Master of Restless
Shadows, Book One by Ginn Hale
Series: The
Cadeleonian Series, Volume 5
Publisher: Blind
Eye Books
Release Date (Print &
Ebook): October 8, 2019
Length (Print &
Ebook):
401 pp
ISBN Print: 9781935560630
ISBN digital: 9781935560647
Cover artist: Zaya Feli
Subgenre: epic fantasy, romantic
fantasy, LGBTQ fantasy, queer fantasy, high fantasy
Order it now:
Book synopsis:
Freshly graduated Master Physician Narsi Lif-Tahm has left his
home in Anacleto and journeyed to the imposing royal capitol of Cieloalta
intent upon keeping the youthful oath he made to a troubled writer. But in the
decade since Narsi gave his pledge, Atreau Vediya, has grown from an anonymous
delinquent to a man renowned for penning bawdy operas and engaging in
scandalous affairs.
What Narsi―and most of the larger world―cannot know is the secret role Atreau plays as spymaster for the Duke of Rauma.
After the Cadeleonian royal bishop launches an unprovoked attack against the witches in neighboring Labara, Atreau will require every resource he can lay his hands upon to avert a war. A physician is exactly what he needs. But with a relentless assassin hunting the city and ancient magic waking, Atreau fears that his actions could cost more than his own honor. The price of peace could be his friends’ lives.
What Narsi―and most of the larger world―cannot know is the secret role Atreau plays as spymaster for the Duke of Rauma.
After the Cadeleonian royal bishop launches an unprovoked attack against the witches in neighboring Labara, Atreau will require every resource he can lay his hands upon to avert a war. A physician is exactly what he needs. But with a relentless assassin hunting the city and ancient magic waking, Atreau fears that his actions could cost more than his own honor. The price of peace could be his friends’ lives.
Excerpt:
Inside the smoky confines of the Fat
Goose, surrounded by boisterous drunks, gamblers and cold-eyed cardsharps,
Atreau’s attention strayed from his cards to the wonderful book on the table
before him. The leather cover looked supple and already well-worn as a favorite
glove. He could see where fingers had cradled the spine and bent the cover,
leafing through the pages again and again.
Placed in my callous hands, a
testament of devotion, unspoken, and yet laid bare as a naked breast.
Atreau snorted at his own conceited
turn of thought.
Still, the simple fact of the book’s
existence pleased him.
He’d not seen the Haldiim translation
and had half suspected that the publisher had forgone printing after the
Cadeleonian volumes had been transformed into so much ash and smoke.
For a moment he pictured the dark
young man who’d handed him the tome. How striking he’d appeared amidst so many
Cadeleonians, and yet something about him—his angular jaw? Perhaps his long,
lean build? Or it might have been his sharp brows and dark lashes?—Atreau
didn’t know but something about the Haldiim physician had filled Atreau with a
sense of familiarity. Absently, Atreau wondered if the young man had known that
marigold petals clung to his dark curls like drops of gold.
“Stare at the cards all you want. The
winning hand is still mine.”
Across the table from him Sabella
Calies tapped the four cards she’d laid down and then took up her beer mug.
Tall and weathered as a warhorse, Sabella was as much a fixture of the
capital’s unseemly side as was her uncle’s Red Stallion sword house, where
people gambled fortunes and lives on the speed of their blades. Over the course
of her forty-odd years Sabella had taken both from a good number of men. But
here at the Fat Goose the stakes were very different, as was the game. Here the
kingdom stood to be lost to the church. Or won for Prince Sevanyo.
Atreau’s cards came very near winning
but missed by only a point. He had indulged himself in the drama of making it
appear a close match. Sabella played along, since the money would be hers no
matter what cards he dealt. This game, like almost every other hand of cards he
played, served as a pretext for Atreau to dole out Fedeles Quemanor’s payments
to his informants and agents across the city.
Atreau pushed a plain coin purse to
Sabella. She opened it and then pulled the drawstring closed again and dropped
it into an inner pocket of her leather coat.
Between her lanky build, plain face
and close-shorn brown hair Sabella nearly passed for a man. Certainly the heavy
doublet and thick riding trousers she sported added to the impression, though
they did not create a perfect illusion. Nor did she need them to. She’d
patronized the Fat Goose for more than twenty years and all but the most callow
of youths knew better than to cause her trouble.
She drew a sheaf of papers from her
doublet and pushed them to Atreau. He skimmed the content quickly. It seemed
that the royal bishop was collecting ancient scriptures, most having something
to do with the Holy Savior’s final battle and the Shard of Heaven. Likely the
bishop believed the holy blessings that had destroyed the demon hordes so long
ago were desperately needed again now to combat a new threat to Cadeleon.
Five years ago Atreau would have
found the entire matter amusing or perhaps thought the royal bishop deluded.
But since then he’d seen both the wonders and horrors that ancient spells
unleashed. He understood why previous generations of wiser men and women had
attempted to hide them away.
“We need to know when and exactly
what he intends to do with this,” Atreau said. “Actual places and dates would
be good.”
“You don’t ask much, do you?”
“I don’t pay so little that I
should,” Atreau replied.
Exclusive Blog & Review Tour Q&A
with Ginn Hale:
Ginn Hale is the author of several works
of fantasy and speculative fiction, including the Lord of the White Hell, Champion
of the Scarlet Wolf and The Rifter
Trilogy: The Shattered Gates, The Holy Road, His Sacred Bones. Her latest book Master of Restless Shadows is out now and she is here talking how
she writes to celebrate its release! Welcome, Ginn!
Q: What advice would you give a new writer, someone just starting out?
GH: I’d encourage them to
cultivate their senses of curiosity and adventure. First because thinking in a curious and
adventurous manner challenges us all to discover what’s fascinating and
exciting in the mundane all around us—to look at everyday things from new
perspectives that might seem uncomfortable, foreign or weird. Which is where so
much creativity finds a spark.
But I also encourage curiosity
and adventure because, regardless of genre stories are always informed by an
author’s own experiences and thoughts, so the more we find fascinating and the
more we are open to engaging with new experiences the more we have to put into
our fiction.
Q: Is there lots to do before you drive in and start writing the story?
GH: I like to do research, take
notes and draw maps before I start but really the only thing that I absolutely must have before I start
writing is a solid idea of how the story ends. Once I know that then I’m a
bloodhound chasing that ending down no matter how the plot twists and turns
around me, or what research notes get stuck to my nose. (haha.)
Q: Do you have any writing “lifehacks” to share?
GH: Take breaks even if you’re up
against a tight deadline. Stepping away from a project and taking in the larger
world outside your book can actually inspire all kinds of new ideas and
solutions. It also allows you to come back to the project and see it afresh,
which can spark a breakthrough. (Not to mention that getting up and taking a
little walk or doing a silly dance can help to get blood pumping and fresh
oxygen lighting up your brain!)
Q: Describe your writing space.
GH: I do my writing in all kinds
of places—coffee shops, out in my garden, libraries, even in my office (haha.)
But no matter where I am I try to secure a cup of coffee—possibly even
coffee-tea—and keep a little heap of paper to scribble notes on. I almost
always have a research book with me as well.
About Ginn Hale:
Ginn Hale lives with
her lovely wife in the Pacific Northwest. She spends the many cloudy days
observing plants and fungi. She whiles away the rainy evenings writing fantasy
and science-fiction featuring LGBTQ protagonists. Her first novel, Wicked Gentlemen, won the Spectrum Award
for best novel. She is also a Lambda Literary Award finalist and Rainbow Award
winner.
Her most recent
publications include the Lord of the
White Hell, Champion of the Scarlet
Wolf and The Rifter Trilogy: The Shattered Gates, The Holy Road, His Sacred Bones.
She can be reached
through her website: www.ginnhale.com as well as on Facebook and Twitter. Her Instagram account, however, is largely a collection of
botanical photos...so, be warned.
Giveaway:
Readers, enter to win 1 of 3 complete e-book sets of The Cadeleonian Series, Volumes 1 - 4 (Lord of the White Hell 1 & 2, Champion of the Scarlet Wolf 1 & 2)
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