Stepping Into a New World
If you’ve followed me through the Sophie Feegle series, you know I love urban fantasy—snarky heroines, grumpy love interests, and supernatural creatures hiding in modern cities. But I’ve always had a love for epic fantasy too, and the Kingdom of Erishum has been brewing in my imagination for years.
This trilogy is different from what I’ve written before, but it still has everything I love to include: a heroine who refuses to give up, a slow-burn romance with a wonderfully grumpy male lead, and found family forged in the most desperate circumstances.
Welcome to Erishum
The Kingdom of Erishum was once a land of power and plenty. Ancient magic flowed through the blood of its rulers, and the lands beyond its borders teemed with life.
Now those lands are dead.
Beyond the massive border wall lies the Dying Wilds – a corrupted, blackened wasteland of gnarled trees and creeping fog, home to monstrous creatures called hyva whose eerie cries echo through the night. The wall is all that stands between the kingdom and annihilation. Inside it, the nobility hide in their gilded towers while the common people struggle to survive. And at the very bottom of society – lower than farmers, lower than servants –are the mudlarks.
Meet Nyssa
A mudlark is someone who scavenges the riverbanks for anything of value. Pottery shards, smoke pipes, scraps of metal – anything that can be sold for enough coin to survive another day. Our heroine, Nyssa, has known nothing else. She has no family that claims her, no status, and only one dream keeping her going: saving enough coin to buy an apprenticeship with the baker’s guild and trade in her mud-streaked existence for good.
Until she finds something in the mud that changes everything.
A mysterious golden instrument from a kingdom that shouldn’t exist draws the attention of very powerful people. In the Kingdom of Erishum, that kind of attention is rarely good.
What You’ll Find in This Trilogy
- An underdog heroine who rises from nothing through sheer determination and fierce loyalty
- A childhood bond with a former fellow mudlark turned soldier that may become something more
- Found family among society’s outcasts and survivors
- Dark fantasy world-building with ancient magic and deadly politics
- Monsters in the wilds called hyva that will haunt your dreams
- An epic scope that spans a kingdom fighting for survival
The Weird and Wonderful Goes Epic
Even though this is epic fantasy instead of urban fantasy, you’ll still find my love for the weird and wonderful woven throughout. The Kingdom of Erishum has its own strange creatures, its own dark corners, and its own brand of magic that comes with a terrible price.
And of course, there’s romance – the seeds of it, at least. A bond forged in the mud between two kids who had nothing but each other, tested by distance, duty, and sacrifice. Trust me, this slow burn is going to be worth the wait.
A Complete Story
Here’s something exciting: I’m planning to release all three books of the trilogy within a year. By the time you finish Mudlark and are desperate for more, The Gutter Shrike and The Dying Wilds won’t be far behind.
No waiting years between installments. The complete journey from mudlark to hero, from dying wilds to (hopefully) salvation.
Where to Find It
Mudlark is available now on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats. It’s also in Kindle Unlimited for KU subscribers!
Have you ever felt like you were starting from nothing? Like the odds were stacked against you? This trilogy is for everyone who has ever had to rise from the mud.