Quarters eBooks!

Back in 1993, I wrote a book called Sing the Four Quarters.  Well, okay, fine, I actually wrote a book called The Pregnant Bard Book because I'm terrible at titles and at about the three quarter mark of any book, Sheila Gilbert, my editor at DAW, and I sit down and throw ideas around for a title until something good sticks, but the point I'm trying to make is that the book I wrote in 1993 came out in 1994 as Sing the Four Quarters.  It's a heroic, created world fantasy about bards and conspiracies and consequences and it had a beautiful Jody Lee cover and I was very proud of it.  In 1995 Fifth Quarter came out.  The same mythos but not a direct sequel. I moved south into the Empire and told the story of Vree and Bannon, Imperial Army Assassins. (or as I said to Jody when she called to talk about the cover, "Think of them as Imperial Roman Ninjas.") In book two, we're talking bards and betrayal and the walking dead. In 1996 Vree and Bannon went north and intersected with the first book in No Quarter and in 1999, I sent one of my bards across the sea to discover a new world in The Quartered Sea  -- which I felt I had to write not only because I had a really great idea and wanted to play around with an intersection of religon and politics but also because I'd come up with the title and, given how terrible I am at titles, didn't want to waste it.

Now, one of the reasons I mentioned the publication dates of all four books is so you can understand that they were pre-ebooks and so there was nothing about ebooks in the contracts. Ammending contracts for older books not only takes a long time because the wheels of contract law run slowly (the vague quote I'm making here would insist on saying "runs slow" but while I'm usually all for breaking the laws of grammer, I just can't do it)  but also because new books are prioritized.  Unfortunately, there's only 24 hours in a day.

So, year after year, I'd be asked, "Are the Quarters books available in ebook yet?"

And I'd have to say, "No, not yet."

Well, I can stop saying that now.  As of today, August 4th, you can download (legally, so that my cats don't starve) Sing the Four Quarters. In September, Fifth Quarter. In October, No Quarter. And finally in November, The Quartered Sea. (pre-ordering is available for the later three)(if I'd been more on top of this, you could've pre ordered Sing the Four Quarters too... some of you did anyway. Thank you!)

Annice is a rare talent, able to Sing all four quarters, but her brother, the newly enthroned King Theron, sees her request to study at the Bardic Hall as a betrayal. To his surprise, Annice accepts his conditions, renouncing her royal blood and swearing to remain childless so as not to jeopardize the line of succession. She walks away from political responsibilities, royal privilege and her family.

Ten years later, Annice has become the Princess Bard and her real life is about to become the exact opposite of the overwrought ballad her fellow students at the Bardic Hall wrote about her. Now, she's on the run from the Royal Guards with the Duc of Ohrid, the father of her unborn child, both of them guilty of treason – one of them unjustly accused. To save the Duc's life, they'll have to cross the country, manage to keep from strangling each other, and defeat an enemy too damaged for even a Bard's song to reach."

"Trained to kill from childhood, siblings Bannon and Vree have only known life as assassins in the Imperial Army. The army is both their mother and father, their lives subject to the whims of the Crown.

When their latest target steals Bannon's body for his own, Vree saves her brother by dragging his spirit in to share hers. But two assassins in one body is one assassin too many. To save both their lives, they must abandon the only life they’ve known, risking Imperial ire and possible execution, to regain Bannon’s body. It isn't until after they capture Gyhard, the body thief, that they realize they can't force him to do anything while he holds Bannon's body hostage.

But Gyhard is willing to trade Bannon's body for their assistance. All they have to do – while being hunted for desertion and dealing with an unknown power able to Sing the dead out of the grave – is betray the oaths they've lived by and help Gyhard secure the body of an Imperial Prince."

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Okay, that's books one and two... but as I think the cover copy of book three gives away the ending of book two, I'm going to wait for October to post about No Quarter and Fifth Quarter.  Or you could preorder using the links provided and find out for yourself but that's on you, not me. You're adults. Your choice.


Links!