quillings.com

These are my current novel projects. Captured by Crystal and The Tears of Tendali are finished and currently looking for homes. The Winds of Khalakovo is a work in progress and is projected to be complete by the middle of 2008. Just for fun, I’ve chosen the cast members for when the movie versions for each of my books come out. Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he? Just click on the titles to see who I would choose.

Captured by Crystal

Steampunk fantasy meets Victorian romance in this intriguing novel about an artist who can see, and paint, people’s innermost thoughts. Gavin Kleirhausen owes his special talent to the discovery of a camera lucida that’s powered by a magical crystal. Little does he know, however, that the crystal and the technique are both coveted by Ulberto Khovani, a dangerous syndic of a secret society, who has already murdered another man in hopes of getting the crystal for himself. Ulberto poses as an art aficionado in hopes of getting Gavin to reveal his techniques, while Gavin himself aims for another objective: winning the affections of the beautiful, wealthy Wendolyn.

The Tears of Tendali

Terrük is a boy that has one chance to save his goddess, Tendali, an act that might be easy if he didn’t have to murder his own sister to do it. Terrük and his sister, Iyelle, attempt to steal a vial of Tendali’s fabled tears on the goddess’s holiest day, but are caught in the act. The High Priestess sees in them a potential unseen in generations, and so, despite their crimes, grants them new lives in the service of the goddess. The High Priestess feels obligated to do this, for even children may help to stem the tide. Tendali has been failing for generations, and her brother god, Kalthusula, has unleashed a plague upon their city-state. In their efforts to help, Terrük and Iyelle discover that Tendali will perish unless something is done to help her. As the plague worsens and their kingdom plunges into political chaos with its neighbors, Terrük discovers the key to saving Tendali: she must be reborn, must descend into a mortal form. But he is horrified to learn that Iyelle is the vessel Tendali has chosen. It then falls to Terrük to decide between the goddess and Iyelle.

The Winds of Khalakovo

The Winds of Khalakovo is a tragic Russian fantasy set in a world of inhospitable islands and unforgiving seas. It details the life of a windship captain whose discovery of an autistic savant who promises to heal the blight sweeping through the islands, if only the power of the Nine Dukes and their thirst for revenge can be held at bay long enough to do so. Nikandr Khalakovo is tasked with apprehending a child prodigy that is believed to be behind the murder of the Grand Duke and his retinue, but Nikandr is torn when he discovers that not only is the boy an autistic savant, meaning it was probably an accident that he killed the Grand Duke, but he also may hold the key to lifting the blight that has been growing throughout the islands for nearly a decade. Despite a direct command from his father to give the boy up, Nikandr shelters him, and he helps the boy to realize his true potential as the pressure becomes greater and greater to give up his quest. The boy has been trying to capture one of the world’s elder spirits, and he manages to do so with Nikandr’s help, but the race is on to prove it will work before the Dukes apprehend him.