Here it is, a cover reveal for my latest project – the first in a series of novellas, currently titled, Cor Et Caput. This is a flintlock fantasy series set in the fictitious country of Caputan: a Victorian Britain-type country where elements of old and new clash and the reigning monarch and leaders of a dominant faith try to maintain control in a changing world.
Earlier this year, I shared snippets of the stories here on this blog, and the feedback helped me plan out how best to deliver the series. Each novella will focus on a different character (all being connected with some overlapping stories). The first, BY THE BLOOD OF BRETHREN AND BLACKGUARDS, tells the story of Cai, a farmer in the Western region of Trintan (book blurb below).
I have a further three mapped out and plan to release them over the course of the coming year. I’ve really enjoyed the creation process and hope these books make for an enjoyable read. They’re a mixture of dark tales, politics, strange science, multifaceted characters, and – where appropriate – good humour.
I look forward to sharing more developments on the Cor Et Caput series in due course.
BY THE BLOOD OF BRETHREN AND BLACKGUARDS (release date: 1 December 2023): Caputan, five hundred years after the conquest of Trintan. The Rix rules the country with an iron flintlock, the smoke of a dried leaf, and the fundamentalist doctrines of a corrupted faith. But the human realm is changing, as knowledge brings enlightenment and dissatisfaction brings anger. On the verge of mental breakdown and financial ruin, Cai, a struggling Trintani farmer, is desperate to find a way to save his farm and maybe even his life. Yet when a mysterious woman brings an untimely visit from the menacing Regum Guards to his lands, Cai finds himself on a mission far from home and engulfed in a complex new world, where he must fight wrongdoing and overcome the impossible in order to protect his family and get back to what he knows.
