The Long War, book 2 of The Wild Trilogy, is out today.

To read about the origin of The Wild Trilogy, follow this link.

The Long War picks up where book 1, The Snow Chanter, left off:

The future of the people hangs in the balance as Lanyon continues her journey north. She must find the Storm Lair, home of the Inyomere Siddél, where she’ll have one more chance to slay the great spirit of storm. But her journey grows ever more perilous and strange, and even her devoted companions cannot keep her safe.

Bennek, meanwhile, has been taken south to Habaddon. Through Lanyon’s magic he has survived terrible injury, yet he still needs time to heal. But time is short — and Siddél is resolved to destroy Habaddon. As the great Inyomere sends ever more arowl south towards the city, Bennek finds himself swept up in a relentlessly brutal war.

The Wild Trilogy will conclude with book 3, Days of Storm, scheduled to release on April 9 and available now for preorder.

Find The Long War at Amazon

As a writer, I plead guilty to genre-hopping. I’ve written near-future, far-future, and military science fiction, as well as science fiction thrillers and grim-dark sword & sorcery. And with The Wild Trilogy, I can include epic fantasy too.

Book 1, The Snow Chanter is available now.

Book 2 releases on March 26, and Book 3 on April 9.

(links to Amazon are affiliate links)

So what’s The Wild Trilogy about?
Here’s the teaser:

Three young warriors risk death to find the fabled Snow Chanter—a nature spirit who might aid them in their quest to restore balance to the world. As they venture north into a wild and forbidden land, they chance to meet a strange young woman—a sorceress, with ambitions even greater than their own.

Click through to Amazon to read more about book 1.

So where did this trilogy come from?
Well, it’s been years in the making. Last December I wrote about The Wild Trilogy, its long history, and what the project means to me. Follow this link to read that post.

I suspect most of you who visit this blog are predominantly science fiction readers, but if you like epic fantasy too, I hope you’ll give The Wild Trilogy a try. It begins with book 1, The Snow Chanter.

The Long War will be out next week, and two weeks after that, the concluding volume, Days of Storm.

Three short novels that took me years to write! I hope you enjoy them.

Locus Magazine is a long-time publication that covers the science fiction field. In the December issue, Russell Letson reviewed Pacific Storm, describing it as “a propulsive intrigue-thriller-disaster format, detailed and textured and specific enough that its progress can be mapped onto contemporary Honolulu, a real garden with imaginary monsters in it.”

That review is now online. Click here to read it in full.

By the way — Russell also selected Pacific Storm as his “Holiday Countdown Staff Pick.” 🙂

This post was originally published in my November 19th newsletter. It’s re-posted here with minor changes. If you haven’t yet signed up for my newsletter, you really, really should. It’s fun, it’s once every four weeks (with an occasional special issue), and it’s the best way to stay in touch. Sign up here.

Novelists sometimes talk about a “book of the heart,” by which they mean a novel they needed to write, one that’s especially close to their heart, one they keep returning to, even though the marketplace doesn’t care.

The Wild is my book of the heart. It’s a secondary-world, aka epic, fantasy that has nothing at all to do with my other work. It’s also “noble bright” (as opposed to my grimdark fantasy Stories of the Puzzle Lands).

I wrote the original version of The Wild in the early 2000s. It never sold to the traditional market, but I never forgot about it. Eventually I published it myself as an ebook available only from my website. But when I took down my website store, I also took The Wild off the market.

The book had issues. There were problems with the way it was written. Last summer, when I took a fresh look at the manuscript, those issues became clear to me–but I felt I now had the knowledge and experience that would let me address them. So while waiting for beta-reader and editorial comments on Pacific Storm, I commenced on what proved to be an extensive rewrite of The Wild.

After publishing Pacific Storm, I returned to The Wild, and in late November I finished what I hope will be my final pass through the manuscript. It’s in the hands of a proofreader now, and I think it’s a much better story.

Since it’s a long book, I’m going to divide it into a trilogy of short novels. You can see the original cover above. I love this illustration, but the feedback I’ve received indicates it doesn’t communicate that the book is epic fantasy. So I’ve commissioned a set of new book covers that will hopefully do a better job. Sign up for my newsletter, for a preview of the new artwork!

A brief update while we wait for final election results…

The Stories of the Puzzle Lands Duology is now available in a print edition. The duology includes two novels, The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher, along with a prequel short story.

I just received my copy and I have to say it’s quite lovely (all praise to the cover artist!).

For reasons of cost and distribution, the book is only available at Amazon (affiliate link).

Visit my website for more information on Stories of the Puzzle Lands.

(poor photo, lovely cover)

The ebook edition of my newest novel Pacific Storm is out today. If you preordered, you should have it already. But if not, go get it!

Unfortunately, the print edition is suffering a pandemic delay, but if all goes well, print copies should be available to order by Monday. Fingers crossed! I’ll post here on the blog when it happens.

Belated update: The print edition is now available!

Update October 9, 6am HST:
The print edition is now available to order at Barnes & Noble.

9am: Amazon now has the print edition listed too. Find it here. (paid link)

Pacific Storm is a fast-paced, near-future thriller set in Honolulu. You can read more about it here, and also read the opening chapters. See what you think…

Or go ahead and grab a copy!

PACIFIC STORM
(click to see a large version of the cover image)

Politics, terrorism, and heavy weather collide over Honolulu in a vividly imagined near-future thriller from the author of The Last Good Man.

Ava Arnett is a Honolulu cop, captain of the night shift in the autonomous Waikiki District. Nine years ago a massive hurricane hit the island. Ava remains haunted by the mistakes she made and the lives she failed to save during that disaster. Since then, she relies on HADAFA, an AI designed to observe, analyze, and predict human behavior. HADAFA monitors her actions, and its assessments guide her decisions.

Now, another Category 5 hurricane is approaching Honolulu…

In the hectic hours before landfall, Ava stumbles into a terrorist conspiracy – and HADAFA begins to glitch. She can no longer rely on the AI. She must decide on her own whether or not to trust a mysterious federal agent named Lyric Jones — knowing the wrong choice could lead to greater devastation…and a war no one will win.

Pacific Storm is now available to preorder as an ebook. (The print edition will take a little longer.)

Pacific Storm will publish on October 8th.

READ THE OPENING CHAPTERS HERE

I’m going to be launching a new novel amid the political storms of October. It’s not a great time to bring out a book, but I don’t want to wait until next year. I hope you’ll subscribe to my newsletter, for info and a first look!⚡️🌴

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ve already seen the cover to the forthcoming edition of Stories of the Puzzle Lands — and if not? Well, here it is!

Artist is Agata Broncel of Bukovero.com

click to see it big

Stories of the Puzzle Lands is a boxset edition of one of my existing series. It includes the two novels The Dread Hammer and Hepen the Watcher, along with a prequel short story, “A Moment Before It Struck,” originally published in Lightspeed Magazine.

For at least the first three months, the new boxset will be available only at Amazon. If you’re a Kindle Unlimited reader, you’ll be able to pick it up through your subscription. If not, you can just buy the ebook.

The ebook is available now as a preorder at a 50%-off promotional price of just $2.99! The publication date is June 2.

Here’s the cover copy:

Two gritty dark fantasy novels and a bonus short story:
His name is Smoke, though some know him as the Demon Dismay. He’s a charming, well-armed young murderer who is not altogether human. Smoke’s purpose in life is to mete out the stern justice of a vindictive goddess, and he is pleased to do it—that is, until he finds other things to live for. A woman, a child, a quiet home deep in the forest. He is so far from anywhere he can no longer hear the haunting prayers of those who would ask him to deliver them vengeance. But the quiet life is not Smoke’s fate.

Right now, there’s only an ebook edition, but a print edition will follow, possibly in late summer.

Follow this link to find it at Amazon.

Oh! And please subscribe to my newsletter if you don’t already. Sign-up form is over there -> in the right column.

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service offered by Amazon, in which readers pay a set fee each month to read as many “Kindle Unlimited” ebooks as they want. Last fall I enrolled two of my fantasy novels in the program. The results haven’t been spectacular, but there has been an uptick in interest.

A few days ago, I enrolled another novel, Skye-Object 3270a. This one is a far-future adventure written for a middle-grade/young-adult audience. It’s set in the Deception Well story world, but is otherwise unrelated to that book.

Here’s an excerpt of a review by Marianne Dyson at the National Space Society’s website:

Author Linda Nagata puts her degree in zoology, work experience with computers, and life experience growing up in exotic Hawaii to imaginative use throughout the story, creating fascinating new creatures on the planet and in space that are a mix of biology and technology in unique environments. The teens, fearful that adults will not listen to them or act quickly enough to save Skye, behave in a very believable way—taking risks for reasons that will make sense to most any young adult today.

The story has plenty of cool world-building, new tech, adventure, alien creature encounters, and a touch of romance (limited to kissing) that are sure to appeal to young readers, both girls and boys. Adult space enthusiasts may also appreciate this unique view of what family life may be like in a future society where people have faced extinction and yet live hundreds of years.

Skye-Object 3270a is ideal for advanced readers on the younger end of the teen spectrum. Follow this link to find it on Amazon. I hope you’ll check it out! It’s also available in a print edition.