Vale Aida's Blog

Hostis, that is! Get yourself a spicy enemy of Rome HERE -- available in paperback and Kindle ebook!

On Thursday 14 April, 2022, Hostis will be available from Amazon** in paperback and ebook! I’m so excited to share this book with all of you ❤

** also from most other online retailers within the next couple weeks or so!

Cover's here! Release date TBA soon! :D

From Chapter II, The Man on the Elephant, in which the the Carthaginian army crosses a marsh, and Hannibal has a very bad day.

The second day in the Arno marshes, Sosylos said, “Your brother is very ill.”

Mago was not in the mood to worry about Hannibal’s sore head. He had just seen two of his grooms drown in mud, scarcely five yards from where he had been sitting to eat his morning bread. One of them had fallen asleep by the roadside, and begun sinking into ground that had looked perfectly solid a moment before. The other had thrown him a rope and tried to pull him out, only to tumble in himself. They thrashed for what felt like hours, submerged to the waist, then the chest, then the chin, and then disappeared altogether into the quagmire, with Mago still watching, and wishing he was not.

“He’s fine,” he said. “He says he’s fine.”

Check it out here.

(P.S. Release date and cover sneak peek coming real soon!)

Marcus Livius rode down the Vicus Jugarius, the Street of the Yokemakers, a pair of slaves following him in solemn procession. Then, finding the crowd too sparse for his liking, he turned and processed down the Vicus Tuscus instead. His ragged toga, dyed the deep grey of mourning, flapped behind him in the early breeze. So did his beard, uncombed and rubbed down with ashes.

“Perhaps,” Calavia had said—his young bride, his life, his delight—as he set off from the farm, “you might make more of an impact if you shaved? We don’t want anything to distract from your bad news.”

“Not at all, Calavia!” said Livius. “My beard will only add dignitas to our tragedy. Have no fear!”

Hostis 9, “The Exile”

“What,” said Laelius, “did our bosom friend do something?”

“Oh, you know. He’s sucking up to Fabius. Riveted to him like a second wart.” Scipio put his chin in the air and stuffed his hair behind his ears. “I’m Marcus Porcius Cato! I’m eighty years old! I deserve to be made tribune because I’ve never smiled, farted, or worn nice things in my life!”

Laelius flung his horse blanket across his shoulders like a toga. “I’ll have you know,” he said, “Marcus Porcius Cato is as pure as a Vestal. He abhors wine-bibbing, brothels and barbers—”

“—and fops—”

“—and he’s too busy for all that bullshit. He’s appointed himself Fabius’ official ass-scratcher.”

Scipio snatched up a blanket of his own. The other officers were howling with laughter. “How dare you imply such a thing about Marcus Porcius Cato?”

“What, do you think Fabius scratches his own ass?”

“Ass-scratching,” Scipio roared, “is perfidy worse than Punic!”

They were running around the quad in horserags, threatening to take each other to court for breathing and shaving and picking their noses, when the tent flap swept open and Fabius came out.

Hostis Chapter 3, “The Dictator”

“Yes,” said Hannibal, turning back to the prisoners. “The young man in the shiny breastplate. I doubt if a standard-bearer, or a consul’s bodyguard, could have owned such armour.”

If his consonants got any crisper, the Italians would keel over where they stood. “True,” said the Etruscan. “It was much too shiny.”

“Carved with sun rays, I think I saw," said the Campanian.

“And those bronze nipples!”

Mago let out a bark of laughter. Hannibal gave him another quelling stare, somewhat ruined by his drooping eye. “Indeed. The young man in the shiny breastplate with the sun rays and the bronze nipples. If anyone can tell me who he was, I shall be very grateful. Perhaps grateful enough to set you free.”

Of course, then, the prisoners began to call out names at random. Most of them began with Gaius or Marcus, but the consensus was that the consul Publius Cornelius Scipio had a son, also called Publius Cornelius Scipio, and that this benippled fellow sounded just like him. “Oh?” said Hannibal. “How old is the lad?”

“Can’t be past twenty,” said a Samnite.

“Or thirty.”

“More than twelve, for sure.”

“And he’s already known for his courage?”

“No, no,” said the Campanian. “Just for his breastplate. We were talking about his breastplate, weren’t we?” And as Hannibal flung away from the fence in disgust—“Can we go now?”

Chapter II, "The Man on the Elephant"

Another nugget from my new novel Hostis!

More snippets, and general progress updates: Tumblr | Twitter

“What does he think he’s doing?” demanded Publius Cornelius Scipio the Elder, who had two months left to his term as consul, and was in no mood for nonsense like this. “Marching on Rome?”

“Looks like it, sir,” said Publius Cornelius Scipio the Younger, who was still sea-queasy, and thoroughly annoyed with this Hannibal.

A nugget from Hostis, my novel-in-progress about the Second Punic War! Follow me on Tumblr or Twitter if you'd like to see more snippets.

🐦 For all the longtime fans and newer friends, the wait is over! You can find the new edition of Swansong, the sequel to Elegy, in paperback and ebook.

These new editions come with illustrations, a map, and revised text. Check out the blurb:

Everyone has a secret to keep.

Alone, disgraced, his unsavoury past on the brink of exposure, Savonn Silvertongue returns to Cassarah to face his nemesis on the eve of open war. Dervain Teraille—once his lover and confidant—is in the hands of the Council, and will not scruple to reveal all he knows. If Savonn does not defeat him, he faces his own utter destruction.

Meanwhile, Hiraen and Iyone Safin struggle to defend their city from Queen Marguerit of Sarei. But they, too, are caught up in Savonn’s spiderweb of intrigue, and it is only a matter of time before their own secrets are dragged into the light.

Don't forget to pick up your copy (and check out Elegy if you haven't already)!

Also: I'm working on a new novel about the Second Punic War! Follow me on Tumblr or Twitter for (admittedly sporadic) updates.

The second edition of Swansong, featuring a new cover, map, illustrations and updated text, will be out in paperback and ebook 30 July 2019!

Also, today (21/7) is Savonn's birthday! Spread the word for a birthday birb!