What Is and Could Be (Could Be #1)
Timothy Wright’s life revolves around stories. Ever since he had his accident, books have been his only window to the outside. The characters inside are family—he’s sailed the high seas in quest of a white whale, plunged through rabbit holes, and been scolded by the ghost of Christmas present. But when a cheerful Veridan maid comes into his family’s employment, he begins to remember that life could be more than what happens between the pages of his books. In fact, it may be that of all the adventures he’s called home, the most frightening, exhilarating, and rewarding one is yet to come. The Timekeeper's Daughter
This is a short story available in the anthology Timely. Ticking. It’s all that Annora Prevoir has heard since the day that the Author gave her the unwanted gift. No matter what she does, sleeping or waking, the passage of time echoes inside her head. Most suppose that her gift is particularly well-suited to her job as Royal Timekeeper, but it doesn’t tell her what to do about the drought lowering the river that powers the Clock’s water wheel. For centuries, the people of Epoque Pacifique have looked to the Clock to tell them how to regulate their day. But Annora can’t stop the shrinking river, or the ticking that haunts her every waking moment. To Live and To Breathe (Could Be #2)
Timothy Wright spends his days reading, writing, and arguing with his favorite parrot. But sometimes, scraping out a living at the nearest newspaper leaves him feeling more drained than rewarded. He wants to write stories about the things that matter, not news articles about the latest fluctuation in fruit prices. But when an aspiring doctor trying to fund his education on a reporter’s salary appeals to him for help keeping his job, Timothy finds himself drawn into a web of murder, intrigue, and dark family secrets that leave him wondering at the difference between living and breathing—and whether he’ll ever have the courage to do the things that frighten him. Eye of the Storm (Warriors of Aralan Eight)
Josiah thought that he had seen the last of his hypocritical family members. The abandoned wilds of Linfort suit him just fine, and learning to work with his hands has brought him more satisfaction than executing a new sword-fighting move ever did. But when a herald is chased into Linfort by a pack of wolves, Josiah is disturbed from his peaceful monotony and once again set on an adventure that will change his life. Will he be able to cross the Eastern Sea in time to find the cure for his brother’s illness, or will Aralan lose its only heir? Warriors of Aralan Anthology
A collection of short stories taking place during three different periods of Aralan's history available to newsletter subscribers. Norwynnd's Towers When a mysterious war captain comes to terrorize the small northern village of Norwynnd, Soren and his sister Bryn realize that only they hold the key for fighting him off. But will Norwynnd listen to their far-fetched tale in time to save themselves from the enemy? Son of Mercy Ben would like nothing better than to while away the summer hours under a convenient shade tree, but Mercy has other plans. When she suggests hosting their very own Tournament of Warriors, no one could have foreseen the mystery that follows. His Favorite Rakkaus Story As far as Emory and Elias are concerned, Rakkaus is the most glorious day of the year. There will be feasting, and racing, and dancing, and Elias doesn't want to miss a single minute of it. But when the basket of sweets their mother charged them with goes missing, one mishap after the other ensues. Journey to Freedom (Warriors of Aralan Seven)
Josiah is a prince... albeit one that has just about had it with his hypocritical parents and grandparents, the ruling family of Aralan. Sure, he's not that much different than they are, really—but when they turn down a small country's plea for help in an oncoming war, Josiah is furious. A full one-eighth of his blood comes from that country, and he can't believe his ears when they send the emissaries away without a promise of assistance. So he flees the castle, hires a cook to feed him in his travels, and breathes the free forest air for the first time in his twenty-one years of life. Sleeps on the ground for the first time in his life. And argues—constantly—with the most stubborn cook he's ever met in his life. Emma is not one to take orders quietly, despite coming from the poorest part of Freymont; a stark contrast with her sweet-tempered, eleven-year-old sister named Hadassah. Add in Josiah's crazy hermit uncle, a pair of mischievous identical twins, an unheard-of amount of sass, a war of epic proportions, and a betrayal or two—and you have a Journey to Freedom. Healing Scars (Warriors of Aralan Six)
For once, Allister's life is good—very good. The villagers of Linfort have accepted him as their own, allowing him to teach some of their children how to throw knives. He's happily married, and he and his wife are expecting their first child. With a history like his, that fact makes Allister nervous, but he knows he'll be a good father as long as he has his wife at his side. But when she dies unexpectedly, leaving him with a son to raise on his own, Allister's world is turned upside-down. The situation his hauntingly like his own upbringing—a single father struggling to raise an only son after his wife's untimely death, but Allister can't bear the thought of turning into his father. It doesn't help matters when Ben, his son, begins to go down the same path of lying and thievery that Allister did in his younger years, and just when he thought it couldn't get much worse, an old enemy reappears. Can Allister get his son's attention in time to stop him from doing real damage, or will the enemy triumph in the end? Freedom from the Darkness (Warriors of Aralan Six)
[Currently being combined with A Light in the Shadows] Winter can seem like an eternity with the knowledge that there are slaves in the southern quarter suffering and dying without any hope of rescue. It's even worse when you're one of the few that knows they can help—if only spring would come and free Linfort from its icy grasp. Such are the sentiments of Allister and his friends, who set out to rescue the slaves as soon as the weather warms. It's a pretty straightforward mission: go to the southern quarter, amass an army, and attack the wooden compound that keeps the slaves penned around the Pretiosum mines they work in. But then Allister is plagued by nightmares of his past before Linfort, memories that weaken him to such a state that he can hardly function. Rhoslyn, Bradyn, and Ava would all be more than willing to help him, if he'd only tell them what's troubling him, but he won't. After all, why should he bother them with a few childish bad dreams? He just needs to grow up, and know that the past is in the past. The only problem is that winning the war of the mind is something that Allister has always struggled with. A Light in the Shadows (Warriors of Aralan Five)
[Currently being combined with Freedom from the Darkness] It's been two years since Allister first came to Linfort. Two wonderful, peaceful, stress-free years, in which his faith in a saving God has done nothing but grow. In fact his life had made such a drastic change from bad to good, that some days he was able to forget the horror he had experienced under his father's brutal rule. He was a different person now—a person that would follow his cousin Rhoslyn and their friend Bradyn to Freymont to watch them compete in the Tournament of Warriors for the first time. After the competition they were to head to Greenhurst in the southern quarter, where they would meet Rhoslyn's parents, who were there visiting Silas and Edyth. Really, what could go wrong? Never mind the fact that Allister had been feeling uneasy about the trip to Greenhurst ever since arriving in Freymont. And that strange bend in the route shown on their map? Whatever that was about, if they followed the curve, they should be fine. Unfortunately, not even the residents of the southern quarter knew of the evil that lurked in their very own woods. Finding Hope (Warriors of Aralan Four)
Branwen’s fourteen-year-old daughter Rhoslyn, is intrigued when she comes home one day to find three strangers in the house, arguing with her parents. Who are these men? Two of them appear to be the same age as her father, but one of them is younger—much younger, about her age. He turns out to be Allister, Rhoslyn’s cousin, and he with his father and uncle have come all the way from Norwynnd. Needless to say, Rhoslyn and her best friend Bradyn get off to a bad start with Allister when they find him unusually secretive, and instead of deterring Rhoslyn with his bad attitude, Allister unwittingly encourages her curiosity. She knows he has a secret, and she’d determined to find out what it is. To complicate matters, a dark-skinned man from Calima, Aralan’s closest neighboring country, appears the day after Rhoslyn’s relatives, bringing with him a new religion, and it looks like he’s going to be there a while due to his broken leg. While he’s there he insists on telling others about his faith, and Rhoslyn doesn’t know what to think. Why is her cousin so secretive? Why does this man from Calima think she needs God? And most of all, why have her relatives from Norwynnd come to Linfort now, after all these years? Fires in the Night (Warriors of Aralan Three)
It's been six years since Branwen first brought Quintin to Linfort, and now they're married with two delightful little girls. Both of them would like nothing more than to continue the life of peace they've started, but unfortunately that is not to be when villages in the northern and western quarters of Aralan begin to be ruined by mysterious fires. No one knows who is setting them, because no one is ever left alive after an attack, and it seems Linfort is soon to be targeted. To make matters worse, Quintin disappears while on a trip to warn King Thomas of the threat to his country, leaving Branwen alone when Linfort is in its hour of need. Where has Quintin gone? Who are the attackers? Why are they destroying so much of Aralan, and who's behind it all? Beyond the Mountain (Warriors of Aralan Two)
Branwen thought her previous adventure to the North Mountain had been her last—after all, Captain Gavel's fortress had collapsed after she and the three others rescued the necessary crowns. She thought that she'd get to see Edyth, Quintin and Silas at the annual Tournament of Warriors for only a few days each year. But most of all, the last thing she expected was to ever go beyond the North Mountain... and that's exactly what she did. When the young princess went missing during the last night of the Tournament, the king and queen turned to the four faithful heroes to rescue the kidnapped child. And that’s how Branwen found herself caught up in yet another once-in-a-lifetime journey, headed north—this time, beyond the mountain. Branwen's Quest (Warriors of Aralan One)
When the royal herald came announcing a mandatory Tournament of Warriors, Branwen was the last one to get excited. Sure, she was a good enough archer, but why should she be forced to go to the tournament just because the king said so? She had nothing to prove! Yet when she got there her competitive spirit took over and she succeeded—enough so that she was singled out by the king to take a difficult journey with three others who were as different as night and day from each other. Why? To recover the king and queen's missing crowns. Will they ever be able to overcome their differences and get along to complete their mission, or will they fall prey to an unexpected danger posed from within? Tè Nan Lezar
Taryn and Christopher Paxton, a brother and sister team, are the two most-wanted rebels in the entire country of Arcor, but when they get caught they are thrown into a time machine that takes them back thousands of years to the Land of the Dinosaurs. Neither one of them know what to expect, least of all to find a legend named Oliver Frader there. He, previously a museum curator, had also been a rebel, up until he was thrown into the time machine created especially for him twenty years earlier. Together the three must endure both mental and physical hardship in order to escape Tè Nan Lezar alive and return to Arcor and free it from its Age of Tyranny. |