As mentioned, I have three great new releases out this week ( THE WOLF SIREN by Karen Whiddon and TEACH ME A LESSON by Jasmine Haynes in addition to Lynn Flewelling’s novel below) and I’m blogging them one at a time.
Today, I’m talking about SHARDS OF TIME by Lynn Flewelling, the latest the Nightrunner novels, featuring two of the loves of my life, Seregil and Alec (rogues, thieves, spies, heroes…they’ve been called a lot of things over the years). Lynn and I first “met” through the query process. As in, she sent a query back in the days when you had to print it out, sign, fold it into an envelope with an SASE enclosed, address and stamp the outer envelope, stick the parcel in the mail…whew! There may have been initial chapters involved at that stage. I was intrigued. I asked for more. Now, here’s where it gets good. I’m fairly certain that she sent that first manuscript to me in 11 point type with 1 1/2 spacing rather than double, perhaps to use less paper for her 170,000 word tome. I might be exaggerating, but…no, I don’t think so. I started reading. And reading, incredibly caught up in the narrative. The words started to fuzz and swim. I had to hold the manuscript pages increasingly close to my face to read them. Yet, I would not stop because the story was that amazing. I read late into the night and nearly went blind with the reading, but I took her on as a client. One of my first. The moral of this story is that agents are not out to say “no”. We’re not out to get you if you don’t do everything right (though it certainly helps and increases exponentially your chances of success). We ARE out to find amazing talent who we can tell stories on down the line. Lynn is an amazing talent, which is probably why her Nightrunner series has gone on for so long, spanning so many books and a related series (book list below).
SHARDS OF TIME by Lynn Flewelling (Del Rey, mass market)
Acclaimed author Lynn Flewelling brings her beloved Nightrunners series to a close—at least for now—with a thrilling novel of murder, mystery, and magic.
The governor of the sacred island of Korous and his mistress have been killed inside a locked and guarded room. The sole witnesses to the crime—guards who broke down the doors, hearing the screams from within—have gone mad with terror, babbling about ghosts . . . and things worse than ghosts.
Dispatched to Korous by the queen, master spies Alec and Seregil find all the excitement and danger they could want—and more. For an ancient evil has been awakened there, a great power that will not rest until it has escaped its otherworldly prison and taken revenge on all that lives. And only those like Alec—who have died and returned to life—can step between the worlds and confront the killer . . . even if it means a second and all too permanent death.
Nightrunner Books
Tamir Triad
Lucienne Diver's Drivel 
Hmm, Lynn wonders if she’d really sent this to me with less than double-spacing. It was a long time ago now, and my memory may not be entirely accurate. It might have just seemed that way when the letters and lines were swimming at 2 in the morning. The ms was just that good!
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