Levi Jacobs's Blog

Finally! Aletheia's story is complete--can't wait for you to read it.  The floods are here, and though she has learned of an artifact that can stop them, Aletheia is no closer to finding it. Worse, a newly-destroyed city may be proof her enemies have found the artifact first, and are using its power to reshape the world.

There’s only solution: infiltrate their temples and palaces and floating cities, steal the artifact if they have it, and kill them if the chance arises. It’s a team of fi...

To put the past to rest, I might have to kill it first. 

It's been three years since I escaped the witches. I'd finally started to think I was free, that my work helping others escape would make up for the things they made me do. That I could start a new life, despite the past that haunts me. 

Then they called my blood again. Now all I can think about is finding out who did it--and why--before those old ghosts raise their heads.

And if facing the witch that did it kills me? Better that than ...

Daughter of Flood and Fury is coming soon! As in, January the 18th. But in the meantime, you can scope the new cover as well as learn a few interesting tidbits in my interview over at Fantasy Book Critic! Like this one: Fantasy Book Critic: How do you select the names of your characters? 

Levi: I have two answers to this. The first is through true philosophical geekery, like Aletheia--a Greek word often translated as ‘truth,’ but ...

So I'm working on a new series--after two years spent mainly on The Resonant Saga, with four novels and two novellas published plus a spinoff series started, I realized artistically it was time for a break. New magic, new world, new character. And while there's not too much I can say about it yet (if all goes well, it'll be available for sale January  2021!), I thought you might find the way it started interesting--a glimpse into the strange paths creativity can take. 

It starts with a confessio...

How do you come up with your ideas?

This is the number one question I get asked--but it's a little broad, isn't it? Silly question-askers. Let's focus on the part people usually want to know about:

How did you come up with this weird/cool/ghostly/insert-adjective-here magic system?

The short answer: Brandon Sanderson and Buddhism.
The long answer? When you love a genre like I love fantasy, when you grew up reading every book you could get your hands on and spending your allowance to get...

That's right, a new book in the Resonant Saga world! This one exploring a new character--a bounty hunter stricken with grief and obsessed with justice--as well as an earlier chapter in a beloved main character from the series. Here's the blurb: 

What happens when an assassin falls in love with his target?

Ealon is a grieving lover whose quest for justice turned into an endless hunt. Now the only thing that k...

It's old wisdom among writers that if your story's boring, there's not enough at stake. Think about Tai in the beginning of  Beggar's Rebellion : the only meaning he has in life is helping out Fisher and the other kids, and they get taken away. It drives him to use magic he shouldn't and attack against overwhelming odds because they mean so much to him...

That's right. Blood, sweat, and eight tear-stained drafts of Beggar's Rebellion later, the book has been picked as a finalist in Mark Lawrence's Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off contest, likely the biggest and most prestigious contest for indie fantasy authors around. 
Emphasis on biggest. To be a finalist means I'm one of just ten authors chosen from a pool of 300. Getting this far means that the good folks at Fantasy Book Critic chose my book as the top of the thirty entries they got to read, and I wasn't at all sure that was going...on .of Beggar's

What is magic? I mean, what is it? 

I've been thinking about this question a lot lately, as newer books get deeper into the magic of the Resonant Saga, and I spend my few idle fruit-season moments reading classic fantasy (the Wheel of Time [1]). I mean yeah, magic is people throwing fireballs or disappearing or whatever, but what is it? Where does it come from in these worlds that otherwise have gravity and thermodynamics and our other laws of physics? 

The answers in my favorite novels growing up never f...what  it?Time ).what it? 

We were stoked to see Mateusz's wonderful cover make the top shelf in Mark Lawrence's Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off (aka the biggest contest for indie fantasy authors)--it's a top notch illustration. But to have the actual book chosen as a semi-finalist? 

We're over the moon. 

And, being highly competitive sorts, also crossing fingers that we make it to the finalist stage--the SPFBO is where I've found some of my favorite indie fantasy in recent years, and this reading list of the finalists...