Is that a new fantasy series profiling itself on the horizon? Why yes, yes it is!
While Ars Arcana: The Rose Cycle is in the works, here’s its short-story* prequel. Meet Ophelia Devorst, a 21st century macrale (that’s a witch, in French-speaking Belgium) who is struggling mightily at her day job, and things seem to only be getting worse…or are they?
The story will become available for free soon via my newsletter, as an extra for regular subscribers, so sign up before it’s too late!
For those of you wanting a little more details…
This story took me a very long while to write, because the original version I had for it was highly different, and apparently my Muse didn’t like it. Twelve drafts, three years (the actual writing of this final version, without the edits, took about 1-2 months, outside of the day job), and a whole nother title later (it was necessary), The Godstone Curse is finally here!
I’m very excited about it, because originally I was only planning on creating a standalone short story, but when I reworked it from scratch a couple months back, my Muse was so happy that she decided it would be a great jumping off point for a full-blown series. So I’m currently at the ideation phase (while I’m finalizing the plan to another, standalone novel, and starting on the illustrations for the fourth book in the Mighty Pax’s Misadventures tales).
However, I’m thinking of publishing Ars Arcana: The Rose Cycle, episode by episode, for free on Royal Road, and perhaps Tapas, too, once I have enough chapters under my belt. Of course, I’ll keep you posted as to my progress on that end.
I’m also glad to be sharing the cover for the short story, because it’s the first book cover I’ve designed and illustrated entirely** from scratch (not including the Mighty Pax books). I worked hard at it, so I hope it intrigues you as well!
In the meantime, if you haven’t yet signed up for my newsletter, and you would like to read this prequel, do so quickly now so you don’t miss out on it (but if you do miss it, my current plan is to have it become the intro to the Ars Arcana series on Royal Road later on, so you will be able to find it at a later date 😉
*It’s around 12.5k words long, so not that short, I’m told 😅
**Well, except for the Ars Arcana series title, and my name… The reason I did the illustration entirely myself is that I wanted to ensure that it’s 100% AI-free.