Jeffer Nightwind's Blog

Note the cosmic balance. And the five empty locations. As the series progresses, I promise, each slot will get filled in, ideally in the most shocking way possible.

I’m currently chugging along on Called to Serve, now working on chapter 8. There’ll likely be 38 chapters. Thought I’d share a snippet from the book, and hope you enjoy it. The scene is Ishethra trying to find her next Paramour after a century of loneliness. Her divination has yielded only a faceless image, sadly.

Alone. The word presses down on my chest as I stare at the vaulted ceiling in my mess of a master suite, a mirror to my love life. I rise, the silk sheets piling at my feet. Kicking clothing out of the way, I walk to the grand window.

Through the ward’s shimmer, Goryn’s statue centers Tenebres, the city glittering below, a constellation of mortal lives burning bright and brief. For a century, no man has shared this view with me. Not truly. So many beautiful potentials, hand-plucked by me after reviewing scrolls detailed by my attendants. Hundreds of them. They warm my bed, but none has touched my mind in the way I need. The amatory bond—the searing, indelible mark of my phoenix over my man’s heart—remains absent. A dormant circuit waiting for a current that never comes.

If only I could see his face, my court could track him down within days.

It’s my pleasure to announce the second book in the Bane War Series: Called to Serve. Inspired by Avengers, Final Fantasy, and the Witcher, you’ll follow Ishethra’s and Tariq’s courtship, their daughter Saffa Nightwind (she’s on the cover) and her Institute years. Terrible trials and surprise attacks from Bratgon will lead Ishethra to begin forming her cosmic council of freedom while calling Saffa on a two-year mission to rally support for Nightwind as they prepare for a new Dread War against Bratgon and its endless legions and metal beasts.

Saffa started as a sword swinging battlemage. As I’ve dwelled on her character and how much I liked Yamuba from Trickster Trysting, she’ll get an upgrade with firearms, infusing her magic of fire and ice into the bullets, while still slicing her sword to slay her foes at close range.

I don’t have a release date, but I’m through three chapters (10k words), and I’m aiming for ~150-200k words for this book. Knowing me it’ll go north of 200k

Get ready for more demons, chaos, carnality, insane fights, and emotional stakes higher than ever.

Early cover proof of concept

Early picture gallery

When I first started the Bane War series, I knew Alonka and Dragan had to have their own story. With the help of Allison, my editor, along with Hannah and Natalia, my beta readers, the book is ready for prime time. Therefore, I’m proud to introduce it as the new first volume in the Bane War series.

Get Trickster Trysting on Amazon! There’s even a full color hardback option (because this book is full of gorgeous pictures, including Dragan wearing his birthday suit) if you have infinite money. Please read the foreword and heed the content / trigger warnings.

Synopsis: Trysting; verb. Meeting lovers in secret.

Freedom’s fate lies with Dragan, a young barbarian with ADHD raised in a frozen land where demons and humans live peacefully. Stalked by the mavka trickster twins, immortal succubi desperate to find their true love’s soul again, he finds himself tumbling down love’s mountain with lethal consequences looming.

Making matters worse, he’s also next on Yamuba’s abduction list, an inquisitor who could make a reaper’s blood run cold … if she didn’t drink it all first.

From the forbidden wilds to the brutal forging of clan Polumya, to gaining a demon lord as a mother then sailing the high seas to the arena of death, Dragan endures unfathomable trials, finding strength not in his might or magic, but in his mind and heart.

For in the end, freedom teeters on his hair-brained idea, one that could damn him … or worse.

In other news, Fury Feeding, the new second volume, is undergoing extensive renovation, and I will post more news about it in the future.

I adored the first covers of this book, but it needed something more, just like the story and writing. Something more in line with the dark romantasy superhero genre of this series. Hence, I gave it a makeover, conjuring this over the weekend. Now Saffa (ritual transformation) and Soren/Neros (in Elenmir’s top chamber) both get their just deserve, front and center in all their glory. And yes, he’s supposed to have a blank stare with glowing red eyes.

Biggest question on my mind? What’s Saffa going to do with all her fabulous purply pink and blonde hair, and that spiked tail?

Oh, you may have noticed the volume number of this book is a two now. That’s because Trickster Trysting takes place before this book. I had originally envisioned it as a prequel, but in the spirit of not confusing people, it’s the first book one should read in the series now, though they each stand alone, as all the books will.

Progress on the second edition of Fury Feeding has been slower than I’ve wanted due to a shoulder injury that doesn’t want to heal despite physical therapy, along with my day job and cybersecurity business. But I’m plugging away and will keep writing until the day I die

How about a sneak peek?

Puck’s flaming arrow soars at the morozko, who spits ice at it, but it curves around, stabbing into his nape repeatedly like a murderer’s dagger. Geysers of snow shoot from his wounds as he howls, running then leaping, landing by a patch of firs half his size. A shockwave casts frozen shards from his feet, popping against Alonka’s fire. Earth beneath rolls like the sea, and I strain for balance. The surrounding barbarians reload.

The titan opens his mouth, a pit of rotten teeth topped by yellow eyes. Snow, sooty and white, roars out like a tornado. When I was seven, a storm such as this slammed into Varhold. For two days, wind howled, toppling trees, heaping snowdrifts; an army of morozkos conjured it.

Silver lining? Now I can write exquisite prose about the sensation of injury in real-time because I’m pretty sure my shoulder ligaments are hanging by threads, all cartilage long gone.

Jeff sat at his computer, hesitant to take a selfie with his webcam because he was a middle-aged father who had let himself go a bit. Okay, a lot. His two daughters would be embarrassed, probably his two dogs as well, to say nothing of his wife.

But he lifted his arm, and his sinews stretched at the tear, threatening to unmake his sanity as his shoulder bones did their best to grind his inflamed nerves into dust.

Throbs pulsed like a flaming heart in his shoulder. He held the pose to bask in the agony while clenching his jaw.

After he clicked the take picture button, he lowered his arm, spitting a string of profanity that all in his house heard.

Then he popped ibuprofen, Tylenol, and other medications that shall not be named, in hopes of finding sleep before going to the sports therapist too damn early tomorrow morning to see if he needed surgery or could rehab the offending shoulder.

Either way, he knew this with a surety: he would use Saffa as inspiration and get stronger, to avoid having chronic pain in the second half of his life while finding mental and emotional fortitude.

I came up with this hair-brained idea where Zelene fights at Pearl Harbor. She obviously doesn’t have her full mavka powers (yet).

Of all the books this one will be the most superhero like. Think Captain America, but it’s Zelene

Fury Feeding second edition is still in progress and I’m through six chapter edits so far!

Wishing you joy and health,

Jeff