It's finally here; the cover artwork for the next in my Moorish Spain series, entitled Sultana: The Bride Price, which will be available in the spring.
Sultana: The Bride Price is the story of Sultan Muhammad V of the Nasrid Dynasty, the only son of Yusuf I and his Christian wife Butayna, as told in Sultana: Two Sisters. The novel follows the course of history in which Muhammad V married his paternal first cousin, a woman whose name was not recorded in any of the sources, whom I have called Jazirah. As the novel opens, Jazirah is a headstrong and determined fourteen year-old; I expect any descendant of Fatima, the heroine of the first two novels would have been little different from her stalwart ancestress. Needless to say, Jazirah and her new husband don't fare very well at the start; if you've read my previous work, you know this already because you also know I don't write about historical figures with rosy, happy lives. Returning for this novel are several of the characters from Two Sisters, most importantly, Butayna and Maryam, whose continued conflicts are resolved in a dramatic way that aligns with their history. Muhammad V also has his own drama to survive within and outside of the harem's walls of Alhambra.
As with my other historical fiction works, the credit for this cover goes to Lance Ganey, whom I have the joy of working with for four years now. The original, public-domain artwork I sent him was Ferdinand Max Bredt's In a courtyard, Tunis (1921). The central figure drew me because she's much as I envisioned a young and beautiful teen-aged Jazirah. Lance superimposed the figure over a beautiful background of Alhambra's Court of Lions, which Muhammad V ordered construction on beginning in the early 1360's.
The ebook and paperback versions of the newest novel will be available within a short span of each other; ebook always first on all sales channels, followed by the paperback assuming all goes well with Ingram Spark. Four books down and two more to go before I wrap up this series that has meant so much to me. I hope readers will be as excited as I am when Sultana: The Bride Price makes its debut.
Sultana: The Bride Price is the story of Sultan Muhammad V of the Nasrid Dynasty, the only son of Yusuf I and his Christian wife Butayna, as told in Sultana: Two Sisters. The novel follows the course of history in which Muhammad V married his paternal first cousin, a woman whose name was not recorded in any of the sources, whom I have called Jazirah. As the novel opens, Jazirah is a headstrong and determined fourteen year-old; I expect any descendant of Fatima, the heroine of the first two novels would have been little different from her stalwart ancestress. Needless to say, Jazirah and her new husband don't fare very well at the start; if you've read my previous work, you know this already because you also know I don't write about historical figures with rosy, happy lives. Returning for this novel are several of the characters from Two Sisters, most importantly, Butayna and Maryam, whose continued conflicts are resolved in a dramatic way that aligns with their history. Muhammad V also has his own drama to survive within and outside of the harem's walls of Alhambra.
The ebook and paperback versions of the newest novel will be available within a short span of each other; ebook always first on all sales channels, followed by the paperback assuming all goes well with Ingram Spark. Four books down and two more to go before I wrap up this series that has meant so much to me. I hope readers will be as excited as I am when Sultana: The Bride Price makes its debut.
