Wren Handman's Blog

Thank you so much to everyone who voted in the qualifying round of the Indie Ink Awards! Thanks to your support, my novel A Midnight So Deadly made it through to the final round in four categories:

Writing the Future We Need: Bisexual or Biromantic RepresentationWriting the Future We Need: Asexual or Aromantic RepresentationWriting the Future We Need: Trans or Nonbinary RepresentationPrettiest book interior

The next round is fully judged, no more popularity contest. Cross your fingers for me! The awards ceremony is August, 2025.

When love is at risk, what won’t we do to save it?

Enter Midvalen, a world of kings and kingdoms, princes and pretenders.

In the Kingdom of Miranov, Taya seems to have it all: she owns her own store, she’s engaged to be married to a handsome man, and she’s a success. But the truth is more complicated than anyone could guess. Her engagement is a sham, an agreement of convenience. Taya thinks things have become complicated when she realizes that she’s fallen in love with Darrin, something she never planned to do. But what’s worse is discovering that her simple sailor boy is actually the crown prince of neighboring Sephria, and his usurping Uncle is trying to kill him.

When Darrin shows up at her door, bleeding and fleeing assassins, Taya is drawn into a complicated mess of politics, fighting, and broken hearts. Her allegiances will be questioned, her love will find a new course, and she’ll do it all while trying to stay alive, save the day, and guard her heart.

Command the Tides is available to buy pretty much everywhere books are sold!

Buy The book

A Midnight So Deadly has been nominated for EIGHT categories in the Indie Ink Awards 2024! These awards are chosen by VOTE, so please please please consider taking the time to leave a vote for me. The entries are alphabetical, so I’m easy to find in the first or second row of most of the categories!

If you don’t have time to vote in all eight categories, the categories with the least competition are:

Prettiest book interior
Writing the Future We Need: Asexual or Aromantic Representation
Writing the Future We Need: Trans or Nonbinary Representation

And the others are:

Best book cover and cover artist
Best light read
Best setting
Writing the Future We Need: Bisexual or Biromantic Representation
Writing the Future We Need: LGBTQ+ Representation

Voting is open from December 18 to December 31! Thank you SO MUCH for supporting A Midnight So Deadly.

Command the Tides has a new cover for its second edition release!

Ten years ago, I released my first full-length novel. Command the Tides was a wild ride through a fantasy world, with a thrilling romance and a unique political setting. 

But it was ahead of its time, and never really found its audience.

Now that romantasy is here to stay, I’ve been hard at work rewriting Command the Tides, adding a whole new magic system and a dash of spice. I also did some updating and rewriting of the prose, as I’ve grown as a writer over the past decade. The second edition is done and in layout right now, and I’m thrilled to share the new cover with you.

I’ll be announcing a release date soon, so stayed tuned! I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

When dreams infect the waking world, what threats—and promises—do they bring?

“Crafted with precise prose and an engrossing plot, it’s easy to get swept away—though, given the emphasis on what happens with your eyes closed, it’s perhaps not a before-bed book.” – Georgia Strait

Maeve and Peri are ‘dreamers,’ creators who record their dreams and publish them to the delight of their fans. When Maeve dreams of the murder of her friend’s abusive ex—and then he’s killed in the real world—her ‘dream’ job becomes terrifying. At the same time, Peri is losing their grip on reality as they search for a woman who keeps appearing in their dreams. Who is this enticing stranger? How does she keep finding Peri, night after night? And what will it cost to hunt her down?

To find the answers to their questions, Maeve and Peri will first have to find each other. As their dreams begin to bleed into the real world, and the borders between reality and illusion come unstuck, reality itself faces deadly collapse.

https://books2read.com/u/47R1J7

https://parliamenthousepress.store/shop/pre-orders/a-midnight-so-deadly-by-wren-handman/

Releases Aug 28, 2024

https://books2read.com/u/47R1J7

A Midnight So Deadly by Wren Handman

When dreams infect the waking world, what threats—and promises—do they bring?

Fans of Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series and Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern books will love this cozy thriller about the unexplored realms within each of us.

Maeve and Peri are ‘dreamers,’ creators who record their dreams and publish them to the delight of their fans. When Maeve dreams of the murder of her friend’s abusive ex—and then he’s killed in the real world—her ‘dream’ job becomes terrifying. At the same time, Peri is losing their grip on reality as they search for a woman who keeps appearing in their dreams. Who is this enticing stranger? How does she keep finding Peri, night after night? And what will it cost to hunt her down?

To find the answers to their questions, Maeve and Peri will first have to find each other. As their dreams begin to bleed into the real world, and the borders between reality and illusion come unstuck, reality itself faces deadly collapse.

Parliament House Books has acquired my newest, with the work-in-progress title of The Way By Moonlight.

I am so excited for this book to reach shelves in the fall of 2024! Stay tuned for updates as I edit this darling and get it ready for your eager hands.

THE WAY BY MOONLIGHT follows two strangers as they travel through their recorded dreams, one looking for clues when their dreams start coming true, and the other on a quest for a mysterious woman. They are eventually united as the dream world’s mysteries unfold.

I close my eyes to hide the tears.

I take deep breaths and will the drops to sink back into my ducts. You lie beneath me, your heartbeat strong against my cheek. I explore the smooth planes of your chest as if I’ve never felt them before; my fingers move of their own accord, tracing alchemical symbols I don’t understand, or don’t remember. You root me to this bed, solid in a way I don’t quite believe in.

I blink in rapid-fire bursts, but the tears are slow to evaporate…and anyway, they’ll leave a mark.

Happiness has a way of doing that.

So, I wrote this book about werewolves in 2014. I updated it in 2018 but never did anything with it because werewolves felt a bit played out. But it’s fun and light-hearted, and I think we all need a little more of that in our lives right now! So what the heck, I decided to put it out. It’s a dollar! You should get a copy! (paperbacks will follow but sadly won’t be as cheap, because, you know, paper costs money.)

A Wild and Precious Life

As the Phantasmer, Sylvia brought order to the Fairy courts. Now, if only she could reign over the chaos in her own life…

It’s been three months since Sylvia used her powers to rewrite the ruling structure of Fairy, dismantling the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Recovered from her injuries, she’s back at school and struggling to balance her “real” life against the much more immediate (and exciting) world that magic has to offer. Not to mention the distraction of her utterly hot and completely fish-out-of-water boyfriend.

But in Fairy, there are rumblings that an ancient prophecy is on the cusp of fruition.

“Beware the coming of the one who should not have been, for he shall bring with him the end of days. Take back the mantle, or all will be lost.”

Will Sylvia be able to uncover the truth behind the prophecy, learn how to use her ever-growing powers without risking her relationship, and convince her best friend Fiona that it’s not weird that her boyfriend is a thousand years old? It won’t be easy…

Buy I walk alone

If you haven’t read the first book in the series, In Restless Dreams, it’s available for sale from Amazon or directly from Parliament House Press.

buy in restless dreams