Introducing: A Third Kind of Madness

Launching on May 1st 2024, the third installment in the Stories of the Eleriannan series – A Third Kind of Madness – is a tale about muses, ambition, possessiveness, consequences, and love.

Our protagonist Denny is self-described as boring and uncomfortable in their own skin, a quiet photographer who hides behind baggy men’s clothing and a camera and specializes in minimizing and doubting themself. Yet Denny is part of an art collective, and has done both solo shows and ones with their group, and would certainly be more successful if they didn’t allow the aggressively ambitious leader of the collective to push them around.

Denny has a crush on a regular at the Frisky Bean, the bubbly and attractive Peri. They spend their days stealing glances of her from across the room until one day Peri breaks the routine by introducing herself – then asking Denny for a dinner date. She suggests her place, which just happens to be at The Maithe.

What comes next? Greedy art [and artists], elementals with opinions, photographs that show more than is apparent to the eye, and the consequences of messing around with forces that aren’t understood – or freely given.

ATKOM is a little darker than my other books but still full of upbeat moments and Fae magic. Vali, Karsten, Cullen, and the folks in The Drawback are all back and joined by new characters both magical and mortal. And again some of my favorite places in Baltimore are featured as a backdrop to the action, because the city is one of my favorite characters.

“I live in a city known for eccentricity. Baltimore is a vivid place, full of hidden magic. And yet here I am, quiet and unremarkable, and with no idea of how I got this way. I’d give a lot to have a touch of that magic in my life.” Be careful what you wish for.

When Denny isn’t working as a photographer, they spend their time at the local coffee shop mooning over one of the regulars, the mysterious and beautiful Peri. No one’s more surprised than Denny when she asks them out on a date.

What happens that night throws the couple into a world where nothing is as it appears and everyone wants to get their hands on Peri and her powers to inspire artists – especially Joolie, the controlling and egotistical leader of Denny’s art collective.

If that wasn’t enough, the powerful, capricious water elementals known as Nyxen have inexplicably taken an interest in Denny. They warn that Peri’s gifts bring nothing but trouble to those around her. It’s hard to argue with them when the magic starts to go wrong; paintings greedily come alive with grasping tentacles, an obsessed ex-lover returns to threaten the couple, and Denny begins to wonder if their grip on reality is beginning to slip…

For readers who enjoy a list of tropes, you can expect: found family, sapphic romance, mysterious and definitely capricious water elementals, rock-and-roll Fae, the power of blood [compels you], photos and art with supernatural properties, muse abuse, and an anthropomorphized house – or is it?

A Third Kind of Madness signed paperback special bundles are available now for preorder, and the regular paperback and ePub will be for sale starting on May 1st 2024!

Expect more details about the launch party SOON!