cmjwallace

Why didn’t I rate my own books? Because the rating would be undeniably biased and therefore meaningless. Of course I’m very fond of them and think they merit 5 stars; they’re mine. But I know that they’re not for everyone and that some people will loathe them unequivocally. That’s just the way it is because we readers bring our own experiences and preferences with us when we travel to other places through the sorcerous portal of words on paper (or e-screens). Sometimes you like where you end up and sometimes you don’t.

You can read others’ opinions of my books on Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads if you’re interested.

Here’s some information that will help you decide whether you want to journey to the world I’ve created:

It’s a cliff-hanger series, but not by design: It grew without my permission. I knew early in the writing that it was going to be far too large for a single book, so I broke it into four full-length volumes at the most amenable places I could find. The second book completes some of the major plot points of the first, and by the end of the fourth book, the entire plot is resolved. I’m planning to offer the series as a single e-book after the fourth one is published, so those who despise unresolved plots can read from beginning to end while remaining dangle-free. (I have to admit that I like discovering series after they’re finished so that I don’t have to wait for the next book to come out. Impatience is a curse.) There will be a fifth and sixth book, but they take place ten years after the close of the fourth. Fear not, cliff-hanger haters!

My writing is like Stephen R. Donaldson’s, particularly his Mordant’s Need series.

The books are genre bending, combining fantasy elements with a murder mystery involving a serial killer and the drug-addicted detective who hunts him.

If you think you might want to explore Carvel and Torvia, read on. The synopsis is below.

A cold-blooded killer lusts for others’ magic. A drug-addicted detective vows to thwart him. Dragged into a dangerous homicide investigation, Andrin Sethuel alone stands between the killer’s murderous desires and his future victims’ salvation, a kingdom’s freedom and its enslavement.

Andrin has survived a childhood that should have destroyed him. Slavers brutally murdered his parents in front of him, ripped him away from everything he knew, and addicted him to drugs. The aftermath leaves him warring against hostility, prejudice, and suspicion on every front. And it leaves him entrenched in self-loathing. Yet despite the odds, he becomes head of the Torvian kingdom’s criminal investigative forces.

Andrin speculates that the killer scythes magic from his victims to reap power and augment his burgeoning might, but such a capability is unthinkable. And wielding spells without a catalyst should be impossible. Yet irrefutably, the killer is wrenching his victims’ craft away with his own unimaginable sorcery, growing more powerful and treacherous with each successive murder.

While Andrin struggles to expose the murderer and his search for the killer turns into a fight for his life, lies and duplicity threaten to rip his only friend from him—and she’s keeping a secret that could be the key to solving the murders. Andrin is forced to choose between his friend and his duty, and ultimately between his king and a betrayal that will save his country from a ruthless conqueror’s invasion.

Why didn’t I rate my own books? Because the rating would be undeniably biased and therefore meaningless. Of course I’m very fond of them and think they merit 5 stars; they’re part of me. But I know that they’re not for everyone and that some people will loathe them unequivocally. That’s just the way it is because we readers bring our own experiences and preferences with us when we travel to other places through the sorcerous portal of words on paper. Sometimes you like where you end up and sometimes you don’t.

You can read others’ opinions of my books on Amazon, Smashwords, and Goodreads if you’re interested.

Here’s some information that will help you decide whether you want to journey to the world I’ve created:

It’s a cliff-hanger series, but not by design: It grew without my permission. I knew early in the writing that it was going to be far too large for a single book, so I broke it into four full-length volumes at the most amenable places I could find. The second book completes some of the major plot points of the first, and by the end of the fourth book, the entire plot is resolved. I’m planning to offer the series as a single e-book after the fourth one is published, so those who despise unresolved plots can read from beginning to end while remaining dangle-free. (I have to admit that I like discovering series after they’re finished so that I don’t have to wait for the next book to come out. Impatience is a curse.) There will be a fifth and sixth book, but they take place ten years after the close of the fourth. Fear not, cliff-hanger haters!

My writing is like Stephen R. Donaldson’s, particularly his Mordant’s Need series.

The books are genre bending, combining fantasy elements with a murder mystery involving a serial killer and the drug-addicted detective who hunts him.

If you think you might want to explore Carvel and Torvia, read on. The synopsis is below.

A cold-blooded killer lusts for others’ magic. A drug-addicted detective vows to thwart him. Dragged into a dangerous homicide investigation, Andrin Sethuel alone stands between the killer’s murderous desires and his future victims’ salvation, a kingdom’s freedom and its enslavement.

Andrin has survived a childhood that should have destroyed him. Slavers brutally murdered his parents in front of him, ripped him away from everything he knew, and addicted him to drugs. The aftermath leaves him warring against hostility, prejudice, and suspicion on every front. And it leaves him entrenched in self-loathing. Yet despite the odds, he becomes head of the Torvian kingdom’s criminal investigative forces.

Andrin speculates that the killer scythes magic from his victims to reap power and augment his burgeoning might, but such a capability is unthinkable. And wielding spells without a catalyst should be impossible. Yet irrefutably, the killer is wrenching his victims’ craft away with his own unimaginable sorcery, growing more powerful and treacherous with each successive murder.

While Andrin struggles to expose the murderer and his search for the killer turns into a fight for his life, lies and duplicity threaten to rip his only friend from him—and she’s keeping a secret that could be the key to solving the murders. Andrin is forced to choose between his friend and his duty, and ultimately between his king and a betrayal that will save his country from a ruthless conqueror’s invasion.

Books in the Rift series:

Sing the Midnight Stars (book 1)
Flight of Shadows (book 2)
This Darkling Magic (book 3)
This Strange Magic (book 4; to be released in late 2013 or early 2014)