** Hey everyone! Today I have the fabulous Kim Fielding on the blog. Please note that all royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers**
The Sacrifice and Other Stories
by Kim Fielding
A sickly man
seeks recovery in a seaside cottage.
A temple slave tends a man due to be sacrificed.
A soldier releases a genie.
In seven fantasy short stories and novellas, men find passion with other men in
the most unexpected places, and even the gravest circumstances may open the
door to hope and love.
This anthology includes two brand-new short stories. In “The Sacrifice,” Rylo
is a temple slave tasked with comforting a man who is scheduled to be killed in
the morning. In “Chasing Away Cold,” Daku builds an ice sculpture of the god
Jarli in order to ensure the end of winter. The collection also includes three
novellas and two additional short stories, gathered for the first time in a
single volume. “Treasure” introduces Jules, a young man who travels to the
quirky seaside town of Urchin Cove to regain his health—and finds an unexpected
treasure washed up on the beach. Xolani, a soldier in “Three Wishes,” picks up
a small glass bottle and unleashes a surprise. Another soldier, Volos in
“Guarded,” will risk everything to save Prince Berhanu. In the sequel, “Mato’s
Tale,” an unassuming innkeeper gets a chance for adventure. And in “The Downs,”
Enitan is unjustly banished and comes to discover that the demons he must face
aren’t the ones he expected.
Join Kim Fielding on journeys through imagined worlds where magic is
commonplace and romance lies just around the next bend. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Doctors
Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontiers.
***
Available now for preorder from Amazon.
Releases November 27.
***
Kim Fielding
is the bestselling author of numerous m/m romance novels, novellas, and short
stories. Like Kim herself, her work is eclectic, spanning genres such as
contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical. Her stories are set in
alternate worlds, in 15th century Bosnia, in modern-day Oregon. Her heroes are
hipster architect werewolves, housekeepers, maimed giants, and conflicted
graduate students. They’re usually flawed, they often encounter terrible
obstacles, but they always find love.
After having
migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States, Kim
calls the boring part of California home. She lives there with her husband, her
two daughters, and her day job as a university professor, but escapes as often
as possible via car, train, plane, or boat. This may explain why her characters
often seem to be in transit as well. She dreams of traveling and writing
full-time.
You can find
Kim
On Twitter:
@KFieldingWrites
***
***
Excerpt (from
“Chasing Away Cold”):
She knelt, scooped a handful of snow, and stood to hold it before her.
“This is nothing special—simply water that has frozen and melted and frozen
again. But sometimes something very important may come from nothing at all. It
depends on the heart of the maker.” She dropped the snow and pressed her hand
against Daku’s chest. “The contents of a heart can change everything.”
Although he didn’t understand, he nodded. Then he gave her the cup and
turned to complete the ice man.
He took particular care over the face: a narrow chin and broad
cheekbones, far-set eyes with a slight downward tilt at the outside, a strong
nose, and lips stretched in a wide smile. The ice man’s hair was straight,
falling well below his shoulders.
“You’ve made him beautiful,” Yalamay said. Daku couldn’t say whether
she’d gone and returned or had been standing there the entire time.
“He is beautiful. I only… I
only tried to show that.”
Yalamay nodded as if this made perfect sense. “I knew you were the right
one for this.”
Aside from Daku’s mother, people rarely praised him, and Yalamay was
always sparing with her commendations. Daku should have preened under her rare
words. But he was too preoccupied with what he had created. The ice man looked
so real, so joyful. And in a few short hours he would be destroyed.
Daku swallowed with difficulty, but he managed a small smile when Yalamay
patted his back. “Thank you for letting me do this,” he said.
“I won’t always be here, my boy. And none in the tribe but you could make
Jarli so well.”
“Don’t go!” Daku cried, as if she could somehow stop death.
She chuckled. “I am pleased to be appreciated. But Daku, everything
changes eventually. Winter becomes spring becomes summer becomes autumn becomes
winter. Youngsters grow old and babies are born. Even hard stone is worn
away”—she gestured at the rock on which the ice man stood—“but new plants
grow.” She gestured toward the forest. “Someday this world will see changes
that are so far beyond the tribe’s dreaming. But a few things remain unaltered.
Do you know what those things are?”
“The gods?”
Her laughter startled a nearby crow from its branch. “Oh no, my boy. Gods
and goddesses change too. More slowly than humans, perhaps, but no less
inevitably. But the world contains magics even more powerful than gods, and the
strength of those magics never changes. What are they?”
At first his mind was as blank as a fresh layer of snow. But Yalamay
looked at him expectantly, and Daku remembered the conversation he’d had with
his mother earlier in the day. “Love and courage.”
“Very good! There are others too, but I think those are an excellent
start.”
***
