Please give a warm welcome back to author Emily Fortney! I'm one of her blog tour stops for the release of her book The Dark Ruler and I couldn't be more thrilled to be able to hype her series up. Emily is a longtime writer friend of mine ever since I joined her writers' group in 2015, and having read multiple drafts of her work over the years, I can vouch firsthand for how much this series has grown and stolen our hearts. I can't wait to see her books in the hands of other readers who will see how thrilling they are, just like I've seen! Camilla Crim is a force to be reckoned with as a heroine, as you'll soon read.
Please welcome Emily Fortney!
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It is great to be back on Kate’s blog and talking to all of you! When I was here last summer, I was sharing about my young adult fantasy book, The Sacrifice of One. I was re-launching that book at that time. Yes, you read that right, it was a RE-launch. After years of sitting on this book and just focusing on my writing, I decided to rebrand it and widen the distribution. All during the re-launch, I was also working on a brand new book in that series called The Dark Ruler. Well, I’m back again to announce that The Dark Ruler officially released this week!
This is book #3 in my Camilla Crim series. It’s actually been almost three years since I released a new book, so this is a big deal for me and I’m really excited to tell you about it. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Emily.
Let me introduce you to my main character, Camilla. How shall I describe Camilla? She’s stubborn and talks without thinking, but she’s also fiery and passionate. In The Dark Ruler she’s on a mission to kill the Supreme Ruler, Quinten Warwick, and free the people of Elmyra from slavery. Buuuuut a slew of mysteries lie between the walls of the capital city where the Supreme Ruler resides that Camilla isn’t prepared for.
Things are a little more complicated than that straightforward goal. Because Camilla has a mother with suspect intentions. After abandoning Camilla when she was just a toddler, Portia weasels her way back into Camilla’s world and has taken to meddling with her life. Although a very powerful witch, Portia is intent on drawing little ol’ Camilla to her side. The problem is, Camilla doesn’t know why her mother is suddenly interested in her, and frankly, she doesn’t care. She wants nothing to do with her mother.
For those of you who’ve never read any of the books in this series, let’s back up. Before Camilla had mommy problems and found herself taking on the role of a Supreme Ruler assassin, she worked at the national farm, being treated as little more than a slave. Camilla even bears the brand of Quinten Warwick on her arm. She’s a peasant, a nothing.
Everything changes when she finds out that her brother is being hunted down for a murder she knows he didn’t commit, or at least she’s pretty sure… All of that plays out in the first book in the series, called The Sacrifice of One. (Stick around until the end of this post for a special offer on this book!)
First, I’d like to draw the veil and take you behind the scenes of The Dark Ruler and the process I took to write this book. Like all of you, last year was different for me. Here in America, COVID struck in early March. Literally the week that everything shut down was the same week that I left my 9-5 job of nearly 10 years to write part time. Leaving my job was pre-planned and had nothing to do with COVID. Odd, I know... It was a weird time of transition for me.
The point is, I wrote The Dark Ruler during the pandemic. The lack of social gatherings really cut down on my commitments and I was able to spend a lot of time at my laptop clacking away. For me, this book is a positive part of 2020. It helped me survive it in a way and I’m not sure I could have written it as quickly as I did without quarantine.
As an author I often get asked what inspired me to write my books. That question is hard to answer. A million things have inspired me. So usually I just say something self-deprecating and change the subject…
In the case of The Dark Ruler, I had been thinking over this plot for years. The skeleton of this installment was in my head even while I was writing the earlier Camilla books. But I will let you in on one major inspiration. It’s a little bit of a spoiler, so let’s keep it hush hush.
In 2019 I married my best friend. The development of our relationship and our actual wedding event inspired certain parts of The Dark Ruler. There is of course a romance element to the Camilla books and much of that storyline in this book, is inspired by my own experiences of falling in love. I’ll stop before I get too gushy on you!
The Dark Ruler is available NOW! Make sure you go grab your copy. New to the series? You can read book #1, The Sacrifice of One, for FREE by CLICKING HERE and signing up on my email newsletter. If you love The Sacrifice of One, there are 3 more books in the series you can binge on!
One more thing. As a special gift to Kate’s readers, if you sign up for my email newsletter, not only will you get a FREE eBook copy of The Sacrifice of One, but I will send a bookish sticker pack to the first 50 people that sign up. 😊 Just shoot me an email at emily@emilyfortney.com and let me know that you signed up and came from Kate’s blog. Put your address in the email, and I’ll mail you a sticker pack! Sign up HERE.
It’s been a blast to chat with you all today. Thanks again to Kate for letting me post and tell you about my new release. You can read the full blurb of The Dark Ruler below and connect with me on all the social medias.
Today I will be hosting a virtual launch party over on my author Facebook page at 6pm EST. I’m giving away a bundle that includes a signed paperback copy of The Dark Ruler, a bookish candle and more. I’d love to see you there!
Happy reading!
~Emily
Purchase Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.
Apple Books: https://books.apple.
Barnes and Noble: https://www.
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/
1 comment:
Great blog, thanks for posting
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