CLOAK OF IRON rough draft done & cover image!

I am pleased to report that the rough draft of CLOAK OF IRON is done! At 108,000 words, it is officially the longest Nadia book.

I’m not sure how many chapters it will be since I have to split up some of them and rearrange them, but the book is on track to be out sometime in February.

I have also written PROPHECY OF THE HIGH QUEEN, a short story that will be from Tarlia’s perspective.

I wanted to write a story from Tarlia’s perspective because readers email to ask from time to time whether or not Tarlia is a good guy or a bad guy, a protagonist or a villain.

And the answer is, of course, both.

Tarlia rules a brutal authoritarian regime and doesn’t tolerate dissent. Anyone on Earth of sufficient power and wealth needs to be on board with her plans, or they’re going to be in trouble. She has ordered cities nuked to stop invaders, isn’t above assassinating nobles and authority figures when she decides they’ve crossed a line, and she maintains her control through a vast web of official and unofficial influence and power. In lieu of prisons, she has Punishment Day videos, where criminals are flogged or executed to set an example to the rest of the population. Generations of humans have been trained to revere her, to the point that saying something bad about the High Queen and the Elves in public is liable to inspire a beating, and in the unlikely result the mob got arrested for it, the jury would acquit them…and all without someone in authority telling them to do it. 

On the other hand, there hasn’t been a war between human nations, a genocide, or a famine in centuries. Even the absolutely poorest people in the world live the lifestyle of a 1950s middle-class American or thereabouts. And while Tarlia is an authoritarian, she’s not a totalitarian. So long as you color within the lines (and the lines are basically “don’t commit crimes and don’t badmouth the Elves”), you’re left alone to prosper. Normal people, so long as they fulfill their military service obligation and don’t badmouth the Elves, are left in peace. You have to be really rich and powerful to draw the High Queen’s scrutiny. And compared to someone like Morvilind, Tarlia is very merciful. The only thing she can’t forgive is betrayal.

And there are things in the Shadowlands, worse than the Archons, and creatures from other worlds that would conquer Earth and annihilate humanity if given the opportunity. Tarlia views humans and Elves both as her subjects, deserving of her protection. If not for Tarlia, probably Earth would have been conquered and humans destroyed centuries ago.

So I suppose Tarlia is like everyone else – some good and some bad mixed together, but since she’s so powerful, it plays out on a much larger scale.

And since editing is underway, let’s share the cover image for the book!

-JM