From my latest Lesbia WIP… edited to prevent spoilers… but not so edited you don’t get a taste for what is coming 🙂

“I think you have fallen neatly into old habits. You find the innocent, the sweet, and you take them for yourself. Is it nice, Ayla, to remember what it once was to be innocent? To see infatuation, lust, perhaps even love in their eyes?”

“Go away,” Ayla said abruptly. “I do not wish to speak with you any longer.”

“Ah, but you are not in control now,” Riva reminded her. “I am not some dripping damsel who will do as you say. I am your instructor. And I am not well pleased with you.”

“A pity for you that I do not care,” Ayla replied calmly. She was not the type to quiver at harsh words or to be cowed by a stern lecture.

“You are used to being mistress of your domain. Here, I am mistress. You have done the most outrageous thing you could have done. Perhaps you think that would lead to your release, perhaps even exile. But it has changed nothing. You are still a captive here. You are still confined to this little room, and…” Riva’s voice dropped into a scolding maternal tone… “you are still a willful, disobedient outcast who never learned how to behave properly in good society.”

A flash of outrage flared in Ayla’s gaze. It was quite understandable. In Lesbia, she had been regarded as elegant and masterful. She had held thousands in thrall. But this woman, Riva, treated her as little more than a delinquent.

MANY huge thanks to everyone who picked up a copy of The Warrior’s Heart 🙂

Lesbia is a niche within a niche within a corner within a niche, so it’s rarely a best seller, but it is exceptionally close to my heart and I appreciate everyone who supports my work by purchasing it.

Super thanks to those who not only bought the book, but left a review. Not everyone can, but I appreciate those who do. It makes a real difference to me, and I want those who take the time to do that to know that I’m really grateful – in a way that is actually difficult to express.

Though it might not seem like it, Lesbia is a team effort. For several years, across a wide range of life experiences and events, including multiple earthquakes and many other occurrences which I don’t tend to share, I’ve been telling the story of these charmed ladies. Lesbia is my longest work, the one which has parts of me and my life woven through it inextricably. But it doesn’t really come to life until a reader puts their eyes to the page and shares in the journeys of Ayla, Kira and the many other characters. There is magic in Lesbia, but it doesn’t exist without you.

Last year was a slow writing year for many reasons. Some of them were tragic, others were so funny I wish I could share them more widely. Some were both at the same time. This year will be different. (Insofar as I can control that.) I’ve decided to write the next installment of Lesbia offline for several reasons, because it’s something different, and because this next book is going to be, in some ways, the culmination of six years of writing. Ayla has always been the central character of the Lesbia stories, and yet she has also managed to keep herself on the periphery, putting those she cares for first. In the next book, there is nowhere for the witch to hide. It is her turn to become the vulnerable one…

If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to sign up for the newsletter I mention in the blog post before this one. It’s going to be my way of keeping in closer touch with people who love these stories too.

And look at that, I have digressed myself. The future is yet to fut, but I am extremely grateful for everything and everyone who has made Lesbia what it was in the past and present.

It’s here!

Nothing is easy in Lesbia, especially not for a princess sent off to be married to a distant prince. Within hours of departing her father’s castle pretty Princess Nive finds herself in the custody of Kira, legendary warrior and trader of flesh.

Being captured by a powerful, dominant warrior is only the beginning for Nive. She is but one thread in a tapestry of stories which have been winding through Lesbia since the beginning of time. The warrior gives Nive into the care of an enigmatic half-elf witch who seems kind, but has an unyielding stance on the discipline of prisoner princesses. The party travels to a fortress hidden in the depths of a secret forest. all the while being pursued by an army desperate to reclaim Nive and send her to her intended.

Nive must struggle against fickle fate which seems determined to take the destiny she never questioned before meeting Ayla the witch and Kira the warrior. She must decide for herself if she will be the wife of a king, a pawn of a goddess, a lover of a lowly scout, or if she will be something more than she ever dreamed.

Throughout it all, Nive is far from alone in her journey. There is Hope, the scout who dreams of becoming a soldier if only Kira could see her potential, Ariadne, the goddess everyone was sure was eaten long ago, and Mary, whose feud with a petunia could spill into all out herbicide.

Click here to buy The Warrior’s Heart 🙂