(Posting to RoyalRoad) Iona of Tamaris is a half-elf caught between worlds. Born a bastard child with the curse of an ancient magic, she has always lived a life with secrets weighing her heart down like a stone. The price of discovery? Death. When two unwelcome visitors arrive in Yssa's royal court, however, her life is changed forever. The answer to all of her problems, it seems, lie in Zaeylael, the City of Splinters. But danger lurks around every corner even in a place where mages can walk freely under the sun and too many smiles are only masks hiding wicked plots. **Contains spoilers for The Lady Penitent and The Desolate Throne**

Annifer can put it off no longer. The time has come for her to journey north to the snow-covered land of Crosstain and marry the loathsome Larnick. Meanwhile, deep in the heart of the Great Forest, all is not well in the Wise Women's Village. A powerful magical artefact has been stolen and a dangerous prisoner escaped. Dark clouds are gathering over Sacred Mountain. Could it be that their most deadly enemy is back? Book Three of the Annifer Trilogy but you don't have to have read the first two books to understand it. #17 in Fantasy 23d January 2020 #9 in Mystery 23rd January 2020 #3 in Action 29th May 2021

Magic caused the war. Magic is forbidden. Magic will save us. The Relic Guild is the award nominated first book in The Relic Guild trilogy. It was said the Labyrinth had once been the great meeting place, a sprawling city at the heart of an endless maze where a million humans hosted the Houses of the Aelfir. But when the Thaumaturgists, overlords of human and Aelfir alike, went to war, everything was ruined and the Labyrinth became an abandoned prison. The surviving humans were trapped behind boundary walls a hundred feet high, and all magic was forbidden. And now the war is returning. The Relic Guild are all that stand against the end of the city. But they are old, scattered and weak, and the enemy is growing in strength... Here in THE RELIC GUILD (and other stories) please enjoy a large chunk of The Relic Guild Trilogy (published with kind permission of my publisher Gollancz), complete short stories, the odd poem, one or two blog posts, and samples chapters from my other novels.

Chapter One of a story I started. I'm only posting chapter one to get some feedback so I can see what works and what doesn't. It was a normal assignment: "parent" an egg for two weeks to learn about responsibility. For Kyle, however, the end of the assignment brings about a whole new beginning.

Volume 1: Pickpocketing Living in secret and stealing to eat is a hard life , but it's all Kuro has ever known. Fear and necessity honed him from a young age into the finest young thief in in the wizard kingdoms. Nobody can hide forever, though, and a run of poor luck lands Kuro in a place where his quick hands and quiet feet count for nothing: Avalon Academy, school of magic. Out of his depth and unable to escape, can Kuro find a place among the other misfits at the school, or will his past return to ruin the one chance he has to leave his life in the shadows?