Happy Saturday!
❄️I’m happy to announce that the pre-order for the second tale in Tales of the Snow Queen is live!❄️
Of Firebirds and Frost picks up a short time after Of Wind and Winter ended. While each story is a complete story in and of itself, your reading experience will be best if you have read Of Wind and Winter and Bottomless before you read Of Firebirds and Frost.
To celebrate–this has been a book long in the coming–I wanted to share my favorite passage in the entire book:
She looked to Frost, but Frost shook her head. “This isn’t my choice to make. It is yours.”
“I miss them,” Aneira said.
“They miss you too.”
“Why does it have to be so hard?”
Frost sighed. “Difficult choices are something my kind and yours—and all those in between—share. Life must break your heart, for how else would you discover your wings?”
Aneira frowned, far from comforted. “Not everyone will fly.”
Frost bowed her head in acknowledgement. “But all must be given the opportunity”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“The Story can be cruel,” Frost said, looking beyond Aneira to something only she could see. “But it exists before the once upon a time, and lasts far past and they all lived happily after or they all died horribly in the end. Too many forget this, or they never understood it in the first place.”
“And what is your place in all this?” Aneira asked, curious. Her heart, if she had had one, had already made up its mind. All that was left was to speak it out loud to make it real, but she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.
Not yet.
Frost shrugged and cocked her head to the side. “Mostly I listen to Stories. Sometimes I tell them.”
“But did you fly?” Aneira asked.
Frost laughed, a soft, mellow sound of sunlight on velvet. “I like to think so.”*
“And will I?” the question came as a sigh. A tiny fear that had tricked its way past her lips. She regretted it the moment she spoke, but words, like snowflakes, could never be recalled once they were made real.
Frost laughed again and gestured for Aneira to take her hand. “There is only one way to find out.”
The world trembled as Aneira reached out and caught hold of Frost’s hand.
If you enjoyed the first book, be sure to check out the second. 🙂 Of Firebirds and Frost will officially release on August 20, 2015. Aneira’s story will be told over four complete novels. Book one told us of how she got one foot jerked into a world of magic while she strove to keep her other rooted firmly in the world she had been born into. The second book will focus on why that’s such a tricksy balance. ❄️
* There’s a joke in here that will be revealed in another book.
Aneira thought she had accepted her fate, but the longing for home grows strong enough that she sneaks into the Babas’ cottage to see if she can find a way to spell herself home.
Instead, she stumbles in upon a theft in progress. To make matters worse, the Babas had simply been waiting to spring their trap. They need both Aneira and the thief’s help, and they aren’t above threatening life and limb to get it.
As before, the Babas offer a choice: retrieve a firebird egg and the maiden they wish to apprentice, and the baby firebird in their possession will be free to find a more hospitable home. Refuse, and the selfsame firebird may well end up plucked and lightly seasoned.
The tasks are far from simple—especially when their journey takes them to the heart of Summer’s country. (An unpleasant proposition when your heart is made entirely of frost.)
Time grows short, and Aneira must decide if her heart—and the hope of returning home—is worth more than the fate of a baby firebird and a maiden she has never met.
The choice she makes will set her on a course that will either save who she is or destroy who she has the potential to become.
Amazon | ( Sorry, I’m not able to set up a pre-order for Barnes and Noble) | iTunes | Google Play | Kobo
