Date Published: September 26, 2017
Heroes come in all shapes.
The war for Andor has lasted a century. Humans and their allies, the Angeli, fight demons from another plane who need a warmer planet to hatch and raise their young.
Trebridge becomes Ground zero when Abraxas, a minion of the demon Prince Vetis, opens a secret portal into the city. The demons’ goal is to build an army to subjugate the city before the humans realize they are under attack.
Standing in the demons’ way are two disparate groups: the humans of Andor and their Angeli allies who command gargoyle warriors.
Leading the four gargoyles guarding Trebridge is Gillen, a proven war hero who uses Grace to fight demons. But Gillen is an outcast, mocked for his tuft of hair that normal gargoyles lack. It’s up to him to prove once and for all that he’s worthy of his command, in spite of dissention in his ranks. When Gillen asks the Angeli Commanders for reinforcements to fight the growing demon menace in Trebridge, headquarters send four human teens from the projects.
The leader of the humans is Britt, a 14-year-old half-Hispanic girl who is one of the four magic-possessing Chosen. But Britt was never trained in the art of Grace, and like most girls her age, spends her days preoccupied with school and romance. Like Gillen, she must rise above her station in life--if she is to save the ones she loves.
But Gillen and Britt are facing formidable demon foes, Abraxas: a chicken-headed demon who possesses several humans as part of his plan to build the demons’ base in Trebridge and power-hungry Prince Vetis who is his commander. Neither will let the deaths of expendable humans get in their way of the conquest.
At the same time as she is suppose to learn how to fight demons, Britt has to juggle the mundane problems of school and parental custody battles. She doesn’t realize her danger until she confront the demon Prince Vetis in a battle for her soul as a human being.
Did you miss any of the stops on this Tour?
Who am I? Bottom line: I’m an old lady who amuses herself writing. But, since writing stories is twined up with reading, my journey has been a long one.
My adventures in reading/writing started with comic books. You can blame them for my fascination with the fantastic. I fondly remember spending hours reading and trading them.
But I was weird, too. My favorites were the Classic Comic series. I didn’t trade them. All those pre-Silver Age Supermans, Batmans, and Tales from the Crypt etc. disappeared into the mists. My favorite character? Scrooge McDuck. Swimming in a pile of money intrigued me. But never could figure out the diving thing.
The Oz books by L. Frank Baum introduced me to fantasy proper. My first impression when I saw my first Oz book in fifth grade? I couldn’t imagine reading such a thick book…even though the pictures looked interesting. I didn’t actually read the Wizard of Oz until the city children’s librarian recommended it in seventh grade. I thought Dorothy was a pretty neat character; she had gumption.
I was hooked on fantasy after I discovered A. Merritt’s Ship of Ishtar at the used hardware store. I still have my 25c A. Merritt and Andre Norton paperbacks and read them, even though the paper smells.
The realization that real people could write stories came in the sixth grade. Duh.
The teacher assigned writing a short story to the class. Everyone wrote 2-4 pages. I wrote an unfinished 25-page Nancy Drew clone, The Clue of the Clay Cats. The effort got me a “C” because it was unfinished, but I finished it the next summer on my mother’s typewriter. The children’s librarian said it was pretty good. I’ve been a chronic, if haphazard, writer ever since.
My current “writing career” started after I had heart surgery. I got bored sitting around. While dozing, I had this vision of this girl standing on bluff overlooking the ocean, her long red hair streaming behind her in a gale. She was incredibly lonely, and I wondered why. Discovered she was 400 years old and…
While I dithered around with my Half-Elves, I tried improving my fiction craft skills writing short stories. They ended up with a theme: humans fighting demons. My world of Andor was born [from the country Andorra, if you’re a stamp collector]. One of the stories, Night for the Gargoyles, made me wonder about how Gillen got rid of the demons. Four untrained teens from the projects didn’t seem like effective back up to me.
Writing moves in mysterious ways. Another story, Noticing Jamilla, launched On the Run, though the original main character disappeared. There Be Demons and On the Run did get written. If I get my act together, there should be a third book where Britt and Pillar meet and take care of the demon army Grylerrque gathers to conquer Andor. I keep wondering what will happen when fiery Britt meets cool Pillar.
So, here I sit with a computer full of unedited stories--including novels set in our world--still amusing myself writing. Jotting down notes and bits of dialog and transferring them to my computer.
Oh. Yeah. I’m married, have three adult kids who live away from home, and indulge two cats who sleep a lot. I can be found via my website and on Facebook.
