Writing The Diabolus Chronicles has been such a fantastic adventure. I’m already feeling the book hangover that I’m sure will hit hard when the series is done. It hurts to imagine no longer writing about Pitch & Silas and their journey, and their achingly slow emergence of feelings for one another. I am going to miss my boys so much when their journey is done. Which is obviously a great place to be as a writer!
There is nothing better than being in love with your storyline.
That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed writing my other series – a YA SciFi and a SciFi/Fantasy serial – they were awesome fun to write, and I have a soft spot for each of them of course, what parent doesn’t love all their children, right?
But The Diabolus Chronicles has been especially satisfying to write.
It shouldn’t really surprise me that I’ve adored writing an MM Historical fantasy, because it contains two things I love. History and very hot men, being very hot, with each other.
My introduction to the MM genre came with C S Pacat’s Captive Prince trilogy, and it blew my little mind. I don’t even recall why I decided to pick it up, I’d heard talk about it somewhere, and knew I loved fantasy, especially in a historical setting (real or imagined) so I was all in. I know the series itself seems to divide opinion but I am firmly in the ‘that was bloody awesome’ camp. I’d never read anything like it. Well, I’d never read anything with gay MCs, and I wanted more. There was something so damn sexy and dangerous about it. Pacat’s sex scenes were delicious and tending towards the dark side, which, I’ll admit, was ringing all the right bells for me. And the boys were just SO into each other (once they stopped wanting to kill each other) I couldn’t get enough of it.
This was going back a few years now, and I couldn’t find much else around in the MM genre at the time. I had no idea what to look for. I’m not even sure MM had been coined at that stage, it certainly wasn’t going to bring up much on an Amazon search. Then I stumbled across Japanese yaoi, and what was left of my tiny little mind blew all over again. I was obsessed with the manga Crimson Spell, because of the great artwork, of course. 😉 And there was really no going back after that. I was hooked.
At some point I stopped drooling over Crimson Spell (and cursing the artist when she stopped writing more) and went hunting for more MM stories. There was a feast ready for the devouring. I discovered the sublime goodness that is Jordan L Hawke, Emily Tesh,T J Klune, K D Edwards and Eliot Grayson to name a few. Then I read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, and I think that is when the idea of first dabbling in the genre myself began to really take hold. Holy crap, that book killed me. What a love story. And I didn’t think I even liked love stories. The power of that book, over me as a reader, was incredible. I was devastated for days (not a spoiler because it’s based on an established mythology) After I finished. I would wake up feeling sad, like I’d lost someone, and it would take a second to realise I was still in book-mourning for Achilles and Patroclus.
I’d read books I enjoyed before, I’d read books I loved, but I hadn’t read a book that hurt that bad. And my little ol’ masochist heart said, you want more. It took a minute to work out what it was that I had loved so much…I’m slow like that…and I’d never in a million years before that have said ‘I want romance.’ Because to be honest romance doesn’t really do it for me in MF fiction. I guess maybe the forbidden nature of love in MM, especially the historical fantasy that I gravitate towards, is part of what makes it so dang attractive. Theories abound on what it is about MM that woman are drawn too, and that’s a whole other discussion, but at the end of the day for me it’s just a case of ‘that’s what I like.’ So I’m not going to justify it (woman have to do way too much of that as it is).
I knew I wanted to dip my toes in this world as a writer. But Pitch & Sickle originally began their lives in an urban fantasy world. I’ve actually written a book each for them, set in contemporary times, but those pages will never see the light of day because somewhere in the midst of writing their stories I realised I had them set in entirely the wrong world.
I blame K J Charles. Once I had read her Charm of Magpies series, I knew exactly where Pitch & Silas needed to come to life. If you enjoy historical fantasy and haven’t yet read that series, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Beautiful writing, incredible world building and, that other thing I didn’t think I cared for in a story…a love story that grabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go.
Once I started writing in 1885 England, I couldn’t imagine any other place where my boys would rather be. They were made for the Victorian Era, for the world of dandies and gentlemen and fine coats and candlelit rooms. And I was able to drown myself in history, mythology, beautiful costumes and equally beautiful men. It was win, win, win, win.
The journey has really just begun for Pitch & Sickle, but equally so for me as a writer. Now I’ve found my happy place among the fabulous readers of MM fiction, I cannot wait to see what fantastical worlds will emerge, and what adventures my boys will have.
Silas Mercer died once. He’d rather not do it again.
Book Title: The Bandalore – Pitch & Sickle Book One
(An MM Gaslamp Fantasy Series) (The Diabolus Chronicles 1)
Author: D K Girl
Cover Artist: Deranged Doctor Designs
Release Date: February 25, 2021
Book 4 in the series is due out April 13
Genre: Historical MM
Tropes: Slow, slow burn, opposites attract
Themes: Loneliness and friendship
Length: 285 pages
It is not a standalone book. This is the first book in the Gaslamp Fantasy series, The Diabolus Chronicles.
It has an unresolved storyline, rather than outright cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Blurb
1885 London, England
Silas Mercer died once. He’d rather not do it again.
On his return to the world of the living, Silas finds himself in the hands of the mysterious Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
The Order has London society clamouring for their services, with tarot readings, seances and exorcisms among their arcane specialities.
Now they seem intent on making Silas their newest recruit.
But they want far more from him than cheap parlour tricks.
When the Order partners him with the scandalous rake, Tobias Astaroth, Silas’s new life is turned on its head in more ways than one.
Tobias is quick-tempered, dangerously charming, and far more than the man he seems.
For Silas, surviving what the Order has planned for him will be a challenge.
But finding a way to survive Tobias Astaroth could prove impossible.
A slow-burn MM Gaslamp Fantasy series.
Contains: Sexual content, violence and rather a lot of cursing.
This is the first book in the thrilling Gaslamp Fantasy series, The Diabolus Chronicles
Mr Astaroth was clearly drunk. Reason perhaps why he failed to be wearing any shoes. Silas noted the large brown stain upon the white of his linen shirt with great consternation. The mark appeared not dissimilar to blood. His dark trousers bore a tear at his right thigh, and the material at his knees was notably caked with dirt.
Gilmore cried out, more pain in the sound this time. ‘You’re breaking my leg, you bastard.’
Silas looked to the bandalore, hoping there might be a musical direction sung to him. But the wood was quiet. He should go to the man’s assistance, Silas needed no magical trinket to tell him so. Man, or gnome, Gilmore was in clear distress. But Silas hesitated.
‘Dear me, do you think I would truly do such a thing?’ Tobias’s words got away from him, slipping and sliding from his intoxicated tongue. A shadow curved around his right eye, a rising bruise.
‘I know you would,’ Gilmore hollered. ‘You crave harm more than your cock craves fucking.’
With no warning, Tobias landed a punch against Gilmore’s belly. Half-hearted as it was, it at last spurred Silas from his reticence. He took a step forward.
‘Now, see here-‘
‘Tobias! Set him down, now.’ Jane moved across the green, clad in a nightgown of the most delicate white lace. Combined with her airy way of moving, it was as though a ghost rushed towards them. ‘Now, Pitch. I will not ask you again.’
The man’s smile was a cruel slash across his damaged face. ‘As you wish. Catch him if you can.’
He lowered Gilmore and seemed certain to set him down, albeit on his head, but at the very last moment, he drew back his arm and swung the frantic Gilmore straight up into the air. Without an ounce of effort apparent, Tobias’s throw sent the screaming, kicking man skyward. Soaring higher even than Silas’s cottage roof.
‘Help me!’
Gilmore seemed to hang in the air for a moment. His scream curdled the blood.
‘Gilmore!’ Silas dashed in beneath the unfortunate gnome, seeking to position himself so he might catch Gilmore when he fell. A dangerous notion, considering the speed of descent, but the man would surely suffer grievous injury otherwise. Silas glanced at the grinning man at his side. The viciousness that simmered within Tobias Astaroth’s emerald eyes was breathtaking.
‘Stop!’ Jane’s command came with a rush of violent wind. A great force swept past Silas, lifting the hairs on his head. The gust swept in beneath the tumbling Gilmore, and at once his downward journey halted in a dead stop in midair. The gnome sobbed, hanging limp against his invisible support, drifting slowly down, a leaf upon a gentle breeze.
‘Why must you ruin my fun?’ Tobias folded his arms, staring hard at Jane as she approached, a pout upon his full lips.
The sun drifted from behind a cloud, its rays setting his eyes alight once more, and marking the pronounced angles of his face. Despite his notable injuries, his odd beauty, accentuated by bowed lips and long dark lashes, was still evident. Rather captivating, if Silas were honest, but he’d just now glimpsed a ferocity beneath the delicate exterior which lent it a certain ugliness.
Danielle K Girl is an Aussie who lives in stunning Tasmania with her three furkids, cats Luffy, Sweetie and Ren.
Her idea of heaven is a farm full of rescue animals, with a vegie garden that sprouts peanut M&M’s and chocolate wheaten biscuits.
When she’s not keyboard-deep in mysterious, beguiling worlds, she is binge watching K-Dramas, listening to K-Pop or hiking through the beautiful Tasmanian wilderness.
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