A Conspiracy of Magic Series On Sale!

Just a quick note to let people know The Raven Spell and The Raven Song e-books are both on sale during the entire month of July in the U.S. market. Good time to pick up the complete series if you’ve been curious to read this one! (Amazon)

The Raven Spell:

In Victorian England a witch and a detective are on the hunt for a serial killer in an enthralling novel of magic and murder by the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of The Vine Witch.

After a nearly fatal blow to the skull, traumatized private detective Ian Cameron is found dazed and confused on a muddy riverbank in Victorian London. Among his effects: a bloodstained business card bearing the name of a master wizard and a curious pocket watch that doesn’t seem to tell time. To retrieve his lost memories, Ian demands answers from Edwina and Mary Blackwood, sister witches with a murky past. But as their secret is slowly unveiled, a dangerous mystery emerges on the darkened streets of London.

To help piece together Ian’s lost time, he and Edwina embark on a journey that will take them from the river foreshore to an East End music hall, and on to a safe house for witches in need of sanctuary from angry mortals. The clues they find suggest a link between a series of gruesome murders, a missing person’s case, and a dreadful suspicion that threatens to tear apart the bonds of sisterhood. As the investigation deepens, could Ian and Edwina be the next to die?

The Raven Song:

Forever untangling the branches of her strange family tree, Edwina Blackwood is at a turning point. Her parents’ disappearances still strike her as unaccountably odd. Her sister’s questionable life and untimely death have left her shaken. Spellfire has transformed her home and livelihood to ash. And now a devious stalker is on her trail. With supernatural detective Ian Cameron by her side, Edwina can’t get out of London fast enough.

Gaining safe passage, she finds refuge with Sir Henry Elvanfoot, famed wizard of the north, and is promised protection from ill-aimed curses. But in this unfamiliar city of fair folk and witches, where the veil between Earth and the Otherworld is about to be lifted, something is amiss. How else to explain Edwina’s sudden prophetic visions? Or the fear that surviving whoever pursues her will require the powers of an ancient bloodline she’s only beginning to comprehend?

Whatever destiny awaits, it’s Edwina’s to finally control. Where will it lead? Only time, cunning, and magic—in this world or the Other—will tell.

More Hungarian Publishing News!

Continuing today with more Hungarian publishing news...

I'm happy to share the Hungarian cover for THE CONJURER!! Again, they went with the original cover concept with a few minor tweaks to make it their own. Still such a beauty!

This is the third book in THE VINE WITCH trilogy and will be out on July 15th for readers in Hungary!!

And, of course, it's always available on Amazon in English for everyone else. You can usually catch the ebook on sale at a good discount if you're patient.

*Scam Alert: Imitation the Sincerest Form of Flattery?

Doesn’t feel like flattery when someone is impersonating you on social media. Just a heads up that someone on Facebook is posing as me at the moment and contacting other authors, and likely not in a flattering way. I’m not on Facebook. Never have been. Never will be. Apologies to anyone who followed or interacted with this account believing it was me.

*Update: I’ve learned this person is trying to sell marketing “advice” to authors on Facebook. Please don’t engage with any account on Facebook using my name. They are imposters. If you are contacted by them, please report the account as fraudulent. Thank you!

**While we’re here, I also did not employ ghost writers to pen any of my novels despite various websites claiming just that. They, too, are only after your money and will do nothing for your writing career or help you get published.

— Luanne

Did You Notice?

The Vine Witch e-book is on sale on Amazon for a limited time in the U.S. right now, so I thought it might be a good time to share a little insider info on the books in the series.

Okay, so my very first literary crush was on Shakespeare. I was in high school, and most of the accomplished authors I was reading were doing impressive summersaults with their words, but Shakespeare's writing was on a Cirque du Soleil-level of ability for me.

And while it was maybe a little self-indulgent of me to do so, with The Vine Witch trilogy I set out to give homage to Shakespeare for inspiring me to become a writer and lifelong lover of words.

None of the novels are retellings, but there are scenes and words sprinkled into the novels that are simply there because of my love of his plays. In this case Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. All three plays contained elements of fantasy already, so it was a natural fit for me.

For example, In The Vine Witch, there’s a reason a witch’s tavern in the French countryside has an English name. Grimalkin & Paddock (cat and toad) are two of the three witches from Macbeth. There’s also an encounter with a pair of “weird sisters”, a little "hurly-burly" on the road, and a theme of murder and deep-seated betrayal.

In The Glamourist, the connections are a little more apparent. Yvette grew up in a cabaret named Le Reve, which means the dream in French. Her whole life has been a dream basically. And then (*spoiler) she discovers her mixed heritage includes a famous name from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

And The Conjurer is a classic tale of forbidden love and miscommunication. There's also an odd character in the novel who is based on Queen Mab, the tiny fairy that invades men's dreams according to Mercutios's speech:

"She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;"

There are other examples, but those novels are my little homage to Shakespeare. Did you notice?