LJ Cohen

I apologise for the short notice! (Yes, this is tomorrow!) If you'd like to join the conversation, the event is free, but you do need to pre-register to get the zoom link. Details are in this google form.

I'm picking my way through the climax scenes of the novel and because I seem to have a talent for making things harder for myself, I have 3 intersecting storylines that need to twine together with precision.

I'm finally there. And in the next few scenes, all the characters will be in the same place at the same time for the big (metaphorical) boom.

Here's a snippet from the antagonist's POV.

Harnett stood several arms lengths from the girl. It wouldn't do any good to spook her. Plus that damned dog had parked itself between them. He knew he'd lose any chance of making a connection with her if he tried to kick it away again.

She seemed worn and fragile. Yet, there was something in her expression that felt younger than her body's years. He leaned forward, keeping his expression soft. "Don't be afraid. What you can do is special and rare."

"Stop it!" she shouted.

She wasn't yelling at him, but at the dog softly growling at her feet. He needed to find a way to separate her from it. "I've always been a little afraid of dogs. Got bit as a kid."

"It's okay. Poplar will behave." She gave the dog an intense look. It cringed and hid behind her with its tail tucked under it's body. The girl turned back to Harnett, her eyes shining. "How did you know about the opening?"

So she understood what she'd done. Good. And he'd set the hook. Even better. Now he had to decide how much of the truth to reveal. So much depended on what she might believe. And if she would leave her brother willingly.

"I have Traveled to many places."

She took a step closer.

"And I know what it feels like when someone tears the barriers between realities." The girl was such a surprise. Certainly, she couldn't be the sole reason this world was interdicted. Probably a genetic sport. Individuals with the ability to Travel emerged occasionally from any given gene pool. And generally vanished into some random opening they lacked the skill or understanding to control. How this one had managed to stay anchored almost to the cusp of adulthood was a question to answer later. After he'd gotten her to the Network for debriefing.

He took another step closer. The dog charged toward him, her teeth bared. Before Harnett could kick it away, the girl shouted its name.

"Poplar!"

The dog stopped short as if were at the end of an invisible leash.

"Bad dog!"

It hung its head and whimpered.

"Go inside. I don't care what Thorne and Martin told you."
The anger in her voice impressed Harnett as did its effect on the dog. It slunk away, crying. Daniella turned to watch it retreat, her hands on her hips.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what got into her. She's really a lovely creature."

"I'm sure," Harnett said. Always better to agree with someone you're trying to establish rapport with.

"Could you ... could you teach me to Travel? Like you do?"

He kept a tight rein on his sense of triumph and simply nodded. "That's why I came to look for you."

"I need to find my ... find someone. Somewhere else. Away from here."

The wind whipped snow devils in the space between them and the girl shivered. Of course Daniella would be desperate to escape from this cold and bleak reality. This would be simpler than he'd thought. Perhaps the bond between brother and sister wasn't as strong as he'd feared. "Of course."

E.C. Ambrose - AKA Elaine Isaak - is probably the hardest working and most generous author I know. I initially met her at a Broad Universe reading at a Boston area SF&F con and over the years, she has become a mentor, cheerleader, and friend.

This is what I mean when I say generous: At the begining of the pandemic, I had already been struggling for over a year with the worst case of writer's block I had ever experienced. Elaine started a weekly zoom meeting with me and several other writers and over the past 2+ years, we've been working through craft books and encouraging one another in gentle (but persistent) ways to move forward.

I can honestly say I would have given up on the multiverse novel (and perhaps writing at all) long ago if it hadn't been for Elaine.

In addition to being a wonderful human, she is also a talented and endlessly creative writer. She has written dozens of novels over multiple genres and I have read and loved nearly all of them. She describes her work as "knowledge-inspired adventure fiction" which definitely encompasses all of her writing.

Here are brief blurbs of her novels and novellas. (And as you can see, she is truly prolific with a work ethic that continues to inspire me.)

The Singer's Legacy, a traditional fantasy generational saga in which the solutions of one generation become the problems of the next.

Tales of Bladesend, epic fantasy novella series in which the heroes of the demon war believe their battles are won…until they try to go home.

The Dark Apostle series, dark historical fantasy about medieval surgery, in which a 14^th century barber surgeon learns diabolical magic to confront a tyrant, but the cost may be more than his soul

The King of Next Week, in which a Civil War veteran sails to coastal Africa with a cargo of ice and returns with a Djinn wife

The Bone Guard archaeological thrillers: if Indiana Jones had served in special forces. Opening with The Mongol's Coffin: a deadly race to follow a musical map to Genghis Khan's tomb

The Forest of Bone, Kindle Vella serialized epic fantasy novel about treacherous gods, shapeshifting spies, and a secret rising from the dead.

Drakemaster: epic historical fantasy set during the Mongol expansion; a desperate chase across Medieval China to locate a clockwork doomsday device.

If you'd like to know more about her, you can join her newsletter and get 3 free stories.

And here's more about her newest, DRAKEMASTER

During the Mongol invasion of China, a Lithuanian bellmaker and the Mongolian scout who enslaved him race to stop the deployment of a clockwork doomsday device.

Two hundred years ago, astronomers and geomancers collaborated to create a new technology, a way to draw down the energy of auspicious stars to regenerate the slowly depleting power of the land where they had lived for thousands of years. But the bureaucrats overseeing the process realized that the device could also be used as a weapon, to the benefit of the Son of Heaven, the emperor of China, and the inventors concealed the device rather than allow that to happen.

When the plans are discovered during the Mongol invasion, it sparks a race to find the device—to stop it—or to set its dreadful power free. The quest will unite, and divide, six people who see the device as the solution to their own problems: a dancer whose grace hides deadly skills; the last warrior monk of a ruined temple; an astronomer's daughter forced to submit her mind to her beauty; a Jewish student lost without his community; a Mongolian scout desperate to remove the name of "traitor"; and a Lithuanian bell-maker who believes that casting weapons for the enemy might win him his freedom and let him go home.

“I’ve long admired E.C. Ambrose’s thriller and mystery work, but “Drakemaster” is a huge cut above. Taking place in China in 1257 A.D., “Drakemaster” is a superbly researched and well-written epic fantasy taking place in a realm most of us know little about, but Ambrose is an expert guide to this mysterious and troubling world, starting with a first chapter that will leave you breathless. Expertly researched with unforgettable characters and superb writing, this is one not to be missed.”

---- Brendan DuBois, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author