LAST EDITED ON Aug-07-24 AT 12:21 PM (EDT)
 
And I'm excited.
It's called The Ballad of the Grey Swan. It's a swashbuckling fantasy novel inspired by things like:

• my love of Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy


• the works of Alexandre Dumas like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers


• books like War for the Oaks which involve people rising up to be the equal of magical powers


• swashbuckler movies


• my desire to have a fantasy novel that reflects trans people and gay people as just people living their lives (well, as normal as you get in a fantasy world, but you get the idea) until things get weird


• and an image I got in my head and had to get out one way or another.

Young noble Jeyreme Corbeau has been assigned by his father to catch the notorious bandit known as the Grey Swan, who is robbing merchants in their barony.
Amongst the problems with this assignment are the facts that Jeyreme is actually a trans woman, that she's trying to find a way to run away with her lover...
...and she is the Grey Swan.
When the Baron decides that Jey's not doing the job well enough, he calls in a bounty hunter dedicated to an evil god.
Now the Grey Swan has to become a hero to save everyone from this threat!
Add in the interest the faerie lord called the Prince of Fireflies has in Jey's lover, and no one can guess what powers will come to clash in the woods of Barony Corbeau!
All of Jey's secrets will come crashing together in a story of queer swashbuckling adventure!

I hope you decide you like the Grey Swan, her lover Maisie, and the adventure she's on due to some less-than-good decisions.

As of today, here's how you can get the novel:

• Amazon as a Kindle book


• obtained through Kindle Unlimited


• Amazon as a paperback


• Barnes & Noble Nook


Edit: after a full week, the Nook version is finally out, so I put the link in for it.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

Congratulations! It sounds like you've done some wild worldbuilding there. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

The entire novel takes place in an area about 75 miles square. The continent is a few thousand across.

Lots of room for stuff, and I barely scratched it… so far.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

Huzzah the novel!

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

Cool!

*adds it to wishlist*

It didn't last long on the wishlist and I read it a couple months ago and loved it.

Thank you!

Did you get the ebook version? If so, you may see it update in a few months. I'm working on the next Taeliana book and will be putting out a revision of Grey Swan at the same time with a new cover.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

That's awesome! I'm really happy for you! =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

Amazon's being moody about shipping to Australia. I WILL be trying again.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

This is a direct AU link, if that helps: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DB3H35NX

I ....um... this might be a sales suicide thing, but I'd recommend ebook instead of physical, because damn the markup is way larger than I thought.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

Eh, not that bad by AU standards. It's on its way.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Senshi and Trans Girl Optimus for scale.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

That's cool. Thank you! I hope you enjoy it.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

In something that is only tangentially related, I love how you can just replace the domain name of any Amazon product page with your preferred one(.se for me) and, if it exists on that particular Amazon, you'll get the same thing. Not all things DO exist on all "local" Amazon, but the vast majority does.

Ordered.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

>And I'm excited.
>It's called The Ballad of the Grey Swan. It's a swashbuckling
>fantasy novel
>Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
>Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
>"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

Congrats!!! I look forward to picking it up!

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

My quick review (no spoilers):

I got the hard copy and read it over the weekend, and I enjoyed it a lot. The world building was well done (though it's clear there's a lot that is yet to be revealed given the limited scope of the story), the plot was fun and coherent, and the characters were well written. Overall I'd give it an 8.5/10 - there were a couple things that just didn't quite work for me as well as the rest of the story, but were well executed nonetheless. And, for anybody who has enjoyed Jen's writing in UF, I think you'll enjoy this too - totally different genre, but stylistically it's got all the good stuff we've come to expect. :)

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

I don't know why it occurred to me today. Some sort of time-delayed meme-virus? Anyway. I was looking at the cover art and...

... is the extended middle finger intentional? Am I just dense for missing it before now?

If it's intentional, congrats on a fine pun!

--sofaspud
--if it's not double congrats for the unintentional fine punnery