Sometimes, a book takes a long time to write. Book five of House of Magic has barely gotten anywhere in three months. Occasionally, though, it doesn’t take any time at all.
Three weeks ago, I came up with an opening line for an isekai time loop short story. Those unfamiliar with the Japanese term, it means a genre of fantasy where the protagonist is transported to or reborns into another world. And then, occasionally, the time keeps looping and the protagonist keeps being reborn.
The opening line was “My fourth time loop was different.” I just went with it, intending to write a short story of about 5000 words. But then the words kept piling up and the plot kept becoming more complicated. Soon, I realised I had an m/m romance in my hands as well. And that needed more space.
Two weeks later, I’d written a short novel, fastest I’ve ever written anything. It ended
up being about 35.000 words long, so quite a few times longer than
intended. And I like it! It has a nice plot, satisfying romance and
my first ever m/m sex scene too, which took a bit of work. I hope I got it right.
Since I wrote it, I absolutely have to publish it. The book is now with the editor, and the publication day is set at the end of April. I made a nice cover too, trying to honour the Japanese origins of isekai. I like it very much, although it might give a notion of a sweeter romance than the reader gets. Be warned.
First two undedited chapters are available on my website, and all the preorder links are up too. And here’s the description:
My fourth time loop was different. For one, it was painful. For another, I returned as my sister.
Henry Sanford has a perfectly normal life in Oxford—until he dies in a drunken accident. Next thing he knows, he’s being reborn. But that isn’t even all. He is born into a completely different world that has magic—but no dragons to his disappointment—as Petl, a son of viscount, with all his memories of the previous life. Not that they help, because he dies again. And again. And again.
But after the latest death, he isn’t reborn. He isn’t even Petl anymore. He finds himself in the body of his younger sister Lisl, only a year before he is killed by a traitor. And said traitor is about to propose to her.
Determined to stop it, he—she—proposes to the first man she comes across: Maleth Boderl, a son of a powerful man, and someone with whom Petl has a complicated history. Not that Maleth knows, because of the loops. And it’s about to get even more complicated, because Lisl is smitten with him at first sight.
It is Lisl who is suddenly lusting after Maleth, right?
Petl can’t dwell on that. He has a war to stop, a traitor to kill, and possibly a heart to conquer too—if he can figure out how he is feeling first.
This is a stand-alone m/m romance with mistaken identities, betrayal, love, and some spice too.
***
You can preorder the book on Amazon, Apple Books, B&N and Kobo, among other places. It comes out on April 28th.
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