With The Aos Si’s Gift out, it’s well past time to have a little chat about it. First off, The Aos Si’s Gift is the first installment of The Wolf of Vespin series. The series will follow Erik Vespin, a character known under the series title’s moniker due to his actions under siege and on a particularly brutal campaign when the Kingdom of Tyrsiln was being invaded from the south. Second, the series is inspired by a wide range of books and films that I’ve enjoyed. Third, I had a series of storytelling goals in mind not only for The Aos Si’s Gift, but for the whole series as well as other works.

The Aos Si’s Gift is available through a wide range of retailers and sources. The most direct source, and best way to support my work, is through my IngramSpark direct shopping link where I am offering a discounted rate until Christmas (2024). (If you’re seeing this after Christmas 2024, then you can use the more general IngramSpark direct shopping link that is always available.) For a more comprehensive list of available outlets carrying The Aos Si’s Gift, see my Links page. In the meantime, the best places to purchase my work are:
– IngramSpark (now through 24 December 2024, use: IngramSpark, Christmas 2024 Discount) for print-on-demand paperback. As stated above, this is the best outlet to help support me and my work.
– Barnes & Noble has The Aos Si’s Gift available as print-on-demand paperback or eBook.
– Amazon has print-on-demand paperback and eBook formats available.
– Rakuten kobo has eBooks available.
I am still working on making The Aos Si’s Gift available as a dust-jacketed hard cover.

The Aos Si’s Gift follows Erik and a once-close childhood friend, Ileana Thallion, who is on the trail to a cure for the ailing crown princess of the Kingdom of Tyrsiln. In the wake of a thwarted assassination attempt on Ileana, they discover a scroll which claims to lead to a potent curative. Together, Erik and Ileana must seek out the meaning of the scroll, hoping that it will lead to a cure. Throughout the book, they face unforeseen dangers and trials that will test their limits along with their ability to tolerate each other. It is a world where magic is a rough thing hampered by a limited understanding of nature, and the most dangerous thing in a wizard’s arsenal is a pebble. Where maille-clad knights fear trolls, fight orcs, and march alongside elves in the pursuit of their goals. Under all of this, Erik and Ileana must face a past they’d thought behind them while pushing through the horrors that their enemies are willing to inflict on people to keep them from reaching their goals. Erik must cling to his noble ideals, even while he begins to confront the grim past that led to his being called The Wolf of Vespin both by those who respect him, and those who fear him.

I draw from a broad range of experiences and inspirations in all of my work, including The Aos Si’s Gift. These sources of inspiration run the gamut from The Adventrues of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn to battlefield walks of Manassas, Malvern Hill, and Gettyburg. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is inspirational alongside David Eddings’s series The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium, and The Tamuli. No good list of inspirations is complete without Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, the 1977 adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask, or even Beowulf. By far, the oddest source of inspiration might very well be thermodynamics, which touched off the chain of thought that would be the foundation of the magic system at play in The Aos Si’s Gift.