Faerie Forged
The Magicsmith Book 3
by L.R. Braden
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
New world, new rules . . .
Alex is screwed. She’s due at the fae Court of Enchantment in less than twenty-four hours, but she’s not
even close to being ready. Her job is hanging by a fraying thread. There’s a new vampire master in town.
And several of her werewolf friends have been captured by the Paranatural Task Force.
She’s their best chance for release before the full moon reveals their secret, but the Lord of Enchantment
is not someone you keep waiting—even when he happens to be your grandfather. All Alex can do is call
in a favor, hope to hell she can survive the plots of the fae court, and hightail it home to salvage her
life.
One mistake at court could change everything . . . .
“Original and riveting.”—Book Likes Blog on A Drop of Magic, Book One of The Magicsmith series
“Great plot. Lovable characters. Heart-pounding action.”—Lauren Davis, Netgalley Reviewer on A Drop
of Magic
Courting Darkness
The Magicsmith Book 2
“A great story of murder, mystery . . . and well-developed characters.”—Margie Hager, Netgalley
Reviewer on A Drop of Magic
“A Drop of Magic is a damned fun and original read, with sass, action, hot men, and a whole lot of
magic.” —Diana Pharaoh Francis, author of the Diamond City Magic, Magicfall, and Horngate Witches
series
Deeper into the shadows. . .
The paranatural community isn’t done with Alex. She’s been summoned to the fae court, and she's got
her hands full trying to prepare. But her date with the fae will have to wait. There’s been a death at the
gallery, and the man she hoped would be a part of her future is the prime suspect.
Bitter enemies pull her into the middle of a paranatural war for territory that has her dodging police,
swords, teeth, and claws—not to mention the truth. The deeper she digs, the more secrets she uncovers,
and the less certain she is about the innocence of the one man she wanted to trust.
She thought she was done with murder and monsters, but she’ll have to enter the belly of the beast if
she hopes to save her friend.
A Drop of Magic
The Magicsmith Book 1
The war isn’t over . . .
With the world clinging to a fragile peace forced on the Fae by humanity after the Faerie Wars,
metalsmith Alex Blackwood is plunged into the world of the half-fae who traffick in illegal magical
artifacts. Her best friend’s murder and his cryptic last message place her in the crosshairs of a scheme to
reignite the decade-old war between humans and fae.
Worse, violent attacks against her and the arrival of a fae knight on a mission force Alex to face a
devastating revelation of who and what she is. To catch a killer, retrieve a dangerous artifact, and stop a
war, Alex will have to accept that she’s an unregistered fae “halfer” with a unique magical talent—a talent
that would change everything she believes about her past, her art, and her future.
Her world is crumbling around her, and Alex will have to decide who to trust if she and the world are
going to survive.
“A Drop of Magic is a damned fun and original read, with sass, action, hot men, and a whole lot of
magic.” —Diana Pharaoh Francis, author of the Diamond City Magic, Magicfall, and Horngate Witches
series
Born and raised in Colorado, L. R. BRADEN makes her home in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains
with her wonderful husband, precocious daughter, and psychotic cat. With degrees in both English
literature and metalsmithing, she splits her time between writing and art.
GUEST POST
What inspired you to write
this book?
I knew from the beginning of my
Magicsmith series that I’d be writing multiple books. Faerie Forged
is the third, and it represents a pretty big step in the series. Alex
finally confronts her fae heritage head on, crossing over into the
faerie world. The third book takes off the training wheels and forces
Alex to face her new reality, for better or worse.
What
can we expect from you in the future?
There will be at least three more books
in the Magicsmith series, plus I’m hoping to do a spinoff set in
the same world but following different characters. I’m currently
having a lot of fun brainstorming that.
Do
you have any “side stories” about the characters?
A couple, but I mostly have side
stories about the world. I’ve created short stories of the creation
myths of various species, and I wrote a story about a pair of sisters
set during the time right after the fae came out, before the Faerie
Wars. I also plan to write a short story about a demon-beset sorcerer
and his paladin during the war. My intention is to eventually have
all these stories available to read and/or download from my website.
Can
you tell us a little bit about the characters in Faerie
Forged?
Alex Blackwood is the main character of
the entire Magicsmith series, so hopefully if you’re reading the
third book you’ve got a good handle on her. For those unfamiliar
with the series, Alex is an independent, reclusive artist in her late
twenties with trust and abandonment issues. Her father left to fight
in the Faerie Wars and never came back. Her mother died shortly
after, leaving her an orphaned teenager. By the third book, Alex has
had her life turned upside down. She’s made a number of new
connections with the people around her, but she’s struggling to
maintain her human relationships.
One of the biggest character reveals in
Faerie Forged is Alex’s grandfather (many times removed) who also
happens to be the fae Lord of Enchantment. It’s been a long time
since Alex has had a living blood relative, and she’s both excited
and terrified to get to know him.
How
did you come up with the concept and characters for the book?
Alex was easy. She was a shadowy
version of me shaped by different life experiences --- someone who
shared many of my personality traits so I could make her feel
authentic, but forged from different circumstances.
With Alex’s grandfather, I wanted to
pack as much of the scary power of the fae into as unassuming a
wrapper as I could. He’s a being who’s lived for centuries,
decimated whole worlds, and controls the largest force in the fae
realms, yet I needed him to be someone Alex could connect with on
some level. They do that through their art. They are both tinkerers,
creators. That passion is the bridge between them as well as the
channel for their most potent magic.
What
did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Faerie Forged is Alex’s first trip to
one of the fae realms. I loved getting to make up the details of what
those other worlds are like. I especially liked writing the
descriptions of the night market. Unfortunately, not all the details
I came up with got to stay in the book. My editor told me I was
taking Alex on a tour of the realm instead of moving the story along,
and she was right. I was having too much fun creating new kinds of
plants and creatures and architecture. But hopefully some of those
details will make their way into future books to enrich the stories
and help readers see the realms as they appear in my imagination.
How
did you come up with the title for this book?
Honestly, this title gave me some
trouble. There are two distinct threads in this book, and I had a
hard time coming up with a title that would mean something to both
Alex’s struggles in the mortal realm and her time at the fae court.
I finally settled on Faerie Forged because she is both shaped by the
events that happen when she is in the fae realm (also known to
mortals as the land of faerie) and because she eventually creates
something purely from her own magic.
If
you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your
latest book?
I’m always thinking of things after
the fact that could have been added, or changed, or tweaked. That
said, I go through a lot of iterations of each book I write and at
some point I have to be willing to let it go. Now that Faerie Forged
is out of my hands, I’ve come up with a different title that I
think might have worked better, but I’m going to keep it to myself
in case it works for a future book. ;)
If
your book was made into a film, who would you like to play the lead?
Emma Stone. I think she could pull off
the right combination of sass and serious for Alex.
Anything you want to tell your
readers?
I write for the same reason I read: for
fun. I’m not trying to teach, or preach, or convince. I just want
to share a story that entertained me when it played out in my head.
Hopefully it will entertain you too.
Are
your characters based on
real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
I avoid basing characters on real
people as much as possible, mostly because I don’t want to get in
trouble if someone I know reads the book and recognizes themself.
Do
your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have
the reigns of the story?
For the most part I’ve got a pretty
good handle on my stories. Sometimes scenes move around, and
sometimes they take me in unexpected directions, but I always find my
way back to somewhere near where I thought I’d be. The one place
where my characters get free reign is in dialogue. Sometimes while
I’m writing, I’ll find my characters have started chatting, or
arguing, or they’ve gone off on some tangent, and I have trouble
figuring out how to get them back on track.
Convince
us why you feel your book is a must read.
Maybe it’s because I don’t like
being told what to do, but I don’t think any book is a must
read. I think of books as get to read and supposed to
read. A “get to” read book is one that I pick up because it looks
fun or intriguing, and I keep turning the pages because it holds my
interest. But not all people will be pulled in by the same books.
Some people hate reading drama. Some people hate reading fantasy.
Some people hate reading historical romance. So to say a book must
be read feels like pushing it into the “supposed to” read
category. What I can say is that if you like fun, fast,
fantasy stories, I think you will want to keep turning pages in my
books.
Have
you written any other books that are not published?
Yep. I’ve written a total of six
books to date. Four are in the Magicsmith series. The other two are
young adult stories, one of which is done and waiting for me to pay
attention to it, and the other of which is still a draft that needs
work.
What
did you edit out of
this book?
I took out nearly an entire chapter of
Alex exploring the fae Realm of Enchantment when she first arrived. I
originally had her walk through the city and the huge garden maze
that surrounds Bael’s keep, complete with unique, exhotic plants
and an earlier introduction of the fae she meets at court.
Is
there a writer whose
brain you would love to pick for advice? Who would that be and why?
Bradon
Sanderson. I love the unique worlds and magic systems he creates, and
I’d love to get a look at his brainstorming process.
Behind the Scenes:
My cat really likes to keep me company
while I work. No matter where in the house I sit down with my laptop,
she’s there. Her favorite place to be is laying across my arms so I
can’t move them. A lot of my work has been typed in this awkwardly
restricted position because I just don’t have the heart to chase
the little fuzzball off. Her other favorite positions are draped over
the back of my office chair, laying on top of my feet, and curled in
a ball tucked between my shoulder and cheek (she’s not a very big
cat).
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