New Release: The Troll Bridge – A Captivating Fantasy


A witchling child befriends a troll boy and changes the fate of a kingdom.

fantasy, kindle unlimited,My new fantasy novel, The Troll Bridge, is finally out! This captivating fantasy was an absolute joy to write. I channelled my enthusiasm for all the gorgeous fantasy novels of the 1980s and 1990s. Think of the magic of Robin McKinley and Patricia C Wrede, for instance.

The Troll Bridge is only 99c for a full-length novel (although it’s not one of those huge fantasy novels that in paper form can double as doorstops). It’s also available in Kindle Unlimited.

Buy link:   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079VRR76K

Blurb

A witchling child befriends a troll boy and changes the fate of a kingdom.

Trolls aren’t born. They’re made, and they fight for the kingdom of Adynn. They are its first and fiercest protectors, guarding the roads into the mountain kingdom.

When young Morgana befriends a newly made troll boy and names him Peter, she unwittingly reveals her magic to his creator. Sorcerer Veritas removes her from her remote village to the School of Sorcery. There she will learn to cast spells and forge charms, but she’ll also learn the high price of friendship, and the reality that someone with her magical ability will always be a target for others who seek power.

War is coming to the kingdom of Adynn. The Vlad Empire, with its death magic and slaves, is closing in. Morgana will be trained as a war wizard, but in her heart she resists the role. She doesn’t want to fight and she refuses to kill. So Sorcerer Veritas will provide a little motivation.

A powerful story of friendship, magic and high adventure.

Excerpt (from Chapter 1)

A green willow tree leaned over the stream at the northern edge of our village. Its reflection shimmered in the water, mayflies darting above it. At five years old, the beauty of the scene made little impression on me. I was more interested in practical matters. I crawled beneath the willow’s branches and smiled to find myself inside a small green “cave”. Here, I was safe from sharp eyes and bossy people who might scoop me up and carry me back to the inn and my da.

Adventures shouldn’t end with a parent’s disinterested disapproval.

I kicked off my shoes and peeled off my stockings, stuffing them into the shoes and abandoning both against the willow’s trunk. “Look after them, please.” I patted the tree.

According to village gossip, my mother had been a witch. Since she’d died giving birth to me, I’d never met her, but perhaps there was some truth to the rumor. Certainly, the world felt alive to me in a way that the other village children couldn’t understand. So I talked to the willow and I sang to the stream, and then, I darted out from the willow’s protection and ran barefoot along the muddy bank to the old stone bridge that I’d been forbidden to visit.

The bridge hadn’t been forbidden territory until last week. But that was when the sorcerer came. It had been a day of marvels and whispers. People had stared and pointed, but none had gotten close to the tall, gray-bearded man in his shiny blue robe. Except for my da, who’d served the sorcerer ale as if the wizard was no different to other men. Da had even taken time to discuss the weather.

The village had been awed by Da’s daring, and proud of him.

I’d sat on my low chair by the inn’s massive hearth. It had been one of those terrible spring days when the wind had hurled rain as if regretting the loss of winter. I’d been glad to be beside the crackling fire with a book open on my knees, pretending to be absorbed in the Bible stories.

I enjoyed an haphazard upbringing with the inn’s barmaids caring for me when they remembered. One had taught me the alphabet. Reading had happened naturally from there, and Da had bought me the book from a passing peddler. Perhaps he’d had some notion of countering the magic that ran through my veins with religion. But as I would learn, magic and religion could go hand in hand.

The sorcerer had chosen our remote village, tucked up against the Sighaway Forest with rolling farmland stretching to the south and east, as the sight for a nursery bridge. After he’d drunk his beer and enjoyed crusty bread fresh from the bakery and lavishly smeared with forest honey, he’d addressed the gathered villagers and explained matters.

Our stone bridge to the north would serve as the first bridge for the new troll the sorcerer intended to bring into the world.

Unlike humans, trolls aren’t born. They’re created out of stone by sorcery. What I hadn’t known was that they began existence as tiny trolls and grew. The sorcerer explained that each time someone crossed the northern bridge they would need to pay the young troll a toll. Unlike the grand trolls on the king’s highways, the toll wouldn’t be paid in money, but in stones. A pebble would do. What mattered was that the young troll was paid and acknowledged for his service in guarding the small bridge.

The villagers nodded assent, disregarding the fact that the bridge had survived for years without being guarded. This wasn’t about the bridge. This was about serving the sorcerer and King Ulryk by providing a nursery bridge for the troll. So the villagers agreed, the sorcerer created his tiny troll and departed, and the village quietly banned its children from going near or ever crossing the northern bridge.

I squelched through the mud, delighting in the way it squished between my toes as I crept to the shadow of the bridge. A trout leapt and splashed back into the stream. Tadpoles darted in the shallows. I squinted ahead. I’d never looked beneath the bridge before. I was more accustomed to standing on it and hanging over the side, playing the ever-popular Poohsticks, which isn’t as stinky as it sounds.

A group of us kids would drop sticks simultaneously from the upstream side of the bridge then turn and race to the other side—admittedly, only two steps for the bigger kids—to see whose stick emerged first downstream.

“Hello?” I called quietly.

The strange shape beneath the bridge rolled out and faced me.

I saw my first ever troll.

Buy link:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079VRR76K


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