The Bond Between Sisters is Now Available!

It’s been a long time since I got to announce releasing a new book into the wild. So I’m pretty giddy to share the latest installment of Eternity’s Empire with everyone.

The Bond Between Sisters is available on Amazon today!

This book continues the tale of Aeternitas – black sheep of the galactic imperial family – and Gaea – queen of the Earth – as they struggle to prevent war from breaking out between their two civilizations. (While at the same time, further exploring their budding romance.)

To celebrate, I want to share some of the new mythological additions you can look forward to experiencing.

Lady Loki Returns!

As I first mentioned when I released Thora’s chapter, one of the primary reasons I included her in the series was so that I could also include a lady Loki. Technically this isn’t the first time we’ve seen her; she featured heavily in Thora’s flashbacks. But this is the first time she appears in the present.

When most people think of Loki, they immediately think of Tom Hiddleston in the Marvel universe. But my love for Loki far predates the Marvel version. And while I love the way Tom Hiddleston portrays Loki, I opted for a more traditional depiction.

While Marvel made Loki as an ice giant, traditional Norse tales usually mark him as a fire giant. (Which is why my Loki is ginger.) In fact, traditional Viking myths don’t usually pair Thor and Loki as siblings, though Loki is sometimes Odin’s son. Still, the pair make an interesting foil to each other, which is why I think writers tend to pair or pit them against each other.

Loki is, first and foremost, a trickster, which makes it difficult to determine whose side she’s on. With that in mind, rather than giving Loki fire abilities (which would have overlapped heavily with Amaterasu), I opted to make illusions her primary talent. After all, mythical tales often involve Loki taking different shapes as part of his plans to trick people into doing what he wants. His shape-shifting resulted in such creatures as the wolf Fenrir, the world serpent Jormungandr and even the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In a world of technology and magic, it seems reasonable that a trickster would still want some way to fool the senses of their opponents.

As for the role Loki plays in galaxy beyond Earth – that’ll you’ll have to read the book to discover!

A New Friend Appears!

Thora isn’t the only one who finds an old ally lurking along the path. One of Aeternitas’s other guardians is about to receive a blast from the past – in the form of Saraswati.

In the Hindu tradition, Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge, music, art, wisdom and learning. You’ve got to love a goddess that embodies both the intellectual and creative aspects of the brain. Saraswati is often depicted as the consort of Brahma (another part of the triple male aspect that includes Shiva and Vishnu). Brahma is the creator god who forms the universe out of the ether. (It is later destroyed by Shiva before being made anew by the Brahma aspect.)

Saraswati is considered to be the active energy and power of Brahma, her consort. She is one of the most important Hindu goddesses and has maintained her status since the Vedic period. While Brahma tends to represent abstract reality, Saraswati represents tangible action and reality. She carries a book which contains all knowledge and represents all forms of learning. She is also often depicted as playing a musical instrument known as a veena.

Personally, my favorite thing about Saraswati – outside of the fact that she is celebrated as a goddess of intelligence and learning – is the fact that she rides a freakin’ swan. How cool is that? Plus, if your characters might need to bend the laws of reality, who better to help than a goddess of scientific knowledge?

I don’t want to give too much away, but I do expect Saraswati to return in future installments of the series. So I really hope you like her!

An Enemy Shows Their True Face!

The last installment offered us a brief glimpse of Ananke, one of Aeternitas’s enigmatic sisters. Like Loki, we haven’t seen much of her in the present. But with the characters racing toward a confrontation, it seems inevitable that her true face will be revealed.

I haven’t talked much about the creation of Aeternitas and her sisters though, ironically, it took longer to pin them down than any of the other mythological figures who appear in this series. I wanted each of the sisters to embody a certain type of power – that of eternity. But I also wanted each to be unique and memorable. (So you can see why they required so much effort!)

Ananke is an ancient Greek goddess who represents the personification of inevitability, compulsion and necessity. She is a primordial deity – meaning that she was formed before the rest of the universe, and is sometimes credited with playing a role in its creation. She was a self-formed being who emerged at the dawn of creation in the form of a serpent. Her outstretched arms then encompassed the cosmos. She is sometimes considered the mother of the Fates.

Ananke represents one half of the division between chaos and order. She is mentioned in Plato’s writing as one of two opposing elements that form the world: intellect and necessity.

I chose this particular goddess as one of Aeternitas’s sisters because I wanted to play with the somewhat oppressive idea of inevitable compulsion. She feels to me like a force that you would rather not obey, but ultimately cannot escape. And the Ananke of our tale certainly seems to possess such insidious influence.

Can she and Aeternitas reconcile their differences? Or are they doomed to battle to the bitter end?

The Bond Between Sisters is Available Now!

There’s only one way to beat a trickster.
Recruit one.

Aeternitas and Gaea are racing the clock, trying to reach the empress before Ananke, Aeternitas’s bloodthirsty sister, reaches Earth.

All they have to do is find a pirate captain. Break onto an imperial battle cruiser. Defeat a more powerful enemy. Hijack Ananke’s flagship. And navigate the imperial capital.

But before they do any of that, they need to make contact with Thora’s wayward sister, Loki.

Loki has a reputation both inside the empire and beyond. She’s clever, but she’s also known for causing trouble. She does seem willing to help, but it’s possible – probable even – she has her own agenda.

Can Aeternitas and Gaea navigate the web of opposition in time to save the Earth? Or are they about to add another entry to their list of enemies?

Fans of Sailor Moon and Stargate will enjoy this clever mythological mashup. Grab your copy today!