The Heron Prince Release Day!

The Demon Door can be opened…but the price is deadly.

What was it like to write the sequel to The Sand Prince?

In some ways it was easier. My series follows the adventures of a cast of almost 40 characters across two very different worlds, and a lot of that groundwork got covered in the first book. We know Eriis is a desert wasteland recovering from a devastating war. We know the demons who live there have powers humans consider magical. And we know the humans of Mistra have almost completely forgotten the enemy they almost wiped out 100 years ago.

It was harder for some of the same reasons. When you have a large cast you have to know what everyone is doing, what they know, who told them, why they are where they are, how they got there and where they wind up! It’s like herding cats, if cats were bad tempered (sexy) demon princes and infuriating (also sexy) human women.

The fun and challenging part for me was exploring the characters who played a more minor role in book one. In particular, Rhuun (the bad tempered demon prince) has an ex-girlfriend back home on Eriis, and she got the short end of the stick (so to speak) when he went through The Door to Mistra. In book two, she faces her phobias and does some exploring of her own. And we spend some time with Rhuun’s arch mortal enemy, Niico, and find out why he behaves the way he does. Meanwhile, back among the humans, we’ll be seeing more of Lelet’s older sister May, and her youngest sister Scilla (evil genius in training–she’s only 12!)

I also loved giving Lelet herself a chance to save day (more than once) and find her strength. And Rhuun begins to see there’s more to him than he ever thought.

Of course I put everyone through the wringer–this is only book two!