Because the next Rachel Griffin book will not be out for quite a few years ( due to my trying to finish her entire sophomore year and publishing all six books in one year—so readers can read them without forgetting everything that has just happened), I have decided, in the meantime, to release two Regency romances set in the World of the Wise.
The two stories are set six years apart. One follows a young lady from Wales who is the daughter of Lord Wydyr, a scholar of the recently discovered Original Tongue. The other follows the daughter of a Jacobite who was forced to flee to America. With her father now dead, her mother—the daughter of a late Duke of Caledon—brings her to England in the hopes of finding her daughter a better life than she feels they have in rural North Carolina.
Both young women live in the World of the Wise—about a hundred years after all traces of Christianity were removed from the world. They both are trained at enchantment, though not in any of the other Arts—some of which are new to the West at this time. And they both encounter the same humble priest dressed in blue and yellow with a key hanging from his side like a sword—who tells them about a Starmaker, who is nothing like the pagan gods the rest of their society worships.
What they do with this secret lore—that can get their memories wiped if they speak of it too openly—and how they face the difficult, and, sometimes, forbidden, romances they find themselves drawn into makes for two fascinating stories, as one girl finds herself drawn into the orbit of the one lord whose heart no young woman can touch; while the other finds herself pursued by the wildest, most-outrageously bold man in the entire World of the Wise.
Developing these two stories has been very exciting. Ancestors of Rachel Griffin’s, who previously were just names in my notes, are now vibrant characters in their own right. Nor are these just romances. The plots involve a mix of magic and mystery as well, some of which will one day have an impact on Rachel’s experience ( mostly in her junior year.)
The first book, currently titled The Heirs of Reykjavik or Lady Cordelia's Dilemma, begins:
Some problems even magic could not solve. Included among these were the uncertainties that plagued young ladies as they sought their future place in society. Lady Cordelia Featherstone contemplated this as she conversed in French with her maid at the foot of the steps leading up to Gryphon House.
The second book, currently titled The Temptation of Miss Blaire Elcho, begins:
"Now remember, talk as I taught you to and not as we did back home."
I may post more as the books flesh out.
Definitely want to own these!