What's Up for the Debut Author Challenge Authors? - Part 36

This is the thirty-sixth in a series of updates about formerly featured Debut Author Challenge authors and their 2015 works published since the last update and any upcoming works for 2016. The year in parentheses after the author's name is the year she/he was featured in the Debut Author Challenge.

Part 1 here	Part 11 here	Part 21 here	Part 31 here
Part 2 here	Part 12 here	Part 22 here	Part 32 here
Part 3 here	Part 13 here	Part 23 here	Part 33 here
Part 4 here	Part 14 here	Part 24 here	Part 34 here
Part 5 here	Part 15 here	Part 25 here	Part 35 here
Part 6 here	Part 16 here	Part 26 here
Part 7 here	Part 17 here	Part 27 here
Part 8 here	Part 18 here	Part 28 here
Part 9 here	Part 19 here	Part 29 here
Part 10 here	Part 20 here	Part 30 here

Peter Newman (2015)

The Vagrant
The Vagrant 1
Harper Voyager, May 10, 2016
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

The Vagrant is his name. He has no other.

Years have passed since humanity’s destruction emerged from the Breach.

Friendless and alone he walks across a desolate, war-torn landscape.

As each day passes the world tumbles further into depravity, bent and twisted by the new order, corrupted by the Usurper, the enemy, and his infernal horde.

His purpose is to reach the Shining City, last bastion of the human race, and deliver the only weapon that may make a difference in the ongoing war.

What little hope remains is dying. Abandoned by its leader, The Seven, and its heroes, The Seraph Knights, the last defences of a once great civilisation are crumbling into dust.

But the Shining City is far away and the world is a very dangerous place.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : Kobo

Robert Repino (2015

Morte
Soho Press, February 9, 2016
Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Hardcover and eBook, January 20, 2015

The “war with no name” has begun, with human extinction as its goal. The instigator of this war is the Colony, a race of intelligent ants who, for thousands of years, have been silently building an army that will forever eradicate the destructive, oppressive humans. Under the Colony’s watchful eye, this utopia will be free of the humans’ penchant for violence, exploitation and religious superstition. As a final step in the war effort, the Colony uses its strange technology to transform the surface animals into high-functioning two-legged beings who rise up to kill their masters.

Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend—a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth’s creatures.

[description from Hardcover edition]

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Katie Schickel (2015)

The Mermaid's Secret
Forge, June 14, 2016
Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and eBook, 288pages

[description not yet available]

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : Kobo

Alan Smale (2015)

Clash of Eagles
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book I
Del Rey, September 1, 2015
Mass Market Paperback, 464 pages
Hardcover and eBook, March 17, 2015

Perfect for fans of action-adventure and historical fiction—including novels by such authors as Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove—this stunning work of alternate history imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has not fallen and the North American continent has just been discovered. In the year 1218 AD, transported by Norse longboats, a Roman legion crosses the great ocean, enters an endless wilderness, and faces a cataclysmic clash of worlds, cultures, and warriors.

Ever hungry for land and gold, the Emperor has sent Praetor Gaius Marcellinus and the 33rd Roman Legion into the newly discovered lands of North America. Marcellinus and his men expect easy victory over the native inhabitants, but on the shores of a vast river the Legion clashes with a unique civilization armed with weapons and strategies no Roman has ever imagined.

Forced to watch his vaunted force massacred by a surprisingly tenacious enemy, Marcellinus is spared by his captors and kept alive for his military knowledge. As he recovers and learns more about these proud people, he can’t help but be drawn into their society, forming an uneasy friendship with the denizens of the city-state of Cahokia. But threats—both Roman and Native—promise to assail his newfound kin, and Marcellinus will struggle to keep the peace while the rest of the continent surges toward certain conflict.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Eagle in Exile
The Clash of Eagles Trilogy Book II
Del Rey, March 15, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 576 pages

Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Steve Berry, Naomi Novik, and Harry Turtledove, Alan Smale’s gripping alternate history series imagines a world in which the Roman Empire has survived long enough to invade North America in 1218. Now the stunning story carries hero Gaius Marcellinus deeper into the culture of an extraordinary people—whose humanity, bravery, love, and ingenuity forever change his life and destiny.

In A.D. 1218, Praetor Gaius Marcellinus is ordered to conquer North America and turning it into a Roman province. But outside the walls of the great city of Cahokia, his legion is destroyed outright; Marcellinus is the only one spared. In the months and years that follow, Marcellinus comes to see North America as his home and the Cahokians as his kin. He vows to defend these proud people from any threat, Roman or native.

After successfully repelling an invasion by the fearsome Iroqua tribes, Marcellinus realizes that a weak and fractured North America won’t stand a chance against the returning Roman army. Worse, rival factions from within threaten to tear Cahokia apart just when it needs to be most united and strong. Marcellinus is determined to save the civilization that has come to mean more to him than the empire he once served. But to survive the swords of Roma, he first must avert another Iroqua attack and bring the Cahokia together. Only with the hearts and souls of a nation at his back can Marcellinus hope to know triumph.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

A.F.E. Smith (2015)

Goldenfire
The Darkhaven Novels 2
Harper Voyager UK, January 14, 2016
eBook, 400 pages

In Darkhaven, peace doesn’t last long.

Ayla Nightshade has ruled Darkhaven for three years since the tragedy that tore her family apart. She has left her father’s cruel legacy behind and become a leader her people can believe in - or so she hopes.

Tomas Caraway is no longer a disgraced drunk; he’s Captain of the Helm and the partner of the most powerful woman in Darkhaven. He will do everything to protect Ayla and their adopted son against all possible threats.

But a discovery has been made that could have profound consequences for the Nightshade family. There is a weapon so deadly, it can kill even the powerful creatures they turn into. And now, that weapon has fallen into the wrong hands.

An assassin is coming for Ayla, and will stop at nothing to see her dead.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Books-A-Million : Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

2015 Debut Author Challenge COVER OF THE YEAR Winner!

The votes are in and the winner of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge COVER OF THE YEAR is Darkhaven by A.F.E. Smith from Harper Voyager UK with 1,088 votes (44%). The cover artist is Alexandra Allden.

There was a quite a battle between Darkhaven and The Thorn of Dentonhill by Marshall Ryan Maresca but Darkhaven won by 107 votes in the end! In total there were an amazing 2,494 votes cast. Thank you to everyone who voted!

Darkhaven
Harper Voyager UK, July 2, 2015
eBook, 400 pages

Ayla Nightshade never wanted to rule Darkhaven. But her half-brother Myrren - true heir to the throne - hasn’t inherited their family gift, forcing her to take his place.

When this gift leads to Ayla being accused of killing her father, Myrren is the only one to believe her innocent. Does something more sinister than the power to shapeshift lie at the heart of the Nightshade family line?

Now on the run, Ayla must fight to clear her name if she is ever to wear the crown she never wanted and be allowed to return to the home she has always loved.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Books-A-Million : Google Play : iTunes : Kobo

The Results

Cover Wars started as a way to recognize and celebrate the talented individuals who bring books to life with their eye-catching covers. While we may not judge a book by its cover, a terrific cover will certainly make us want to know what is on the inside.

The View From Monday - January 11, 2016

Happy Monday!

There is one debut this week - And Again by Jessica Chiarella.


From formerly featured Debut Author Challenge Authors:

The Dirt on the Ninth Grave (Charley Davidson 9) by Darynda Jones;

Of Flame and Promise (Weird Girls 6) by Cecy Robson;

and

Goldenfire (Darkhaven 2) by A.F.E. Smith.

January 12, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
I Am Slaughter	Dan Abnett	SF - Warhammer 40,000: The Beast Arises 1
The Sighting	Patricia Anthony	SF
Destroyer	Brett Battles	SF - Rewinder 2
Karen Memory (h2tp)	Elizabeth Bear	SP
Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction (h2tp)	Ben Bova (ed) Eric Choi (ed)	SF - Anthology
And Again (D)	Jessica Chiarella	LF
Ancestral Machines	Michael Cobley	SF - Humanity's Fire 4
War Chest	Lynne Connolly	PHR - Even Gods Fall in Love 5
The Covenant: A Mystery	Jeff Crook	M/GH - Jackie Lyons Mystery 2
Better Off Undead (Ke)	Cynthia Eden	PNR - Blood and Monlight 2
The Drowning Eyes	Emily Foster	F
Eleanor	Jason Gurley	LF/Meta/F
Blue Darker Than Black: A Thriller	Mike Jenne	Th/Tech - Blue Gemini 3
The Dirt on Ninth Grave	Darynda Jones	PM - Charley Davidson 9
The Guardian (e)(ri)	Jeffrey Konvitz	H - Sentinel 2
The Sentinel (e)(ri)	Jeffrey Konvitz	H - Sentinel 1
Hunting the Shadows: The Selected Stories of Tanith Lee Volume 2 (h2tp)	Tanith Lee	F - Collection
The Three-Body Problem (h2tp)	Cixin Liu	SF - Three-Body Trilogy 1
V-Wars: Night Terrors	Jonathan Maberry (ed)	H - V-Wars
Indexing: Reflections	Seanan McGuire	CF - Indexing 2
Courage and Honour	Graham McNeill	SF - Warhammer 40,000: Ultramarines 5
This Census-Taker	China Miéville	LF/CF
Inside a Silver Box (h2tp)	Walter Mosley	SF/AC
The Two of Swords: Part 12 (e)	K. J. Parker	F
Of Flame and Promise (e)	Cecy Robson	PNR - Weird Girls 6
The Wildings	Nilanjana Roy	LF/F
Knocking on Heaven's Door	Sharman Apt Russell	Dys
Written in Fire	Marcus Sakey	Th/Dys - The Brilliance Trilogy 3
Best of Apex Magazine (e)	Jason Sizemore (ed) Lesley Conner (ed)	SF/F - Anthology
Wolf on the Hunt	N.J. Walters	PNR - Salvation Pack 5
Skinner Luce	Patricia Ward	SF

January 13, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Finnegan's Field: A Tor.Com Original (e)	Angela Slatter	F

January 14, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Scarred (e)	Erica Hayes	UF - Sapphire City 2
Crossing Hudson (e)	Mandy M. Roth	UF - Guardians 2
Goldenfire (e)	A. F. E. Smith	F - Darkhaven 2

January 15, 2016

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Xenowealth: A Collection (Ke)	Tobias S. Buckell	SF - Collection
City of the Saints (e)	D.J. Butler	AH
Marshals	Brandon Rospond	HistF - Wild West Exodus

D - Debut
e - eBook
ed - editor
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint


AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
GH - Ghost
H - Horror
HistF - Historical Fantasy
LF - Literary Fiction
M - Mystery
Meta - Metaphysical
PHR - Paranormal Historical Romance
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
SF - Science Fiction
SP - Steampunk
Tech - Technological
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy

2015 Debut Author Challenge Wars - COVER OF THE YEAR

It's time to vote for the 2015 Debut Author Challenge COVER OF THE YEAR! Below you will find the 12 monthly winners in alphabetical order by book title (excluding "the").

Voter for your favorite from the monthly 2015 Winners!

I'm using PollCode for this vote. After you the check the circle next to your favorite, click "Vote" to record your vote. If you'd like to see the real-time results click "View". This will take you to the PollCode site where you may see the results. If you want to come back to The Qwillery click "Back" and you will return to this page.

Voting will end sometime on January 9, 2016 - extended voting due to the end of year holidays.

Vote for the 2015 Debut Author Challenge COVER OF THE YEAR!

Beasts of Tabat

Conspiracy of Angels

The Curse of Jacob Tracy

Darkhaven

Desert Rising

Graynelore

The Machinery

The Mussorgsky Riddle

(R)EVOLUTION

The Thorn of Dentonhill

Unexpected Rain

Viking Warrior Rising

 

pollcode.com free polls

~ March ~

~ October ~

~ December ~

Jacket design by Young Jin Lim

~ July ~

Cover by Alexandra Allden

~ April ~

~ August ~

Cover design by Cherie Chapman, part of the design team at Harper Collins

~ September ~

Cover artist - Ben Gardiner

~ January ~

~ June ~

~ February ~

Cover art - Paul Young

~ May ~

~ November ~

Cover design by Eileen Carey

2015 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars - July 2015 Winner

We had a hotly contested Cover Wars for July! The winner of the July 2015 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars is Darkhaven by A.F.E. Smith with 306 votes equaling 39% of all votes. The cover is by Alexandra Allden.

The Final Results

The July 2015 Debut Covers

Thank you to everyone who voted, Tweeted, and participated. The 2015 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars will continue with voting on the August Debut covers starting on August 15, 2015.

2015 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars - July Debuts

Each month you will be able to vote for your favorite cover from that month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2015 Debut Novel Cover of the Year. Please note that a debut novel cover is eligible in the month in which the novel is released in the US. Cover artist/illustrator information is provided when we have it.

I'm using PollCode for this vote. After you the check the circle next to your favorite, click "Vote" to record your vote. If you'd like to see the real-time results click "View". This will take you to the PollCode site where you may see the results. If you want to come back to The Qwillery click "Back" and you will return to this page. Voting will end sometime on July 25, 2015.

Vote for your favorite July 2015 Debut Cover!

Tracer

Letters to Zell

Witches Be Crazy

Solomon's Arrow

The Drowning God

We Are Monsters

The Empress Game

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Darkhaven

Abomination

 

pollcode.com free polls

Cover Artist - David Palumbo

Cover Design by Jason Gurley

Interview with A.F.E. Smith, author of Darkhaven - July 2, 2015

Please welcome A.F.E. Smith to The Qwillery as part of the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Interviews and the Darkhaven Blog Tour. Darkhaven is published on July 2nd by Harper Voyager (UK). You may read a Guest Blog by A.F.E.Smith - City as character: building Arkannen - here.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

AFES:  I’ve always been a writer. I wrote my first book when I was six (it was about a super-powered rabbit). Because it was that long ago, it’s hard to remember why. I think writing always just seemed like the natural consequence of reading. I was a voracious reader from a very early age and when I didn’t have any new stories to hand I would make up my own.

I vividly remember creeping down from my bunk bed when I should have been asleep, to write down a story idea I’d just had. I must have been about seven or eight. And my life has pretty much gone on like that ever since, except these days I don’t sleep in a bunk bed.



TQ:  Are you a plotter or a pantser? What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

AFES:  When I started writing, I was a total pantser. I’d just write and see what happened. And sometimes I’d end up making really cool connections with other things I’d already written, and everything would come together organically. But sometimes it wouldn’t. It was a fun way of doing things, but slow and not always productive.

These days, I don’t have time to completely pants it. Which might sound strange, because plotting takes more time up front than pantsing. But it works out quicker in the long run, because I don’t wind up going down too many dead ends.

Having said that, my plotting is only ever outline plotting - chapter by chapter. It’s a basic framework upon which the characters clamber around and do their own thing. So there’s still quite a large element of pantsing. They seem to prefer it that way.

As for the most challenging thing about writing … it sounds clichéd, but at the moment, it really is finding the time to do it. I have a full-time job, a three-year-old son and a baby daughter. Writing has to squeeze in around the edges.



TQ:  Your bio states that you work as an editor. How does that affect your own writing?

AFES:  In good and bad ways. It means I provide pretty clean copy to the publisher (though, of course, even at the copyediting level, no two editors will ever make exactly the same changes). And I’ve had a lot of practice at revising and refining text, from the top level right down to individual words and sentences. But at the same time, it also means I’m forever tempted to revise as I go along - and that spoils the flow. I’ve had to train myself to simply keep writing in a first draft and not polish as I go along. Because if you polish details too early, that extra investment of time and effort means it becomes harder to change them for the sake of the big picture.



TQ:  Who are some of your literary influences? Favorite authors?

AFES:  I hesitate to claim that my writing is influenced by anyone, lest I appear to be comparing myself to them, but my favourite authors - those whose talent I would aspire to - are Diana Wynne Jones, Robin Hobb, Jacqueline Carey, Juliet Marillier, Patrick Ness and Ursula Le Guin. I don’t think I write like any of them, though. Maybe one day.



TQ:  Describe Darkhaven in 140 characters or less.

AFES:  Shapeshifter accused of father’s murder fights to clear her name. Love, obsession, swordfights & a unique city all combine in a twisty plot.

I know I kind of cheated with the ampersand there, but Twitter would allow it :-)



TQ:  Please tell us something about Darkhaven that we won’t find in the book description.

AFES:  Book descriptions tend to focus on one or maybe two main characters, but in fact Darkhaven has seven point-of-view characters. It’s really more of an ensemble piece.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Darkhaven? What appealed to you about writing a genre bending “fantasy whodunit”?

AFES:  Inspiration is a funny thing. It comes from many different places and although I might point to one idea or experience as the starting point for a novel, I could give a handful of other answers that would be equally true. I think really it’s the synthesis, the coming together of ideas and external influences, that is the real inspiration. It’s as much about serendipity as it is about anything else.

Still, I usually say it was the opening scene that came to me first and inspired me to write the rest, and that’s as true as anything.

As for genre bending, I think one of the nice things about fantasy is that it combines easily with any other genre. So you can have fantasy crime novels. You can have fantasy romances. You can have historical fantasy and action adventure fantasy and … I dunno, sports fantasy. Is that a thing? It should be a thing. Anyway, I didn’t set out to bend genre as such; I just wrote the story I wanted to tell. Along with speculative fiction, I’ve always enjoyed the classic crime writers like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, so I guess murder is in my blood as much as magic. Though I wouldn’t say Darkhaven is a traditional whodunit, much as it isn’t a traditional fantasy.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Darkhaven? When and where is the novel set? Where can we find out more about the city of Arkannen?

AFES:  Darkhaven is set in a completely different world, so ‘when’ is hard to identify. However, the entire novel takes place within an industrialised city (Arkannen) that I see as being approximately equivalent to eighteenth-century England in terms of technology, but with more steam power. (Darkhaven isn’t steampunk, but it has a steampunkish flavour.) So there are gas lamps, airships, factories, trams, clockwork. Lots of bladed weapons, but firearms are beginning to creep in too.

Research-wise, I had to know what sort of technologies had been around in the eighteenth century so I could give the book that kind of background consistency where the details just seem right to readers. Because even though it’s a fantasy world, people come to it with certain expectations and so it’s worthwhile making the unimportant details similar to our own industrial history. That frees up their suspension of disbelief for the big, important differences, like people who can change into flying unicorns.

There were also a few things I had to research in more detail. I know far more than I want to know about traditional leather-making.

You can find out a bit more about Arkannen on my website - though I should warn you, the page is rather a work in progress. There’s a rudimentary map, though. Maps are always good.



TQ:  Who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why? Did any of the characters surprise you?

AFES:  The easiest was probably Tomas Caraway, my failed Helmsman (bodyguard to the royal family) - because if I’m allowed to have a favourite character, he’s probably the one. There’s just something satisfying about writing the kind of personal redemption arc he goes through.

The hardest … Owen Travers, Captain of the Helm, who is in pursuit of Ayla to lock her up for her father’s murder. He does some awful things, but he’s not capital-e Evil. Very few people are. So although I don’t want readers to like him, I do want them to understand him a bit. It was rather like arguing passionately for a position I don’t believe in.

And yes, my characters surprise me all the time, because they insist on going their own way despite my attempts to prevent them. A bit like my children, really.



TQ:  Which question about Darkhaven do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

AFES:  “Hey, A.F.E. Can we pay you big money to make Darkhaven into a movie?” “Why yes, of course you can.”

Just kidding.

I suppose the questions I’ve been waiting for are whether the book is diverse, and whether it has strong female characters in it - because those aspects of literature are kind of in the social media consciousness at the moment. So for what it’s worth, two of my characters are gay; four out of seven are women; the people of my fantasy world don’t have direct analogues with our world as far as ethnicity goes, but Arkannen is a multicultural capital city and the characters certainly vary in skin colour and appearance. But I can’t claim that any of these aspects were conscious attempts at diversity so much as they are just the way I write - and in fact, some of them are barely touched on in the book, because I don’t tend to give long descriptions of my characters. So I don’t know if that counts as diversity or not. As for strength, I daresay people’s opinions will differ on that, but certainly my female characters are no less complex or interesting than the male ones. (Whether any of them are complex and/or interesting is a matter for the reader to decide.)



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery lines from Darkhaven.

AFES:  Oh, I find this very difficult! Hmmm … OK. Here’s a little snippet of conversation between Myrren, the elder of the two Nightshade siblings, and Serenna, the priestess who is helping him investigate his shapeshifter father’s murder.

‘Tell me about him,’ Serenna said softly.
‘Who, my father? He was fully thirty feet long from nose to tail-tip. Scales like polished bronze. Vast wings tipped with spikes, and four sets of truly vicious talons -’
‘I meant as a person,’ she chided him, though she was smiling. Myrren lifted a shoulder. How could he explain that to him, his father was his Firedrake self? That Myrren’s personal acquaintance with those talons had made it hard to see beyond them?

I guess I like this because it seems light-hearted to begin with, but it turns out to be dark underneath. Which is fairly typical of everything I write, for some reason.



TQ:  What’s next?

AFES: My second book, Goldenfire, is currently with the publisher. It picks up with some of the characters from Darkhaven a few years down the line, only they’re dealing with an assassination plot rather than a murder this time. And a third book is due to follow six months after that.


TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

AFES: Thank you for having me!

Darkhaven
Harper Voyager (UK), July 2, 2015
eBook, 400 pages

Ayla Nightshade never wanted to rule Darkhaven. But her half-brother Myrren - true heir to the throne - hasn’t inherited their family gift, forcing her to take his place.

When this gift leads to Ayla being accused of killing her father, Myrren is the only one to believe her innocent. Does something more sinister than the power to shapeshift lie at the heart of the Nightshade family line?

Now on the run, Ayla must fight to clear her name if she is ever to wear the crown she never wanted and be allowed to return to the home she has always loved.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Books-A-Million : Google Play : iTunes : Kobo

About A.F E. Smith

A.F.E. Smith is an editor of academic texts by day and a fantasy writer by night. So far, she hasn’t mixed up the two. She lives with her husband and their two young children in a house that someone built to be as creaky as possible - getting to bed without waking the baby is like crossing a nightingale floor. Though she doesn’t have much spare time, she makes space for reading, mainly by not getting enough sleep (she’s powered by chocolate). Her physical bookshelves were stacked two deep long ago, so now she’s busy filling up her e-reader.

What A.F.E. stands for is a closely guarded secret, but you might get it out of her if you offer her enough snacks.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter @afesmith

DARKHAVEN on Goodreads

Tour homepage

www.afesmith.com/darkhaven-blog-tour

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2015 Debut Author Challenge - July Debuts

There are 10 debuts for July. Please note that we use the publisher's publication date in the United States, not copyright dates or non-US publication dates.

The July debut authors and their novels are listed in alphabetical order by author (not book title or publication date). Take a good look at the covers. Voting for your favorite June cover for the 2015 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars will take place starting on July 15th.

If you are participating as a reader in the Challenge, please let us know in the comments what you are thinking of reading or email us at "DAC . TheQwillery  @  gmail . com" (remove the spaces and quotation marks). Please note that we list all debuts for the month (of which we are aware), but not all of these authors will be 2015 Debut Author Challenge featured authors. However, any of these novels may be read by Challenge readers to meet the goal for July. The list is correct as of the day posted.

Rob Boffard

Tracer
Redhook (Orbit), July 16, 2015
eBook, 368 pages

IN SPACE, EVERY. SECOND. COUNTS.

Our planet is in ruins. Three hundred miles above its scarred surface orbits Outer Earth: a space station with a million souls on board. They are all that remain of the human race.

Darnell is the head of the station's biotech lab. He's also a man with dark secrets. And he has ambitions for Outer Earth that no one will see coming.

Prakesh is a scientist, and he has no idea what his boss Darnell is capable of. He'll have to move fast if he doesn't want to end up dead.

And then there's Riley. She's a tracer - a courier. For her, speed is everything. But with her latest cargo, she's taken on more than she bargained for.

A chilling conspiracy connects them all.

The countdown has begun for Outer Earth - and for mankind.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Books-A-Million : Google Play : iTunes : Kobo

Camille Griep

Letters to Zell
47North, July 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 336 pages

Everything is going according to story for CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty)—until the day that Zell (Rapunzel) decides to leave Grimmland and pursue her life. Now, Zell’s best friends are left to wonder whether their own passions are worth risking their predetermined “happily ever afters,” regardless of the consequences. CeCi wonders whether she should become a professional chef, sharp-tongued and quick-witted Bianca wants to escape an engagement to her platonic friend, and Rory will do anything to make her boorish husband love her. But as Bianca’s wedding approaches, can they escape their fates—and is there enough wine in all of the Realm to help them?

In this hilarious modern interpretation of the fairy-tale stories we all know and love, Letters to Zell explores what happens when women abandon the stories they didn’t write for themselves and go completely off script to follow their dreams.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Logan J. Hunder

Witches Be Crazy
A Tale That Happened Once Upon a Time in the Middle of Nowhere
Night Shade Books, July 14, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

Real heroes never die. But they do get grouchy in middle age.

The beloved King Ik is dead, and there was barely time to check his pulse before the royal throne was supporting the suspiciously shapely backside of an impostor pretending to be Ik’s beautiful long-lost daughter. With the land’s heroic hunks busy drooling all over themselves, there’s only one man left who can save the kingdom of Jenair. His name is Dungar Loloth, a rural blacksmith turned innkeeper, a surly hermit and an all-around nobody oozing toward middle age, compensating for a lack of height, looks, charm, and tact with guts and an attitude.

Normally politics are the least of his concerns, but after everyone in the neighboring kingdom of Farrawee comes down with a severe case of being dead, Dungar learns that the masquerading princess not only is behind the carnage but also has similar plans for his own hometown. Together with an eccentric and arguably insane hobo named Jimminy, he journeys out into the world he’s so pointedly tried to avoid as the only hope of defeating the most powerful person in it. That is, if he can survive the pirates, cultists, radical Amazonians, and assorted other dangers lying in wait along the way.

Logan J. Hunder’s hilarious debut blows up the fantasy genre with its wry juxtaposition of the fantastic and the mundane, proving that the best and brightest heroes aren’t always the best for the job.

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J. Dalton Jennings

Solomon's Arrow
Talos Press, July 14, 2014
Trade Papeback and eBook, 400 pages

It’s the mid-twenty-first century. The oceans are rising, the world’s population is growing, terrorist organizations are running rampant, and it has become readily apparent that humanity’s destructive nature is at the heart of the matter.

When all faith in humanity seems lost, a startling proposal is announced: Solomon Chavez, the mysterious son of the world’s first trillionaire, announces that he, backed by a consortium of governments and wealthy donors, will build an interstellar starshipone that will convey a select group of six thousand individuals, all under the age of fifty, with no living relatives, to a recently discovered planet in the Epsilon Eridani star system. His goal is lofty: to build a colony that will ensure the survival of the human race. However, Solomon Chavez has a secret that he doesn’t dare share with the rest of the world.

With the launch date rapidly approaching, great odds must be overcome so that the starship Solomon’s Arrow can fulfill what the human race has dreamed of for millennia: reaching for the stars. The goal is noble, but looming on the horizon are threats nobody could have imaginedones that may spell the end of all human life and end the universe as we know it.

Filled with action, suspense, and characters that will live on in the imagination, Solomon’s Arrow will leave readers breathless, while at the same time questioning what humanity’s true goals should be: reaching for the stars, or exploring the limits of the human mind?

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James Kendley

The Drowning God
Harper Voyager Impulse, July 28, 2015
eBook, 240 pages

To uncover modern Japan's darkest, deadliest secret, one man must face a living nightmare from his childhood

Few villagers are happy when Detective Tohru Takuda returns to his hometown to investigate a string of suspicious disappearances. Even the local police chief tries to shut him out from the case. For behind the conspiracy lurks a monstrous living relic of Japan's pagan history: the Kappa. Protected long ago by a horrible pact with local farmers—and now by coldly calculating corporate interests—the Kappa drains the valley's lifeblood, one villager at a time.

As the body count rises, Takuda must try to end the Drowning God's centuries-long reign of terror, and failure means death…or worse.

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Brian Kirk

We Are Monsters
Samhain Publishing, July 7, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 312 pages

The Apocalypse has come to the Sugar Hill mental asylum. 

He’s the hospital’s newest, and most notorious, patient—a paranoid schizophrenic who sees humanity’s dark side.

Luckily he’s in good hands. Dr. Eli Alpert has a talent for healing tortured souls. And his protégé is working on a cure for schizophrenia, a drug that returns patients to their former selves. But unforeseen side effects are starting to emerge. Forcing prior traumas to the surface. Setting inner demons free.

Monsters have been unleashed inside the Sugar Hill mental asylum. They don’t have fangs or claws. They look just like you or me.

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Rhonda Mason

The Empress Game
The Empress Game Trilogy 1
Titan Books, July 14, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled, that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the women of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reunimon, a supreme fighter, is called to battle it out in the arena.

The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.

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Natasha Pulley

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Bloomsbury USA, July 14, 2015
Hardcover and eBook, 336 pages

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is a sweeping, atmospheric narrative that takes the reader on an unexpected journey through Victorian London, Japan as its civil war crumbles long-standing traditions, and beyond. Blending historical events with dazzling flights of fancy, it opens doors to a strange and magical past.

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A.F.E. Smith

Darkhaven
Harper Voyager (UK), July 2, 2015
eBook, 400 pages

Ayla Nightshade never wanted to rule Darkhaven. But her half-brother Myrren - true heir to the throne - hasn’t inherited their family gift, forcing her to take his place.

When this gift leads to Ayla being accused of killing her father, Myrren is the only one to believe her innocent. Does something more sinister than the power to shapeshift lie at the heart of the Nightshade family line?

Now on the run, Ayla must fight to clear her name if she is ever to wear the crown she never wanted and be allowed to return to the home she has always loved.

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Gary Whitta

Abomination
Inkshares, July 29, 2015
Hardcover, Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages

He is England's greatest knight, the man who saved the life of Alfred the Great and an entire kingdom from a Viking invasion. But when he is called back into service to combat a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, he meets a fate worse than death and is condemned to a life of anguish, solitude, and remorse.

She is a fierce young warrior, raised among an elite order of knights. Driven by a dark secret from her past, she defies her controlling father and sets out on a dangerous quest to do what none before her ever have―hunt down and kill an abomination, alone.

When a chance encounter sets these two against one another, an incredible twist of fate will lead them toward a salvation they never thought possible―and prove that the power of love, mercy, and forgiveness can shine a hopeful light even in history’s darkest age.

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