Three rousing cheers and a city in ruins: the cover art for The Lady had been released!
The Lady: Marakand Part Two, cover art by Raymond Swanland
This is the second part of Marakand and continues the story of the assassin Ahjvar, his shield-bearer Ghu, and the temple-dancer Zora begun in The Leopard. The Leopard comes out in June 2014, The Lady in December, and both can be pre-ordered now. Just follow the link to my website, my children, and let the countdown till publication day begin!
The cover shows (naturally) the Lady of Marakand. Is she not beautiful and terrible? Cover artist Raymond Swanland has also included, in the background, Moth, her first appearance on a Pyr cover in human form, and Mikki is lurking there too.
The contest to win copies of The Storyteller is now closed. Thanks for all your entries. Winners to be announced soon in a new post!
Tell you what, let’s have a contest, to celebrate this beautiful cover and console us on the wait till The Leopard comes out. If you’re in Canada or the US (sorry, rest of the world, Canadian postal rates are rather high, even for a slim volume of short stories) Tell me which other Swanland Pyr cover for one of my books actually does show Moth, describe how she appears (because, after all, you have a fifty-fifty chance of guessing right anyway), and if you’re in Canada or the US, I’ll send the first one to get it a signed copy of The Storyteller, which includes the first-published story about Moth and Mikki, in which they exact a fiery revenge for the death of the demon Moraig. Update! The Spouse says, what is this, a radio call-in show? Okay, so, amended contest. The first person to get it right gets one, since I already said that, but, for the next week (let’s say, until I turn off the computer next Tuesday night, March 18th) all the correct answers go into a draw for a second copy of The Storyteller, winner to be selected at random by Mr Wicked. Use the contact form on my website here to enter and don’t forget to give a valid email address, in case you are the lucky winner and I need to get in touch. And, if you live in the UK or somewhere else the Book Depository delivers for free, you can enter after all, and I’ll send you one that way (though it won’t be signed — can’t have everything).
#SFWApro
From the Wild Forest - Thoughts on a Writing Life 
She is beautiful and terrible!