Here, I’d like to introduce you to Lord Uri,  a member of the Blood Council.  In life, he was a thief and a card sharp, and in death his ethics have been questioned even by others on the Blood Council.  He is not overly fond of mortals, especially not Jonmarc Vahanian, with whom he has repeatedly sparred verbally. 

Q:  What has immortality taught you?

A:  Mortals never learn.  This creates great opportunity for those who do.

Q: You have repeatedly shown disdain for Jonmarc Vahanian, yet in the end, you have grudgingly chosen to side with him rather than against him.  Why?

A:  Jonmarc Vahanian annoys me.  I knew his kind quite well when I was mortal.  And while he made a lot of money for me when I bet on hi back when he was a Nargi fight slave, I find him arrogant in his abilities. But I have to admit, he is good at fighting.  And after last year’s vayash moru insurrection, I find myself owing him–a damnable situation.

Q:  Like most of the Blood Council, you chose to ally with the mortals of the Winter Kingdoms against the Temnottan invaders.  Why?

A:  In this, the living and the undead have common cause.  Temnotta will not be a kind master if the northern forces prevail.  I endured far too much of that kind of oppression in Nargi to serve another such master.  Once again, to my great annoyance, I find Jonmarc Vahanian and I to be on the same side.

Q:  What is your biggest disappointment about immortality?

A:  That despite superior strength and speed, my kind still fall prey so easily to those who would destroy us.

Please check out my Days of the Dead online blog tour—there are lots of other free downloads, drawings for free books, excerpts, interviews and fun—details are at www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com

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Of course, one way that The Sworn and The Dread are different is that they offer a gateway into my world of the Winter Kingdoms for readers who haven’t read the other four books.  I like the idea of offering multiple points of entry into a fantasy world, so that as the number of books set in that world grows, readers don’t feel like they have to get caught up if they don’t want to do so or aren’t ready to tackle the project.  So for new readers, The Sworn and The Dread are a fresh start, while readers who have been with the series since the beginning will see old friends facing a brand new adventure.

The Summoner/The Blood King was a hero’s journey, and something of a quest tale, with the young, untried mage coming into his power, accepting his birthright and destiny, and fighting to avenge his murdered family.  Tris and most of the other characters were untested, and it was something of a contest of what youth and luck could do up against age and treachery.  Even Jonmarc, while the most seasoned of the bunch, was still evading his destiny, running from both the past and the future.  Part of the fun for me with the books was watching the characters grow into themselves, and their inexperience and untamed powers made the dangers they faced all the more perilous.

In Dark Haven/Dark Lady’s Chosen, although only a little over six months passed since the end of The Blood King, all of the characters have done a lot of maturing as they accept truths about themselves and new positions of responsibility.  Even Jonmarc, despite his protests, grows beyond his fatalistic “looking out for number one” stance, and as usual, no good deed goes unpunished.  As the characters and their relationships matured, it was very interesting to see the story move to the hard choices that come with being in charge.  I’ve written elsewhere about wanting to answer the question, “and then what?” regarding what happened after the close of The Blood King.  Not only are the characters’ loyalties tested in many ways in Dark Haven/Dark Lady’s Chosen, but I believe that each of the characters comes to a totally new understanding of who he or she really is that leaves them forever changed.

When The Sworn opens, six months have passed after the end of Dark Lady’s Chosen.  There are reasons for rejoicing, but there are also dark omens to suggest that war, plague and turmoil are not yet over.  Tris is now an experienced mage in his full magical power, and has rapidly learned the burden of the crown.  Kiara must balance the new demands of motherhood against her responsibilities as queen of Margolan and heir to the throne of Isencroft, a troubled land tearing itself apart in civil unrest.  Jonmarc and Carina look forward to the birth of their twin daughters, but find Dark Haven awash with refugees fleeing both plague and the persecution of vayash moru and vyrkin.  Cam and Carroway, whose heroics resulted in each of them sustaining life-changing injuries, grapple with the aftermath.  Around them all, the fabric of the Winter Kingdoms seems to be unraveling, upending all former certainties.

The Dread, which I’m working on right now, has a lot of story threads to resolve, because the canvas in The Sworn and The Dread is larger than in the previous books, encompassing all of the Winter Kingdoms instead of just one or two of the lands.  It’s been a lot of fun getting to know some of the cultures which we haven’t had a chance to see up close before (like Dhasson and Eastmark), and to watch the complex forces of culture, religion, nationalism and magic light a fire under the action to bring everything to a boil.  Suffice to say that this book is a game-changer, because after the action in The Dread, nothing will ever be the same.

There are plenty of other stories I want to tell about Tris, Jonmarc and the gang and about the Winter Kingdoms, both past and future, but in a way, all roads stem from the confrontations and choices that happen in The Sworn and The Dread.  I promise you this—there’s more than enough action to go around!

Thanks for reading this post—it’s part of my week-long Days of the Dead blog tour, so please catch the rest of my posts, contests, giveaways and goodies at http://www.chroniclesofthenecromancer.com/daysofthedead.html and my other partner sites.  You’ll also find free downloads from my books, as well as freebies from some of my author friends as Trick-or-Treat favors.  Featured treat #17 The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron http://www.rachelaaron.net/TheSpiritThief-RachelAaron-Sample.pdf plus a preview chapter of my new book, The Sworn http://www.chroniclesofthenecromancer.com/TheSworn.html

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That’s one reason why I’m so excited to be writing The Fallen Kings Cycle for Orbit, carrying my characters and world from The Chronicles of the Necromancer into all-new adventures. It gives me the chance to ask, and answer, my favorite question and to share that answer with readers.

For me, the “And then what happened?” question—or the Tomorrow Principle—makes the whole debate over how books should end a moot discussion. Books, to be believable, should have elements in common with real life. And in real life, you have good days and bad days, but until you stop breathing, the story isn’t over. That’s the Tomorrow Principle. Today might be the absolute best day of your life—a happy ending to one story arc. Tomorrow, your house might burn down and your car could get hit by a bus—a not-so-happy ending. Both are “real” and both are “true.” It all depends on where you begin and end the narrative.

What’s fun for me in writing a saga is that I can apply the Tomorrow Principle and keep getting fresh answers. The characters overcome one hurdle, and I may choose to end that narrative on a good day. That’s no assurance that tomorrow won’t become the mother-of-all-bad-days. And a new narrative begins. As a Zen-minded friend of mine points out, we are always either leaving a storm or just about to enter one. Meaning—that the calm points in our lives are illusory and transitory. Or, to put it another way, neither happy endings nor rotten endings last forever. Something else is always just around the corner.

In The Chronicles of the Necromancer, my characters battle to win back a throne and save a kingdom. And then what happens? Well, tomorrow happens. And, as in the real world, there are all kinds of messy consequences and unintended ramifications, even from things that seemed to turn out well. A whole new narrative begins, which is where we start The Fallen Kings Cycle.

The Tomorrow Principle is also fun because it gives new readers a good alternative starting point. Readers who discover my characters with The Fallen Kings Cycle can start from there and move forward without feeling like they’ve come in on the middle of a movie. Readers who have read my first four books (The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven and Dark Lady’s Chosen), will already know a little more about the characters and the setting. New readers have the choice of whether or not the way to go back and read the first adventures, (of course, I hope they do!) but they don’t have to do so in order to enjoy the new ones.

Book Four in the Chronicles Series, Dark Lady’s Chosen, comes out December 29. But I’m already hard at work on Book One: The Sworn in The Fallen Kings Cycle, and enjoying asking my favorite question: And then what?”

Check out my Days of the Dead Blog Tour here!