If you haven’t scooped up a copy yet, there’s no time like the present. And if you are a KU subscriber, all HTP novels will be free to read on that platform. Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies is available in Ebook from Amazon and in Paperback wherever books are sold. Our next release, Seven Days of Mercy for the Apostatic Priest, is currently available for pre-order (coming January 13, 2025).

Concerned about jumping into a new, unfinished series? We won’t leave you hanging! Book 2 in the Tales of Ciel, Ophiuchus Flinched, is slated for publication February 3 and should be shipping out to ARC readers and available for pre-order very soon. Book 2 in The Divine Heretic series, originally scheduled for an August release, has moved up the publication schedule to May 2026! We were able to expedite the publication of this one thanks to a smooth drafting process and some extra availability from the series editor.

Delivering series SFF on a speedy timeline is central to the mission of High Trestle Press. If there’s ever anything we can do on our end to move up the publication schedule for any particular series, you can bet we’ll make it happen.

If you’re enjoying Ardent Wings, but you’re still unsure about taking the plunge into the world of The Divine Heretic, I recommend checking out the Extended Preview, which is currently free to download. You’ll get the first 10 chapters in Ebook format and a solid sense of what to expect from this series. Like the Tales of Ciel, The Divine Heretic falls broadly into the fantasy genre, but tonally and stylistically, the two series couldn’t be more different.

Some fun facts about this series:

• The Divine Heretic is a sword and sorcery novel. It follows in the tradition of writers like Robert Howard, C.L. Moore, Karl Wagner, and Michael Moorcock. 

• The series follows one POV: Ruxindar l’Maer, the titular Apostatic Priest and a deific heroine in the archetype of Conan the Barbarian, Elric of Melnibone, and Jirel of Joiry.

• An early reader described Ruxindra as “Red Sonja in realistic armor” and that feels about right.

• Sword and sorcery stories traditionally feature tons of kinetic action, limited interiority, and a focus on personal journeys and smaller stakes like survival or revenge. Seven Days of Mercy captures this aesthetic, but I’ve tried to bring some more modern elements of craft into the mix. Fans of the genre will notice a heavier focus on Ruxindra’s interiority than you might expect from a typical Conan story, and though Ruxindra’s personal mission and immediate survival provide the narrative thrust, a larger struggle looms in the background, which may provide some crossover appeal for fans of traditional epic fantasy.

• The world of Hebdomar is inspired by a variety of Iron Age Semitic cultures and Mediterranean settings. The series also draws heavily from Jewish mythology and Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mysticism.

• In keeping with the traditions of the genre, each novel tells its own self-contained story, though a larger metastory takes shape over the arc of the series, offering narrative rewards to sequential readers.

I’m excited for you all to get your hands on this one.