Yes! That’s the big announcement for today, the thing that’s been being counted down to in the margin and in my other posts. I have published a novel! My first novel. And I’m excited.
It’s called The Ballad of the Grey Swan. It’s a swashbuckling fantasy novel inspired by things like:
- my love of Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy
- the works of Alexandre Dumas like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers,
- books like War for the Oaks which involve people rising up to be the equal of magical powers
- swashbuckler movies
- my desire to have a fantasy novel that reflects trans people and gay people as just people living their lives (well, as normal as you get in a fantasy world, but you get the idea) until things get weird
- and an image I got in my head and had to get out one way or another.
What about the cover and the back copy?
Young noble Jeyreme Corbeau has been assigned by his father to catch the notorious bandit known as the Grey Swan, who is robbing merchants in their barony.
Amongst the problems with this assignment are the facts that Jeyreme is actually a trans woman, that she’s trying to find a way to run away with her lover…
…and she is the Grey Swan.
When the Baron decides that Jey’s not doing the job well enough, he calls in a bounty hunter dedicated to an evil god.
Now the Grey Swan has to become a hero to save everyone from this threat!
Add in the interest the faerie lord called the Prince of Fireflies has in Jey’s lover, and no one can guess what powers will come to clash in the woods of Barony Corbeau!
All of Jey’s secrets will come crashing together in a story of queer swashbuckling adventure!
I hope you decide you like the Grey Swan, her lover Maisie, and the adventure she’s on due to some less-than-good decisions.
About that tag you mentioned…
This project, or at least part of it, has been under the tag “this will become relevant later”. You might notice the mention of the Prince of Fireflies, and remember I talked about him earlier.
This is good, but how do I get the book?
As of today, here’s how you can get the novel:
- Amazon as a Kindle book
- obtained through Kindle Unlimited
- Amazon as a paperback
- Barnes and Noble for the Nook (as of August 7)
If all goes well, this will be the first in a series of novels with LGBTQIA+ protagonists set in the world I’ve created, Taeliana. I’m also working on a WorldAnvil package with information on the world itself – I needed it to keep track of what I was doing, and once I get it cleaned up I’ll see about making it available for other people to play in.
Thank you to all my supporters and friends. This has been a dream of mine for years, and now I’ve done it.
What next? More about Jey, or someone else?
…well, Meliantha and Juliette are asking when they moved over from Faerun and Golarian respectively, and a few others are asking me about it…
I’ll be in touch. I have some things to look into.