Title: Spellbound & Hellbounds
Series: Coven Chronicles
Author: Nia Rose
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy, Magic,
Urban Fantasy, Demons
Release Date: 4th April 2019
BLURB from Goodreads
Witches and wizards and spells, oh my!
Enter the world of Raen, turn left at the land of dragons, and you’ll find yourself in the country of Aeristria. A place overflowing with magic and creatures that were once only heard of in fairy-tales. In the heart of Aeristria is the capital city, Tolvade. Here you will find shops and taverns, laughter and fun, runesmiths looking for their next job and sneaky pickpocketing imps. Steer clear of the galloping gang of centaurs and you will see the headquarters of the prestigious Coven.
Within the Coven’s lower ranks, you’ll find Vanessa, a third year Hunter itching to become a Spellweaver. Her and her trusted demon partner, Botobolbilian, must investigate an explosion at the academy and bring the culprit responsible in. Easy job, right?
Wrong.
Vanessa and her partner find that this investigation runs deep in black magic and sprinkled with feral demon summonings. With countless lives on the line, Vanessa struggles with self-doubt and following her heart (and laws) as she tries to right the wrongs of these heinous criminals and bring them to justice before they do anymore harm. But, with an oncoming yearly blizzard just days away, is it too late?
Even with all the magic, spells, and power on Raen, this job might be the last that this duo ever faces…
Enter the world of Raen, turn left at the land of dragons, and you’ll find yourself in the country of Aeristria. A place overflowing with magic and creatures that were once only heard of in fairy-tales. In the heart of Aeristria is the capital city, Tolvade. Here you will find shops and taverns, laughter and fun, runesmiths looking for their next job and sneaky pickpocketing imps. Steer clear of the galloping gang of centaurs and you will see the headquarters of the prestigious Coven.
Within the Coven’s lower ranks, you’ll find Vanessa, a third year Hunter itching to become a Spellweaver. Her and her trusted demon partner, Botobolbilian, must investigate an explosion at the academy and bring the culprit responsible in. Easy job, right?
Wrong.
Vanessa and her partner find that this investigation runs deep in black magic and sprinkled with feral demon summonings. With countless lives on the line, Vanessa struggles with self-doubt and following her heart (and laws) as she tries to right the wrongs of these heinous criminals and bring them to justice before they do anymore harm. But, with an oncoming yearly blizzard just days away, is it too late?
Even with all the magic, spells, and power on Raen, this job might be the last that this duo ever faces…
PURCHASE LINKS
Series: Coven Chronicles
Author: Octavia J. Riley
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy, Magic,
Urban Fantasy, Demons
Release Date: 15th October 2019
BLURB from Goodreads
Thea Bauer has earned her way to being a highly skilled
member of the Coven. Ranked as a Spellweaver, she’s assigned the more dangerous
missions. Corralling a herd of wild unicorns? No problem. Taking down a witch
riding the high of black magic? Piece of cake. Finding out why magic-based
creatures are suddenly flooding the local sanctuary, protected by a powerful
sorceress with a hatred for the Coven? Thea might need more than her tethered
demonic partner to see this mission through.
She calls upon Summoner Rafe MacBain, a trusted colleague she’s known for years whose dreamy eyes might keep her up at night—but she’s not admitting that to anyone. He’s got his own demonic companion, and altogether they’re a force to be reckoned with. But, even with their combined strength, it might not be enough against feral demons escaping some of the farthest reaches of Hell.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Thea must conquer her own demons residing within herself that conjure up a painful past. Will she be able to overcome herself, or will the memories she’s tried to stray from keep her from fighting enemies in the physical realm? Thea is starting to wonder if the sorceress may be one of those enemies too. What secret is she hiding at the bottom of the sanctuary, and how will it affect everything Thea has come to know?
She calls upon Summoner Rafe MacBain, a trusted colleague she’s known for years whose dreamy eyes might keep her up at night—but she’s not admitting that to anyone. He’s got his own demonic companion, and altogether they’re a force to be reckoned with. But, even with their combined strength, it might not be enough against feral demons escaping some of the farthest reaches of Hell.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Thea must conquer her own demons residing within herself that conjure up a painful past. Will she be able to overcome herself, or will the memories she’s tried to stray from keep her from fighting enemies in the physical realm? Thea is starting to wonder if the sorceress may be one of those enemies too. What secret is she hiding at the bottom of the sanctuary, and how will it affect everything Thea has come to know?
Goodreads Link
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
NIA ROSE OCTAVIA RILEY
How did you both meet?
Nia and I met through a mutual friend when I fell on hard
times, and when she learned I was a writer (not yet published) we were quickly
sucked into a tight-knit friendship.
Whose idea was it to work on a book series together?
Nia was actually writing Spellbound & Hellhounds before
we even thought of working together. She had just started on the novel when we
were discussing my woes of having this idea of a sanctuary for magic creatures
in my head but could never seem to start the book I wanted to write. She
thought about it a moment, pondering, coming up with ideas, and I’d get it
excited at the prospect, but later would come back and tell her I just wasn’t
connecting. Then, she offered my idea a place in her world. We’d never heard of
anyone co-authoring books in this way before, and we both got excited about
trying something so new. Would it work? Would people like that? We didn’t know,
but we then stayed up for hours every single night coming up with
world-building notes, characters, and ideas. We drank coffee, joked, turned our
jokes into actual characters like Leslie and Ma and Bernard, the angry unicorn
in the Grim Bean café, saw the kids off to school and crashed. Then, we’d do it
all over again the next day.
Have you co-authored books before?
No, this is our first project together. After this, we
want to work on separate stories and clear out our heads a bit. However, we
already have future plans to co-author another project in the next few years.
It’s going to be more of… everything. All we know for now is that there’s
a civil war going on in this high fantasy, steampunk country and my character
will be on one side of the war and Nia’s will be on the other.
Did you have to physically in the same room during the
planning/writing of the series?
It definitely helps; otherwise, we sometimes misconstrue
what the other says either through text or on Discord. Besides, when we get to
talking about plot holes, plot points, potential avenues for the storyline, and
so on, we end up talking for hours. We don’t pull all-nighters world-building
anymore, but we have gotten lost in our creativity so much that before we know
it it’s 4 A.M.
What made you choose to write alternate books?
We had too many ideas and too many voices in our heads to
try and contain into one book, and the thought of having two character groups
setting out to see different parts of the world we’d come to create, learn
different secrets that would save their country, work toward similar goals but
all the while never meeting was exciting. We wanted to work off each other, Nia
and I. What I did in my book what affect her storyline and what she did in her
book would affect mine. It’s challenging, frustrating even sometimes, but it’s
also so much fun.
How did the whole writing process work?
The first books, Spellbound & Hellhounds and Secrets
of the Sanctuary, were not heavily outlined like the rest of the books in the
serial. It was more like we both had bullet points, and we would talk about
what we kind of expected from the scenes we wanted to write out. That’s where
most of the bouncing ideas off each other came into play. Sometimes, we’d get
ahead of ourselves and have to stop ourselves and go, “Were we at the same
place at the same time? Crap, we were.” So, we’d go back and rewrite a scene
and add a cameo appearance. Sometimes, we have to be the bad guy and say, “That
won’t work,” or “That wouldn’t happen,” or the dreaded, horrible, “Why would
that happen?”
Did you share notes on where you wanted the story to go
and why?
Oh, of course. We have a whole binder of dedicated notes
just for the Coven Chronicles. We never had to argue over where the story was
going, because, honestly, I’ve never met a person more in sync with me. We had
an overarching theme that magic was dying in the world, but coming up with how
the story concluded overall was a mystery we were eager to figure out. So, we
spent hours bringing up different options on how to bring it all to a close.
When we finally did, it was like all the pieces came together.
Did one of you have the whole book series plotted out, or
did you do that together?
It was a joint effort, and even though we had two
different storylines going on with our respective books, we helped each other
when it came to coming up with ideas for each other’s works too. I remember
writing myself into a corner, and I was panicking because my character was
stuck and was possibly going to end up in jail… and then Nia comes over and
helps me think up ways to get out of this corner. When I found out how to get
out of my situation, I apparently got up, grabbed my laptop, and scurried off to
my room to write. I don’t remember this.
Did you have to do a lot of research for your series?
I spent three hours researching dams for not even a full
paragraph. We researched all kinds of mythical creatures from different
cultures around the world. As I’m writing book two, I’m researching all kinds
of things for the desert that takes the centerfold for the story. Nomadic
lifestyles, what grows out there, what creatures (magical or otherwise), and
the like. Nia and I have come up with a lot of things for the story on our own,
though. But, yes, a lot of research has been put into this story.
What can we expect from you both next and in the future?
We still have to finish the last two books in the serial,
but after that I have my mindset on a couple of high fantasy works, I want to
get through. A female knight and a prince – probably a comedy romance, a
pirate-themed book (more magic, of course), and maybe a warped fairytale
retelling. Nia has plans for a post-apocalyptic world – only instead of
zombies, there are demons. She also keeps gleefully talking about a 40-year-old
assassin story and another about a king with a terrible past and how he
overcame it. Then, there’s the whole dual-duology project we plan on writing in
a couple years. I can’t wait.
Where can your readers follow you?
(we post memes and updates)
Nia’s Facebook
Octavia’s Facebook
Nia’s Goodreads page
Octavia’s Goodreads page
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