T is for Tone (too); and Hyllethan Gifts #3!
I hope you’ve all had some great time over the holidays, relaxing, reading, meeting family and friends or perhaps travelling. I’m excited to say that I’ve finished the edits for the final book of the Hyllethan Gifts trilogy and am now waiting for the editor to fit me into her schedule and get back to me with her recommendations. That should be completed by the end of March so I’m envisaging an April publication date for Night of Rites and Wraiths. Hope you’ll like it!
And if you’re wondering what the book is about, here’s a teaser:
She’ll be crowned queen—if she lives that long.
T is for Tone
A good book cover helps to project the tone of the story. The graphic artist I use therefore chose dark colours for the Hyllethan Gifts trilogy. In Night of Rites and Wraiths, the artist also added lightning and a figure with a pained expression. While a graphic artist’s tools are images, a writer’s are words. Choice of words, figures of speech, length of sentences, punctuation all help to create the tone the writer wishes to project. For example:
The smell of hay and animal, the more delicate scents of spices and fruits and wheat, and the mustier odour of the ground, wet from the evening’s drizzle, struck Shael like a volley of arrows.
In the above extract from Night of Rites and Wraiths, the smells described are positive smells so the simile shocks the reader with its unexpectedness. Smells—even delicate and positive scents have become an enemy.
On ReadingOver the past few days, I’ve been critiquing a novella, so that left me little time to start a new book, but a friend recommended a novel I had also wished to read—the sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne – All the Broken Places. I loved how Boyne shows us a boy’s distorted perspective of the war and concentration camps in BSP so this second book written from the boy’s sister’s perspective is a must read for me.
Some embarrassing self-promo – ignore this section if you’re sick of it!Dawn of Purple and Grey, book 1 in the Hyllethan Gifts series is available from Amazon as a paperback and as an ebook, as well as from Barnes and Noble and Books Depository. Days of Wind and Snow, book 2 is available as an ebook and a paperback from Amazon.
In the Inner Lands, there are three ways sixteen-year-old Shael can get herself and her family killed—by looking like the enemy; by working with the enemy; by becoming the enemy.
When sixteen-year-old Shael unknowingly helps a mortally wounded thief, he entrusts her with delivering three figurines to the lord of her castle. Too late, Shael discovers that the figurines were stolen from the Hyllethans, her country’s feared enemies. And since she cut her fingers on the figurines while handling them, she is now linked to them. Any breakage or pressure on the clay is felt on her flesh.
Despite her reluctance to aid the enemy, Shael teams up with three Hyllethans to retrieve the figurines and break the connection. Shael is caught in the tussle for the thrones of the two lands. To avoid becoming a pawn—or dangle from a hangman’s noose—she has to regain possession of the figurines and face the unsuspected secrets of her lost past.
Three thrones. Two power-hungry mages. One girl standing in their way.
Exiled in Hylletha, sixteen-year-old Shael longs to return to the land of her birth but her brother Iysel, the new, terrifying mage-king of the Inner Lands, wants her dead. Shael’s very existence threatens Iysel’s right to the throne since she is the holder of the magical Gift of Touch, which is traditionally held by the monarch.
To ensure peace, Theis, the young man Shael loves, goes to Iysel’s court to negotiate the reunification of Hylletha and the Inner Lands under one ruler. But when Shael’s young foster brother is abducted and held prisoner in the Inner Lands, Shael has only her limited knowledge of spellcraft to help her stay out of Iysel’s reach, rescue her foster brother and make sure Theis doesn’t bear the brunt of Iysel’s rage.
Complicating matters further, Iysel has won the unexpected support of their wily cousin—the son of the king of a neighbouring land and an extraordinary mage—who has his own reasons for wanting to get hold of Shael.
The stability of the three realms lies in the balance. Faced by intrigue and betrayal from all sides, Shael must choose between protecting the lives of those she loves or taking up her role as princess and heir to the thrones to safeguard the welfare of the people.
Caroline
