Of the Divine by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes – Spotlight and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes will be awarding a limited edition print copy of the book *U.S. only* to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Please welcome the author to our blog!

Thanks for having me. I’ve spent the last few days of this blog tour talking about myself, and I expect to do so for much of the rest of the month. For today, I want to take a break and talk about someone else who is absolutely essential for a novel’s survival: the reader.

Publishing is an exhausting process full of exhilaration and heartache. When you ask most authors what advice they would give an aspiring writer, they say something like, “Write what you love,” or “don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t worth it.” When you ask what advice they would give an aspiring published writer, they say, “Grow a thick skin.” Publishing means taking a work of your heart and soul and putting it before the world, where it will inevitably be criticized, scrutinized, and torn apart. It is the job of your editor to tell you everything that is wrong with your baby in excruciating detail– and your editor is on your side. Then the reviews come in, and the Twitter threads. No matter how good a writer you are, you can’t please everyone, so inevitably something negative hits you.

Top that off with the fact that most published writers make very little money on this extraordinarily time-consuming career, and it’s easy to wonder, Why do you do it? Why not just keep that story to yourself, or print copies at Office Max to hand to your friends and relatives if you want to share it around?

The answer is: the readers.

At conventions and signings and readings, readers often approach my table cautiously, as if they’re wary of bothering me. They act embarrassed and apologize as they hand over a shabby first edition of In the Forests of the Night, my debut novel, and explain they’ve read it a hundred times and it inspired them to start writing. Or it’s a copy of Midnight Predator, and a story about how it inspired them to escape from or finally start to process an abusive relationship, or Wolfcry, and a coming out story where they explain that this was the first book where they encountered a gay protagonist, and how much it means to them because of it.

Just like the advice given to the aspiring writer, I write first because I love to do so. I have stories inside me and they want to come out. I first published because I was fourteen and didn’t know what I was getting into.

I keep publishing now, despite working more than full time and having a million other tugs on my time and energy, for you, my readers. For those of you who write to me, Tweet at me, talk to me in person. You are never a bother, never an inconvenience. You are my inspiration.

 

Henna is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Order of Napthol, and her runes ’s runes tell her that the future of Kavet is balanced on the edge of the knife. The treaties between Kavet and the dragon-like race known as the Osei have become intolerable. The time has come for the royal house to magically challenge Osei dominion. Prince Verte, Henna’ lover, is to serve as the nexus for the powerful but dangerous spell, with Naples–an untested young sorcerer from the Order of Napthol–a volatile but critical support to its creation.

Amid these plans, Dahlia Indathrone’s arrival in the city shouldn’t matter. She has no magic and no royal lineage, and yet, Henna immediately knows Dahlia is important. She just can’t see why.

As their lives intertwine, the four will learn that they are pawns in a larger game, one played by the forces of the Abyss and of the Numen—the infernal and the divine.

A game no mortal can ever hope to win.

Enjoy an Excerpt

The ocean that covered most of the Numen’s first level was clear and sweet. It lapped against diamond sand where tiny long-legged birds spread wings the color of honey as they raced back and forth, plucking drifting seeds from the air. The Numini—those perfect, beautiful sentinels who ruled the divine realm by might and decree—watched the birds’ antics with gentle amusement.

One Numini looked past the white sands and crystal waters below to a realm where the ocean was cold and tasted of salt, where verdant green cascaded across rich earth, and where the mortal creatures lived.

Soon, she thought. She was one of the three arbiters who ruled the Numen, second only to the high justice of her kind.

“I am concerned about the Abyssi,” remarked one of her brothers, a lesser judge. “We have worked for generations to nurture these lines of power, and now they could all be—”

“Have faith,” she assured him. “Abyssi scrabble at the mortal realm like dogs at a closed door. They always have. They lack the wisdom or discipline to do more than that.”

“But do the mortals have the wisdom to keep the door closed?” he challenged.

“Faith,” the arbiter said again. This time it was a clear chastisement.

She knew their children in the mortal world were defenseless. Humans had minds barely capable of comprehending their own existence, and as a consequence lived short and brutal lives. They needed their divine guardians to guide and nurture them. The Abyssi—vicious, mindless beasts of the infernal realm—could fight for sovereignty all they wanted. In the end, it wouldn’t matter.

In the mortal realm, all things served the divine.

About the Author: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, when she was 13 years old. Other books in the Den of Shadows series are Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator, all ALA Quick Picks for Young Adults. She has also published the five-volume series The Kiesha’ra: Hawksong, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror List Selection; Snakecharm; Falcondance; Wolfcry; and Wyvernhail.

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