More Nominations for Apostle of Asphodel!

Well, awards season travels on apace and The Asphodel Cycle 4: Apostle of Asphodel has managed to pick up more nominations from Love Romances and More E-Cafe!  In today's announcement from LRC, Apostle was nominated for Best Cover of 2009 (cover art by the lovely Renee George) --

--and also for Best Fantasy Novel of 2009--

--and in a move that completed knocked me right off my couch, Apostle of Asphodel was also nominated for Best Novel of 2009!

To say I'm stunned is completely and irrelevantly inadequate. Over the years, I've had a great relationship both with Love Romances and More's outstanding review site as well as the incredibly fun and friendly denizens of the Love Romances and More E-Cafe.  I've done a lot of book release parties there, made a lot of great friends, gotten a lot of really fantastic reviews and generally have had a hell of a lot of fun.  So anytime, LR&M gives me a nod like this, it's a very special moment for me.  LR&M was the first review site to really believe in my work.  This nomination is the fourth nod LR&M has given to the Asphodel Cycle; every single one of those novels has been nominated for an award either by the E-Cafe or in the LR&M Golden Rose awards.

Thank you, LR&M.  Thank you from the bottom of my overwhelmed heart.

http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/more-hot-reads/apostle-of-asphodel/prod_263.html

Tamsen Ka’antira has grown into a woman of incredible power as the Virgin Huntress’ player in the game of the gods. After discovering the Hippolytes, a fabled race of women devoted to the arts of combat, she must lead them back to the plains of Ilia to fight the greatest war of antiquity again. The pantheon of gods awaits her in their Hall of Judgment, where the ultimate fate of the Elven Realm will be determined. Not only must she defeat her uncle, Gabril de Spesialle, but she must contend with a renegade goddess whose sole purpose is to overthrow the pantheon and rule over a universe wrapped in chaos. But when Tamsen finds herself standing alone against overwhelming odds, she is forced to make sacrifices that threaten everything she loves. Can she find the strength to complete the game and redeem the Elven people? As the Apostle of Asphodel, Tamsen must transcend from a wielder of magic into part of the magic itself.

Review from Love Romances and More (five out of five stars): "...Ms. Summers creates complex characters that continue to grow as you read this series. All the characters, new and old, will keep your attention as you try to figure out along with Tamsen, what her objective is and if she can overcome the obstacles placed in her path. I highly enjoyed this entire series but am sincerely hoping Ms. Summers continues on with Asphodel and her great cast of characters..."

It's Out! Apostle of Asphodel Published by Aspen Mountain Press!

Well, it's finally done. The final book of my epic fantasy series The Asphodel Cycle has just been released. Apostle of Asphodel, the follow-up novel to Temptation of Asphodel is now available from Aspen Mountain Press.

Here's hoping that all of you Asphodel fans enjoy the conclusion of the story. After the other Asphodel novels did so well and won so much recognition, especially Temptation as a Preditor and Editor Top Ten Novel of the Year for 2008 and runner up to Christine Feehan's Murder Game in the 2008 Golden Rose award voting, I'm praying that Apostle keeps the standards up.

I'll just go ahead and cheat and let you know that out of the four books in the series, Apostle is my favorite.

So now I have to ask myself--what's next? Is there another story down the road for Tamsen and Brial? There are other options in the Asphodel world for stories--the next generation, perhaps, or maybe a couple of secondary characters. I've played around a bit with some of them. Who can say? But for now, Tamsen and Brial are quiet. They've earned their rest after all; they've been running around for years now. Maybe that peace they're always talking about will come to them at last. Maybe they can actually have some fun for a bit.

Or maybe they're taking it easy on the Elysian Fields, where all of the other great, dead heroes of mythology end up. They could be hanging out with Achilles and Odysseus for all we know...

Guess you'll just have to buy the book to find out.

Thank you to everyone who's shared the journey of The Asphodel Cycle with me. And a huge thank you to my editor, Sandra Hicks, who is also the publisher at Aspen Mountain Press. If I breathed life into these characters, she made them toe the line. A huge shout out to Renee George, who creates such lovely covers for these books and who I devoutly hope does every cover for every single one of my books in the future.

But most of all, thank YOU for reading--and loving--the world of Asphodel. So for now, from the soaring streets of Leselle and the blossoming orchards of Asphodel and the busy markets of Geochon, we bid you all a fond adieu.

For now.

Holy Crap! A Golden Rose Nomination???

I nearly fainted when I found out that Temptation of Asphodel had been nominated for a Golden Rose Award for Best Sci Fi/Fantasy Novel of 2007 by Love Romances and More--especially when I saw my idol Christine Feehan's name on the nomination list too. I mean, think about it. Here I am, in the middle of the night (darned insomnia) and I find something like this out?

Wow. Someone hand me the vodka. I need a drink.

But then I started to think about it and I realized what a huge thing that is. For a new writer such as myself, who writes for a small, independent press to even be considered alongside a forerunner in genre romance--a giant, if you will--is a testament to how e-publishing has changed the face of the writing world. The perception that writers who publish with smaller presses are somehow inferior or untalented is fading. There's a heck of a lot of good fiction out there in the small presses and e-publishing houses these days. Now, I'm not saying that I consider myself to be the equal of a Christine Feehan. I'm a journeyman writer; she's a master.

So what else can I say but just WOW?

I love the fact that my Asphodel books are loved by my readers. I write to entertain, to share fantastic worlds and to hopefully transport people from their everyday lives to something magical and heroic and emotionally honest. To see my name alongside the other fantastic writers nominated gives me hope that perhaps I may have succeeded in some way in doing just that.

It is a glorious feeling. Thank you.