Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies might be the book barreling toward publication at the moment, but Seven Days of Mercy for the Apostatic Priest is following hot on its heels (Release Date: January 13, 2026). HTP’s second wide release launches The Divine Heretic series, the Z. Bennett Lorimer take on the classic sword and sorcery genre, but with a contemporary twist. Over the weekend, I finalized the cover design and signed off on the publishing proofs. Check it out.
Ebook Cover
Paperback Cover
The lead artist working on this series is Aicel Escalada. This was by far the hardest project to pair with a designer. Sword and sorcery is very closely tied to a specific visual aesthetic–think the classic covers on Robert Howard’s Conan the Barbarian Stories or C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry or the many iterations of Red Sonja. Artists like Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, and Michael Whelan helped to create this aesthetic right alongside the authors bringing those stories to life, and they’re just as synonymous with the characters they depicted as the writers who created them.
My hope is that Aicel’s work will come to be identified with The Divine Heretic in the same way. I wanted this cover to allude to the classic style but with some updated direction to better match the contemporary market. It’s not controversial to point out that the Golden Age sword and sorcery stories embodied some retrograde gender politics, and the art, though gorgeous, tended to be on the objectifying side. I basically asked Aicel to make Ruxindra l’Maer Red Sonja in realistic armor with a body that makes anatomical sense for a female warrior. I think they nailed it.
With the cover design in hand, Seven Days of Mercy is off to the printer and should be available for pre-order shortly wherever books are sold. What do you think of the art? Would love to hear some feedback or answer any questions. Send both to [email protected].
Returning to the Tales of Ciel and Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies, we’ve got a very busy PR week. Starting today, Ardent Wings will get a category spotlight under Science Fiction & Fantasy over on NetGalley. Response so has been overwhelmingly positive from the industry pros. Independent reviewers and book buyers are largely loving the book. The most common criticism is that it feels too short, but the characters, plot, and world are really resonating. Everyone seems eager to jump into Book 2.
Tomorrow, we’ll launch our final ARC push through a new PR partner that bullishly plans to put the galley in front of 100 readers. That’s a pretty big number, but I’m eager to see if they can deliver.
Finally, beginning October 1, the extended sample of Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies will be included in four giveaway bundles each week leading up to the release. Yes, that means I will be imposing upon you all for your clicks so that I can do my part to help the other bundled authors get eyes on their work. The reader magnet campaign that I’ve been running since August has been the single most effective piece of marketing for Ardent Wings, so I appreciate you all bearing with me through these click requests.
It’s all building toward the end of the month, when the big trades will likely drop their reviews (which I hope will be glowing). Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Foreword, SPR, and Independent Book Review should all publish their reviews by the end of the month. I did send a copy to Locus as well, but their process is more opaque and I have no notion of whether or not they even assigned it to a reviewer. Review season will lead directly to a big advertising push to drive early sales around the release and hopefully help the book climb the charts (and the algorithms).
Progress Report
Finalizing the cover for Seven Days of Mercy for the Apostatic Priest impressed upon me the need to get cracking on The Divine Heretic Book 2: What Lies Between. I still haven’t quite hit a flow state on this draft, but I am making headway unearthing the book’s thematic core. I work from a detailed outline that focuses primarily on the movements of the plot, and that’s all working structurally, but teasing out the unifying themes is the crucial piece that turns a sequence of events into a story.
I know what happens, but I’m still writing my way into why it matters to the characters. The earlier I pin that down, the less work I’ll have cut out for myself in the first revision.
Here’s where the active works-in-progress stand to date:
Tales of Ciel
Book 1: Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies – Ready to publish November 11, 2025
Book 2: Ophiuchus Flinched – Awaiting final art
Book 3: The Mark of Cain – Second draft with the editor
Book 4: Cut Him into Stars – First draft about 10% complete
The Divine Heretic
Book 1: Seven Days of Mercy for the Apostatic Priest – Ready to publish January 13, 2026
Book 2: What Lies Between – First draft about 20% complete
Book 3: A Myrtle among Thorns – Outlined
The Compact Cycle
Book 1: The Politics of Fear – Polish draft about 15% complete
Book 2: The Kakistocracy of Flagging Need – First draft about 20% complete
Book 3: Misprision – Outlined
Shattered
Book 1: The Girl Who Woke the Moon – Ready for a final copyedit
Book 2: The Boy Who Left the Forest – First draft about 5% complete