April Wrap-Up

April Flowers Bring May Showers

The launch of Stardust Child was amazing, beyond any indie author's wildest hopes. But April also offered another challenge that I have repeatedly failed to this point: to pause in the middle of one project, pivot to another, and produce a short story on a deadline that did not morph into a full series with a half-dozen side stories. It's the first short story I actually enjoyed writing.

Thus, I bring you House of the Broken Tower.

It's the first short story of the Empire of the Stars series, a prequel to Traitor Son set after the war, as Remin and the Knights of the Brede arrive in Starfall to receive the honors owed to them. But for Tounot of Belleme, it is something more: a test of loyalty and honor, and a hope that his own union with Lady Ysmeine Bourdevane might be a path to peace for the long-suffering people of the eastern Empire.

When I thought about whose story I wanted to tell, Tounot was the first one on my list. He hasn't quite gotten his due in the series yet, and while Remin, Juste, and Ophele had the most taken from them, Tounot is the only one who had a choice, and chose honor, at a high cost to himself.

It's also the story of coming home from war, a subject that's dear to my heart. I had the safest and least hazardous possible deployment to Anbar Province, Iraq from 2008–2009, with 10,000 Marines between me and danger, but I still remember what it was like to come home and find that life had moved on without me. To find that everything seemed so slow, so unimportant, that I missed the mission, the people, the purpose. I would never claim that I was a warfighter in any capacity, but the story of the Knights of the Brede is my tribute to the fighters I knew, and I hope I've done honor to their experience.

While the world of the Empire of the Stars is far removed from ours, some things are universal. Tounot's reverence for his lost friends, his refusal to renounce Remin no matter what the cost, and his abiding hope for the future are the foundation of Remin's great dream.

It's a subscribers-only exclusive for now, so if you're not already on the mailing list, click the sign-up button at the top of the page! I hope it will mean as much to you as it does to me, and give you a glimpse of one of the most immortal moments not just for Remin and his knights, but for the Emperor and his court. It is a turning point for the history of the Empire.

Happy reading, and see you next month.

Tounot’s father kept saying that. No one.

Duke Benetot had become no one. So had Sidonie of Roye, though Tounot’s mother had once boasted of their friendship. But their names had been blotted from the books in the manor library by one of Tounot’s tutors, and the man had silently wept as he had done it, driving the slick point of his quill against the pages and letting the ink bleed.

Remin was no one.

– House of the Broken Tower