Ready for the cover reveals of the Sons of the Dragon novellas?

All three covers of the Sons of the Dragon novellas are ready. My cover artist, Mirella Patzer, did a stellar job as usual. It helps that we've known each other over 20 years and I trust her instincts more than most. She reworked the first cover, which I debuted last month, to tonally match the rest of the series.

BLOOD AND IRON (Book 1) - The Wolf

Mircea Dracula, barely fourteen when he first commanded men in battle. By nineteen, he'd fought crusaders, survived exile, and loved impossibly. His foes called him a brutal warrior. History forgot him entirely. Until now. His totem: the wolf: predator, protector, and the symbol of the Ottoman threat his father fought to keep at bay.

CRESCENT AND CROSS (Book 2) - The Nightingale

Radu Dracula spent thirty years in Turkish captivity. He converted and commanded armies, returning to the land of his forefathers as a stranger among his people. The Ottomans called him "the Handsome." History called him traitor. The truth is far more complicated. His totem: the nightingale: beautiful, caged, singing in darkness. The captive who became a conqueror. 

THE BASTARD PRINCE (Book 3) - The Dove

Vlad Călugărul. A bastard, the overlooked son, the one who chose the monastery instead of a bloody legacy. For thirty years, he mourned as his brothers destroyed each other. Then destiny found him anyway. His totem: the dove: the peace and transcendence of the brother who must lead his shattered family towards its ultimate destiny. 

Before Bram Stoker wrote Dracula, a father and his sons bore names that became synonymous with brutal stories whispered in the night. The children of Vlad II Dracul, prince of Wallachia and a knight of the Order of the Dragon. His sons could not escape his dark legacy, caught between empires battling for control of Europe. Perhaps the entire world. These are their stories, told with historical accuracy and unflinching emotional truth.

Three brothers walked three separate paths through history and forged one legacy that became legend.

 SONS OF THE DRAGON - Coming June 16, 2026, in e-book format and June 30, 2026, in paperback.

Meet the Author: John D. Cressler

With my next MEET THE AUTHOR post, I’m pleased to introduce John D. Cressler, as this week's guest author and share his newest novel. John’s stopping by to share an excerpt of Fortune's Lament, part of his Anthems of al-Andalus series set in Moorish Spain and to offer insight on his writing. Given my own obsession with the place and time he's written about, John's work has been of particular interest to me, so expect to hear more about him on this blog. As a bonus, John has generously offered to give away up to TEN  Kindle versions to those who leave a comment on this post! So, please do comment and INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS in the comment.

Here's an excerpt from the novel:

Interview with John D. Cressler

Welcome John, thanks for being my guest at The Brooklyn Scribbler. Please share some insight on your Anthems of al-Andalus series and the latest installment, Fortune's Lament.

Thanks for inviting me, Lisa! Let me give some background on this amazing period of history, and then zoom-in on each of my three novels in the Anthems of al-Andalus Series.

As you know, much of modern Spain was under Muslim control for nearly 800 years (from 711 to 1492 C.E.). Medieval Islamic Spain was deeply influential in world history, for a multitude of reasons, including the rediscovery, translation, and dissemination of the lost works of medicine, science, and philosophy of the ancient Greeks. The Muslim Umayyads (with roots tracing back to Syria) were lovers of books and learning, and helped launch a cultural revolution in Córdoba, which transformed the western world. An exceptional 200-plus-year period of peaceful coexistence occurred between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam under Muslim Umayyad rule, providing a powerful lesson in the practice of multiculturalism for our twenty-first-century world. This time period was both deeply influential in world history and riveting, and I have fallen in love with all-things-al-Andalus! All three of my novels are love stories interwoven into this rich history. 

Emeralds of the Alhambra, my first release, is a love story set in the resplendent Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, during the Castilian Civil War (1367-1369 C.E.), a time when Muslims took up their swords to fight alongside Christians. Emeralds tells the story of William Chandon, a Christian knight captured and brought to the Alhambra to be used by the Muslim sultan as a political pawn, and the Sufi Muslim princess Layla, daughter of the sultan’s chief counsellor. As Chandon’s influence at court grows, he becomes trapped between his forbidden love for Layla and his Christian heritage, the demands of chivalry and political expediency. Chandon and Layla must make choices between love and honor, war and peace, life and death, choices which ultimately will seal Granada’s fate as the last surviving stronghold of Islamic Spain. 

Shadows in the Shining City, my second release, is a prequel to Emeralds of the Alhambra, and immerses the reader in Islamic Spain’s Golden Age. Shadows tells the story of the forbidden love between Rayhana, a Muslim princess of the royal court, and Zafir, a freed slave. Young love blossoms in 975 C.E. in Madinat al-Zahra, the Shining City, Caliph al-Hakam II’s magnificent royal palace located just outside of Córdoba. Their love story is set against the backdrop of the epic rise to power of Rayhana’s ruthless father, Ibn Abi Amir, a man history will come to both celebrate and revile for the role he plays in the collapse of Islamic Spain.

Fortune’s Lament, my latest, is again set in Granada, 120 years after Emeralds of the Alhambra, and sets the stage for the final collapse of Muslim Spain. It tells the story of Danah, a young Muslim woman who aspires to be the first female physician in the city. Love unexpectedly blossoms between Danah and Yusef, a valiant prince of court from a rival clan, during the bloody final conquest of Granada by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Christian Spain. As the light of Islamic Spain dims, the Inquisition looms large on the horizon, as does the coming voyage of Columbus to discover the Americas.

When you first began writing, did you have a series in mind? If not, what changed your thoughts?

Yes, I intended to write a series from the very beginning. There is just too much fascinating history to be told. I envision the series stretching to at least 4 books, maybe more.

The women of Al-Andalus exhibit surprising behavior in your novels, moving beyond the traditional roles readers may expect of women in the medieval period. Where you surprised by the role of medieval Muslim women as you researched the period?

That is true, yes. I discovered many surprising elements to this history, including the strong role women often played in decisions that influenced pivotal outcomes (by a variety of means; some good, some bad), as well as the unusual social mobility women sometimes enjoyed. I wanted to highlight this nuanced piece of the history. Actually, there are three deeper themes present in all of my novels, themes that greatly interest me: 1) How strong young women cross the artificial boundaries society imposes. 2) The nature of love and its power to transform us. Yes, these are love stories! And 3) The importance of religious tolerance, and the beauty of multiculturalism. All of these themes firmly anchored to a riveting historical context, but are also highly relevant to our modern world.

Do you have favorite characters from each of your novels in the series? If so, tell us why you prefer that character above others.

Well, definitely my young female protagonists! Layla, in Emeralds, Rayhana in Shadows, and Danah in Fortune’s Lament. All are bright, all are strong-willed, all are determined to break out of the traditional roles and expectations assigned to them. AND…..all unexpectedly encounter love along their journeys… which changes everything (as love is wont to do!).

Do you plan to write more novels set in Al-Andalus? If not, where will your writing adventures take you?

Definitely! Novel # 4 in the series has already commenced, and it will be a sequel to Fortune’s Lament, telling the story of the final collapse of Granada in 1492. Beyond that, time will tell―but one thing is certain: there are plenty of stories left in the 800 years of al-Andalus that still beg to be told! Stay tuned.

Thanks again, John!

Learn more about John D. Cressler

Website, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Author Page

Buy Fortune's Lament, Anthems of al-Andalus series #3

PRINT: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620063727

EBOOK: https://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Lament-Anthems-Al-andalus-Book-ebook/dp/B07BYT69FY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1523035650&sr=1-1

Meet the Author: Kristen Taber

With MEET THE AUTHOR, I’m pleased to introduce guest authors and share their newest novels with visitors. This week, meet Kristen Taber! She’s stopping by to share an excerpt of her newest novel, The Shadow Guard, part of the Æerenden series.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter 1:

ÆRENDEN’S RENAISSANCE had been one of beauty, full of art and discovery, friendship and kindness. Many in the kingdom spoke of it as if they had lived through each colorful moment and some had. It had only been decades since the renaissance had ended. War had a way of making years feel like an eternity.

In the height of that era, music had swelled within the castle’s great hall, bouncing from the windows, muffled by tapestries, echoing with joy. Bodies had danced and swayed. Laughter had resounded from the ceiling. Founders’ juice had flowed from carafes, drained from cups, and loosened lips. Meaghan imagined gossip had served as currency in this place, traded without regard for truth or belief in its details. Throughout Ærenden’s history, storytelling had blended with everyday life, entertainment valued the same as rare powers. When the revelers had left the castle’s parties, they would have paid no more heed to the tales they had heard than they did the king’s joking antics—the bets he had wagered with his Guardians or the contests he had arranged to see who among his people did not mind displaying their foolishness.

Queen Adelina’s father had been jubilant, by all accounts. Her mother had subjected him to frequent eye rolls, while hiding her own mirth behind an elegant hand.

Life had been carefree within these rose quartz walls, until the Zeiihbu War had become something more than distant skirmishes on the border. In its final years, everyone had lost someone they loved, battles had replaced jokes in conversation, and the people’s loyalties had become divided. Some wanted to annihilate the Zeiihbuans. Some wanted to assimilate them. And no one wanted to share Founders’ juice with those who had opposing views.

The parties stopped. The king died, the queen soon after, and their daughter closed the doors to the hall, and to her grief, using the space only for formal ceremonies.

After the war, Queen Adelina had wed King Édaire, affectionately known as Ed to those who had loved him, and they had conceived a child.

Meaghan had never had the chance to know her parents, beyond the fractured memories of toddlerhood. Ed had been murdered in this room, Adelina in their apartment, and Meaghan had been spirited to Earth soon after.

Now she walked the length of her grandfather’s beloved great hall, each footfall masked by graceful steps she had not realized she could muster. She kept her eyes focused on one point at the front of the room—a single throne representing so much history and pain.

Two amethyst-encrusted finials on top of the throne glistened in the noonday sun. Golden flowers curled around the throne’s arms and legs, symbols of growth and her family’s connection to the past. Their beauty would have brought a smile to her face, if she had not known her father had bled to death on the floor below them.

Or if she had not remembered the smaller throne that had filled the empty space on the left side of the dais before Garon destroyed it. Her father had used it in his duties as king. Her mother had ruled from the larger one.

Interview with Kristen Taber

Welcome Kristen, thanks for being my guest at The Brooklyn Scribbler. Please share some insight on your five-part YA series, Æerenden and the final installment, The Shadow Guard.

The Ærenden series starts on Earth and transitions to Ærenden, a kingdom on a world parallel to ours yet wholly different. Where we have medicine and science, they have magic---Healers, people who control electricity and the weather, Telekines, and Firestarters. Each person has a personal power, including Meaghan, a young woman raised on Earth but born within the kingdom she remembers only in nightmares. The series follows Meaghan and Nick—her personal guard and love-interest—as they fight to take back the kingdom from the man who assassinated the former king and queen. Along the way, what seems to be a straightforward black-and-white war turns into a complex puzzle of gray areas. Nick and Meaghan must navigate the secrets left behind by the royal family to uncover the truth and save the kingdom.

The final installment in the series, The Shadow Guard, brings Nick and Meaghan to a land outside of the kingdom thought to be uninhabited. What they discover leaves Meaghan with a choice that could turn her from a long-awaited hero into a villain with the power to destroy everything.

When you first began writing, when did you know that only a series of novels would allow you to fully realize the journey on which your characters were about to embark?

In the beginning, I thought the whole story would only consume about 300 pages, and it would be a neat and tidy standalone. Halfway through writing The Child Returns (book 1), I realized my characters had a greater story to tell. I hashed out a basic outline for five books at that point (not including background stories, historical stories, and potential spinoffs that currently reside in my head). Eventually those expected 300 pages turned into over 2,000 published pages.

Is there any secondary character in the novel who could have “run away” with the story and turned attention from your lead characters?

Yes, and she still may get her own book if the muses keep pestering. In The Shadow Guard, a shapeshifter named Faughn becomes integral to the storyline and assists Meaghan in her final battle with her nemesis. Faughn grew up in a harsh desert region with enemies constantly on the fringes of her awareness. One enemy killed her mother and kidnapped her brother. Despite her hardships—and because of them—she’s become a warrior who is capable of fighting and handling herself in precarious situations. She also knows how to trust, love, and have fun when time allows. Her self-confidence and composure as a result of growing up in a combat environment is a contrast to Meaghan, who has been thrown into a situation beyond her control and struggles to come to terms with it and become the hero required of her.  After writing Meaghan’s type of character for nearly ten years, Faughn intrigued me. I wanted to learn more about her and the inner-psyche she doesn’t show, that I know has to have stemmed from the trauma in her life. So many times, I had to fight the urge to deviate, to show Faughn’s building relationship with her love interest or her reactions with her brother-in-law or father, but I managed to curb that impulse. She did, however, earn a place of honor on the cover.

Any writing quirks? E.g. requiring music to read, favorite place, etc.

I have to have background noise, usually music or coffee shop chatter. For music, I bounce between classic rock, blues, metal, classical, and film scores, depending on my mood. When I need the coffee shop murmur but can’t get out of the house, I use a website called Coffitivity that recreates café noises. I wrote almost all of The Shadow Guard using that site or listening to the Lord of the Rings trilogy soundtrack.

If your novels ever became films, who would play your lead characters and why?

Oh goodness. Fans always ask me this, and I have so much trouble deciding. Meaghan has always been most difficult for me. I love the idea of an unknown playing her, like Emma Watson was before she starred in Harry Potter, so I don’t like to picture current Hollywood stars in the role. If I had to choose, Auli'i Cravalho looks similar to how I picture her so maybe I’d go for her. For Nick, I picture a blonde Logan Lerman.  And Faughn? Totally Yara Shahidi.

Thanks again, Kristen! 

Learn more about Kristen Taber

Website, Website 2, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Author Page

Buy The Shadow Guard, Æerenden series #5

Kindle - http://amzn.to/2ttiz7N

Amazon Paperback - https://amzn.to/2pEgYI0

B&N Paperback - http://bit.ly/2pDNcTB

Ebook Release Day! Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree is here!

After a year and a half, the ebook version of the novel is out. It's been like giving birth to a really big baby, who had some troubles along the way. But I'm pleased this fifth novel in the Sultana series is done. It's a bittersweet moment, but also a simple reminder that I need to work on the last book in the series, Sultana: The White Mountains.

This latest novel is the story of the historical figure of Sultana Aisha, who's come down through history as Aisha la-Hurra, the mother of the last Moorish ruler of Granada called Boabdil in Spanish sources and the first wife of Muley Hacen. She's also known for her rivalry with Muley Hacen's second wife Isabel de Solis shaped Spain's future. Aisha also has a reputation as one of the great patriots of Moorish history. As her world altered, she wanted the women and children of Granada fighting to preserve the kingdom. Anyone who's familiar with fifteenth century Spain or watched the Spanish television series, Isabel, season two knows about these characters. Or so you think. As an aside, one of the things that has always disappointed me about the portrayal of Aisha on screen and frankly throughout history is that it's often presumed she was a jealous bitch, a harridan, a disloyal wife to her eventual husband. She was a woman with a cause, and justification for what she did can be found in her terrifying experiences.
 
In Sultana: The Pomegranate Tree, Aisha is more than a mother, wife, or patriot. She's a complex character, one of three sisters born to a Sultan without sons. She's born in a time where the borders of Moorish Spain have dramatically shrunk. The union of Aragon and Castile by the marriage of their respective monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella threatens Aisha's world. She endures drastic changes, but also initiates some of her own with varied consequences. She often finds herself torn between making the right or wrong choice, guided by her head and heart. She supported and thwarted by a cast of other characters including her own father Muhammad IX, her would-be-husband and lover Muhammad X, her enemies the Sultans Saad and Abu'l-Hasan Ali, and a slave girl from Castile, Isabel de Solis who later takes the name Soraya. There are powerful ministers, brutal clan rivalries, and strained relationships within Aisha's immediate family.

I've written about a period in Spanish history that is more popular and well-researched than the earlier periods of the first four novels. I hope readers will enjoy their time spent in Aisha's world. More information and links to ebook retailers can be found here.

The Public Alhambra: Fatima's Perspective in Sultana - Part I

The Sultana series introduces readers to the real-life Moorish heroine Fatima, her husband Faraj and the rest of their family, all members of  the Nasrid clan, the last native Muslim dynasty in Spain. Sheltered from her youth within Granada's Alhambra (al-Qal’at al-Hamra), Fatima married Faraj, a paternal first cousin to her father Muhammad II in 1266 when she was between the ages of eight and twelve. Faraj was ten years older than his young wife. She died in her early nineties on February 26, 1349. Her husband preceded her in death some twenty years before, in February 1320. During Fatima's long years, she would have witnessed alterations to the complex of palaces, barracks, industrial and commercial quarters, mosques and baths at Alhambra. Although raised as a princess within the harem, Fatima did not remain hidden behind those walls. She would been familiar with all parts of the public domain her grandfather, father, brothers, son and grandsons ruled. From the dank, lowliest dungeon in Alcazaba to the delicate beauty of the summer palace at Alhambra, the Generalife, Fatima would have seen it all.

From the time her paternal grandfather Muhammad I occupied the site of Alhambra in 1237, thirteenth-century visitors and occupants of the site would have entered and left through its main medieval gate, along a course no visitors to Alhambra can see today. Referred to as the Puerta de Las Armas today, the precursor of this gate rose above what is now a neglected cobblestone path, permanently closed to all except Alhambra researchers. The route would have granted access to the complex for visitors from the north via a bridge over the Darro (Hadarro) river, and from the west up a hill, which the Moors called the Sabika. The gate connected with one of the oldest parts of Alhambra, its Alcazaba (al-Quasaba), which has existed since at least the ninth century during the first two centuries of Moorish rule over southern Spain.

As the most fully excavated portion of the complex, Alcazaba was the citadel of Alhambra, where the barracks of the officers and sentries existed in the shadow of a watchtower Fatima's grandfather built, the Torre de la Vela. This squat tower affords one of the best views of Granada, if you're willing to undertake a climb up the spiral stair inside to reach the top. Alcazaba was a construction of the Zirid period in Granada, during which Muslim rulers and their Jewish viziers developed the foundations of the citadel Fatima would have been familiar with in her lifetime. During his forty-year reign, Muhammad I enlarged Alcazaba by adding the Torre de la Vela. He provided water access for his men via a canal into which the Darro flowed. Water allowed for the addition of a cistern and bath. More than soldiers lived at the barracks of Alcazaba. The foundations of the excavated buildings indicate they would have accommodated families. But this is was not just a location where Granadine warriors gathered with their wives and children, enjoying meals and music beneath the stars at the end of a long day.

At the western end of Alcazaba, at the base of the Torre de la Vela, the sultans held their prisoners; captives for ransom and subjects who had fallen into disfavor. Unfortunates consigned to the cell descended via a ladder into a conical-shaped room with a trapdoor that left them no means of escape. Fatima would have been unable to escape their cries. In later years, when her full-blood brother Muhammad III poisoned their father and threw the man's servants into this dungeon, a warden took pity on them and offered the occupants some bread. When Muhammad III found out, he had the warden's head cut off and ordered it held over the trapdoor, dripping blood on to the prisoners, so that they could "have something to drink" in his words. During Muhammad III's reign, he also resided on the second storey of the Torre de la Vela at times.

Moving from the west, in the thirteenth-century a makeshift marketplace bounded by a precinct wall and a small ravine separated Alcazaba from the administrative areas of Alhambra. The northern boundary wall allowed visitors and residents to pass from this space, but it's impossible to know the thirteenth-century version of what preceded the sixteenth-century Patio de Machuca, which now occupies the west of the so-called Mexuar, or council area. Part of the reason some think the Mexuar was the council chamber likely comes from one tile in the room, which reads "Do not be afraid to ask for justice, for you will find it." Today, this space is where most visitors to Alhambra are invited to enter the palace. It's believed the foundations of a ministerial body developed during the reign of Fatima's father Muhammad II, perhaps prompted by what he had seen of the Castilian rudimentary parliament, the Cortes, during a visit to Seville in  December 1273. His council, the Diwan al-Insha, included some of the most preeminent men of Granada who served as secretaries, and heads of departments. A thirteenth-century lantern of stained glass once caught the sunlight filtering into this room. North of the Mexuar is a room designated as an oratory, retaining a wall inscription, "Do not be negligent. Come to prayer." The oratory opens up to a northwestern view of the Darro and the Albaicin neighborhood  known from Moorish times as al-Bayazin.

Later, I'll have more the public spaces Fatima would have been familiar with from the reign of her father, including what is now called the Hall of Ambassadors and the Court of Myrtles, the Partal buildings from the time of brother Muhammad III, the towers of her half-sibling Nasr I and the summer palace her son Ismail I built on an incline overlooking Alhambra.

For more, check out this virtual walking tour of Alhambra from Saudi Aramaco World.