Brian A. Mendonça's Blog

If you did the math from my latest newsletter, we have 300,000 words minus 200,000 words, which leaves us with a whopping 100,000 words left! These are all solid chapters and going into Book 4, and that means I’m around 50% done with the first draft of that book. I don’t have a title for it yet, though, but CRAZY THINGS WILL HAPPEN. I almost feel guilty pushing them from Book 3 into Book 4, but Book 3 will still have plenty of surprises for you.

I promise.

It's release day for the 2nd edition of Wedding of the Torn Rose, and I'm proud to say that the latest edition of the book is a huge improvement over the first. I just got my paperback proof copy ten minutes ago, and I'm entranced by the new cover and interior design. I think you'll enjoy the latest updates too. In case you missed it, here are the major changes.

As of today, eBook and paperback copies are available on Amazon, and the files are rolling out to other retailers now.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been asked what differences there are between the first editions of Wedding of the Torn Rose and Gravity of Obedience. Here’s the summary of the changes.

Reviews from the first editions of Wedding of the Torn Rose stated that pacing was a bit too fast in some areas. I’ve merged some chapters together to help with the overall flow and pacing, and split some scenes up to signal a smoother break in locations, particularly once the heroes of Wedding of the Torn Rose made their way to Starlight Beach. As a result, there are fewer chapters than before, but the remaining ones are longer.

Renamed a few chapter titles in both Wedding of the Torn Rose and Gravity of Obedience.

Gave both books another round of revising and editing, as my writing skills have improved since I first wrote and published the first two books in the Symphony of Crowns and Gods series.

A brand new epilogue chapter was added to Gravity of Obedience, expanding on the first encounter between Thane and Somnius.

Overall, this should improve the overall reading experience for newcomers to my books. Check them out here .

Happy Friday, Symphony of Crowns and Gods readers,

Big things are on the horizon for the Symphony of Crowns and Gods series. I wanted to drop these two cover reveals out before I officially announce the re-releases of Wedding of the Torn Rose and Gravity of Obedience. More information coming soon.

Check out the new covers below:

2nd Edition Cover for Wedding of the Torn Rose

2nd Edition Cover for Gravity of Obedience

I’ve requested the ISBN’s for the 2nd editions of Wedding of the Torn Rose and Gravity of Obedience. Take this as a hint that ARC copies will be ready to go soon… How do you get ARCs? Sign up for my mailing list… https://www.theauthorbrian.com/join-brians-newsletter

Have a great day, everyone!

I’m often asked how many books are coming for the Symphony of Crowns and Gods series. As of 2023, here’s my overall plan…

There will be at least 5 books total in the Symphony of Crowns and Gods Series. Two are written and published, one is in progress, one is greatly outlined, and the next book after that is generally outlined.

Depending on timing, there will be side story standalone books in the same universe as well. I’m not ready to officially announce anything yet, but I’ve been working on an idea for a book involving the character Ursula Frost that will happen between books 3 and 4 of the main series. She’s a minor character of the first 2 books, but will have greater impact and importance starting from book 3.

Depending on the reception and reviews of book 3, this will influence whether I’ll move forward with these side story books. For now, finishing book 3 and onward remains my top priority.

Please note that the following scene preview is from an early or mid part of Prophecy of Tears and Sacrifice and has not undergone professional editing, or even much self-editing yet. Details presented here may undergo changes in the final version. This preview serves to provide a glimpse into the story's early development and is subject to further refinement. Expect minor changes and more writing enhancements in the subsequent drafts as the narrative unfolds…

Finnegan, the middle-aged chicken farmer whom Xander had mentioned earlier, set them up in a borrowed shack for the night. Their accommodations smelled of mildew and burned grass, but were otherwise better than no shelter at all. Likewise, the sheets on their beds reeked from exposure to the smoky, yet humid, weather, and Kaine wondered how long it would take for the scents to leave his body.

Later that night, long after everyone had fallen asleep, Kira’s scream jolted him awake. He fumbled for White Oath from between his bed frame and the wall, flinging the sheath across the room as he glided into an offensive stance. With his eyes already adjusted to the darkness, he saw Kira pointing toward the window, her other hand covering her mouth in shock. Merdel had sat up in his bed too, but was in no position to defend her.

“Stand back!” Kaine yelled as he ran toward the window to put himself between it and Kira.

“Look!” Kira yelled, but the tone of her voice seemed more excited than fearful.

Outside the window, small glowing yellow dots filled the village and were floating up toward the sky. They appeared to be fireflies, illuminating from each of the village shacks. Slowly, each glowing dot floated around before drifting into the pitch-black skies above. It was a sight to behold, but not worth making his heart race.

He lowered his blade. “You shouldn’t scream like that unless it’s an emergency.”

“Sorry, Kaine—I just forgot about the tribute.”

“What?”

“It’s a local tradition,” Merdel explained, fully sitting up in his bed. “Rather than sending paper lanterns into the sky like most Asuras, Gale Village’s people capture the fireflies and release them halfway to sunrise. It symbolizes the faint line between death and life, and how one should always strive for Asura’s light.”

“As beautiful as it is, the middle of the night should be for resting,” Kaine finally growled. “If not a single person is to be seen outside despite every household taking part, then we should just sleep through it.”

He had never heard of their practice; it seemed the people here were following a distinct branch of Asura’s religion of their own making. Even in their midnight rituals, the streets were still void of any people. Nobody would miss that they weren’t there.

Gale Village’s people, or specifically, those who served Elder Orin, somehow appeared only as they were needed, without being summoned. In all other cases, the entire town’s small population had stayed inside their homes for the entire day since they’d arrived there. Kaine considered all the possibilities and decided that perhaps the villagers feared catching disease from visitors. Otherwise, his second explanation was that the entire town was a cult and Elder Orin was their leader. Few other options made sense to explain the oddities and reclusiveness of every single person in town. Kaine hadn’t ever heard of a religion where its members otherwise seemed to actively avoid each other.

The next morning, Kaine and the others followed Orin for almost an hour as they hiked toward the graveyard as scheduled. When Kaine asked the Elder for any hints about the Gale villagers’ identities, Orin gave a rehearsed answer: “the people here have a closely-knit culture that needs to be guarded.” The nearer they got to their destination on the other side of the mountains, the more Kaine noticed Orin staring at him. He figured it was because he was the only one who'd never been to their mountains before. To add to the oddities, Orin had left his cane at home and was walking rather energetically—as if to show his strength and impress everyone, even though there wasn’t a discernible reason for it. Kaine decided it was best to ignore Orin's awkward glances, and just keep pace with Kira.

He wished he could find a moment to speak with her and ask if she knew why the God Stones had glowed while he’d been wearing them the previous day. Still, even if he found the chance, Kira seemed oblivious to their real purpose in traveling to the distant location. Bringing up the conversation about her father's enchanted stones would mean revealing his own secret to her, and for whatever reason, King Ether had made it clear he didn’t want his children involved with the true purpose of their journey.

Earlier in the morning, Merdel had claimed that the God Stones don’t glow, and that there was no reason to believe they had. He questioned whether Kaine had consumed enough water during the final stretch of their hike and if he was perhaps becoming delirious from dehydration. The councilman’s opinion had merit—when Princess Lydia had been alive, she’d used the Memory Stone several times in plain sight, in front of Kaine and many other people, and the stones had not shined at all. For them to suddenly activate in a way like never before while they’d hung around his neck and for no magic to happen caused Kaine to have doubts about the mysterious flash that only he had noticed.

As he admitted to himself that perhaps the God Stones hadn’t truly activated for him, their group reached a small plateau overlooking a valley of orangish-yellow magma. Scattered about the clearing were several graves. Carved with rudimentary techniques and varying skill levels, each tombstone was different in shape from the others. They all seemed to be made of the natural glass rock, $MATERIAL_NAME_TBA, leading Kaine to believe that perhaps someone hadn’t crafted the tombstones. Instead, each piece might have been found and hauled to the graveyard by the villagers. They had scratched the names of the deceased onto the surfaces of the tombstones, a laborious process without the proper tools. That was why only the names of individuals were inscribed on the stones, with no additional information about their identities.

Orin led them to a semi-oval-shaped grave with a jagged corner and gave it a slight bow. The frail man's legs seemed to grow tired as he stepped back and leaned cautiously against another tombstone several feet away. “We’re here,” he said. “Xander, Kira… We’ll give you some time to say hello.”

“He really should’ve brought his cane, or at least a walking stick,” Merdel muttered.

“It’s as though he has something to prove to us,” Kaine replied. “He’s been such an oddity, ever since we’ve arrived.”

They waited as the prince and princess kneeled where their mother was buried and prayed. Kira removed a small paper lantern from her pocket and her pale fingers trembled as she unfolded it. Kaine was too far away to read the details, but he could see her penmanship covering most her craft. Once she stabilized the paper, she bent the small wire base into a rectangular shape and threaded the base through the lantern’s edge slit. After she finished standing the lantern up on the ground, she revealed a flint and used it and some of the dry grass to light her flame.

“I’m doing my best for you, mother,” Kira whispered as tears streamed down her face. “The world is so dark, but I’m trying to bring it some light.”

She lit the lantern’s inner chamber and it erupted into a small ball of flame. For a few seconds, she held it in front of her to let the fire warm the air contained inside. Once it was ready, her small hands reluctantly let go, and Kaine sensed her fear that the paper object might crash to the ground. Rather, it quietly floated up past the princess’s face and drifted on its own into the skies above.

With a thin smile, a satisfaction in that the lantern would reach its destination far above them, Kira stepped away from her mother’s grave. Xander remained there, tilting his head toward the tombstone at his feet, frozen in silent thought or prayer. Instead of bringing out a lantern of his own, he removed a small letter from his pocket. He used Kira's flint and a fistful of grass to set the paper ablaze, silently lowering it to the ground next to his mother's tombstone.

As the parchment disintegrated into ash, he stomped out the flames and resumed staring at his feet. A moment later, he returned to where Kaine, Kira, and Merdel were standing.

“Let’s go back,” he said.

“Kaine,” Merdel said on cue, “perhaps you would like a moment with the queen?”

“Sure. If the rest of you want to start heading down, I can catch up in a few minutes.”

“I’m certain Orin appreciates your offer for the early start,” Merdel smirked, glancing at the Elder.

The bald man lacking his cane glared back over at them. “I don’t see what’s the rush, but fine, have it your way, Merdel. Apparently the upper servants in Last Hope cannot appreciate the natural beauty of our landscapes.”

Orin took the lead for Merdel, Xander, and Kira as they trekked back toward Gale Village. Now, that Kaine was alone in the graveyard, he counted to sixty, just in case either of the children decided to return and keep him company, then removed the small coin purse wrapped around his neck. He delicately poured the four God Stones into the palm of his hand, and examined each of them for the last time.

“Green, blue, silver, and black…” Kaine muttered to the deathly air around him. “Now, there is no going back.”

With his good hand, he pinched each of the four differently colored stones, checking again whether any of them would activate or reveal signs of magic for him. When not a single one of them glowed, he tried squeezing them inside his fist, adding as much pressure as he could. Still, the stones gave no reaction. It seemed Merdel had been correct after all—Kaine must have been delusional when he’d seen them light up the first time.

Crouching at Lily von Stonewall’s grave, he took a flat stray rock and carved a small hole. He had no intention or desire to dig as deep as where the queen’s remnants might have been, but he scraped far enough to where the natural elements wouldn’t erode away his work and reveal what he was about to bury. When the deepest part of his hole reached twenty inches or so, he buried the God Stones into the ground, one by one.

“This was King Ether’s wish,” Kaine said to the queen as he replaced the dirt. “And I’m sorry I couldn’t save Lydia… But I promise—no, I swear it on your daughter’s grave—I won’t let anything happen to Xander or Kira.”

Perhaps leaving their father’s magic with their mother would help him accomplish that. Nothing about the God Stones was clear to him, but leaving the four of them there where nobody would think to look was probably the best action to take. As Ether had warned and Lydia had demonstrated, the power within was far too powerful and dangerous if they were to fall into the wrong hands.

He scattered some of the ashes from Xander’s letter over the newly overturned earth, covering over any signs that it had been disturbed. Once he was sure it was undetectable, he jogged down the mountain path to reunite with the rest of the group.

It didn’t take long for him to catch up with the others, but as he approached, Merdel faltered off to the side and slammed sideways into the ground.

“OW! MY LEG!” the councilman howled. “IT’S BROKEN!”

“Merdel!” Kaine shouted as realistically as he could. “Are you okay?” He wasn’t sure what would have been his reaction had Merdel’s fall not been an ruse, but what mattered was whether Orin believed it to be true.

“Let’s take a look,” Gale Village’s leader said, pacing over to the councilman. “This happened all the time during the war.”

He squatted at Merdel’s side and pulled up his pant leg. “It’s not broken at all,” he commented. “Just a sprain, perhaps?”

“It’s awfully twisted anyway,” the councilman insisted. “I don’t know, but I heard a pop and it hurts. Asura’s ass!”

Kaine smirked, as Merdel was normally too formal to yell so crudely, but his act was convincing. Kira offered him some water from her canteen while the councilman caressed his ankle.

“We’re not too far from the village,” Orin said. “You should be able to hobble the rest of the way on one leg. We’ll move slower, so it’s not going to be impossible.”

“Easy for you to say!” Merdel spat. He then looked up to the sun beating over them. “I feel… dizzy. Did I hit my head? Can someone carry me?”

Xander laughed. “How fragile are you?”

“I’m serious,” Merdel groaned. “Something’s not right with me.”

“I’m too small to carry you,” Kira said, “but I wish I could.”

“And I’ve only got one good arm,” Kaine said, pointing to his sling.

Merdel stared at Orin and smiled. “We can’t ask the prince to carry me, can we?”

“Even if you did, I would have to decline,” Xander said, turning to Elder Orin.

“I’ve carried more than my fair share of wounded warriors when I was younger,” the Elder said, “and the years have stolen that ability from me as of late.”

“So what should we do about me?”  Merdel whimpered, perhaps playing his part a little too well.

“I’ll head back to the village,” Kaine volunteered, as he and Merdel had planned. “I’ll find Finnegan or whatever his name was, and maybe he and some of the others can help us. You should rest there for now.”

“It’s a waste of time, in my opinion,” Orin said. “He should be able to make it home on one leg, especially if he just leaned on you. But if he insists on being a child and a nuisance, may he lay on the ground in pointless agony until you return.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Kaine said with a smile. “Don’t die on us in the meantime.”

****

Half an hour later, he passed through an open wooden gate and entered Gale Village, which was still devoid of people. This time, rather than pondering the possible reasons for the empty streets, Kaine was grateful for it. No people around meant he had the advantage of having no witnesses for what he was about to do.

Orin’s shack stood at the other edge of the small town, alone and unguarded. Kaine approached, moving quietly just in case anyone happened to pass by. A small hole in the decayed wood of the front door allowed him to peek inside and verify that nobody was in the Elder’s home. He took one more look at the lifeless shacks nearby before turning the doorknob and letting himself inside.

Kaine closed the door behind him as he examined the room. The advantage of Orin’s single-roomed shack was that there were few places to hide anything. The only problem was that the letter was thin and easy to conceal between other items. He searched the bed first and underneath the mattress. Aside from a small hand-ax strapped there, there were no signs of the letter.

He searched the battered armoire next. Inside it were a few more sets of plain, old black robes, a larger battle ax than the one hidden in the bed, Orin’s cane that he’d left behind for the day, and a wooden box of garlic, herbs, and some other medicinal root. The Elder was poor or preferred to live with only his most essential possessions. Kaine suspected it was the latter of the two.

Still, the small number of items within the large wooden armoire were likely a decoy, or at least there was still plenty of space within the furniture piece to stash something. Kaine pushed his hand firmly into the bottommost shelf and instantly felt it give some play. A few seconds later, he managed to slip his fingers into a tiny crevice and pulled out the baseboard shelf from the armoire. There was a small bag made of brown leather and beside it was a letter, folded in a packet of the same hue. He'd found it!

Ether had told Merdel that they should bring the letter back to Last Hope unread, however the king’s wax seal was entirely missing. This detail tempted Kaine to read through the letter anyway. After all, there was no way for anyone to know whether he had read it. Nevertheless, the last time he’d snuck a peek at a von Stonewall letter, he’d burned it for being such a blight to their family name. Chances were that this letter was only of sentimental value and not an elaborate deceptive lie as Lydia’s words had been…

He promised himself that no matter what he read, that he would not destroy the letter this time, and then used his teeth to peel back the envelope’s lip. Letter in hand, his eyes sped through the words:

Ether,

I’m sorry I cannot say this to you in person; we both know it wouldn’t be right for me to appear at Serenity Keep. I miss you, and I regret that I left to train so far away. There wasn’t any other way to do what needs to be done, and the woman who you met last time is doing her best to take care of me.

There’s something important I have to tell you. We were wrong about the Prophecy of Tears and Sacrifice. It turns out that I’m not the savior who will set things right; instead, I am the one who must die. Ether, it pains me to say it, but I’m fading away. You know as well as me that I am not a goddess, but by using these stones, I’ve been pretending to be one.

It all comes with a price that I’m unsure of whether I’m capable of paying. Using multiple stones at a time is tearing my body and soul apart. The damage is irreversible. Unless I discover a way to use the stones to fix this, then I don’t have much time left, and nothing else we’ve tried can preserve my life.

Despite my wishes, you have to take care of Lily Ashthorne if you haven’t married her already. I know you won’t be happy to hear this, but through the use of the Time Stone, I’ve learned she and I share a similar bloodline. If I should fall, it might be up to her to take the next step toward fulfilling the prophecy. This was a surprise to me too, but true history cannot be disputed. You know what this means, but it is for the greater good of all.

Please, take the five of them pressed in this envelope and test whether she can activate them. If she can, the one who trained me will try and train her. Perhaps I was never meant to use the God Stones. Perhaps our roles have been wrong in this all along…

There’s not enough parchment in the world that can contain everything I wish I could say to you. You took me in your arms and showed me how to be strong. I love you for that, and it pains me so deeply that our circumstances didn’t allow our dreams to come true.

Zelia

“What did I just read?” Kaine muttered to the empty room. How had Elder Orin even gotten hold of this letter? Who was Zelia, and how were they related to the von Stonewall family? Even more alarming was that the letter mentioned five God Stones, but only four of them had ever seemed to reach King Ether’s possession.

Before he could fully comprehend what he had just discovered or have another chance at reading it again, someone knocked on the door.

“Orin?” It was a woman’s voice. “I thought you had gone to the graveyard.”

There was nowhere in the small shack to hide. The door swung open, and the woman who entered revealed why the people of Gale Village had been hiding in her homes all along. Her posture was bent from the ages, and for each year of her life she’d lived, she had a long wrinkle on her face. But it wasn’t her age that caused Kaine to drop the letter from his hand and reflexively draw his sword—it was her grayish purple skin. To have such a skin tone meant only one terrible fact. Queen Blanche had often warned him that if he ever got captured by a group of them that it would be easier if he simply took his own life rather than subjecting himself to their cruel whims.

“They’ll cut your chest open for fun, just to see what you ate for breakfast,” she had once said as they had drank wine together. “Most of the time, they don’t even need a knife—their mind can cut sharper than a blade, and they don’t care how loud you’re screaming while they do it.”

Lucidians were perhaps the most dangerous beings in existence, and now Kaine was alone in a room with one.

It's been a whirlwind of a May, and I can't believe it's June already. Has time sped up? Did I oversleep by a month? Is some sort of a dark magic involved? Something is definitely amiss!

Over the past weeks, a few personal matters caused a slight disruption in my progress. However, I've still advanced my word count to 105,000 words, reflecting an increase of 5,000 words since May 25th. Despite the slight delay, I've made significant strides in enriching the chapter outlines for Eisenbern and Thane's concluding chapters for this book. I’m still aiming to get the book released by the end of this year.

I am currently working on releasing "Wedding of the Torn Rose" and "Gravity of Obedience" to the Google Play platform. Both books are submitted and are now in Google's approval queue. Upon receiving the green light from Google, the series will become available for readers to enjoy at the Google Play ebook store.

I'm also in the process of crafting updated editions of "Wedding of the Torn Rose" and "Gravity of Obedience". These updated versions will not only feature more elegant formatting but will also include larger full-bleed map images, among other subtle enhancements. During my initial design phase of the paperback layouts, certain technical limitations hindered my ability to extend the map images across the entire page. However, I've now unearthed a possible solution that will allow me to include full-page map illustrations. The aim is to provide you with a more engaging and visually pleasing reading experience. More updates will come soon if everything goes as it should.

If I were to release a non-spoiler preview of a chapter from Prophecy of Tears and Sacrifice to readers like you who are subscribed to my mailing list, which character of the four POV’s would you most like to see? Tag me on GoodReads or BookBub with your thoughts, or reach out to me by email.

There is currently an ongoing special sale of the first two books in the Symphony of Crowns and Gods series, "Wedding of the Torn Rose" and "Gravity of Obedience." This limited-time offer will end on Tuesday, May 30th, and I don't want you to miss out on this chance to grab these epic fantasy books at a discounted price of $1.99 USD each.

If you have not yet read these eBooks, now is the perfect time to do so. "Wedding of the Torn Rose" offers an immersive journey into a world filled with dark magic, mystery, and fascinating characters. The sequel, "Gravity of Obedience," takes you even further into the story from the perspective of the first book’s villain. Both stories make excellent reading choices for a relaxing beach day or a cozy night in. Beware however; I've seen more than one review state that they kept reading past their normal bedtime in order to finish the book.

To get your copies at the reduced price, visit Apple Books or your preferred non-Amazon retailer, and search for "Wedding of the Torn Rose" or "Gravity of Obedience". The discount will automatically apply at checkout.