How they tie together!
I've been prompted by a discussion with a reader to explain the relationship between the novellas and the novels in the Athanate universe. Here goes!
The Bite Back series provides the main thread:
Sleight of Hand
Hidden Trump
Wild Card
Cool Hand
Angel Stakes
(Book 6 is being written now and is called Inside Straight)
The first two novellas, The Biting Cold and Winter's Kiss, form 2 parts of an expected 3 novella companion series. They follow a psychiatrist, Amanda Lloyd, from Detroit. The timeframe is actually the same as the last part of Angel Stakes, and mentions are made in Angel Stakes of matters happening in Michigan that directly affect what happens in LA.
SEMI SPOILER ALERT: Characters from this series turn up in Denver for the beginning of Inside Straight.
Now, you don't have to read these two novellas to understand what's going on in Inside Straight, but it will give background to those characters, and the response to the novellas has been good. They're short (20k and 40k words, as opposed to something like Sleight of Hand, which is 120k words).
The Biting Cold was written originally intending to be a stand-alone short story in the Athanate universe and also to be slightly more focused on the romantic aspect (hence the covers!), but there's action as well, certainly in Winter's Kiss.
The Biting Cold: An Athanate Novella
Winter's Kiss: An Athanate Novella
I am possibly going to write a 3rd novella in this series, which will provide Amanda's view, as opposed to Amber's, of some of the events of Inside Straight.
The third novella is Change of Regime. This is a different set of characters, set in New York as Skylur moves his mantle from Denver at the end of Angel Stakes. So the action takes place between the end of Angel Stakes and overlapping the beginning of Inside Straight. No characters (aside from Skylur) cross over, but things that are going in are commented on. The novella is 25k words long. I'm intending to write a follow-up to it called Rapture, and possibly another, but don't currently expect more characters to turn up in the main Bite Back series.
Change of Regime: An Athanate novella
The other novel series is a huge prequel to the Bite Back series, and that's Bian's Tale. Book 1, Harvest of Lies, is out and I hope to get book 2 done next year. I'm intending there will be about 5 of these, eash a bit shorter and simpler than the main Bite Back books. They cover the time from Bian's first encounters with the Athanate world in 1890 Saigon, to her becoming Diakon of House Altau, a few years before she meets Amber for the first time.
The Harvest of Lies: An Athanate Novel of Nineteenth Century Saigon
So... those are the novels and novellas that are linked together to produce the whole Bite Back world.
There is one other Athanate novella, which is a stand-alone, and which I *may* write a sequel to. That's Enzili (Enzili is a voodoo goddess). It's set in the West Indies, at the end of the 18th Century and I currently have no plans to integrate this into the Bite Back canon.
If you've read the novellas, I would very much appreciate feedback - a comment on here, or a review on GR or the 'Zon. :-)
The Bite Back series provides the main thread:
Sleight of Hand
Hidden Trump
Wild Card
Cool Hand
Angel Stakes
(Book 6 is being written now and is called Inside Straight)
The first two novellas, The Biting Cold and Winter's Kiss, form 2 parts of an expected 3 novella companion series. They follow a psychiatrist, Amanda Lloyd, from Detroit. The timeframe is actually the same as the last part of Angel Stakes, and mentions are made in Angel Stakes of matters happening in Michigan that directly affect what happens in LA.
SEMI SPOILER ALERT: Characters from this series turn up in Denver for the beginning of Inside Straight.
Now, you don't have to read these two novellas to understand what's going on in Inside Straight, but it will give background to those characters, and the response to the novellas has been good. They're short (20k and 40k words, as opposed to something like Sleight of Hand, which is 120k words).
The Biting Cold was written originally intending to be a stand-alone short story in the Athanate universe and also to be slightly more focused on the romantic aspect (hence the covers!), but there's action as well, certainly in Winter's Kiss.
The Biting Cold: An Athanate Novella
Winter's Kiss: An Athanate Novella
I am possibly going to write a 3rd novella in this series, which will provide Amanda's view, as opposed to Amber's, of some of the events of Inside Straight.
The third novella is Change of Regime. This is a different set of characters, set in New York as Skylur moves his mantle from Denver at the end of Angel Stakes. So the action takes place between the end of Angel Stakes and overlapping the beginning of Inside Straight. No characters (aside from Skylur) cross over, but things that are going in are commented on. The novella is 25k words long. I'm intending to write a follow-up to it called Rapture, and possibly another, but don't currently expect more characters to turn up in the main Bite Back series.
Change of Regime: An Athanate novella
The other novel series is a huge prequel to the Bite Back series, and that's Bian's Tale. Book 1, Harvest of Lies, is out and I hope to get book 2 done next year. I'm intending there will be about 5 of these, eash a bit shorter and simpler than the main Bite Back books. They cover the time from Bian's first encounters with the Athanate world in 1890 Saigon, to her becoming Diakon of House Altau, a few years before she meets Amber for the first time.
The Harvest of Lies: An Athanate Novel of Nineteenth Century Saigon
So... those are the novels and novellas that are linked together to produce the whole Bite Back world.
There is one other Athanate novella, which is a stand-alone, and which I *may* write a sequel to. That's Enzili (Enzili is a voodoo goddess). It's set in the West Indies, at the end of the 18th Century and I currently have no plans to integrate this into the Bite Back canon.
If you've read the novellas, I would very much appreciate feedback - a comment on here, or a review on GR or the 'Zon. :-)
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