The Shadow of This World started as a Face Book experiment, a consortium of writers adding bits and bobs of plot and characters and what not, all to visual prompts. As is the way of such things, it failed to reach completion. But the story stayed with me, cooking inside some dank musty dungeon for over a year. I was intrigued by the possibilities and found characters I had created too compelling to die an untimely death in the vaults of long-forgotten file folders.

So, during a NaNoWriMo marathon, I started over, with fresh characters and a new plot—rife with suspense, some romance (but of course!), war, politics, greed and a side of religious fervor. And a nasty piece of work, the cleric Andreas, who gripped me by the short hairs and refused to let go. Throw in a hint of paranormal, a soupcon of time travel, and a time period dear to my heart: Venice and Florence in the days of the Medicis, Machiavelli, and Europe on the cusp of becoming under the Holy Roman Empire.

XOXO first published this work, then when I got my rights back I tried it on for size independently under a pen name, but found establishing street cred for multiple incarnations frustrating and too time-consuming. It was literally too little bang for the buck, and I sadly watched one of my favorite works slipping into shadow (art mirroring reality).

Sessha Batto reworked the cover, the content got a steely-eyed editorial scrubbing, and The Shadow of This World has once more metamorphosed into a genre-bending historical that will take you on a perilous journey of the mind and heart.

Available now from KINDLE

and in PRINT (discounted)