidess Nona, dealing with whatever evil the jealous chief might unleash on them

The Winter Solstice with God Artaois, a bear shapeshifter, and Druidess Bronwen, fighting to save her tribe from starvation

The Summer Solstice with Epon, a unicorn shapeshifter and druidess Maelona, as he battles the Romans to save her tribe

Lughnasa with God Lleu, a lynx shapeshifter and Druidess Wendolen as he tries to overcome the Romans and she tries to overcome her tribes' mistrust of Lleu.

 

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About the Author

Cornelia Amiri was introduced through books, to the woman who became her favorite historical character, Boudica. The Celtic Warrior Queen motivated her to write professionally. Cornelia loves history and in reading a book about the dark ages, she came across the rebel queen. She inspired her so much, Cornelia started jotting down notes, but they were fiction, visions of her involvement in the Boudica revolt. Before she knew it, Cornelia had accidentally written a rough draft for a novel. And she’s been writing books ever since. She currently has over 40 published books, mainly in the Sci-fi Fantasy Romance genre.

When not writing, she loves to read, watch movies, and attend local comic cons. Cornelia is currently working on a sci-fi comedy romance series with a Celtic goddess as the heroine. The title is Rare Finds and it's available in series format, one episode at a time on Kindle Vella.

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