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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

#WIPSnips 29 September 'well' My favourite thing about this novella is these two characters trying to outmanoeuvre each other. #WriteSky #indiefantasy #WritingCommunity 💙🪐📚

Wipsnips 29 September prompt 'well'

They matched stares over the diplomatic plateau of her second-best tea service. Eventually, Hailene asked, “Is that a threat, Ambassador? Because I can assure you, I’m perfectly capable of dealing with Alyas’s temper tantrums.”
He shrugged elegantly. “He’s your nephew.”
“Yes,” she agreed, setting down her cup. “He is. More to the point, all Cassana has done—all she will do—is attend Elidne-Sera’s garden parties, along with every other woman of consequence in Avarel. And if you have ever tried to prise the details of those parties from the ladies involved, you will know as well as I that what goes on there is not shared with their menfolk.”
“And what exactly does go on?”
“A different kind of powerbroking.”
He quirked a polite eyebrow.
She smiled. “Just so, Ambassador. So you see, there really is no need to scuff those pretty boots hiding in my flower beds.”
He looked down and swore.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#WIPSnips 28 September - I don't have 'prime' so I have gone with 'first'. Two of my favourite side characters have their own adventure in this novella in my Tales of Isyr series. #WriteSky #indiefantasy #WritingCommunity 💙🪐📚

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is KNEW/KNOW Here's an excerpt from The Siege of Druine, which fills in some important backstory about the characters in The Many Shades of Midnight - it's also free to download on my newsletter. #bookqw #writingcommunity #indiefantasy 💙🪐📚

Front cover and excerpt from The Siege of Druine for Book Quote Wednesday prompt KNEW/KNOW

“I knew your father. Did you know that?”
There was a knife in those words. Storn saw it in the way Alyas froze, colour leaving his face.
Haki tilted his head, taking in the reaction the other man was too tired to hide, and he thrust that knife deeper. “I was there when he won from the emperor the right to claim any reward he could name. He named the Ado blades.”
It was only because Storn was watching so closely that he caught the tiny twitch at those words. Haki was watching just as intently. He laughed. “Oh yes, your father asked for them. He never told you that, did he? We all expected the emperor to strike him down for his presumption. Those blades were the greatest prize in all of Qido. But do you know what he did? He begged your father to choose something else, anything else. He shamed us all that day, begging a foreigner, and he did it not to preserve a national heirloom, but because he said the blades were cursed.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#WIPSnips 14 September 'month' Taking a break from wrestling with my main WIP to revise the draft of a novella in my Tales of Isyr series that has been gathering dust for a couple of years - lots of tea drinking with a bit of blackmail on the side. #WriteSky #indiefantasy #WritingCommunity 💙🪐📚

Wipsnips 14 September 'month'

Marching into the salon where Cassana was drinking tea with her brother, Hailene tapped her cane against Melar’s ankle and told him to leave.
The Flaeresian ambassador looked up at her with a bemused expression. “May I ask why?”
“Because I have a matter of some urgency to discuss with your sister, concerning Alyas, and you have no need to hear it.”
Cassana’s heart sped up. Had something happened? The company had been on an extended contract for months, working in the coastal kingdoms east of Flaeres. She’d had little news, but that was not unusual. There was no reason to think...
“Now, there’s no need for that,” Hailene said briskly, seeing her face. “This is a political matter, and I would like it resolved before he ever hears about it. Off you go, Ambassador.”
Melar hooked his elbow over the back of his chair and regarded Hailene with a quirked brow and quickened interest. “A Lankaran political matter? About Alyas? This I must hear. Perhaps,” he added with an innocent glance at Cassana, “I could help?”
“I think not, Ambassador,” Hailene informed him, settling herself into a chair. “My nephew has more than enough problems without owing you a favour. Your sister and I are quite capable of handling the matter. You may go.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'drip'. Here's an excerpt from The Many Shades of Midnight, a fantasy book I wrote in a fit of rage at the state of the world in which I take corrupt corporations and spineless governments and subject them to my justice... #bookqw #writingcommunity 💙🪐📚

Front cover and excerpt from The Many Shades of Midnight for Book Quote Wednesday 9 September - 'drip'

Rumour was a deadly thing, and Alyas had proved himself extremely adept at seeding it. So adept, in fact, that the tiny snippets of gossip had done what she had not thought possible and shaken, ever so slightly, the regard of the rich for the hand that fed them. He was the reason she was cooped up here instead of out there, enjoying all the rewards she had earned. Because every time she stepped outside her door, those bloody kids with their placards were there to shout their complaints and their devastating truths, turning the people against her drip by drip.
Gods, she hated him.
So when he turned up on her doorstep one evening, she could not say she was overjoyed to see him.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#WIPSnips 6 September - 'sigh' From my historical fantasy WIP - are these characters changing the patterns of past generations or repeating them? #WriteSky #indiefantasy #WritingCommunity 💙🪐📚

WIPSnips excerpt for 6 September - 'sigh'

“What do you mean to do, Darri? Will you honour Edrin’s treaty?”
He glanced at her in surprise. Edrin’s treaty. And Edrin was dead. Yet that did not free him. His uncle might have made the treaty to end the war, but it bound him too. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because when I look at you, I see my mother.”
Gaurin gave a huff of grim laughter and would have said something, but one look at Merionn’s face stopped the thought behind his teeth. He looked down, as though he had suddenly remembered the cup in his hand, and drained it in a single swallow. Then he stood and went to fetch another, leaving them alone.
In the wake of Gaurin’s retreat, Darraion returned Merionn’s searching stare. “Maelys honoured her treaties.”
“Of course,” Merionn agreed. “Until she didn’t, of course.”
“By then they were already broken.” He sighed. “And that’s the problem with these treaties, Merionn. They’re bandages over a festering wound. We don’t need endless truces with Morn, we need peace and recognition of Lyn’s right to exist, free and independent, and we’ll never get that if we’re continually fighting amongst ourselves. So yes, I’ll honour the treaty—until it’s clear that it’s meaningless, like every other before it. And then…” He shrugged. “Then, we’ll see.”
His aunt smiled, a little sadly. “Now you sound like her too.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

#WIPSnips 4 September - all instances of 'collapse' in my historical fantasy WIP are spoilery, so I've gone for 'fallen' instead #WriteSky #indiefantasy #WritingCommunity 💙🪐📚

WIPSnips excerpt for 4 September - 'fallen' instead of 'collapse'

Darri wiped the blood from his knife and put it away before he climbed wearily to his feet and walked to where Bren was sitting in the snow by his brother, tears pouring down his round cheeks.
Crouching before the boys, he put one hand on Fien shoulder, tucking his bleeding wrist out of sight. “Someone will come for us soon,” he promised them. “But we should start walking so they find us sooner. Can you do that?”
Both mounts had bolted. If they were lucky, one or both would return to Cynnor. He didn’t relish the uproar that would cause, nor the lecture, but Bren’s clothes were soaked through where he had fallen in the snow, and both boys were cold and pale with shock. He needed to get them back to the warmth of the hall as quickly as possible.
Fien gave him a solemn nod. Bren, teeth chattering and tears leaking down his cheeks as he stared over Darri’s shoulder, seemed not to hear. When Darri touched his face, he blinked and looked up, then threw himself forward, little arms wrapping themselves around his chest. He stood, carrying the sobbing child with him, and Bren’s legs curled around his waist, head buried in his shoulder.
“So,” he said, settling the weight on his hips and looking down at Fien around Bren’s dark curls, “shall we go?”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'appear' Here's an excerpt from The Siege of Druine - and they're going to get a siege whether they want one or not. #bookqw #indiefantasy #writingcommunity 💙🪐📚 The ebook is free on my newsletter: www.andeira.net/newsletter

Front cover of The Siege of Druine and excerpt for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'appear'

“So what now?” Agazi asked. He was lounging against the wall and appeared completely unconcerned about the fact there was an entire fucking Qidan division camped on their doorstep.
“Now we wait. Either Haki moves or Diago does.”
“And we’re stuck in the middle,” Esar complained. It was an uncomfortable position, trapped between those two powers. Holding the balance.
Alyas shrugged. “He’s not convinced, but we have surprised him. He has doubts. If he hesitates too long, he’s lost, and he knows it.”
For Haki, success meant striking hard and striking fast, taking possession of the Donea before any of its treaty-bound neighbours were even aware Qido had moved. Which meant taking Druine and control of the pass.
Except he didn’t even need to do that. “He could just pin us down here,” Esar pointed out. “We can’t withstand a siege for long.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

#WIPSnips 2 September - I've gone for 'lacings' as I don't have 'button'. A longer snip today, of a very complicated relationship #WriteSky #indiefantasy #WritingCommunity 💙🪐📚

“You know that’s not what I meant.”
Reis looked down into the face of the prince of Morn and was given a rare glimpse of unvarnished sincerity. Gently, he prised Allard’s fingers from his arm. “Your father is sending me back to Cynrith.”
“I will talk to him. Stay in Morn, Reis. Stay with me. I will make you my—”
“Your what?” he asked, but gently, because he did not want to hurt Allard. “What can I be to you? Other than this? You will be the king of Morn one day. You will marry and have sons, because that is your duty. There’s no room for me.”
Allard’s face twisted in annoyance at this unwelcome truth. “But until then…”
“Until then I will be your pet Lynish prince?” The words were bitter, because he wanted to be more. He ached to be more. To matter. He had lived on Morn’s charity all his life, an outsider. And he would go home an outsider, tainted by that charity in a land still reeling from Mornish aggression.
“No,” Allard said fiercely. “I will give you land in Morn, a title.”
“I have land. Here, in Cynrith.” Maybe. There was no certainty Darri would let him claim it.
He saw the words on the tip of Allard’s tongue, the reminder that he was merely exchanging Carwel’s charity for his brother’s, but for once the prince chose the wiser course. Instead, he said, almost pleading, “You don’t have to be Lynish, Reis.”
But the unspoken words burned into him, sparking an anger that had been simmering ever since he had arrived in the land of his birth. “Why?” he demanded, snatching his shirt from the floor. “Because you intend to crush us?”
“One day, yes,” Allard agreed with that same painful sincerity. “Your brother will make me, you know he will.” And as Reis stared at him, he said, “I don’t want to crush you too, Reis. Please.”
But they were abruptly, achingly, too far apart. Leaving the lacings on his shirt undone, Reis grabbed the rest of his clothes and made his escape before either of them could say something they couldn’t take back.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

#WIPSnips 1 September - I don't have 'garden' in this WIP so I have gone with 'courtyard' instead. An angsty little snip from one of the three brothers at the heart of this story. #WriteSky #indiebooks 💙🪐📚 #WritingCommunity

WIPSnips 1 September - 'courtyard' substituted for 'garden'.

No news reached him here; his gaolers made sure of that. Not even a whisper of a rumour. Morn could have invaded again and he wouldn’t know it, locked away in this hall-fortress deep in Gytha’s Spine.
He had stopped expecting to be released. Stopped hoping for it. He wasn’t sure exactly when it had happened. He was not patient, not made to be locked away from the world, and he did not have the fortitude to withstand it. Confined, he simply withered.
So when the clatter of hooves woke him from a doze, he merely rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. He had been sleeping more and more these last weeks. What was the point of being awake if all he could do was stare at the same bare walls?
One hundred and twenty-eight days. Or was it one hundred and twenty-nine?
Sleep eluded him. The clamour from the courtyard was too great for a single rider. Men called out to one another, their words indistinct over the howl of Gytha’s wind. The bloody wind. How he had grown to hate the sound of its passage, whistling through the foothills of Gytha’s Spine and down into the lowlands. The breath of the dragon. The sound of freedom.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Shop the sale: indiebook.sale The Many Shades of Midnight: books2read.com/u/brev8w In Midnight's Shadow: books2read.com/u/4jMPAk Newsletter sign up: www.andeira.net/newsletter #booksale

Banner for the Narratess Indie Book Sale. A chonky dragon reads a book at the bottom, a pile of skulls with a candle and ghost sit on the left of the text, and a space ship flies by a planet on the right of the text.

Text: Indie Book Sale

indiebook.sale

Fantasy, Sci FI & Horror

29 - 31 August

Banner designed by Arden Powell

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Grab a complete series for just 0.99! The Many Shades of Midnight is free in the @narratess.com #indiebooksale. I've dropped the price of the accompanying collection of short stories and novellas to 0.99. And the prequel novel The Siege of Druine is free on my newsletter! 💙📚🪐 #indiefantasy

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The @narratess.com Indie Book Sale starts on Saturday! Almost 300 SFFH books to choose from. The Many Shades of Midnight will be free! When it goes live, you can find the sale here: indiebook.sale Thanks as always to @tessahastjarjanto.com for organising #indiebooksale #booksale #indieaugust 💙📚🪐

Montage of book covers featuring in the Narratess Indie Book Sale

indiebook.sale

Fantasy, Sci FI & Horror

29 - 31 August

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

My review of To Dream a Darker Realm by @angelaboord.bsky.social "...kept me up reading late into the night with its combination of mystery, building sense of anticipation, and beautifully drawn characters and their complex relationships." www.goodreads.com/review/show/... #bookreview 💙📚🪐

Book review graphic.
Front cover of To Dream a Darker Realm by Angela Boord.
Review quote: 'I could read about these characters all day.' Five stars.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'question'. Here's a little snip from early in The Many Shades of Midnight. #bookqw #indiefantasy 💙📚🪐

Front cover of The Many Shades of Midnight by CM Debell with excerpt for Book Quote Wednesday word 'question'.

Brivar took the cup Ailuin offered him and thought about his assertion that Alyas would not wake until morning. He felt like he could sleep for a day with that smoke in his lungs, even as its effects tried to untether his thoughts. He was quite sure its use had been deliberate, but he was too tired to care. “What did he say to you?” he asked Ailuin.
The old man resumed his place in his chair, rocking it gently. “Enough.” He eyed Brivar. “Do you know what he saw?”
Brivar looked away. “I know only what I heard.” Much of which he could not interpret and most he did not want to. He would not share it, but he found there was something he did want to know, quite badly. “Did he… did he speak of his father?”
Ailuin studied him. “That is what Esar fears, isn’t it? That they are too alike. But that is not the question you must ask.”
“Then what is?”
Ailuin smiled sadly. “The correct question is why.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#WIPSnips 21 August prompt 'wine' It turns out these characters drink a lot of wine 😂 Here's a little snip from relatively early in the first book (of three, I think) between two frenemies. #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting #writingprompts 💙📚🪐

WIPSnips 21 August 'wine'

Darraion eased out stiff legs towards the fire. The servant arrived with the wine, setting it down on a stool with its legs carved as dragon’s feet, and he waited until Hewrin handed him a cup before asking, “What do you know of Aymer d’Carle?”
A flicker of surprise crossed the Prince of Maigana’s face. “Now why would you ask me that?”
He shrugged. “You fought with him.” Against Cynrith. But he managed not to say it.
“Oh aye, I did,” Hewrin agreed, sitting back. His fingers drummed a rhythm on the back of the bench. “And I will tell you this for nothing—if there’s any man you should avoid getting involved with, it’s that one.”
“Why? He can’t be trusted?”
Hewrin barked a laugh. “Depends who you ask, but isn’t that always true? No, because there’s poison between him and his king, and you don’t want any part of that. Nor anything that comes from it.” He took a sip of his wine, shrewd eyes on Darri’s face. “What game are you playing that Aymer d’Carle is a piece on the board?”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#WIPSnips 19 August 'anymore' The heart of this story is the relationship between three brothers. #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting #writingprompts 💙📚🪐

WIPSnips prompt 19 August 'anymore'

Iro was watching him and for once Reis couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “You remember that?”
Darri nodded, eyes on Iro’s, and that guarded look was back, like he was poised to flinch from a blow.
A blow Iro didn’t hesitate to deliver. “He loved you. He missed you, in Daneath. It broke his heart that never once did you visit him.”
Reis straightened slowly from his crouch. He was between his brothers, and the mood was suddenly dangerous.
“Do you think I didn’t miss him, too?” Darri asked. “It was not my choice.”
“Not your choice?” Iro echoed, closing the distance between them at a prowl. “None of it was your choice, was it, brother? Nor your responsibility. Well, it is now. Yours to make right the wrong that was done to him. You can’t hide behind Maelys anymore, Darri.”
“Iro—” Reis began, tense as a bowstring.
“But you can hide behind our father?” Darri demanded, ignoring him. “This isn’t about him, Iro. It never was. It’s about Cynrith.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

#WIPSnips 18 August prompt 'press' There are a lot of characters with competing agendas in this story, personal and political, and it's going to get messy... #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting #writingprompts 💙📚🪐

WIPSnips excerpt for 18 August 'press'

“Why is he so angry?”
“Because you poked a hornets’ nest,” Aymer replied, accepting a towel from a groom and wiping the sweat and dust from his face. “Your father fears another Maelys in Lyn, and you just made that more likely.”
“How?” Allard scoffed as grooms fussed around him, one taking his blade while another pressed a skin of water into his hands. “Cynrith is on its knees. Darraion can hardly declare war.”
“He hardly needs to. A hundred small fires can do as much damage as one inferno.”
Irritated, Allard sent the grooms scattering with a glare that he proceeded to turn on his uncle. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That Darraion needs only stir up the other Lynish princes to make the border an expensive nightmare. The more your father meddles in Cynrith, the more nervous he makes all the lords of Lyn—and this scheme of yours is more meddling than any king of Morn has yet dared. You just gave a dangerous man back his allies.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

#WIPSnips 17 August prompt 'dark' Here's a little snip from my current WIP, a book about complicated relationships and even more complicated loyalties. #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting #writingprompts 💙📚🪐

Snippet for WIPSnips 17 August prompt 'dark'

“Do you even remember him?” Allard asked with genuine curiosity. They were sprawled on the prince’s bed, exhausted but not ready for sleep, listening to the dwindling sounds of the feast that had continued without them. “How old were you when you left? Six?”
Reis stared up at the ceiling. “Five.” He had few memories from his earliest years, but that was one of them. Not really a memory, no more than the others were, just an image he had held in his mind over the years, of a dark hallway, his mother’s fury, and his brother’s pale, shocked face. Then, later, of being bundled into someone’s arms and riding through the night.
“Five,” he said again. “And no, I don’t remember him, not really.” All his first true memories were of Morn, and it was Mornish that came most easily to his tongue. What did that make him? Was he Mornish or Lynish? Which carried greater weight—where you were born or where you were raised?

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

#WIPSnips 12 August 'heartbreak'. I haven't done one of these for ages, but I'm finally starting to wrestle my current WIP into some sort of order, so here's a little snip from the midway crisis point. #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting #writingprompts 💙📚🪐

WIPSnips prompt 12 August 'heartbreak'

“And then what? Lock them away for something they might do?”
Gaurin looked down at the hands clasped between his knees. “How will it be easier on you to know rather than simply suspect? Darri, I say this as a friend—if you let it come to conflict, you will regret it. You, not Cynrith’s prince.”
He already regretted it. He regretted the cold, rational necessity of it, but he could no longer afford to think like a brother. He had to think of Cynrith now. “It might not come to that.”
Gaurin exhaled a long breath. “If they walk out of here tonight, there is no other possible outcome. You know that as well as I do. You wanted to find another solution. Now you know they will accept nothing less than Cynrith. The only way left for them to take it is by force. Do I think you will win? I wouldn’t bet one silver against you. But, Darri, I would rather you regret their unjust imprisonment for the rest of your life than watch Reis break your heart when he turns his hand against you.”
“Then we must differ,” he said. “If I must hate my brother, let it be for something he’s actually done.”
“That’s the problem,” Gaurin said sadly, rising to his feet. “You won’t hate him.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'pass'. Here's a snippet from Silver Dawn, the second book in my epic fantasy duology The Long Dream. #writingcommunity #writesky #bookqw #indiefantasy 💙📚🪐

Front cover of Silver Dawn by CM Debell and snippet for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'pass'.

Through a break in the cloud, he saw it, a sleek, dark shape passing silently overhead.
Men around him muttered prayers; some were weeping. No one ran. There was nowhere to run.
Beside him, Aarin was gripping the parapet with his free hand, eyes tracking that deadly shadow from a face that still bore the fading scars of its fire.
The moments stretched, unbearable.
Somewhere in the city, someone was screaming, a strident wail that cut through the eerie silence. Aarin flinched, his fingers curling tighter around the parapet. But his eyes never blinked, his attention never wavered.
This time, the dragon flew low enough that Kallis could feel the pulse of its wings and see the scars on its scaled underbelly. It rolled as it passed, regarding them from one unblinking black eye. Such a tempting target. He reached out and placed a restraining hand on the tip of the bow nearest him.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'ride'. This is a snippet from my short story Midnight in Flaeres that takes place directly before the start of The Many Shades of Midnight. #writingcommunity #writesky #bookqw #indiefantasy 💙📚🪐

Front cover of In Midnight's Shadow by CM Debell and excerpt for the Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'ride'.

Esar fretted. The creatures were out there still, he was sure of it, hidden behind the houses. If they left, they would be pursued. Stay and they would be trapped, and they couldn’t defend the inn and the stables. Which meant losing the horses. Which meant dying.
“Can you ride?” he asked Alyas. No horse could be asked to bear two adult riders for long, and when they went, they would go hard.
He watched Alyas think about it. Lives depended on an honest answer. “Not for long,” he said at last.
Esar nodded. That was his assessment. “Ride with Della. Take my horse.” Della was the lightest of them, his horse one of the strongest.
“Esar.”
He knew that tone. “What?”
“They’ll come after us.”
“I know.”
“We can’t let them.”
Esar knew he wasn’t going to like what was coming. “What do you want to do?”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'decide'. Here's a snippet from The Siege of Druine, a book full of difficult decisions. You can get an ebook copy free by signing up to my newsletter: www.andeira.net/newsletter #writingsky #bookqw #indiefantasy 🪐📚💙

Front cover of The Siege of Druine by CM Debell and excerpt for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'decide'.

Alyas slammed his back against the cliff and pinned him there. “A good man just bought your life with his own,” he snarled over the outraged protest. “And you don’t deserve his sacrifice.”
Fear paled the skin around the man’s eyes. Fear and anger. “The Qidan traitor?”
The devastating brightness of the Isyr dagger was at his throat before he could blink. “Say that again.”
The man shot a terrified, pleading look in Esar’s direction, but Esar, who had decided he’d interfered enough for one day and had taken a dislike to this man already, merely crossed his arms and waited to see what would happen.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The #StuffWithFantasy summer sale is on today (17 July) - more than 100 ebooks for 0.99, including The Many Shades of Midnight. Check it out here: stuffwithfantasy.com/event/69fc11... #booksale #indiefantasy #booksky

Collage of front covers of fantasy ebooks in the Stuff With Fantasy Summer Solstice 0.99 sale on 17 July 2026

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'change'. Here's a snippet from a conversation between Alyas and Cassana from one of my favourite stories in In Midnight's Shadow, a collection of stories that fills in the background to The Many Shades of Midnight. #writingsky #bookqw #indiefantasy 🪐📚💙

Front cover of In Midnight's Shadow by CM Debell and extract for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'change'.

“There were things he wanted. I knew that. I didn’t think he wanted them so much that he would take everything else because he couldn’t have them. But I no longer trust my judgement where Raffa is concerned.”
That surprised her. “What things?”
He didn’t answer, but his eyes slid to the tree from which he had hung the Isyr blades that had been his father’s.
“Would you have given them to him?”
“I would have killed him.” The admission was stark, unadorned. Perhaps the most honest thing he had ever said to her. It was her first glimpse of the hold the blades had on him; it wouldn’t be the last. She had no idea then what it was they did to him, or the strength of will it took to remain himself. She didn’t understand all the ways they had already changed him or the price they would take.
I would have killed him.
If she had known, would she still have let that go unchallenged?

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'drive'. The Many Shades of Midnight is all about a priceless mineral called Isyr. Unfortunately, it also has a tendency to drive people mad. 🪐📚💙 #bookqw #indiefantasy #writesky #writingcommunity

Front cover of The Many Shades of Midnight and short snippet for book quote wednesday prompt 'drive'.

He didn’t reply. He just sat there in silence, one hand unconsciously curled around the hilt of the Isyr sword as though he would dearly love to use it. So that was one thing they shared. She had never understood how he could wear those blades all the time. It had driven her half-mad at first with jealousy. But then she had seen what they had done to him, bit by bit, and knew it was a gesture that carried a heavy cost.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'never'. This story, from In Midnight's Shadow, fills in an important piece of backstory for the characters in The Many Shades of Midnight. 🪐📚💙 #bookqw #indiefantasy #writesky

Front cover and quote from In Midnight's Shadow by CM Debell for Book Quote Wednesday.

Ailuin watched the Lankaran come. Alone. Arms held up and out, away from the bright blades that hung at his hips, their hilts catching the first rays of the dawn sun in a blaze of light.
Isyr.
Only one man wore blades of Isyr steel. Even Ailuin, who had never travelled beyond his beloved mountains, knew that. Only one man, and he was dead. Travellers had carried the news from Avarel earlier in the year, just one more snippet of gossip out of Lankara’s great capital, another small tragedy in a world that wrought them on itself as though it did not know how to live without suffering.
Gerrin-Raine Sera was dead. By his own hand, according to rumour. Now his son was here, wearing the blades that had made his father famous the length of Ellasia. And he said he wanted peace.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'group'. This is an excerpt from The Siege of Druine. It's a prequel novel to The Many Shades of Midnight, and it's about, well, a siege... 🪐📚💙 #bookqw #indiefantasy #writesky (Also this book is available free via my newsletter)

Front cover and excerpt from The Siege of Druine by CM Debell for Book Quote Wednesday word 'group'.

“Evarius!” The rebel leader looked up at Alyas, who pointed to the carnage by the collapsed toll gate, where the dead and dying lay together in a bloody sprawl of limbs. “Collect your wounded. You have one hour.”
“They won’t,” Aubron muttered as Alyas stalked away. “Look at them.” His tone was scornful, disgusted, but his eyes and hands were busy with his crossbow, because looking at them meant looking at what they had done to them, and no one wanted to do that.
He was wrong. As Keie and the rest of the horsemen waited across the entrance to the pass, small groups of survivors crept forward, searching for friends, for men they had trained with and fought beside, taking the living and sometimes the dead. And when they were done and only the unclaimed dead remained, Esar sent a party to drag the bodies into the pass, where they rolled them into the gorge with a quick prayer to Yholis. It wasn’t ideal, but they couldn’t leave the corpses to rot beneath their walls.
Then he went looking for Alyas.
“Go away, Esar,” his brother said when he found him.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'several'. Here's a snippet from The Many Shades of Midnight. Things are starting to unravel. 🪐📚💙 #bookqw #indiefantasy #writesky

Front cover of The Many Shades of Midnight and quote for Book Quote Wednesday - the word is 'several'.

Esar took a cautious step forward. He looked from the bodies to Alyas. “Are you all right?”
Alyas blinked. Some of the fury faded from his eyes. Some. There was still something not quite right about his expression, and several people in this room were very dead. Not that Esar had a problem with that in general, but five on one was a bit much, even for Alyas.
Alyas took an unsteady step, one sword point pressed into the ground. He looked at the bodies like he was seeing them for the first time. His hand was shaking, which was oddly reassuring. Killing tended to do that to you. Or it should.
“Alyas,” Esar said sharply. When dark eyes snapped to his, he said again, “Are you all right?” Because nothing else about this was.
“Esar.” And then, finally, his face eased. “I knew you would come.” His voice sounded normal, steady.
“You didn’t wait for me though,” Esar observed. “What did they want?”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'morning'. Here's a snippet from In Midnight's Shadow, which is collection of short stories and novellas about the characters in The Many Shades of Midnight. #bookqw #indiefantasy #writesky 📚💙

Quote from In Midnight's Shadow for Book Quote Wednesday: 'morning'.

Esar woke her in the morning with a gentle shake and a mug of hot tea. Alyas was asleep beside her, head pillowed on his bent knees. He didn’t stir as she stretched stiff muscles, nor when she reached out to take the tea and brushed his arm with hers.
Esar looked from her to his brother, still sound asleep, and shook his head. “You do have the magic touch, don’t you? Can I persuade you to stay? Keie thinks you’d be good with a spear.”
“Keie’s wrong.”
Esar grinned. “I don’t know about that. When he wakes, tell him Agazi’s gone to collect your ransom.”
He returned to the fire and Cassana drank the tea, which was too hot and unsweetened, and tried not to disturb the sleeping man by her side. But he roused eventually, woken by the sounds of the camp being dismantled, coming awake with a start, hands reaching on instinct towards the blades by his feet.
Then he turned his head and saw her and his expression changed, morphing from confusion to something close to panic that hurt her heart to watch.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Starting tomorrow until 13 April, 280+ indie SFFH ebooks will go on sale for 0.99 or less. Time to break your TBRs. Find the sale here when it starts on 11 April: indiebook.sale #Narratessindiesale #indieapril #booksale 💙📚🪐

Collage of front covers for books participating in the Indie Book Sale, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror, 11-13 April 2026

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Post a pic you took, no context, to bring some zen to the feed.

A purple and orange sunset over the water at the beach in Miyajima, Japan.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

The Many Shades of Midnight is free on Kindle via a BookBub deal through 11 February. If you like gritty, character-driven political fantasy with environmental themes, you might enjoy this. books2read.com/u/brev8w

BookBub promo graphic for The many shades of Midnight by CM Debell
Front cover of The Many Shades of Midnight.
text reading: $3.99, NOW FREE, Available for a limited time from Bookbub.com

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

The r/fantasy charity megasale starts today. More than 650 books are on sale for free or 0.99 and a proportion of the proceeds goes to the Mary Cariola Centre. The Many Shades of Midnight is 0.99 in all markets. Shop the sale: megasale.yrliu.com

Graphic for the r/fantasy megasale
Text: 2925 Holiday Megasale
More than 300 authors! Over 659 books free or 0.99
To benefit the Mary Cariola Center

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

It's book quote Wednesday, and the word is 'blue'. Blue is an important colour in The Many Shades of Midnight. It's the colour of Isyrium, the mineral that underpins the whole economy of Ellasia and is used for everything from heating and lighting to jewellery and clothing dye. #bookqw 💙📚

Front cover of The Many Shades of Midnight by CM Debell and quote for book quote Wednesday prompt 'blue'

If Alyas had hoped for a relatively private first audience with the king, that hope was dashed as soon as the doors opened. Anyone who could claim the status to be present was crammed into the room, some of them still red in the face and adjusting their elaborate court clothes as though they had run here from whatever they had been doing as soon as they heard he was back. And they watched him with expressions that veered from outright hostility to naked disdain.
But that wasn’t the worst thing. Not by a long way. Worse than their contempt was the woman who sat to the left of the king’s empty throne, her blue court dress studded with Isyrium and her dark hair piled high on her head. Ovisia Galea, king’s advisor and head of the Orleas Syndicate, and a most vengeful-looking enemy.
“Sayora,” Alyas greeted her as if they were merely continuing their last conversation and he did not have the full assembly of Avarel’s court glaring at his back. “How delightful. Are you going to try to arrest me again?”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

#WIPSnips 21 November 'special' Here's one of my favourite instances of 'special' in The Many Shades of Midnight. #writingcommunity #writingprompts #writesky #writingfantasy #indiefantasy

Quote from The Many Shades of Midnight for #WIPSnips prompt 21 November 'special'

“I must admit, I expected more of you, Your Grace,” the syndie called. “Letting your company die to save yourself.”
Esar used his greater size and weight to block the door. “They know what to do,” he insisted.
“Would they do the same for you I wonder?” mused the voice in the courtyard. And the first Isyrium flask went flying—not towards the wing where the company had been lodged, but towards the captain’s office where they were hiding. Esar heard it smash on the roof above, followed by the thud and whoosh of a fire arrow. “Fuck.”
The captain screamed and scrambled over his desk to claw into Esar. Alyas retained enough sense to snatch the half-finished confession from the desk and tuck it inside his armour as flames started to eat through the roof and the smoke billowed in.
“It looks like we are going to find out, doesn’t it?” the smug voice said, and Esar decided he was going to give that man his special attention when they got out of this.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

#WIPSnips 19 November 'third' All my WIP uses of 'third' are spoilery, so here's one I found in the story Ailuin's Peace from In Midnight's Shadow. #writingcommunity #writesky #booksky #indiefantasy #shortstory

Quote from In Midnight's Shadow for WIPSnips prompt 19 November 'third'

Alyas was sitting down when Esar returned the trophies he had taken from Corado, which was a good thing, judging by the way his face paled when he counted them and realised there were only four.
“Are you sure?” he asked for the third time.
Esar, who wasn’t at all sure, said, “I had my hands full with you, if you remember. Which you probably don’t. I didn’t see any others. Why?”
The leather cords with their strange pendants were draped across Alyas’s knee, two made of copper and another two of silver. They were carved with designs similar to the painted whorls the Lathai wore on their skin, each one unique. Personal.
“I can look,” he offered. Had he missed one? But if he had, someone would have picked it up by now and they’d never see it again. Alyas could hardly order its return. Matters were too delicate for that to be tolerated. And if Corado still had it, it was too late. Nicor had left with him hours ago.
“Why?” Esar asked again. “Why does it matter so much?” He could understand that Alyas wanted to return them with the bodies, but the torture and death of the prisoners was a far greater obstacle to his hope of salvaging the negotiations than one missing amulet.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

What fictional creature/villain traumatized you as a kid? The Hound of the Baskervilles. My older brother used to sneak into my bedroom when I was asleep and put this book by my bed so I would see it when I woke up in the night 😂

Front cover of the Ladybird Horror Classics version of The Hound of the Baskervilles

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

It's Book Quote Wednesday and this week the word is 'girl'. Here's a quote from In Midnight's Shadow - a terrible plan has gone terribly. #bookqw #writingcommunity #indiefantasy 📚🪐💙

From cover and quote from In Midnight's Shadow for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'girl'

“Who’s this?” Esar asked, struggling into a sitting position.
The girl maintained an unfriendly silence. There were bruises on her face and ugly marks at her wrists. It was Alyas who said, “This is Della.”
Esar closed his eyes as the thudding in his head reached a new pitch. He gave up trying to sit. “And what’s a Qidan girl doing here?” There were enough northerners with the company that he could recognise Qidan blood when he saw it, and he didn’t expect to see it in a syndicate cell in Hantara. Whoever this girl was, she didn’t belong here. Neither did they.
Alyas said, “She stole from the wrong people.”
“Lot of that going around,” Esar muttered. “Where are we?”
“A syndicate safehouse, I assume. How’s your head?”
“It hurts. How’s yours?”
“Hurts,” Alyas admitted. “Are you all right?”
“No,” Esar snapped. Because he wasn’t. “Told you this was a trap.” The worst kind of trap, so bad he didn’t even want to think about it.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Here's a quote from The Many Shades of Midnight for the #bookqw prompt 'colour' A plague is turning people into monsters, and it's spreading. #writingcommunity #writesky 📚🪐💙

Front cover of The Many Shades of Midnight and quote for Book Quote Wednesday prompt 'colour'

“We were in Flaeres,” Cantrell said, surprising him again. “Chasing rumours. Did you know Ado has been cut off?”
Brivar shook his head. Ado was far to the northeast, hugging the farthest edges of the vast Qido Empire. It was small, poor, and of little consequence to the rulers of Ellasia since its wealth in Isyrium had dried up a century ago. What it had to do with Flaeres he didn’t know, and he was sure from Cantrell’s tone that he didn’t want to.
Cantrell stared through him. He was talking, Brivar suspected, for much the same reason as Brivar was pacing. “Qido has closed its borders with Ado. Nothing gets in or out. No one knows why, or if they do, no one will say.” He blinked, pressing his knuckles to his eyes. “They came out of nowhere. I have never seen their like. Blue from their heads to their feet, naked. The colour of midnight. There were beasts with them, and it was almost impossible to tell one from the other—which was human and which was not.” He lapsed into silence, his gaze drifting. Then he said, “They went straight for him. I don’t know why. We barely got him out of there. I still have nightmares about it.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

#WIPSnips 4 November 'steel' In The Many Shades of Midnight, Alyas has a matching sword and dagger made from Isyr steel, an extremely valuable metal. If weapons were characters, these blades could be my MC. They cause so much trouble. #writingcommunity #writesky #writingfantasy

Quote from The Many Shades of Midnight for #WIPSnips prompt 'steel' for 4 November

A yawn overtook him, and he turned to pace back across the cave. His gaze snagged on the paired blades hanging on the wall, the elegant hilts the unmistakable cool blue of Isyr steel. Unable to help himself, Brivar ran his fingers over the cold metal, feeling the legendary silkiness of the steel that never lost its edge. They were weapons fit for a king—rare, priceless treasures. Irreplaceable. It had been impossible to mine pure Isyrium for decades. The rough ore that was mined these days was processed by the syndicates and used to power Ellasia’s burgeoning new industries and the work of its temples, but the purity required for Isyr steel was lost to the past. Wars had been fought over it. Even now, possession of it dictated relations between nations.
Cantrell, looking up, said bitterly, “Beautiful, aren’t they? Worth as much as the whole of Lankara. They were his father’s, a gift from the Emperor of Qido. Much good they did him.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

#WIPSnips 31 October 'monster' Happy Halloween! A mysterious plague is turning people into monsters in The Many Shades of Midnight. #writesky #writingcommunity #writingfantasy

Quote from The Many Shades of Midnight for #WIPSnips prompt 31 October 'monster'

Dark shapes moved among the dead. There are no monsters here, Corado had said. Well, there were. He was looking at them.
“Yholis, that’s Gregan,” the foreman sobbed. “That’s my brother.”
Esar shot him an appalled look. ‘Gregan’ was on all fours in the carnage, his skin mottling from white to blue to black like the corruption of a wound gone bad, spreading its poison through him, changing him. He had once had a name; now he wouldn’t even recognise it. All around him were other changed things, men, women, children—Yholis have mercy, there were children here—and weaving between them the smaller forms of dogs, rats, and wild creatures from the plains. And everywhere they went, whatever they touched, they left it starting to sicken and die, changing like they had changed.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

#WIPSnips 24 October 'total' From my historical fantasy - the beginning of a falling out that will have devastating consequences. #writingcommunity #writesky #writingfantasy

$Quote from Red Dragon Rising for the #WIPSnips prompt 'total' “I have never,” said Aymer d’Carle with a touch of exasperation, “made any secret of where I stand on this matter. Perhaps if you had listened a little more attentively over the last few years, you would have realised that.” It was too honest. He knew it at once from the way Carwel’s expression shuttered, anger disappearing behind the cool composure that always preceded his most vicious moods. “Oh, I know perfectly well where you stand, dear brother. In opposition to me in all things. Isn’t that so?” Aymer considered his brother-in-law, a man he had once called a friend. A man who, even now, he could appreciate for his decisiveness and quickness of mind. It was a shame that he paired those good qualities with a total disregard for anything save his own interests and a refusal to accept any checks on his power. A refusal that had alienated many of his great lords and seen the whole country suffer under the burden of his frequent wars, not just in Llyn but also in his territories across the sea in Laeros. “Not in all things,” he said. Had he not fought beside Carwel in every one of those wars? Had he not, at his brother-in-law’s request, governed for a time some of those fractious territories and attempted to curb their rebellious nature? Had he not incurred crippling debts in doing so, debts the king had yet to settle? “Just in this.”$

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

It's Book Quote Wednesday and the word is 'self' Alyas sends a would-be revolutionary packing in The Many Shades of Midnight. #bookqw #writingcommunity #writesky

Quote from The Many Shades of Midnight for Book Quote Wednesday 'self'

She stared at him, confused and disappointed. “We don’t want violence, but they won’t listen to anything else.”
“It won’t matter what you want,” Alyas said, opening the door. “If you threaten their power—really threaten it—they will fight to defend it, and it will be violence and death whether you want it or not. And they will win.”
Tersa walked out. Brivar made to follow her but a pointed look from Alyas pinned him in place.
“I thought you would help,” she said as she passed him.
“You thought wrong. Can I trust you to see yourself out? It would be most inconvenient if I have to take you home to your parents and explain that you damaged my property because you believe owning it is a crime.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

#WIPSnips 20 October 'field' Slightly cheating with this one but it works - this is from my historical fantasy WIP. #writingcommunity #writesky #booksky #writingfantasy

Quote from Red Dragon Rising for #WIPSnips prompt 'field'.

“Pretty eyes?” Aymer shifted his gaze to the Cynrith delegation, where Prince Darraion was indeed watching him. Smiling slightly, smarting from his own brush with defeat, Aymer lifted his cup in ironic salute, but the Llynish prince didn’t return the gesture, eyes flicking sideways to Carwel. Eyes that appeared perfectly unremarkable to Aymer, but he was not an impressionable young girl who read too many love stories.
“You can put that out of your mind,” he said firmly. “The Prince of Cynrith is the last man alive you should pin any romantic notions on.”
Mathild gazed innocently at him over the rim of her wine cup. She was nineteen, old enough to have been married a year or more had he been of a mind to accept one of the many offers for her hand. But he was not; she was only nineteen and so innocent still. In some things. “Because he’s Llynish?”
“Yes.” Aymer did not lie to Mathild, or to any of his children, and he had no desire to be one day forced to go to war with his daughter’s husband. The matter of Llyn had reached a temporary pause but it was not settled. “Men like that don’t live long lives or die pretty deaths, and that is not nearly as romantic as you think it is.”
It was, he realised, seeing Mathild’s expression go dreamier still, not the right approach for a girl who drank in stories of heroic battlefield deaths like strong wine. Well, she’d get over it. Come tomorrow, Cynrith’s prince would disappear back into his inhospitable heartland in Gytha’s Spine and was as like to die by a brother’s hand as a Mornish sword.

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

#WIPSnips 10th October 'prize' I have this one! It's not a WIP, but here's a snippet from In Midnight's Shadow. Alyas is proposing to steal a famous treasure from a temple and Esar just knows this is a Very Bad Idea. #writesky #booksky #writingcommunity #writingfantasy

Quote from In Midnight's Shadow for WIPSnips 10th October prompt 'prize'

“That was the easy part.” Alyas unfolded a sheet of parchment. “Getting hold of this was much more difficult.”
It was another sketch. Though ‘sketch’ didn’t do it justice. In the centre of the page, surrounded by crabbed notes, was an illustration of the Empress Ivane casket, colours and details picked out by a skilled artist. Esar scanned the notes, what he could read of them, then the faded signature in the corner. Not any artist. The artist. Eirik Hagan. One of the most famous Isyr craftsmen who had ever lived and the man who had made the box.
He met Alyas’s eyes with a sinking feeling. “Where did you get this?”
“Same place I got the Isyr. The Temple of Yholis. Their library is a treasure trove.”
Esar dropped his head in his hands with a groan. “You robbed Yholis so we can rob Ithol? Have you lost your bloody mind?”
“I didn’t steal it,” Alyas protested, retrieving his prize. “I borrowed it.”
“Do they know you borrowed it?”
“If I’d asked, they might have said no.”
“Then you stole it. And I don’t want to know about the rest. We’ll have no friends left by the time this is over.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

#WIPSnips 8 October 'dungeon' Considering that I write fantasy, I couldn't find 'dungeon' in any of my books, written or in progress. I did find this snippet from a historial fantasy that I am wrestling with that has kind of the right vibes. #writesky #writingcommunity #writingfantasy

“It sounds,” she said, “as if you’re trying to convince yourself.”
There was a long silence. Darri’s voice, when he finally answered, held a note of despair. “Not even in my worst moments. How could I? They are my brothers.”
And Reis he even loved, probably more than the boy deserved. But if Reis was conflicted in his loyalties, that was hardly his fault. None of these three were truly to blame for where they found themselves.
“Then it is what you do with them that is keeping you from the sleep you need?”
“What are my options?” The frustration was evident in his voice. “I cannot simply forgive and forget, go back to how things were.”
“Nor should you, I think. Especially Iro. But—”
“But Iro has spent too much of his life in a cage already? Do you think I don’t know that? He is what we made him. Should I be surprised that he hates me?”
“We?” Merionn shook her head. “Darri, that was none of your doing. There are many people Iro could hate for what was done to him and to your father. Maelys, Carwel, perhaps even Edelyn. But you were a child. It was not your fault, and you could not have changed it.”
“I was a child then. Not now. Now it will be my hand on the key and no other’s. And so help me, Merionn, I mean to throw that key into the deepest lake in Llyn.”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

#WIPSnips 7 October 'safe' I have lots of 'safer', 'safety', 'safely' in this WIP but so far only this one use of 'safe'. #writesky #writingcommunity #booksky #writingfantasy

Quote from Northern Steel for the prompt 'safe'

“Hengyr told me… that he knew you were alive. Tais, I didn’t know, I swear it. I didn’t know.”
Hengyr. Her husband. It made it worse, somehow, hearing her say his name. “What would you have done if you did?”
He couldn’t keep the bitterness from his voice and Istra looked away, unable to meet his eyes. What did he expect? He had seen where she lived, the luxuries she enjoyed that he could never give her, never give his daughter, not even if he lived a hundred lifetimes. Of course she wouldn’t have exchanged that for more of the same hardship she had tried so long to escape. It was just one more thing he couldn’t blame her for, but Yholis, it hurt. Because he might not have been able to give them much, but he would have given them everything.
“Do you love him?” he demanded roughly, turning the knife on himself, as if he wasn’t bleeding enough already. “Did you love me?”
“Why? What can it matter now?”
“It matters because we have a daughter! You might be able to forget that, but I can’t. I couldn’t, not once these last five years. I need to know, Istra.”
She stared at him, exasperated. “Did I? I don’t know. You were safe, kind. You were there. Did you love me? Or was I just a distraction from Cat?”

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C M Debell @cmdebell.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

#WIPSnips 6 October 'miss' When your characters have enough problems without a crown prince who should know better popping in for a visit. #writingcommunity #writesky #booksky #writingfantasy

Quote from Northern Steel for the prompt 'miss'

Very deliberately, she set the bottle on her desk. With some force.
Krado blinked at her in surprise, oblivious to the tension. “Really, Cat. I don’t see what the fuss is about. No one knows I’m here—”
“That’s the bloody problem! What do you think your guards will do once they realise you’re missing? Gods, they’ll tear this city apart.” And anyone who got in their way.
“But they don’t know,” he said patiently. “They think I’m in seclusion, contemplating the state of my soul or something. They won’t find out for, oh, hours.” An airy wave of his hand served to underline the vagueness of this estimate.
“They won’t find out at all,” she snapped, “because you’re going back. Osk—”
“No.” Krado leant back in the chair and crossed his legs at the ankles with a casual smile that nevertheless conveyed the immovable force of the imperial will. “Not until you tell me what’s going on.”

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