Zayla was just an infant noxling when her bitterroot offshoot was destroyed by a terrible suncreature. No one from her home survived. And from what she knows of her Nemora history, she shouldn’t be alive either.
But she is. There’s a constant hum inside her, a shaking that grows more violent and painful each time she harnesses her crafting to do her bidding. Nature is clearly trying to finish the job the suncreature started.
Her only hope is to finish walking the path. When she completes this sacred rite of passage, she'll never need to use her crafting again. She has to get to Ratnaa Grove, her final stop, and the quickest way there is through the deadly Cinder Forest. With the help of her sibling Oryn and an alluring musician named Shadre who they met along the way, Zayla fends off bloodthirsty suncreatures and discovers an invasion of evil sun goddess worshippers bent on razing the Groves.
As she struggles to survive, betrayal lurks on every side, and her crafting demands a higher price than even she expected. But the fate of the Nemora Groves, and the world as she knows it, might just lie within her.
Zayla was just an infant noxling when her bitterroot offshoot was destroyed by a terrible suncreature. No one from her home survived. And from what she knows of her Nemora history, she shouldn’t be alive either.
But she is. There’s a constant hum inside her, a shaking that grows more violent and painful each time she harnesses her crafting to do her bidding. Nature is clearly trying to finish the job the suncreature started.
Her only hope is to finish walking the path. When she completes this sacred rite of passage, she'll never need to use her crafting again. She has to get to Ratnaa Grove, her final stop, and the quickest way there is through the deadly Cinder Forest. With the help of her sibling Oryn and an alluring musician named Shadre who they met along the way, Zayla fends off bloodthirsty suncreatures and discovers an invasion of evil sun goddess worshippers bent on razing the Groves.
As she struggles to survive, betrayal lurks on every side, and her crafting demands a higher price than even she expected. But the fate of the Nemora Groves, and the world as she knows it, might just lie within her.
Kellie Doherty has a master’s in book publishing from Portland State University. She’s the author of the Cicatrix Duology (Finding Hekate and Losing Hold, Desert Palm Press) and is currently working on a five-book fantasy series. The first book, Sunkissed Feathers & Severed Ties, will be out in early 2019. During the day, she’s an office assistant and freelance editor, and by night she’s crafting adventures full of magic and daggers...and maybe a few dragons, too. She also enjoys reading, taking walks, playing video and board games, and hanging out with her friends.
My favorite lesbian fiction book:
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers, because while the queer romance is quieter than others, it feels natural and easy.
My old favorite has to be:
Harry Potter, by JK Rowling, because it made me want to be a writer. However, my current favorite is A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab because her characters are amazing, and her plots twist in delicious ways.
No scribe has ever returned from the Sunglade. It's a continent of burning sunlight and terrifying suncreatures, and the home of the worshippers of Ponuriah, the evil sun goddess. When Adaris Kavari, a disgraced wandering scribe with a lame leg, finds herself following her curiosity too far and gets captured by those worshippers, she's forced to record their side of history in order to survive. Much to the worshippers' glee, Adaris is also a Divus—a race whose crafting is used mainly to heal, and sometimes to hurt—and a terrifying young researcher immediately latches onto her because of it. But Adaris isn't the only prisoner here. She meets an attractive and snarky painter named Rhonwen with an unfortunate link to Adaris' past. Wanting to save them both, Adaris conforms to the sun goddess worshippers' ways while looking for an escape. She knows that once she's free, she'll have recorded a keystone story that would help restore her tarnished reputation and might even turn the tide of the upcoming war. The sun goddess worshippers' influence is strong, especially with the new elements of crafting Adaris encounters—elements that could turn her pitiful crafting into something new and powerful—and her scribe's curiosity twists into something even she didn't anticipate. As a scribe, she's recorded many heroes' adventures. Now, it's her turn to become the hero—by any means necessary. The Broken Chronicles - Book 3
2024 GCLS Goldie Finalist
Zayla was just an infant noxling when her bitterroot offshoot was destroyed by a terrible suncreature. No one from her home survived. And from what she knows of her Nemora history, she shouldn’t be alive either.
But she is. There’s a constant hum inside her, a shaking that grows more violent and painful each time she harnesses her crafting to do her bidding. Nature is clearly trying to finish the job the suncreature started.
Her only hope is to finish walking the path. When she completes this sacred rite of passage, she'll never need to use her crafting again. She has to get to Ratnaa Grove, her final stop, and the quickest way there is through the deadly Cinder Forest. With the help of her sibling Oryn and an alluring musician named Shadre who they met along the way, Zayla fends off bloodthirsty suncreatures and discovers an invasion of evil sun goddess worshippers bent on razing the Groves.
As she struggles to survive, betrayal lurks on every side, and her crafting demands a higher price than even she expected. But the fate of the Nemora Groves, and the world as she knows it, might just lie within her.