The
Prophets’ Guild
The
Alazne Series
Book
Two
Kristen
Reed
Genre: Fantasy
Date of Publication: November 20,
2014
ISBN: 978-1482007213
ASIN: B00MX1CD36
Number of pages: 198
Word Count: 56,800
Cover Artist: Kristen Reed
Book Description:
"The year after molten sand
becomes silver glass the following will come to pass: The fire shall give its
life’s blood to water, and the wind will rise to claim Hesta’s daughter.”
When a member of The Prophets’
Guild is driven mad by his own divine vision, he travels to Hesta to deliver
his final prophecy to the recently-crowned Fire Queen, Alazne, and that act
changes the course of her life and the landscape of Faerie forever.
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/Fa5ZlBiyRuQ
Available at Amazon
Excerpt:
After
meeting with my Lords’ Council over breakfast and consuming a light dinner, I
sat in the throne room as I regularly did and listened to the plights of my
people. For the rest of the afternoon, I handed out advice and presented
solutions as needed to the men and women who came before me. When I revived the
old Hestian tradition of opening the great hall to my subjects, I expected to
resolve quarrels of great magnitude involving large quantities of money and
property, but I quickly learned that some of my people were so obstinate that
they were unable to solve even the smallest disputes locally. In the space of
two and a half grueling hours, I laid three conflicts centered on betrothals to
rest and resolved six disagreements that involved livestock and property. Once
those men and women filed out of the great hall, my herald addressed the last
remaining fey in attendance.
“Kneel
before the throne and state your concerns to the queen,” he directed.
An
elderly Hestian man with closely cropped, gray-peppered carmine hair stepped
forward and knelt before my throne as he had been commanded. He made the sign
of the star to honor the four gods and their fey children, touched his head to
the ground, and placed his outstretched arms flat on the pulsating floor tiles.
While the first motion was customary amongst my people, the more submissive
gesticulation piqued my interest since most male subjects simply bowed or
kneeled in my presence based on their rank and our familiarity. However, as
much as I wanted to indulge my curiosity about the man’s unusual supplication,
he spoke before I could address it.
“The
year after molten sand becomes silver glass the following will come to pass:
The fire shall give its life’s blood to water, and the wind will rise to claim
Hesta’s daughter.”
I
furrowed my brow and opened my mouth to respond, but before I could ask the
meaning of the man’s strange proclamation, he abruptly rose into a kneeling
position and pulled a dagger from his satchel. My ladies in waiting screamed
and flames formed in my hands as two knights stepped forward to subdue him, but
they did not move swiftly enough. The man plunged the gleaming blade into his
abdomen and fell face-forward onto the floor, which burned more brightly as his
blood left his body and spilled onto the endlessly rippling surface. The
knights quickly rolled the suicidal man onto his back and checked for a
heartbeat.
“He
is dead, your majesty,” one of the knights announced, obviously shaken by the
sudden suicide.
“Please
find out who he is,” I ordered, closing my hands to snuff out the flames. “Then
report your findings to me and notify his family that he is dead.”
“Yes,
your majesty,” they acknowledged.
As
the knights lifted the man’s body and began to carry him out of the room,
something caught my eye.
“Wait!”
The
armor-clad men halted and I strode over to them, careful not to step in the
blood that soiled my usually immaculate floor. Once I reached the trio, I
pulled the dead man’s knife from its fleshy sheath. As I suspected, a vaguely
familiar animal had been etched onto the hilt of the blade. A trio of tiny
sapphires served as the scintillating eyes of the blue phoenix while its
shining silver beak was open as if it had been mid-shriek when the artisan
carved its likeness into the weapon.
“Thank
you. Now, you may go.”
Once
the knights resumed their gruesome task, I turned to face my ladies and made
eye contact with Sera, whose naturally bronzed features were nearly as pale as
the ivory lace on her dress.
“Sera,
please find Esti and Amaia and ask them to meet me in my library.”
“Yes,
your majesty,” she acknowledged with a curtsy before leaving the throne room,
struggling to keep her gaze from resting on the trail of fresh blood beside her
as she fled.
While
the man who had died moments before clearly had no desire to end my life, my
intuition still told me that a considerable threat was nigh… and that the two
women’s guidance would be invaluable if I wanted to protect myself and my
subjects from the imminent danger that had just begun to reveal itself.
About
the Author:
Kristen Reed is an artist,
musician, filmmaker, and writer from Dallas, Texas. Her first book from The
Alazne Series, The Kings' Council, was published in 2012, and the two
subsequent books, The Prophets' Guild and The Valley of Eternity, will be
released in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Kristen also served as the
screenwriter, executive producer, and co-director for the feature-length film,
The Dahl Dynasty, a modern re-imagining of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. She is
a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas.
Interview
Where are you from?
I
was born in Mesquite, Texas and I have lived in the Dallas area my whole life.
Tell us your latest news.
My
second book, The Prophets’ Guild (The
Alazne Series #2) is coming out on November 20. The first draft of The Valley of Eternity (The Alazne Series
#3) is also finished. I’m very excited!
When and why did you begin writing?
I
started writing at age 3. I feel like I’ve always had stories inside of me and
an insatiable appetite for telling them. One of the first things I remember writing
is a little one-paragraph story called The
Golden Rose. I don’t remember what it was about, but I remember writing it
and then drawing a little rose at the end of the story and being really proud
of myself. Haha.
When did you first consider yourself a
writer?
Probably
when I finished writing The Kings’
Council (The Alazne Series #1) and decided to move forward with publishing
it myself. I’d been writing for over twenty years and even wrote several full-length
novels that went unpublished, but that was the first time I truly felt like I
could call myself an author.
What inspired you to write your first
book?
I
wrote a novella several years ago that featured the light fey and dark fey as
well as characters named Alazne and Garaile, but I never felt compelled to make
it available to the public. One day, I decided to give my red-haired heroine a
second chance at literary life along with the concept of fey diversity. I’d
also always been intrigued by the idea of a proverbial princess in a tower, and
I wanted to do my own spin on what that would look like.
Do you have a specific writing style?
I
prefer writing from a single character’s perspective. I know some writers think
that writing in first person is limiting, but that’s exactly why I love it. The
reader only knows as much as the character does and is forced to see the story
through their imperfect eyes.
How did you come up with the title?
Even
though The Prophets’ Guild itself isn’t heavily involved in the story, the
prophecy voiced by one of their own is what initially alerts Alazne to the
trouble that’s on the horizon. The prophecy says that Haizea will rise to claim
Alazne, and that brings up questions about where her destiny truly lies and
which man she is meant to be with.
Is there a message in your novel that
you want readers to grasp?
In
The Prophets’ Guild, Alazne and some
of the other characters come to realize the depths of their gods’
imperfections. While the lasting effects of their iniquities aren’t fully
addressed in this book, it is a central part of The Valley of Eternity.
How much of the book is realistic?
I
tried to make the book realistic in terms of the characters having to face the
unresolved emotional fallout from some of the events in the first book. For
example, Alazne and Garaile have been living together without being married and
Haizea tries to prey on her insecurities about that as well as the strain her
first marriage caused. I also researched various topics such as clothing and
wedding scripts to make the land of Faerie seem more realistic since it’s very
loosely based on 15th century Western Europe.
Are the experiences in the book based on
someone you know, or events in your own life?
The
events in the book aren’t based on a specific person or event. However, the
fact that Alazne didn’t necessarily seek full healing from what she endured
growing up and the events that happened in
The Kings’ Council is something I can relate to. Though Alazne has found
love, it’s clear that her relationship with Garaile wasn’t a cure-all for her
emotional wounds in the same way that my past relationships didn’t make my
unresolved issues go away. She will need to do more than change her
circumstances to find healing just like the rest of us.
What books have most influenced your
life most?
As
a Christian who is relatively new to the faith, the Bible is definitely the
most impactful book for me. I’ve found a lot of healing, gained wisdom, and
realized God’s merciful love for me through my reading and studies. That
influence will come out more in The
Valley of Eternity. Though I wouldn’t call it a Christian book, it is the
first book in the series that I wrote as a fully devoted follower of Christ and
some Christian themes will be present in the book.
If you had to choose, which writer would
you consider a mentor?
I
read a lot of Anne Rice growing up and I really enjoyed reading a few Terry
Goodkind’s novels. I don’t know that my writing style is a reflection of that,
but I would love to get some tips and mentoring from them.
What book are you reading now?
I’m
between fiction books at the moment, but I’m slowly making my way through Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Jesus > Religion by Jefferson Bethke.
I also plan to read Prince Lestat by Anne
Rice since I was a huge fan of the Vampire Chronicles.
Are there any new authors that have
grasped your interest?
I
haven’t read any books by new fantasy authors recently, but I’m open to
suggestions.
What are your current projects?
I’ll
be starting the editing process for The
Valley of Eternity (The Alazne Series #3) soon, and I’m toying with the
idea of writing a vampire novel. Vampire books were my first literary love, but
a lot of my old half-finished books and stories were very dark and sexual. I’d
like to explore that topic with my new Christian perspective and write
something that has a meaningful message without departing from the elements I
love the most about that genre.
What would you like my readers to know?
Make
sure you stick around for the third book in the series, The Valley of Eternity. The Alazne Series has a story arc that
spans all three novels, and you won’t get the full picture without reading it.
Lingering questions and issues from The
Kings’ Council and The Prophets’ Guild
are resolved in very surprising ways.
Tour
giveaway
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