smoke
Rosemary Ames is committing suicide one slow masochistic step at a time during the coldest winter on record. Until, that is, she witnesses a murder.
Rose is the only one to survive seeing the killer’s face. The cops want her under protection. Her sometimes boyfriend wants her in his bed. And the killer? He has plans for her too.
Because Rose is his key to a tangled labyrinth of stone, where unimaginable power waits to be grasped by beings far more-and less-than human.
Rose’s only safety might be Michael Constantius. He says he’s in love with her. He says she’s safe.
But Michael’s keeping secrets too. He knows what lies under the city, and he seems to know more than he should about what makes Rose tick. In fact, he seems obsessed with her. And just a little bit scary…
What do you do when you find out you want to live just as someone is trying to kill you?
And what can you do when you find out monsters are real?
Hardback
Paperback (out of print? Try here.)
Ebook
Kindle edition
mirror
After five years as a Chosen, nothing touches Rosemary Ames. She’s gotten used to being a ghost in the normal world, and if she can’t quite let her Keeper fully into her mind, it doesn’t matter. They have time, right?
Wrong.
Rose’s Keeper, Michael, has kept her isolated from the bloody shadow wars his kind are prone to, but he can no longer do so. The storm is gathering, and Rose is now the target of assassins even the Kindred fear. Because her Keeper is not just Michael Constantius. He has another name-Avatar. And yet a third, Kinslayer. Michael thought he had atoned for his past. He thought he had found redemption. He thought he was free of the god who marked him at birth, a god of darkness, fires, and blood. He was wrong.
How far will the god’s followers will go to get Michael back? And how far will Michael go to protect his Chosen?
Let Darkness begin…
Hardback
Paperback
Ebook
Kindle edition
The Books
Let me just say up front, these aren’t very good books. There’s a reason why first books mostly don’t sell. These represent my first stumbles, in a way. smoke was the second book I ever finished, and while it got me a contract to write other things it’s still…well, a mess. The plot is farfetched, the protagonist is a Mary Sue, and my treatment of vampires, while it might have a few oddities that qualify as creative, gets me a big zero for being cliche in the extreme.
So why bother? Well, I love them. Each book really is like a child, and one can’t love one’s children less because they’re not perfect. I offer them for two reasons: 1. because I can, as I’m living in an age when self-publishing, for better or worse, is available to just about anyone with Internet access and something to say; and 2. because it might be interesting for other writers and fans to see an earlier work where I’m struggling with a lot of themes and things that inform my later works, especially the Valentine series. Readers may find in Michael Constantius a lot of the same issues I work with in Japhrimel; and Rose, while certainly no Danny Valentine, is still a character I find interesting,for all her flaws. I’m sure a lot of people will think this the height of ego.
But really, I don’t think it is.
Why The Different Name, Lili?
Mostly to differentiate these books from my “professional” books. These aren’t professional, they’re personal.
Where Did The Idea Come From?
smoke was the first time I really got taken over by a character. As I was brushing my teeth one day, I suddenly had a mental image of an alley at night, with a dumpster blocking part of the view. Behind the dumpster, something was moving. It was a pair of red combat boots, as if someone was laying down, their legs jerking spasmodically. Then I saw Rose, edging down the alley, and I suddenly had to find out who she was and what she was going to see. The image was so strong I smelled the alley; I saw everything. It was my first introduction to the complete sensory world of a novel. Everything in the series sprang from that one image.
Wait A Minute. “Series”?
Yep. Trilogy. The complete trilogy is smoke, mirror, avatar. All lower-case, because, well, I can do that. I’ve finished smoke and mirror, and am half-finished with avatar.
So When Is This Happening?
Pretty much…now.
Whoa, They’re Pretty Expensive!
Eh, yeah, but that’s not my fault. Really. The distributor has set the prices, and I’m unable to change or alter one jot or tittle. Sorry about that. So…I look forward to hearing what you think of them.
