This month, my new novella, Hela’s Bane, is being featured in a BookFunnel promotion called “Witch’s Brew.” All the featured stories involve witches or witchcraft of some type in a mix of genres, from urban fantasy to epic fantasy, paranormal romance, historical fantasy (like Hela’s Bane), and some dark fantasy too. But best of all, they’re free through July 7th. So I encourage you to check it out—here’s the link: books.bookfunnel.com/witchesbrew.
I’ve already had a wonderful experience with one book in the promotion: Hyrn by Simon Kewin. The novella, which has an epic fantasy feel, is a prologue to Kewin’s The Cloven Land Trilogy. Although it’s a short read, I enjoyed it immensely.
The protagonist is Black Meg, the senior most member of the Morvale Witches. The witches of this world are protectors of the people: healers and midwives, and women who have considerable magical prowess.
Like many fantasy stories, the king who rules the land has gone mad, embracing necromancy to achieve immortality. This harrowing development creates a rift between his warriors—called wyrm lords or dragon riders—pitting those loyal to the king against those who recognize the evil of his actions. With this setup, the story begins when one of the dragon riders opposed to the king seeks out Black Meg. They want her to speak with a necromancer who knows how the king accomplished his terrible feat.
Once Meg learns the necromancer’s secrets, the tale takes on a new urgency. The witches must lead their people to safety at great risk to themselves, while Meg must undertake an even more dangerous task, working with a dragon rider as they race to find the one thing that might give them a chance at defeating the mad king.
While much of the novella involves familiar fantasy tropes, the story is an exhilarating ride. The scenes involving dragon flight vividly imagine what it would be like to travel on one of those great beasts, and the story’s use of magic is equally impressive. Meg can reach her thoughts into the aether to see things far away and even touch the minds of others at great distances. She can also manipulate the elements, and collectively the coven can wield awe-inspiring power. But magic comes with a terrible price, and many times Meg risks her life by using it.
I ripped through this story and enjoyed it so much that I immediately bought Hedge Witch, the first novel in Kewin’s trilogy.
You can check out Hyrn and other books for free through July 7th as part of the Witch’s Brew promotion. To get a free copy of Hyrn, I had to join Kewin’s newsletter, and I look forward to learning more about his writing and upcoming novels.