Welcome to my home on the web. Here you’ll find my blog, information about me, about my writing, excerpts from my novels, upcoming events, information about the artists who bring my writing to life, a little plug for my editing services, and of course links to my other cyberspace hangouts – Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and more.
The Absinthe Wars series is daggerpunk fantasy, a blend of steampunk-flavored science fiction and dystopian urban fantasy set primarily on the Earth colonies of Trymia and Astyria. Artemisia absinthium is one of the main ingredients of absinthe. Early colonists discovered that, when grown in Trymian soil, the plant produces a potent version of the chemical thujone, unlike anything found on Earth, making Trymian absinthe much sought after.
Aedan is a bustling port city on Trymia. Remy is a glimmer girl—passionate, beautiful, and hungry. Life on the streets is hard and she knows she can’t dance forever. Mishka is her Astyrian-born drummer. He’s a talented musician, but he has a secret past and uncertain loyalties. Laz is a Dark Guild assassin from Smuggler’s Isle, deep in the mist-shrouded bayou outside Aedan. The glimmer girl, the drummer, and the assassin all live their lives in the shadow of the Absinthe Wars, the frequent raids by the airship pirates.
About thirty years before the book begins, the Brethren, pirates from Astyria, obtained pre-colonial technology that allows their airships to move directly into Trymian airspace, bypassing the month-long trip by freighter through deep space between the planets. Now the pirates raid when and where they will, taking what they want. Without the folding technology, Trymia is losing the Absinthe Wars.
Glimmer Girl’s Dance follows Remy’s journey from the streets of Aedan to Smuggler’s Isle and beyond. After a chance meeting with Laz in a waterfront tavern, the two are immediately drawn to each other. She dances precariously between her troubled relationship with Mishka and her growing attraction to the assassin and the new life he offers her in the Dark Guild. Laz is on a mission to get the folding technology for Trymia, at any cost, but will the pretty glimmer girl prove too much of a distraction? Mishka’s past has finally caught up with him and now he must decide where his loyalties lie. Laz and Mishka find themselves rivals for Remy’s heart and her bed, but what role will each of them play in the bigger struggle for power and technological secrets that might determine the fate of all the colonies? And what of distant Earth?
The action moves from the magic-haunted bayous and goddess-infested temples of Trymia to the frozen seas and ice islands of Astyria, from King Zeyn’s palace high above Aedan to the dark alleys and taverns where murder is paid for with gold, to the hot springs on Smuggler’s Isle where assassins reveal more than their bodies. Bonds of friendship and loyalty are tested, alliances are forged and broken in a world where magic, cold steel, and hot blood can all be had—for a price.