If you follow my posts or tweets, you may have noticed a recent theme of mine, and that is punching Nazis. I am unequivocally in favor of it. There are plenty of people who are better at explaining why Nazis need punching, but suffice it to say, I don’t believe in tolerating intolerance. Anyone calling for the genocide of others has already thrown the first punch. |
My ancestors came from Sweden and the British Isles, so Vikings are in my blood. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always found them so fascinating. My hero in The Dragon’s Hunt, Leo Ström, is a Viking warrior lost in time. And as I discovered along with Leo, the gods of the Vikings suffer from an unfortunate association with certain deplorable groups in the modern age. I’ve recently begun to embrace my Norse heritage, and, like Leo, I don’t take kindly to having anyone pervert that heritage for their own racist agenda.
In a
way, writing The Dragon’s Hunt was a
way of reclaiming Norse symbolism. It was also a catharsis. The villain in Hunt is a bonafide Nazi from the Third
Reich, a "Red Skull," if you will, who’s used magic to prolong his life. And he’s
also obsessed with Norse mythology. Through Leo (and Rhea, the heroine), I got
to experience the satisfaction of punching Nazis.
As
it happens, my publisher surprised me with the finished cover art for Hunt just as the Nazis were marching on
Charlottsville, where their violent ideology resulted in the murder of activist Heather Heyer. It’s too late to add an official
dedication to The Dragon’s Hunt, but
Heather, this one’s for you.
The Dragon's Hunt
Coming December 5, 2017
Awakening the dragon...
By
day, Leo Ström works as an assistant in a tattoo parlor. By night… Well, he
isn’t quite sure what happens at night. He just knows that it’s best if he
restrains himself.
Ink
is more than just superficial decoration to Rhea Carlisle. Her ability to read
her clients’ souls in their tattoos gives her work its special magic—and it
allows her to see that there’s more to Leo than his brilliant blue eyes.
The
passion that kindles between them might be Leo’s salvation. Or it might be the
end of the world…
Available for pre-order now from the following vendors:
Excerpt:
Blood
ran into his eyes as he struggled to his feet. The groans of the maimed and the
dying around him were eclipsed by the battle cries of his comrades who
remained, and by the crack of iron against leather and wood—and against flesh
and bone. They never should have followed their enemy into the woods. They’d
been set upon by forces they couldn’t count, swarming out from behind every
tree and every rock like a band of brigands, surrounding them with no room to
maneuver, no way to stand in shield formation. It quickly became every man for
himself.
Through
the blood and mud caking his vision, he caught sight of the sudden arc of a battle-axe
swinging down on him from his left. He’d lost his shield, and he turned and
parried with his sword, but he’d taken a fierce blow to his sword arm from the
last man he’d killed, and he stumbled back under the force, pain radiating like
fire through his arm to the shoulder. The next swing from his opponent’s axe he
couldn’t evade, and the blade caught him under the ribs, hooking in the links
of his hauberk. He prayed to the Allfather as he went down that he might take
one more enemy with him as he died. Let him die an honorable death. The axe
descended, and he summoned all his strength, thrusting his sword to meet the
bastard’s gut as his enemy fell on him.
The
blade should have split his skull. He thought he’d felt the blow. But he was
blind as a newborn kitten in the muck and mud. And then he realized he must
have gone deaf as well. Silence fell over him like an oncoming bank of fog,
muting the clangs and cries, engulfing him in an utter lack of sensation.
Perhaps he’d died. But this was no Valhalla. This was…nothing. Had Odin not
chosen him after all? Could this be Fólkvangr, the field of the slain in
Freyja’s domain? Or was he in cold and empty Helheim? Surely he’d not been
consigned to the Shore of Corpses. He was no oath-breaker; and murder—it didn’t
count in war.
A
hand, cool and feminine, touched his forehead. Perhaps this was only the
in-between place where warriors waited for the Valkyries to come for them. He
tried to clasp the hand but found he couldn’t make his limbs work. A cool kiss
now brushed his forehead.
“Beautiful
one.” The whisper at his ear was a soothing breeze, quieting the fire in his
veins with the beauty of its cadence. “You shall not die.”
Was
he to go back out to the battle? He must be in the tent being tended by his
father’s slave girl. He’d lost consciousness.
“Did
I kill him?” His voice came out in not much more of a whisper than his
benefactor’s, though much rougher. His throat still felt the fire that had
eased from the rest of him. A fever, no doubt, had taken him. He’d lain
delirious and was only now coming around. Yes, this made sense. “Did I send my
foe to Hel?”
“You
were victorious. And I have claimed you.”
Before
he could ask her to repeat the odd phrase, a searing pain encircled his heart,
not fire this time, but the burn of ice, accompanied by the sensation of pins
and needles in the flesh of his forearms. He could neither move nor speak, and
the pain was becoming intense.
“Hush,
beautiful one. Now they cannot have you.”
“They?”
He managed to croak out the single word, though his tongue felt like wool
batting.
Soft
lips breathed against his. “That Which Became, That Which is Happening, That
Which Must Become.”
5 comments:
I agree with you about punching Nazis. Not that it would do much good. Nothing is going to change their minds about white supremacy. But if you get a sense of catharsis from writing about defeating them, that's great. Your new story sounds terrific. BTW, if you want to guest on my blog when it comes out, let me know.
Wow- what a fabulous cover!
I definitely liked how Wonder Woman punched some Nazis. :) Great cover!
Thanks, guys! I love the cover too. Leo is my favorite of the Carlisle sisters' beaux because he has more brawn than brains. Ha!
Thanks, Diane, I may take you up on that. :)
I can agree with punching Nazis. And some other bigots :)
Awesome cover; and excerpt.
Post a Comment