Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2015 is your best year yet!

This year, I’m planning to write more short stories set both in Cadaeren and in Alepago. I quite enjoyed playing with the new Cadaerian duo of Wittanruahk and Tempest, his magical loon, and hope to write more adventures about them in the future. Want a teaser? Here’s the first couple of paragraphs from my newest short story: Witt and Wind and the Bloody Solstice Stealer!

***

“You know what I love about the Festival of Balance, Tempest?” Witt asked the loon floating near his shoulder. Or, more accurately, floating in a half-sphere of water suspended near his shoulder in midair. Their ability to carry their own lakes with them was one of the Shamainis Lake loons’ more peculiar attributes.

Tempest, however, was even more peculiar than most. You? he replied directly to Witt’s mind, looking up from preening his wing-feathers. Amusement glinted in his intelligent sapphire eyes. I’d guess the free-flowing ale that inclines the peasantry to actually laugh at your jokes.

“Very funny.”

But entirely accurate.

“Fine. Besides that.” Witt took his bearings as he spoke, spinning in a circle in the knee-deep snow the two of them had just materialized into. The afternoon sun reflected blindingly off snow-covered fields in three directions, and off a large snow-covered hill to the south. A small town was nestled at the base of the hill: Snowhaven, the birthplace of the three most popular winter solstice carols in Cadaeren. Assuming, of course, that Lord Yaretzin’s ruahks hadn’t played a practical joke on him by giving him directions to the wrong tiny peasant town in the middle of nowhere.

Not that it mattered to Witt. Whether the town was Snowhaven or not, there would be something there worth seeing, hearing, exploring, or exploding. There always had been, in the five years since he had earned his white sash and set out on his own. It kept life interesting.

***

Have a wonderful week, everyone! Happy 2015!