Why I love my heroes

You don’t always love your characters. It’s true. Generally speaking: you always like them. Some serve a greater purpose than others, but you don’t always love them. I don’t know when I fell in love with my characters, but it was probably right when Kera started to fall in love as well. That, if anything, may be the most honest part of this story.

I read a lot. Not always novels. I read a lot of non-fiction, a lot of fanfiction, and a lot of just about anything. Most of my days are spent reading and dreaming of writing. There are certain characters and tropes that I enjoy more than others, and I indulge those whenever I can. When it comes to writing, sometimes it feels like I’m designing a puzzle out of the jigsaw pieces left behind by my various interests. A love of animals here, a splash of sass there. Writing is a way to explore emotions and scenarios that you never could in real life.

In a way, despite being a fantasy novel, this book very much strikes at the core of something very realistic:

How do you handle your child being given a death sentence?

As a parent, do you accept that your child is going to die? Do you just watch them grow more and more sick until they can’t go on? Do you come to terms with it then? Or wait until after?

My characters aren’t warriors. Not in the sense that they’re going to ride off into battle and wage war against the world. They’re not trying to be an Eowyn or Daenerys. They don’t want to fight a battle or claim a throne. Their ideal ending is the same ideal ending that many people have: they want to go home, and for their family to be healthy and happy.

Kera and Aurora are mothers. They love their children, and they want their children to live long lives. Their journey is one that is intrinsically human. In a modern-real world AU, they’re the parents sitting at their child’s bedside as they struggle through chemotherapy, and they’re doing everything they can to keep believing it’s going to be all right.

I love my heroes, because in this story they show that you don’t need to be a warrior to be powerful. You don’t need to be a soldier to wage war. They’re militantly standing in the face of death and saying: “No. You move.” It’s one of the reasons the cover speaks to me so strongly. Because Kera’s motivation is to defend her family from an intangible enemy. And she will fight it with everything she has. Even if it’s worlds away from anything she’s ever faced before.

It’s an inner strength that means something on a deeply fundamental level. And it’s one that I hope you can feel as you read through their journey.

Blurb

They’ll do anything to save their children’s lives, even if it means working together.

Kera Montgomery is still mourning the sudden death of her husband, Morpheus, when her youngest son falls victim to a mysterious plague. With no medicinal cure, Kera must travel to the Long Lakes, where magical griffons capable of healing any ailment reside.

As an heiress unused to grueling travel, Kera struggles with the immense emotional and physical strain of her journey—one made more complex when she crosses paths with her husband’s former mistress, Aurora. Aurora’s daughter is afflicted with the same plague as Kera’s son, so despite their incendiary history, the two women agree to set aside their differences and travel together.

The road is fraught with dangers, both living and dead. Each night, old battlegrounds reanimate with ghosts who don’t know they’ve died, and murderous wraiths hunt for stray travelers caught out after dark. If Kera, Aurora, and their children are going to survive, they’ll need to confront the past that’s been haunting them since their journey began. And perhaps in the process, discover that old friends may not be as trustworthy as they once thought—and old enemies may become so much more.

Now available from Riptide Publishing and where ebooks are sold.

Amazon

About Lindsey Byrd

Lindsey Byrd was brought up in upstate, downstate, and western New York. She is a budding historian of law, medieval, and women’s studies and often includes historical anecdotes or references within her works. Lindsey enjoys writing about complex and convoluted issues where finding the moral high-ground can be hard to do. She has a particular love for heroic villains and villainous heroes, as well as inverting and subverting tropes.

Twitter: twitter.com/TheLindseyByrd

Tumblr: tumblr.com/blog/lindseybyrd

Email: thelindseybyrd@gmail.com

Goodreads: goodreads.com/LindseyByrd

To celebrate this release, one lucky person will win a $25 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on June 1, 2019. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following along, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!