************************************************************************************** An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. ************************************************************************************ *** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year! *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! * *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! * *** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! * *** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! * *** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! * *** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but... *** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! * MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIES The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.

The world of Para Dormus is a complicated place full of dragons, demons, magic and mystery. No one knows that more than Nivara Cross. Burdened with a grimoire too powerful to hide with mist magic alone, Nivara longs to help her fellow Traited who struggle with the same fate. But she is powerless to help. Tasked instead with locating an unusual, black grimoire, truths get tangled together as Nivara struggles to hide her past and her power from those attempting to replace her. With more and more Traited trying to find the lost grimoire of the Night Rider, she has no choice but to involve Hawkins, an unsuspecting detective with an unusual Trait of his own. As their goals drift apart and the separation proves more than necessary, Hawkins realizes a much bigger threat faces them. A young girl with an unstoppable Trait threatens to disrupt the peace from beyond Nivara's reach. Can secrets remain hidden and Cricket's power be stopped? Or are Hawkins and Nivara too late to save the black grimoire from her clutches?