E.M. Hamill's Blog

*Insert wild flailing here*

Petre Mercy’s had a rough time since he rode home on a cyborg horse. He’s lost a hand that’s been replaced with a mess of steel and piano string, broke his thyroid-powered sword, and helped ignite a civil war that’s engulfed the countryside.

His sister, The Queen, has ordered him to root out any traitors in Mercy House. But Petre can hardly ferret out the truth from his siblings, let alone a vast network of spies with counterplots. And every day more turncoats move against him.

If he has any hope of putting down this uprising, he’ll have to work with a sister he’s still learning to trust. But his enemies are one step ahead of him at all times. And they’re hiding in the last place he’d think to look.

When the author offered me a chance to read an ARC of “The Diplomacy of the Knife”, I didn’t have to think twice. “The Fall Is All There Is” (click the link for my review) is one of the coolest, most original books I’ve ever read, and I have been eagerly awaiting the second book.

It had been a while since I read “Fall” and the first chapter had me a little confused until I fell back into this incredible, weird world Caplan has invented. And then…

And THEN.

This book sucked me in and chewed on me and then spit me out. Its intrigue and brutality and inventiveness is a visceral high. I mean, the cyborg horses were my favorite things in the first book, but ships propelled by giant beating hearts, cars that run on nerves and spinal fluid?? It’s a twisted and perverse world, and Petre, the main character, is definitely a product of its obscenity. His siblings (he is the youngest of royal quadruplets) dragged him back into the world of court intrigue, each wanting to use him for their own ends, and when it all goes to hell in a handbasket, Petre’s the one in the grinder.

It’s painful and exhilarating. The world building is bonkers and just freaking incredible, and every one of the characters is indelibly flawed and exquisitely formed.

Book three better be coming soon.

As part of the SPSFBO (Self Published Science Fiction Blog Off), WHISKEY AND WARFARE will be on sale for the weekend with dozens of others also competing in this contest!

Readers have called WHISKEY AND WARFARE “a thoroughly delightful romp!” If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, it’s a steal at .99 on Amazon in the US and the UK.

THAT BEING SAID...

I am making the move back to wide release for all my books! Starting in January, my back catalogue will be available via Draft2Digital on all major retailers like Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and many others. In February, Whiskey and Warfare will join them.

CURRENT WORK IN PROGRESS

I am in the process of writing a witchy romantic urban fantasy. It will be a stand-alone novel. Ander and Tes have been living in my head for a long time now, and I can't wait for you to meet them.

With the working title of FORREST HOUSE, it has:

A genderqueer healer with a dark talent he won't use but bad people covet
A handsome druid/magical James Bond
Long-simmering love
Adorable magical 7 year old twins
A wizard terrorist bent on world domination
Strong themes of family
A world where being queer and witchy is no big deal

Check out the Other Worlds Ink Tour for the amazing “Whiskey and Warfare” by E.M. Hamill (excerpt and giveaway)

My friend J. Scott Coatsworth’s Tharassas Cycle series is coming to an end with one more thrilling book: The Death Bringer, coming on September 19, 2024. Check out this amazing cover and an excerpt!

AIK WILL NEVER BE THE SAME… AND NEITHER WILL HIS WORLD

War is coming. Aik has become the Progenitor, and the Seed Mother has released him to transform the world for her alien brood. Silya and Raven, Aik’s former friends, are the only ones who can save him and the world. But what if the cure is worse than the invasion?

As Silya rushes to prepare Gullton for the battle to come, she’s determined to save as many people as she can. But new crises emerge that demand her attention.

Raven has his own hands full, keeping the dragon-like verent in line, while helping Silya to save the world. But what if the only way to do so is to sacrifice Aik, the man that he loves?

It’s the end of the world … or could it be the start of something new?

The Tharassas Cycle is a four book sci-fantasy series set on the recently colonized world of Tharassas. When humans first arrived on planet, they thought they were alone until the hencha mind made itself known. But now a new threat has arisen to challenge both humankind and their new allies on this alien world.

Universal Buy link for The Death Bringer: https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/death-bringer/

Chapter One
Regroup

He floated, weightless and naked, surrounded by a reddish light and suspended in fluid. Something connected to his mouth and wrapped around his head, like a lover’s embrace.

He used to have a name. He searched his mind for some clue to his identity. I exist, so I must be someone. Or something.

That made sense, but got him no closer to an answer. He blinked. Who am I?

There was no immediate reply.

He lifted his hand. It was encased in metal. The gauntlet. That much he remembered, though it meant nothing to him. Except… it seemed different, somehow. Thinner.

He moved his arms in the liquid, and it sparkled around him where his shifting disturbed it. The metal extended down his wrist and along his forearm, like before, but now it went farther, around his elbow and up his bicep. He touched it with his free hand.

I can feel it. It was as if the metal had become a part of him, his nerves growing through it. He held out his metallic hand and flexed his fingers. What is it?

We call it uurcaa. It’s a sacred metal—it will protect you, and if your host dies, it will collect and save your soul. He could feel the emotions she held back from him. It is the last of its kind from our homeworld. Like us.

He blinked. Then what am I?

You are my son, Iihil. The progenitor, the one who has come before and the first of many more like you. The voice was deep and comforting.

Mother. Warmth infused him at her voice, and an eagerness to please her.

Still, something wasn’t right. He was more than that. He searched his mind, running up against that stubborn blankness. Somewhere beyond it were the answers he needed.

He’d been someone else. Before.

Who was I? Memories of a face—dark hair, intense eyes that nevertheless twinkled at him. Raven.

It came flooding back to him. His mother. His life in Gullton. Training to be a guard and meeting Raven for the first time. My name is Aik.

He reached for the mask that covered his face. It was suffocating. Something was stuck in his throat, and he coughed hard, trying to force it out, whipping around and causing the liquid around him to flash red in alarm.

Calm yourself. The voice was as thick and heavy as an ix hide, and just as soft and warm.

Aik pushed back. What are you doing to me? I don’t want this! Let me out! He thrashed about, trying to force his way through the suffocating liquid. The metal crept up his shoulder. If it covered all of him, he would be lost.

Calm yourself! It was more insistent this time.

Aik stiffened as an enforced lethargy settled over him. He lost control of his limbs, falling still in his floating prison. The voice pressed against his mind. You’re safe. Be calm, my little one.

He closed his eyes and thought of Raven, trying to stay fixed on that face. I can’t let myself forget again.

Then the world around him dissolved, and he was swept up in a torrent of memories that weren’t his own.

Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.

He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, Liminal Fiction, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and was the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for almost three years..

Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworth/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworthauthor

Author Mastodon: https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@jscottcoatsworth

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jscottcoatsworth/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8392709.J_Scott_Coatsworth

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.-Scott-Coatsworth/e/B011AFO4OQ

Click the cover to get your copy! Now available in ebook, paperback, hardback, and coming soon to Audible!

This book was a labor of love, and as is my tradition, I’m sharing the dedication and acknowledgements of the people without whom it would have been much more difficult. My sincere affection and respect for all.

Dedication

A nurse, an archaeologist, an ex-military intelligence analyst turned librarian, and a witch walk into a bar and get blended up with a healthy dose of space opera cheese … What you get from that powerful concoction is this book.

It is a love letter to three people with whom I have been friends for the better part of our lives (I will not say exactly how long, but at least as long as Maryn and Jac!). I never made friends very easily when I was young, but I have somehow managed to stay in the orbit of some of the most amazing humans in the world.

So Reneé Ash, Ann Raab, and Lori Clyma-Lewis: this book is for you. You know the deep, dark secrets only lifelong friends can share. No matter how much life and geography might separate us, whenever we’re together, the love and friendship stay exactly the same. I am so, so lucky to have you in my life.

 If you see things you might recognize in this story, you’re probably right, though no one character is based on anybody in particular.

Seriously. Nobody in particular. I swear.

You’ve always had my back. I’ll always have yours.

In all phases.

Acknowledgements

As always, my books are never completed alone. Huge thanks go out to my editors extraordinaire, Jami Nord of Chimera Edits and Sarah Chorn. You are my heroes.

My beta readers were, once again, incredibly brave and helpful to read the messy early drafts. So much gratitude to J. Scott Coatsworth, Marti Ostrander, Mark Millham, Kayla Dugan, Jessica Smith, and Lilian Zenzi. Thanks to Keith Edwards for encouragement and general cheerleading during the first draft expansion.

JCaleb Designs always blows my mind with his cover art. Thank you, Jake!

To my lifemate Mark and our now grown-up kids, Kylan, Gabriel, and Jayden: Thank you for my office where I can write now that we’re empty nesters (but the daybed is always open if and when you need it). And thank you to my furry office assistants, Percy and Aries.

Last but never least, thank you, the people who read my books. You rock, and I am ecstatic you like the crazy stories I write for my own amusement.

A month from today, the first book in the Team Huntress Flights will be released. I’m so excited you’ll get to meet these bad-ass ex-mercenaries of mine! I made a little CapCut reveal in celebration. There are several blogs participating in the cover reveal (thanks to all of them, and especially Giselle from XPresso Book Tours for setting the whole thing in motion!)

Without further ado … WHISKEY AND WARFARE! Pre-order HERE:

Coming in late summer!

I’ve started getting positive beta reader feedback and my first editor, Jami Nord, has it in her hot little hands! Later on this summer, I am thrilled to be working with Sarah Chorn on further edits. JCaleb Design will be doing my cover again, and I am so excited to see what he comes up with this time.

I can’t wait to introduce you to Maryn, Scylla, Jac, and Colterrikor, my mercenary girls! The story is full of laughter, love, and the kind of friends who will help you hide a body with no questions asked as long as there are mimosas afterward.

The final title is up in the air at this moment, but here’s the working blurb:

Universe, help anyone who tells them they’re too old to kick somebody’s ass.

Maryn Alessi retired from mercenary life after her last assignment went horribly sideways and settled down on a quiet planet with the love of her life. Unexpectedly widowed, Maryn must fulfill a promise to return her mate’s ashes to zer home planet for funeral rites, but a brutal civil war has destabilized space travel.

Former Artemis Corps sisters-in-arms and their sassy ship, the Golden Girl, are up to the task, counting on luck and their rather questionable cargo business to get Maryn passage through the contested star lanes. But when the crew of the Girl rescues survivors of a ruthless war crime, Maryn and her ride-or-die friends must take up their old profession to save the lives of innocents from a genocidal dictator.

I am so excited for my friend Scott! His Tharassas Cycle Series is just getting better.

The Tharassas Cycle is a four book sci-fantasy series set on the recently colonized world of Tharassas. When humans first arrived on planet, they thought they were alone until the hencha mind made itself known. But now a new threat has arisen to challenge both humankind and their new allies on this alien world.

Click to find out more about The Hencha Queen, Book 3 in this fantastic series! He is also offering books 1 and 2 for 99 cents during the launch of the new book, and Tales from Tharassas for FREE!! More details on that offer HERE.

SILYA COMES INTO HER OWN, BUT WILL SHE BE ENOUGH?

Silya finally has everything she always wanted. She’s the Hencha Queen, head of the Temple, and is working to master her newfound talents. So why does the world pick now to fall apart?

Her once-nemesis Raven is off riding dragons, and their mutual friend (and her ex) Aik is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, a new threat menaces the Heartland from the East, and if she can’t convince a reluctant Gullton city council to prepare for the worst, she may lose everyone and everything she’s ever cared about.

As she uses her magic-like abilities, wit and sheer determination to try to save the city, she’s joined by Raven and his new friends. Will their help tip the scales? And will they finally find out what happened to Aik as a dark storm threatens to sweep them all away?

Forget messy. Things just got apocalyptic.

EXCERPT

A sharp crack filled the wine cellar. Kerrick swung the heavy mallet back and then assailed the flopwood boards that blocked the tunnel entrance again. The ancient wood splintered under the blow, sending shards clattering across the stone-paved floor.

It felt good to work out his frustrations. Still, the stubborn wood held out against his assault.

He rested the mallet on the black-tiled stone floor, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Even after a hundred years, the barrier was strong. He’d tried to pry the boards out of the solid stone, but they’d been fastened in too tightly. Brute force it is.

“You’re doing great!” Cor’Lea’s voice was artificially bright, and she was as tall as he was, maybe a little taller, peering over his shoulder at the sealed tunnel entrance.

Silya had tasked her with bringing him down here to check out these hidden caverns under the Temple, in preparation for the coming war. Important, sure, but also clearly an excuse to get him out from underfoot while she prepared for her official Raising.

He grunted. “Thanks. These boards are hard as iron.” And hard as Silya’s will.

One day things would be different between them, once this crisis was over. I just have to be patient.

Coral laughed. “I’m sure a big, strong man like you can break through them easily.” She squeezed his bicep appreciatively.

He shrugged her off. He wasn’t sure if the gawky initiate was flirting with him or just trying to encourage him to get on with it, but either way, he wasn’t interested. “Stand back.” He hefted the hammer again, and she scurried out of his way.

He suppressed a smile, swinging the mallet around for another heavy blow.

Craack.

This time the board buckled inward visibly. Another few hits should do it.

He pulled back the heavy iron hammer again and hit the same spot with blow after blow. Craack. Craack. Craack.

The mallet broke through and a board fell away into splinters, clattering across the stone floor. One down, three more to go. “Why did they seal this cavern up?”

Cor’Lea gestured at the natural chamber. “There was a winery here before the Temple. Sister Dor said they used to use it for extra wine storage.” She looked around the natural chamber, which was now filled with wooden shelving holding a variety of bottled food stores. “When Jas ordered the Temple to be constructed, they kept this wide cavern and blocked off the rest of the tunnels.”

“Just in case the gully rats got in?” That thief Raven had apparently made his home in one of the underground tunnels. Who knew who else—or what else—lived down there?

Cor’Lea snorted. “Maybe.”

Are tunnels all connected, somehow? That was one of Silya’s most urgent projects, to map out the network of caverns beneath the city. Another reason she sent me down here—to get me out from under her robes.

A few more whacks at the next board served to both break it and let out his frustrations at the situation preventing him from doing his sworn job and keeping them apart. And at what she said was coming.

Craack. Craack. Craack.

The board snapped in half, and he judged that he’d cleared enough space to step through into the blocked-off tunnel. “Hand me that lantern?

Cor’Lea complied, taking the opportunity to brush his hand.

He rolled his eyes. I should be flattered. But his heart was already taken.

It was times like these he wished his brother Enrick were still alive. He’d know what to do. He’d been absurdly confident about everything, even though he’d been younger than Kerrick.

Kerrick wasn’t great with women.

He took the lantern and stepped over the bottom board, holding it in front of him. The bright light temporarily blinded him as he sought to get his bearings.

“What do you see?” Cor’Lea peered through the hole behind him.

His sight adjusted, and the tunnel’s walls came into focus.

He whistled. Stacked along the side of the tunnel were hundreds of crates, all strapped together in groups and sealed. “It’s… I don’t know what it is. But I’ll bet Silya will be surprised.” They’d have to find a place to put all this stuff—whatever it was, it was likely rotten after all this time. Silya needed somewhere to store people, not ancient goods.

Cor’Lea stepped carefully over the splintered boards to join him. “What do you think’s inside them?”

The long row of crates disappeared into the darkness. Who knew what the ancients had considered valuable enough to stash down here. Coin? Lost treasure? “One way to find out. Does the Temple have a crowbar?”

Giveaway:

Scott is giving away an eBook copy of Tales from Tharassas, the prequel, to everyone who enters the sweepstakes:

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47308/?

Author Bio:

Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.

He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, Liminal Fiction, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and is the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworth/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworthauthor

Author Mastodon: https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@jscottcoatsworth

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jscottcoatsworth/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8392709.J_Scott_Coatsworth

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.-Scott-Coatsworth/e/B011AFO4OQ

SUNLIGHT BETWEEN THE CRACKS

There’s a new page on my site where I will offer free short stories as a thank you to my readers. There will be more to come when inspiration hits or when I get rights back to shorts in anthologies.

You guys are awesome. Thank you, thank you.

Free Short Story Links