Begin the Emprise

I will be making my 3^rd novel, Emprise, free for the Kindle for 3 days, starting at midnight Pacific time on Monday, April 29, 2013. The goal is to start generating some buzz, or at least reviews. The first two books were well-received, but I’ve gotten no reviews on this one. In my opinion, it is a lot better.

It is labeled fantasy fiction, but Urban Sci-Fi romance would have been as good a label. In truth, I don’t try to write genre fiction, nor do I follow any of the genres’ formulas. Instead, I try to put together interesting stories featuring realistic characters you will care about. As with all my stories there are twists, some silliness, suspense, and romance, with enough tragedy sprinkled in to keep the reader honest. Not sure if this is anyone else’s formula, but they say one should write the kind of book one likes to read.

Emprise is Book 3 of The Stream series, but was written for those who, like me, hate being forced to read an entire long series to get to the book they want, and who hate cliff-hangers. In effect, Books 1 and 2 are treated as back story as far as Emprise is concerned. For those who aren’t fans of YA fiction, I’d recommend starting with Emprise, and if you like it, go back and read Charlie and Robin’s story starting with Discovery (Book 1).

In Emprise, Charlie Patterson and Robin LeBeaux are 16-year-old best friends who discovered they can walk in others’ dreams. Moreover, they learned that not only does the “Stream” link the dreaming and waking worlds, in the Stream, life and death are not so separate as they thought. Now, the dream and “real” worlds aren’t separated either. Charlie’s spent an entire summer tracking creatures that have escaped from the dream worlds into his small-town Virginia community. After a summer apart, Charlie and Robin rejoin, only to learn that the small tear in the fabric of reality is greater than anyone feared. The result, should they fail to find and fix the problem, will be the end of the universe as we know it, and the beginning of the reign of chaos. That would ruin Charlie’s whole senior year.

Thus begins their great emprise, a quest to find and defeat whatever is causing rips in reality, time, and the barrier between life and death. To make matters worse, Charlie finds himself the center of his first ever love triangle, and learns it’s only a good thing in the movies. (Especially when one has mythological creatures, vampire bunnies, evolving dragons, and high school football to deal with.)

I hope you check Emprise out. If you don’t buy “fantasy” because you hate “Dungeons and Dragons” and “Lord of the Rings” and others of that ilk, but you would like a nice retreat from reality with people you like, this is the book for you. Plus, you get to tell me where it sucks before I produce the paperback version. 🙂