The Name Of The Sword (Book 4) (39 page)

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Karen for fixing all my dotted t’s and crossed i’s, and for both supporting my dream and being my most valuable critic, Kelley Eskridge for helping me turn an ok manuscript into something I can be really proud of, and Steve Himes, and the whole team at Telemachus, for getting a quality product out the door.

Other Books by J. L. Doty

A Choice of Treasons
(hard science fiction)

To save himself he first had to save two empires . . . but when he tried, his found his options limited to a choice of treasons.

As a lifer in the Imperial Navy, York Ballin’s only hope at an honorable discharge is the grave. Matters only get worse when he finds himself deep behind enemy lines on a commandeered imperial cruiser without a trained crew, commanded by an incompetent nobleman, with the empress and 200 civilians as passengers, and everyone hell-bent on turning them into a cloud of radioactive vapor.

The Thirteenth Man
(hard science fiction)

Beware the curse of the thirteenth man, for should he not fall, all may fall before him.

Charlie Cass returns from five years in a squalid POW camp to find the nine Dukes and the King conspiring against each other, and plotting with Charlie’s old enemies. As interstellar war looms, he’s forced to assume the mantle of the thirteenth Duke de Lunis, who, according to legend, is destined to fall beneath the headsman’s ax. But if he can survive the headsman, all may fall before him.

Child of the Sword
, Book 1 of
The Gods Within
(epic fantasy)

When gods and wizards go to war . . . it’s best to just find a good shadow and hide.

Rat is no ordinary thief. A filthy and malnourished, feral child; he survives on what he can steal. But he creates his own shadows and hides within them, though he’s completely unaware of his use of magic. When a clan of powerful wizards see his shadowmagic they adopt him, because they want such magic in the clan. Perhaps that’s a good thing for Rat, as long as they don’t kill him in the process.

The SteelMaster of Indwallin
, Book 2 of
The Gods Within
(epic fantasy)

Can one ever rule both the steel within, and the shadows without?

When Morgin’s sword goes berserk and wants to butcher everyone at the annual meeting of the Lesser Council, he’s barely able to control its rabid bloodlust. But the Lesser Council declares him an outlaw for bringing such a dangerous talisman onto the Mortal Plane. So with a price on his head he goes on the run, a wizard without power always just one step ahead of the next bounty hunter.

The Heart of the Sands
, Book 3 of
The Gods Within
(epic fantasy)

Only when the steel no longer rules can the shadows within be mastered.

Now a Benesh’ere slave, every whiteface in the tribe hungers for Morgin’s death. But he is Harriok’s property, and while Harriok remains in a coma, a victim of the venom of the sand cat’s sixth claw, the warriors wait and bide their time. As Morgin accompanies them on the March, an affinity for steel is slowly awakening within him, and he truly fears the truths his growing knowledge may reveal.

When Dead Ain’t Dead Enough
, Book 1 of
The Dead Among Us
(contemporary fantasy)

The dead should ever rest in peace, but when dead ain’t dead enough, the living should fear for their mortal souls.

Paul Conklin is a rather ordinary, thirtyish fellow, sharing his ordinary, present-day San Francisco apartment with the ghosts of his dead wife and daughter. Suzanna’s cooking for him again, and Cloe’s bouncing around the apartment in her school uniform, and things are almost back to normal. But a piece of Paul realizes he’s really bug-fuck nuts, or at least that’s what he thinks. He has no idea that a Primus caste demon from the Netherworld covets his soul, and that he’s going to have to take a crash course in killing big, bad hoodoo demons, or lose his soul for all eternity.

Still Not Dead Enough
, Book 2 of
The Dead Among Us
(contemporary fantasy)

When the dead refuse to rest in peace, perhaps they just need a helping hand.

Now that it’s clear Paul isn’t a demon, he hopes he’ll no longer be a target, but he quickly learns otherwise. The Russians want him dead on general principal. The Sidhe have no souls, so they’re not really alive, and Paul may have added power over them, which they don’t like. And the Summer Knight, Anogh, is pulling strings in the background, manipulating everything concerning Paul and Katherine.

Note: sample chapters for all of these books are available on the author’s web site at
www.jldoty.com
.

About the Author

Jim was born in Seattle, but he’s lived most of his life in California, though he did live on the east coast and in Europe for a while. From a very early age he made up stories in his head, but he never considered writing. In his family you went to college, got a degree in something useful and got a real job. So he got a Ph.D. in optical engineering, and went to work as a research scientist. But he was still making up those stories in his head, so he wrote the first draft of
A Choice of Treasons
, and as he says, “It was 250,000 words of pure, unmitigated crap.” He openly admits it was terrible: poorly written, poorly plotted, shallow characters that no reader could come to care about. It was the hardest decision he ever made, but he literally threw it away and turned to other projects. He spent more than a year writing the first draft of
Child of the Sword
. Then he went back to
A Choice of Treasons
and started again, from scratch, a complete rewrite from the get-go. He worked on it for several years before releasing it, and also spent some years putting
Child of the Sword
through a number of rewrites to insure quality.

Science has always been a passion of Jim’s, but writing is an addiction. He’s finished eight books now, and is working on a prequel to
A Choice of Treasons
, and the third book in
The Dead Among Us
.

Jim has a big pet peeve regarding lasers as weapons in science fiction. He spent decades working in the laser and electro-optics industry, even did some research on laser weapons in the 80’s. And when writers use a laser as a weapon in a story, they invariably get it wrong, usually by violating some basic law of physics.

Jim intends to keep on writing and producing more stories, but no laser weapons.

Visit the author’s website at
http://www.jldoty.com

Contact the author at
[email protected]

Follow the author on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/@JL_Doty