MARK OF THE THIEF

MARK OF THE THIEF began with two stupid facts I happened to know about Ancient Rome. First is that the Emperor Julius Caesar used to tell people he had come from the Gods, specifically from the Goddess Venus. He’d do that to make himself seem more powerful, as if he just had to be the emperor, because after all, he was a Demi-God.

Demi-God, or just another leafy-headed politician?

Second is that if you were a young citizen of Ancient Rome, you’d have worn a bulla, an amulet your parents would have filled with gems to protect you against harm.

All I did was to combine these two facts to ask, What if Caesar was telling the truth? If so, then perhaps he would have held the magic of the Gods, keeping it safe within his bulla. And what if that bulla became lost after his death and remained lost for nearly three hundred years until it was discovered deep within the mines of Rome by a mining slave named Nicolas Calva?

Fun fact #1: After the cover was designed, my super amazing husband created a digital model of the bulla then had it 3D printed in metal. The replication was so exact that one of the book’s cover artists became confused about which came first, the metal bulla that I owned, or the cover that he had created!

Fun fact #2: When I travel with the bulla, it sometimes gets flagged by security officers at the airport, so they have to do a visual inspection of it. I used to try to explain what it was, but that got too complicated so now I simply say, “It’s an ancient Roman artifact.” That usually gets a big response, and it’s much more fun than the longer explanation.

If you’ve never seen the book trailer for MARK OF THE THIEF, check it out on YouTube HERE.

And if you’ve never read it, look for it at your school or city library, or you can ask for the book as a gift this holiday season. 

If you want signed copies of any of my books, the best way to get them is to order from The King’s English Bookshop. If you want your copy personalized (Me to sign it with your name in the book), be sure to state that in the comments box right before checking out. Otherwise, I will only put my signature in the book. Once I sign the books, they will mail them to you so if it’s for Christmas, be sure to order early!

And for the next three days, I will be giving away a copy of either MARK OF THE THIEF, or the second or third books of the series, RISE OF THE WOLF or WRATH OF THE STORM.

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To enter, simply leave a comment below telling me if you had one magic power, what would you want it to be? All entries will be collected for the next three days, with three winners chosen on Friday.