Nadia Moran Just Wouldn’t Quit
Today I want to write about the history of my CLOAK GAMES series.
I started writing CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP during the spring/summer of 2015. 2015 was an exceptionally stressful year on a personal & professional level, and I wanted to write something different than my usual epic fantasy to take my mind off it. I also wanted to try writing an urban fantasy novel. I didn’t want to do a “magic secretly in the modern world” urban fantasy novel or a “friendly neighborhood vampires” kind of book, so I came up with the idea of the High Queen of the Elves invading earth in 2013, and then mostly leaving human society alone, save for inculcating a reverence for the Elves in all things.
It did pretty well, so I continued Nadia’s story with FROST FEVER and REBEL FIST.
I wrote SHADOW JUMP in early 2016, and then I got really busy for most of 2016, and didn’t have time to return to Nadia’s world until the end of 2016 with SHATTER STONE. In early 2017 I wrote TRUTH CHAIN, which is definitely the darkest book in the series and possibly the darkest thing I’ve ever written.
It didn’t sell as well as the previous books, so I wondered if I had accidentally killed the series. I hemmed and hawed about continuing, and finally decided I would conclude the series with 11 books, wrapping it up with CLOAK GAMES: SKY HAMMER.
So I got to SKY HAMMER in 2018, and I realized the story still wasn’t done, not properly. The core of CLOAK GAMES was the half-adversarial, half-master/teacher relationship between Nadia and Morvilind, so I realized I had to write one more book. Hence, I wrote CLOAK GAMES: MAGE FALL in summer 2018. And when I got to the end of MAGE FALL, I decided I still wasn’t done, so I started the new CLOAK MAGE series with Nadia, with CLOAK OF DRAGONS coming out in April 2019 and CLOAK OF WOLVES in November 2019.
Despite her many setbacks in the books (and logistical difficulties for the author in Real Life), Nadia never, ever quit…which is why I am pleased to say that CLOAK GAMES: OMNIBUS ONE is a featured deal on Bookbub today for $0.99! You can get CLOAK GAMES: OMNIBUS ONE at this link.
-JM
I absolutely love the natia moran story and hope you keep writing them. She is just such an interesting character and the whole world the story is set in is awesome.
The Cloak series is my favorite of your books. Glad it continues. Thanks
Nadia is the only true wizard MC in all your books. So don’t stop writing about her! (Calliande is more healer-with-magical-inheritance and Ridmark is the primary MC).
The Cloak and Ghost series are my favorites. (Sorry – I am finding the suspension of disbelief far too much in the DragonTiarna and Malison series)’
The only thing that truly bugged me about Cloak Games is bullets not having any effect on elves. I am understand Elf bodies being resistant to small-caliber bullets and they can successfully cast barriers against gunfire. But if a sword or car striking them can kill them, then so can bullets. There is no essential difference in kinetic energy. I thought the primary reason that the Elves conquered Earth was because of their mental magic against which humans had no defence at the time. You told need to fight bullets when you control the gunman after all.