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Please give a very warm welcome to L.J. LaBarthe who is in the hotseat today to talk about her new release, The Wind-up Forest. Welcome!

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Hi Grace, thanks for having me guest here on your blog.

I’m L. J. LaBarthe, and my current release which has only been out a short while is called “The Wind-up Forest.” It’s the fourth book in my series, “The Archangel Chronicles,” out with Dreamspinner Press.

I’ve finished nine books for this series so far, (so far! Ack! LOL!), and they can be divided into sets of three, like seasons on a TV show. So the first three books established the characters, introduced the universe that the books are set in, (Earth, 21st century), and began the main relationship, that of Archangels Michael and Gabriel. There are secondary relationships and romances, not all of them M/M. The M/M relationships are Archangels Uriel and Raziel; Archangel Raphael and Israfel the Angel of Music; the Grigori Angels Kokabiel and Baraqiel; Archdemon Ondrass and demon Markus. The M/F relationships are Archangel Remiel and Ishtahar; Lyudmila and Piotr who are shifters. In “The Wind-up Forest,” new relationships and characters are introduced, as we’re now in ‘season two’, and those relationships are Liam and Baxter (Necromancer and shifter), Declan and Angelique (shifters), Danny and Lily (shifters), and Minnie and Max (witch and computer tech genius). All the relationships and romances are important, though it’s Michael and Gabriel’s story that is front and center.

The background of “The Wind-up Forest” and the two books that come after it, which are out soon with Dreamspinner Press—”The Crystal Lake” and “The Bone Cup”—is the Holy Grail and its theft, working in Arthurian legend and magical and mythological creatures. I’ve loved the Arthurian legends since I was a child and I’ve wanted to write a book with that mythos for some time. I’ve procrastinated on that for various reasons, but I finally had the idea to tie the Arthurian stories into “The Archangel Chronicles.” The Holy Grail has been stolen, and now it’s up to the Brotherhood of Archangels and their allies to find it and return it to safety before reality rips apart.

“The Wind-up Forest” introduces a collection of ideas and characters that all seem to be quite unconnected, but by the end of the book, the reader will see that there’s so much more than meets the eye going on. Not only that, I finally took the plunge and gave Lucifer, aka the Devil, Satan himself, a romance. His lover is Adramelek, an Archdemon, who was once an angel and fell from  Heaven with Lucifer. Writing their relationship was a lot of fun, although it was also immensely challenging in terms of the sex scenes, as they’re not always corporeal when they consummate their intimacy. That sounds nice and cryptic, doesn’t it? I hope it intrigues people to read the book!

I’m very happy with these books and these characters, and while I have no plans for more books in this series, I can’t say that it’ll never happen. Never say never, after all. Who knows what the future will hold, and who knows what the muses will demand! Plot bunnies are nefarious creatures, and they breed.

“The Wind-up Forest” continues on from “No Shadows Fall,”  and marks a new raft of challenges and trials. The relationship between Michael and Gabriel grows and twists and turns as the story progresses, and so does the relationship and romance between Uriel and Raziel, Raphael and Israfel, and the first time, new love between Liam, a human who is a Necromancer, and Baxter, a shifter who works for Archangel Michael. I do hope readers enjoy it.

 

Wind-upForestSequel to No Shadows Fall
Archangel Chronicles: Book Four 

Archangel Gabriel is hoping for a quiet period in his life to enjoy his relationship with Archangel Michael, but someone has other ideas.

New dangers arise when the Holy Grail is stolen. Gabriel, Michael, and the rest of the Brotherhood of Archangels and their allies must somehow thwart the twisted desires of the thief.

Their search for the Grail takes them all over the world, calling on old friends like Uriel and Raziel, and forging powerful new alliances. Though they face a fresh set of perils in pursuit of the thief, the enduring comfort Gabriel needs so much, that of his beloved Michael, never abandons him.

Get it here: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4714

 

L.J. LaBarthe is a French-Australian woman, who was born during the Witching Hour, just after midnight. From this auspicious beginning, she went on to write a prize-winning short story about Humpty Dumpty wearing an Aussie hat complete with corks dangling from it when she was six years old. From there, she wrote for her high school yearbook, her university newspaper, and, from her early teens to her twenties, produced a fanzine about the local punk rock music scene. She loves music of all kinds and was once a classical pianist; she loves languages and speaks French and English and a teeny-tiny smattering of Mandarin Chinese, which she hopes to relearn properly very soon. She enjoys TV, film, travel, cooking, eating out, abandoned places, urbex, history, and researching.

L.J. loves to read complicated plots and hopes to do complex plot lines justice in her own writing. She writes paranormal, historical, urban fantasy, and contemporary Australian stories, usually m/m romance and featuring m/m erotica. She has won a Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention and another award for Best Historical Gay Novel.

L.J. lives in the city of Adelaide, and is owned by her cat.

Twitter: @brbsiberia
Blog: http://misslj_author.livejournal.com/ 
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/lj.labarthe.9
Web: http://www.ljlabarthe.com/