D'VAIRE

Is there any other time of year as busy as this one? I feel like I blinked and now it’s nearly three weeks into December. I wish I could say the rest of the month is going to quiet down but I am getting on a plane in three days so there’s packing to do and a million other things I want some little elves to march in and do for me! Since that’s not likely to happen I’m going to have to get my act in gear. But let’s focus on fun stuff and at the top of that list for me is always D’Vaire. I finished a full-length novel this month and wrote the first short story in the series that is all about the holidays. It’s not a romance but a peek into what happens when the D’Vaires invite the whole gang over to their house to celebrate. It’s mostly told from Aleksander’s point of view and I enjoyed stepping into his shoes for more than a single chapter. With some luck, I hope to get it to you next year.  I gave it to my husband to read yesterday while he sat around waiting for me at the hair...

Irresistible Indigo came out two weeks ago and I hope you’ve had a chance to check Mac and Idris's their story. When I created Idris, he wasn’t supposed to stick around or become a D’Vaire, but sometimes characters decide their own fates. You’ve probably figured out by now that they have a playlist so of course I had to share it.  Mac and Idris have a short one: Faster by Within Temptation My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion Thunder by Imagine Dragons (Idris shares this song with fellow wizard Delaney, so you’ll see it again when his book finally comes out next year) My Indigo by My Indigo (This song was released after I finished the book, but it was perfect for them and got me through all my edits) I’ve been hard at work on the D’Vaire series, so I thought I’d give you an update. I finished the fourteenth (or fifteenth depending on how you count - it's an ongoing fight in my house since my husband counts Dra'Kaedan twice while I do not) book a coupl...

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aleksander . Okay, no it's Dra'Kaedan. 😈 Let's start with the obvious. This is a boring ass way to start a blog post. In the year 1369 I became the king of the Draconis Court of D’Vaire. Blah, blah, blah. You got a ring of silver, another one of gold that no one can figure out and Fate slapped D'Vairedraconis on your wrist. Like we haven't heard this story a million times. 😑 Tell us something interesting! There were only five dragons who left the court of our birth to follow me and we remained a group of six until a few years ago. Yep, just five until Latarian and I knocked on the door. For Fate's sake, she's a bitch. 😣 Breathe Dra'Kaedan, no time for a tangent! Only one of them was known to me even though my only two cousins were among the mix. Hey Bigfoot, here would have been a spot where you could have given us more insight. Why didn't you know your cousins? What kind of freakshow court did you come...

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aleksander. In the year 1369 I became the king of the Draconis Court of D’Vaire. There were only five dragons who left the court of our birth to follow me and we remained a group of six until a few years ago. Only one of them was known to me even though my only two cousins were among the mix. It didn’t matter, in time we all learned everything there was to know about each other and we became more than just a court—we are a family. Everything changed when Dra’Kaedan arrived. I won’t go into the details of his arrival or how we came to the decision to open our doors as a sanctuary. All that information is in his book and I encourage you to read if you aren’t familiar with his story. Since that day, we have slowly grown, and I have watched in wonder as these incredible people have walked through my doors. So, why am I writing this today? I get asked questions and since I don’t relish the idea of being interviewed, I decided to write this letter...

I promised to answer your questions and this week we’re moving onto the Consilium Veneficus. What is it and who are they? They are the rival government to the Council of Sorcery and Shifters that rules over most of the characters featured in the D’Vaire series. Let’s talk about the origins of the Council first. It was created in 1369 by Grand Warlock T’Eirick and Grand Summoner Saura Leolinnia with the goal of uniting everyone to better them all. They represented the Coven of Warlocks and invited the four races they knew of at the time. The Order of Necromancia was and is still led by Arch Lich Chander Daray. Killian the Dwyer ruled the Circle of Druids, Magus Superus Jordann was responsible for the Circle of Mages, and finally Arch Wizard Egidius oversaw the Circle of Wizards. Shortly after the Council was created, T’Eirick and Saura were slaughtered along with what was thought to be all their kind in a war. This led to a power struggle and eventually the remaining members of the Co...

I promised to answer any question you asked, and this week I'm tackling Drexley. Let’s start with the basics in case you are new to the series or simply can’t recall all the details. Drexley is a sentinel who is missing. His leader, Lich Sentinel Alaric Daray discovered reams of papers in his office at the now destroyed sentinel compound. With the help of a few of his brethren, they went through each sheet one by one. Among the information found were lists of all the men under Alaric’s care. When they compared the older ones to the new they realized there were several men who disappeared from later pages. All of those sentinels were tracked down with the exception of Drexley. At that time, the Sentinel Brotherhood was still beholden to their creators, the Order of Necromancia. Once Alaric’s memory was restored (the compound drained all sentinels) he remembered that when Drexley disappeared five hundred or so years before his necromancer was a man named Adney Blackwell. Arch Lic...

Next week I will not have a blog post for you. I will be either freaking out about going to GRL, traveling, or experiencing this get together for the first time. It’s on my mind so let’s talk travel. The first thing you have to do when preparing to go anyplace is pack. I must say it’s not my favorite activity. It’s true that I am horribly addicted to both shoes and clothes which means I like the process of deciding what to wear even if it sometimes takes me awhile to finalize my choices. But it all starts going downhill when I try to cram everything I want to bring into a reasonably sized suitcase. There’s never enough room and it’s amazing that I somehow normally manage to stay under that fifty-pound weight limit. I used to keep a spreadsheet to make sure I didn’t forget anything but now I start a few days early (okay, more like a week or more) so I can give my brain plenty of time to remember every little thing I want to have on hand. (My husband not only makes a detailed list...

I probably haven't mentioned it before in this blog but I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder otherwise known as OCD. It wasn't intentional though I do tend to keep that detail to myself when possible. I have had it my whole life, it just didn't occur to me that I was any different from anyone else as I was growing up. I figured everyone else went through the same mental hurdles and rituals that I did. So, why am I mentioning it now? There are a couple of reasons actually. The first is that I wasn't going to write a post this week but here we are because my brain wouldn't shut the fuck up and let me do anything with my life today until this was complete. Interestingly enough, my decision to skip this week was also a result of my OCD. You see, in two weeks I am flying to Portsmouth, Virginia to attend GRL. I made the decision to go a few months ago when I was cautiously optimistic that the re-release of Dra'Kaedan's Coven was going to jumpstart my writing ca...

At the end of April, the husband and I drove from our old home in Maryland to a new house outside of Las Vegas. I didn't anticipate how long it would take to put together the office I’ve always wanted but there were some unforeseen circumstances. Mainly I wound up busier than I imagined, and I broke my damn toe six weeks or so ago making it more difficult to get around. It was worth the wait and I'm delighted to share the results with you. I even fell in love with some of the images I made for this blog that I had them made into canvases! And don't ask about the ottoman, my husband is permanently scarred and can't hear the word without cringing. This is where all upcoming D’Vaire books will come to life and where the new one continues to take shape. The future is perilous for the series to continue to be published but I can’t imagine not writing these guys. They are part of the fabric of who I’ve grown to be and I relish the hours I get to spend in their compan...

So, what’s next in the D’Vaire series? I have one more book coming out this year. On November 15th, Irresistible Indigo will be released. On my website I have a list of upcoming books but it’s not always obvious who the story will feature. This one is Idris’s book. You first meet Idris as a teenager in Sentinel’s Dagger. He’s led a sheltered life where he’s had to take care of his ailing grandfather who subsequently dies leaving him alone. There’s a lot of magic inside Idris but he’s never been to school or learned to cast even the most basic of spells. He’s experimented a bit and that’s allowed him to learn some things. However, he was basically a lonely kid who just wanted someone to care about him which made him perfect prey for the always scheming Latarian. She’s not intelligent and her plans are often full of holes, but Idris didn’t hesitate to befriend her. Lazy as hell she’s not one to bother with thinking out details either giving the D’Vaires the ability to catch up with her....

I have gone back and offered what I hope is a little insight into the D’Vaire series up to the seventh book, so it was time I sat down and reflected on the eighth one. Disregarding Fate was one of those stories that took me by surprise. As I was writing Vengeance from the Dark, I found myself with an inevitable confrontation. I’d introduced the character of Cadlyr of the Cwylld in Sentinel’s Dagger, but I didn’t realize at the beginning that he was Talfryn’s brother. His past came to me slowly as I unpeeled the layers of his personality and I learned a great deal about him. I don’t know where the idea of his mate came from, but I knew right away about his funeral pyre. When I finished Vengeance, I wasn’t still wasn’t sure if Cadlyr’s mate had truly died in that fire or if he had faked it all to avoid living with the Cwylld. I moved on to the next book but the idea of Cadlyr’s story wouldn’t leave me alone. Time after time I worked through the possibilities and I became convinced...

Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with the Grand Warlock. It seemed only natural that I approach Brogan to see if he’d be willing to chat. As luck would have it I found him lounging in the Duke’s Den. Q – Brogan, thanks so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate the chance to ask you a few questions. A – Okay, for one I didn’t agree to anything and you followed me in here. You aren’t a duke; this room is supposed to be off-limits. Q – Sure, right. Whatever. Okay, so by now everyone is aware of your mate’s affection for sweets. How do you feel about cake? A – You broke in here to ask me about cake? That’s not really a hard-hitting question. Q – And yet you aren’t answering it. A – Because it’s irrelevant. Cake is Dra’Kaedan’s thing and I’m willing to supply it. I want to make my man happy. Q – Do you feel guilty about abandoning your family to travel around looking for your mate? And have you ever considered that your abandonment of your best friend has contribut...

Dra'Kaedan's Coven is finally out and I was able to convince Grand Warlock Dra’Kaedan to sit down and answer a couple of questions about himself. I might have promised treats which I may or may not have delivered after we were finished. Q - Let’s start with some easy stuff. Describe yourself. A – You mean like physically? Or did you want to know about my personality? Your question seems kind of vague. Q – Sorry about that. What do you look like? A – I’m blond. My eyes are blue—navy actually. It’s the same color of Brogan’s dragon. Not to sound conceited but I would say I’m handsome. Q – There has been some discrepancy from others regarding your height. How tall are you? A – I hardly think that’s an important question. I’m the same height as my twin who is five inches over five feet. I don’t care what he says we are exactly the same damn height. Q – You’re at least two or three inches shorter than your twin, Dre’Kariston. A – That’s not even a question. It happens to be...

Creating stories are funny things. Like most of the couples in the first eight books, Albrecht and Vann were in my head for a long time. I always knew their backstory and how they wound up in their current circumstances. Like Drystan and Conley’s story, Vann was insistent that I know who and what he was before he became a fallen knight. Though Albrecht was surrounded in mystery at first, he too made sure his tale was told—not that he expected it to turn out well. He’s rather pessimistic. So, you would have thought that the book would be easy to write. I had their past and I had all these years of crafting what happens after they meet. However, as I wrote the books that came before it a lot of unsuspecting things occurred. Chander did things I hadn’t initially planned on and so did the sentinels. By the time I sat down to put together Vann and Albrecht’s outline I realized that their entire plot no longer worked. I needed different puzzle pieces to have their story make sense. Lucki...

Alaric and Chander. The first two book project I attempted. Before Alaric was ever created, the story of Chander was evolving. Resurrection (Book 4) was already fully formed in my head and unfortunately for Chander so was his role in how everything came to be. As I mentioned before, when I created the sentinels I had to find a way for them to emerge from their circumstances. It was Gavrael who was first going to be called into duty, but I realized that role would never suit him. He wasn’t going to be handle all those crowds and so I gave the sentinels a leader. Immediately it was clear to me that he was Chander’s mate. Alaric wasn’t one of those characters that slowly evolved, he stormed into my head and I knew there was something off about the man. He had secrets and there was more to him than met the eye. No matter how I looked at the picture, Chander wasn’t going to be ready for this change in his life. He’s a man who prefers things his own way including his penchant for eating pi...

For the last couple of weeks, I have been going back and giving you a little insight into some of the published D’Vaire books. It was my intention to keep that going and move on to Alaric and Chander today. They have two books, so you can imagine there’s a great deal to talk about, but I didn’t get the chance to get focused on it this week. So, we will hold off on that and I can fill you next time. What was I doing that I couldn’t think about Alaric and Chander? I fell into my writing cave. In the past five or six days I have written over forty thousand words. Just a few minutes ago I wrote the final chapter of my now completed book. This couple had something in common with Alaric and Chander in that they got two novels instead of one. However, that’s where the similarities stop because these two went on a much different journey. I can promise you that they don’t have really have a cliffhanger. Yes, there are things that are going to get you excited for when the second half comes o...

And then there was Book 4. My husband refers to it as my concept album. From the start of my worldbuilding there was a resurrected race of men and women that were dedicated to not only protecting all magickind (and eventually shifters) but eradicating crime. That race became the Order of the Fallen Knights. They needed a leader and thus Reverent Knight Drystan Kempe was (sort of) born. He intrigued me from the start and even before I wrote Dra’Kaedan and Brogan’s story I had already penned my ideas for his previous life. Drystan wasn’t just a fallen knight, he was an enigma. Although the others in his race had no memory of who they were before their deaths, Drystan wanted me to know everything about him. There was a man he loved and that was something I couldn't ignore. The first D’Vaire scene I ever wrote was that moment when Drystan died but how could I start a book like that? I set everything about Drystan aside and decided I needed to do more thinking. Originally, he was go...

Chieftain Lorcan of the Acwellan’s eyes flew open and a smile spread across his face. It was not a pleasant sight. It was a decidedly wicked flash of white teeth and although he had once been considered a handsome elf, over a thousand years of hatred and malice had twisted his features into a perpetual sneer. ~ from Vengeance from the Dark Elves. I love them. If I am playing a game where I can choose my race, they are always the ones I select first. When I started worldbuilding for D’Vaire they immediately made their presence known. I didn’t want one kind but many with varying colors of skin, hair, and eyes. Each tribe approaches the world differently and just like humans there are good ones and bad. In Sentinel’s Dagger you meet the first one Edion. But he wasn’t the initial elf in my mind. It was Chieftain Lorcan of the Acwellan who stepped forward with a scowl and a bad attitude. We all have those moments in life when we get kicked around or have to deal with monstrously difficul...

In my last blog, I talked about how D’Vaire was created. The first book was Dra’Kaedan and Brogan and I can’t wait for you to see their tale retold but let’s talk about what happened after the original story was completed. When I started the novel, I didn’t have an outline or anything. I wrote it by the seat of my pants and not even I knew how it would end. D’Vaire was supposed to be designed so that each one was a standalone title but when I was done there were so many things I didn’t have room to include. They would have to wait for the second which turned out to be Sentinel’s Dagger. Gavrael was the beginning of the sentinels. In fact, when I first started crafting his tale there was no Lich Sentinel. It was Gavrael (with Gedeon at his side) who was going to approach the Council to change the way the sentinels functioned within it. But I got sidetracked before his story could be completed by Chander and so things changed. (We’ll get to all that in a future post!) The thing you le...

As I look ahead to the release of Dra’Kaedan’s Coven, my thoughts are drawn back to how it all started. There have always been characters in my head, but it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I understood they were stories that needed to be told. I have created many and for years I worked on a series of books that I still have yet to write. There are notebooks of plot outlines and timelines but nothing more than a collection of a few chapters. They are all contemporary stories and they started as M/F. My first gay character started as a secondary one, but I kept getting drawn back to him. Once I started reading M/M his story wouldn’t go away. Suddenly, it wasn’t just his story in my head but there were other couples as well. Since I have always been a gamer, its difficult for me to escape fantasy and some of these new people wanted powers. It was time to create a new series. At the start, I was going to do a mixed series. One book M/F and the next M/M. They were going to be mostly s...