Cover art reveal time! Behold, the finished front cover art for the next Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot novel, Sworded Affairs! Thanks as always to my awesome cover artist, Tricia Lupien!
I’m still waiting for my editor’s notes, but once I get those, it should only take a few weeks to do the final draft and get this baby ready for release, so stay tuned.
And what’s the story about? Here’s the draft back cover text:
When Derek Strongarm, Felix Lightfoot, and their friends are hired to transport a powerful and potentially dangerous magical artifact, they can’t help but foresee disaster ahead. They have a rather bad track record, after all. Why should this job prove easier than any other?
It doesn’t.
Their pessimism is rewarded in spades when they become trapped for the winter in Além, a fortified city under siege by howlers — savage beasts living in the surrounding forest and hungry for human flesh. Unhappy with the prospect of getting eaten alive by the ravenous monsters, the company offers its services to the city guard and its commander, Briana Dohnington, to help safeguard Além.
When Erika finds an unexpected source of warmth in the arms of Commander Dohnington — much to the dismay of her brother, Lord Gregor Dohnington — she winds up in the middle of a political scandal that could throw Além into chaos for generations to come.
But that proves the least of Erika’s worries when the howlers come knocking on the city’s front gate in search of a hot meal — and the people of Além are on the menu.
The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs is the fourth book in the award-winning* fantasy series by Michael C. Bailey (Action Figures, Well-Behaved Women). Get ready for another rollicking tale filled with action, drama, humor, love, sex, violence, magic, monsters, intrigue, betrayal, more sex, more violence, and snow. Lots of snow.
(* = The 2016 Bella Online Ebook Awards, gold medal in fantasy fiction)
In other news, today is the final day of Quarancon 2020, a virtual pop culture convention for those craving a con fix from the safety of their homes, and I’ll be sitting on the Superhero Stories discussion panel, moderated by my fellow superhero fiction author and general cool person Trish Heinrich.
The discussion begins at 6 PM Eastern Standard Time and you can watch it here!
WRITING PROJECTS
Action Figures – Secret Origins: Audiobook recording continues with narrator Jennifer McPherson. Tentatively set for late spring/early summer release.
Action Figures – Issue Ten: Unintended Consequences: First draft underway, tentatively set for a winter/spring 2021 release.
The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: This collection of books one through three — Secret Origins, Black Magic Women, and Pasts Imperfect — with new cover art by Tricia Lupien, is set for a mid-2020 release.
The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Manuscript in final editing, cover art in process. Tentatively set for an early 2020 release.
The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Elfish Motives: Book five is in the plotting stages. Tentatively scheduled for a late 2020 release.
APPEARANCES & EVENTS
- Quarancon 2020 – April 24 – 28, 2020
MISC.
The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.
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