WELCOME BACK, fiends and fans, ladies and germs, boyz and goyls, to the ever-popular Aenya Newsletter!!! Trust me, this is going to be a good one, as you’ll soon find out. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
The Princess of Aenya #2 cover is NOW AVAILABLE!
First up on the agenda, the new cover for The Princess of Aenya is now officially available! I commissioned Becky Barnes, the always lovely drawer of unicorns for this project, and man, did she do a beautiful job! These colors just POP off the page! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I wasn’t in love with the first cover. Honestly, if you’re any true fan of Aenya, you can and should have both editions proudly displayed on your bookshelf. But I really wanted to brag about the great reviews the book has been receiving. IndieReader gave it a 4.7 out of 5, while Kirkus Magazine, the snootiest, most monocle-wearing reviewer on planet Earth, loved it too, proving I am not just another hack clogging up Amazon’s KDP servers. That’s the *main* reason I wanted this new cover. But then I figured, why not do it with some style? So I had Becky illustrate this powerful scene, when Radia leans her head into Amalthea’s mane and their hair gets mingled together, in a show of unity and as a metaphor for the oneness of nature. Day slowly turns into night on the back, with our titular princess’s hair swirling out amongst the stars. Again, if you’re familiar with the book, you should be familiar with this iconic moment!
Get the new cover NOW direct from me or from Jeff’s store over at World of Aenya Books.
Noora’s Song is LIVE!
Time to come clean: I have been sitting on this little secret for quite some time. Fans of Aenya know about Noora’s Song, which appears a few times in The Princess of Aenya, first as a lyrical poem at the opening of the novel. If you’re a clever reader, you will recognize the cryptic foreshadowing of what’s to come in the story. Noora’s (Radia in disguise) voice stirs the hearts of the people of Tyrnael. Her song makes dead flowers bloom in the Cosmos Theater and it’s what she sings before her gruesome encounter with her adopted tyrant brother, ZAIBOS.
Problem is, I’d only ever heard the song in my head and was dying to know how it sounded to my ears. Lyricist Michael-Israel Jarvis helped me capture the proper cadence, but I still wondered, did the poem even work as a song? The Hobbit filmmakers faced similar challenges setting Tolkien’s Misty Mountains to music.
Well, as it so happens, Noora truly delivers, and I have Romanian singer Diastrid to thank for it. I was excited to finally get to hear the princess’s voice and am eager to share my excitement now with you! I’ll definitely be turning this into a YouTube video for the masses, with some evocative imagery to go with it, but until then, I give YOU the first opportunity to listen to Noora sing (it’s even better with the lyrics, which you can see at Noora’s Song).
Book Signing at the Oxford Exchange in Tampa
Hey, would you like to meet me IN PERSON? Well, if you live near the Tampa Bay Area (or if you just really love to drive) you can! I will be appearing at the Oxford Exchange in Tampa THIS April on the 28th! I’ll be signing your books, answering your questions, and selling copies of The Princess of Aenya with the (aforementioned) NEW cover.
Attendance may be high, so if you don’t want to miss out on this event, be sure to visit The Oxford Exchange Events to register for FREE.
The Feral Girl Release Date: MAY 28TH!
You’ve been waiting patiently for TWO years already and now it’s almost here!!! I have set a deadline for you and myself, for The Feral Girl, and it’s May 28th (it appears the number 28 holds some special significance for me).
This upcoming novel, the third in the Aenya Series, tells Thelana’s story, delving deep into her early life, from her idyllic childhood in Ilmarinen to the day she is forced from her homeland to her perilous year-long trek through the dinosaur-filled Wildwood in her search of the outside world. The Feral Girl serves as both a prequel to Ages of Aenya and as a standalone adventure, a gut-wrenching tale of survival, perseverance, and personal discovery reminiscent of Cold Mountain, Into the Wild, and Jurassic Park.
The Feral Girl will be available for purchase from my site or Jeff’s on MAY 28TH! So, mark your calendars. Every purchase comes complete with two bookmarks, featuring Thelana’s 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons stats and a beautiful illustration by Ukrainian artist, Alexey Lipatov (below).
The Art of Storytelling 
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