Fantasy was made for YA readers. You've gotta check out Bittersouls by L.A. Morton-Yates! I have an excerpt for you as well as a sneak peek into the next project! Then download your own copy and visit the rest of the tour for even more fun. Best of luck entering the giveaway!
A Shade. A Storm. A Soul.
Cursed with forbidden knowledge, 19-year-old Dela must hide her secret from her nomadic tribe or face exile into the frozen wasteland of the Bitters. When she becomes separated from her people during a blizzard, a mysterious and dangerous wanderer named Talon promises to help her find her way back to them. She quickly learns that nothing is what it seems, that her curse may actually be a gift, and that the Bitters are far more dangerous than she could have imagined.
Packed with unexpected twists, Bittersouls is a mixture of survival, adventure, and slow-burn romance that is sure to get your heart pounding.
Read an excerpt:
A Storm
On the southern side of the Basin, the titanic peaks of the Skytooth Mountains broke the horizon from east to west. They’d all seen them before, every year on their pilgrimage, but the range never failed to invoke both awe and terror. The pass would be open for a month, at least, and beyond that, they’d find the herdlands where they tracked during the coldest part of the year.
They pitched camp in the lee of the mountains, just out of reach of the worst of a steadily rising wind. They ate their evening meal, speaking softly, each of them feeling a growing uneasiness even before the light descended. With the brilliance of the sunset to the west, it was tempting to focus on its beauty, ignoring all else. But as the Flame Above took shelter below the ice for the night, Dela found herself with the others on the eastern edge of camp, staring in horror at the horizon.
“A storm?” Dela’s eyes narrowed.
“Storm? No.” Hunter Umbar gaped at it. “That’s far too small a word. A squall like that doesn’t scour the Skytooths except for once every ten winters.”
“I remember nothing like it,” Mors said.
“We’re normally far ahead of it,” Minister Dolam muttered. “One protect us, we moved too slowly.”
“Or it came early,” the Carver suggested.
The Minister shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. That storm will close the pass. […] We must walk the night.”
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Preview of The Shattered Heavens
A warm, wet breeze blew in from the Clockward Rim of the Lower Kingdoms. Thick, dark clouds crept along the underside of the realm above, bringing the threat of a mid-morning rain. Like most rains this far coreward, it wouldn’t last very long. The clouds were too stretched—too hollow. It was the way of things that wander too far from where they belong—they could do nothing other than be pulled apart, then vanish.
- Excerpt from “First Jump”
The Shattered Heavens is not a planet. These seven continents float one above another in the unending sky of the Aecean. Their inhabitants survive on the three central realms, sandwiched between the supernatural forces of Order above and the destructive pressures of Chaos below. Wielding technology reminiscent of the late 1800s on Earth, the people of the Shattered Heavens navigate their strange world by way of airships powered by a uniquely unstable fuel called ichor. While universally necessary, ichor is not evenly distributed in the Heavens, and has been the subject of a number of international conflicts over the last hundred years.
In this tumultuous world, where mysterious, inhuman mages manipulate the political landscape and massive corporations monopolize the trade of information and goods, a freelance airship crew must conduct an impossible heist in order to escape from a debt they were never supposed to be able to repay. At the same time, a crippled noble’s son learns his family’s dark secret—and discovers that he may yet have great and forbidden power. But this power may yet spell his doom, as a Brass Deacon—a high-tech zealot representing the setting’s massive magic-hating religion—is dispatched to investigate. In the hostile desert of the Wastes, where the ichor that powers the world is painstakingly harvested from the treacherous Oil Bogs, a young engineer plans his escape from indentured servitude. Amidst all this, an information courier sets out to unravel a plot to invade the Wastes for her ambitious but mad employer.
The Shattered Heavens is the largest project I’ve ever worked on, and I fully expect it will be 5+ books by the end. It’s a huge and complex setting with a lot of interesting characters, locales, and mysteries to unfold. I’m incredibly excited to be working on it, and so far have drafted the first book and outlined the series as a whole. My goal right now is to release that first book, entitled The Marrowknife in the latter portion of 2024.
If you’re interested in hearing more about it and my other upcoming projects, please follow me on social media and subscribe to my Substack! I release monthly updates and occasional other writing-related blog posts. I’d love to see you and chat with you there and in the comments below!
L.A. graduated from Montana State University in 2015 with Honors in Biochemistry and a minor in Music Composition. This helped nurture his critical thinking and research skills which continue to be instrumental to his writing. During his collegiate years, he also met the love of his life, Julie, whom he later married. At once his greatest supporter and his staunchest critic (when he is wrong, which is more often than he’d like to admit), she has been an integral part of his creative process ever since.
In February of 2018, L.A. became the father of his first son, Griffin. His second son, Tiber, was born in December of 2019 and his third son, Malachi, was born in January of 2022. Though life has become considerably busier since he became a family man, L.A. continues to work on writing in what little spare time he can find. He hopes to one day pass on his love of literature to his sons.
Links:
Substack- lamortonyates.substack.com
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lamortonyates/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorlamortonyates
Twitter - https://twitter.com/lamortonyates
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Good morning, and thank you for hosting! I should be around periodically to answer people's comments today.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteI would love to share this book with my nephew who loves these types of stories!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I've always found that a book makes a perfect gift. ;)
DeleteMe too
DeleteThis sounds like an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteThe cover looks amazing. Sounds like a good story.
ReplyDeleteHow do you come up with the title for your book?
ReplyDeleteLove the book cover!! Soooo intriguing and creative!!
ReplyDelete