Interview with Jaxi and New Dragon Blood Book (Oaths) Coming This Month

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you already know that a new Dragon Blood book, Oaths, is on its way. It’s been a couple of years since I published Soulblade and Shattered Past, and I hadn’t planned to write more, but… sometimes, these things just happen. I enjoyed being back in this world for the Heritage of Power series, and I realized I’d never written the story of Ridge and Sardelle’s wedding, nor had I explained how Bhrava Saruth ended up getting a temple, so… Oaths.

It releases on April 24th, and the pre-order is up now in most stores:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Kobo | Apple

You can also get it early if you’re a Patreon subscriber. It’s already available there.

To warm you up for the new adventure, I’ve done another interview with everyone’s favorite sentient soulblade, Jaxi. (I’d actually forgotten all about the interview I did with her a few years ago at the end of Book 5, if you can believe it. She may be my first character to get two interviews.)

Interview with Jaxi

*interview takes place at the time of Oaths, so there’s no mention of the events in Heritage of Power (three years after Oaths)

Thank you for sitting down for an informal chat with me, Jaxi. I—

Sitting down? Is that a joke? I’m hanging on a rack in my scabbard.

Ah, yes. Just an expression. Thank you for… hanging out with me.

*silent moment* You’re not going to be one of those clever journalists, are you? Or one who thinks she’s clever? Like that dreadful woman who’s started writing articles about Sardelle again?

No, ma’am. No cleverness here. And I’m an author, not a journalist. I thought it would be nice to get your version of events for the novel I’ll be releasing soon. Sardelle, General Zirkander, and the dragon god, Bhrava Saruth, figured prominently in them, but what was your role? 

Bhrava Saruth doesn’t figure prominently in anything except his own delusions. As for myself, I spent most of my summer hanging in my rack and staring at Ridge’s dreadful couch. Do you know how much hanging is involved in being a sword? 

But you got out for the wedding. And the, ah, event with Tolemek? And the dragon blood, yes? 

True, but do you really want to tell your readership about those events before the novel is released? Will they not feel they’ve been spoiled? You do have a readership, don’t you?

A small one, certainly.

Small? That’s disappointing. One would think that everyone would want to read about the exploits of sentient soulblades. 

I’m sure more people will discover the books and learn about soulblades. But since you asked, I do have some questions from those readers. Perhaps it would be better to ask those than about the events that will be detailed in the novel. 

I should think so. 

All right, let’s do a few. Leslie asks what you think about people making soulblades again. 

While I wouldn’t mind having more worthy individuals to communicate with, I don’t think there are currently any sorcerers in the world powerful enough to make soulblades, nor any powerful enough to perform the ceremony to channel their essences into the swords. I suppose that may change if Bhrava Saruth continues his randy ways. It’s only a matter of time before some of the women “worshipping” him end up pregnant. In twenty years, we could have powerful magic users around again. They’ll probably be haughty and arrogant.

Because they’ll be powerful? Or because they’ll be Bhrava Saruth’s spawn?

Yes.

They’ll also be overly obsessed with tarts. 

I… see. The next question is from Jackie. Do you miss your family from before? Did you have a great love?

From before I became a soulblade? I do sometimes think of my parents, though it’s been a very long time now, and some of the details from the past have gotten fuzzy. They were good people, although oddly fixated on the idea of me studying hard and reaching my “full potential.” As if you’re not fully potentiated if you’re hurling fireballs and incinerating Iskandian enemies. 

I’m not sure that’s quite the right meaning for that word. 

What is this? A vocabulary test? 

No, sorry. Carry on.

Anyway, yes, I do miss my parents. As for great love, I was only sixteen when I was forced to choose between eternal death or storing my soul in the soulblade, so there hadn’t been time to fall greatly and deeply in love with anyone. Most of the boys I went to school with were dolts anyway.  Boys don’t get to be interesting until they’re at least thirty.

Or three-hundred-and-thirty?

Nah, they’re pretty wrinkly by then.

Jo asks, “As it seems to be getting fairly crowded with babies at home, do you see yourself journeying without Sardelle more in the future?”

Right now, it’s mostly crowded with animals and dragons, but I know children are on the way. I am concerned that Ridge occasionally jokes about whether soulblades can babysit or not. The answer is yes we can and no we don’t want to.

I’ve had handlers turn into mothers in the past, and I do accept that those aren’t usually the most exciting years for a soulblade. There’s a lot of that hanging around we already discussed. But babies grow up, and I have faith that Sardelle won’t be content to be ensconced in her house with Ridge’s awful couch indefinitely. We’ll have more adventures again one day. Until then, I’ll be patient. And incinerate things around the house to keep my skills honed.

That couch, perhaps?

How did you guess? Though it’s possible I may have already tried and found it surprisingly fire retardant. Do you think his pilots planned that?

I couldn’t say. Susan asks, “If you could shape shift into any creature, what would it be?”

I’d be the first non-arrogant dragon in the skies.

You, ah, don’t consider yourself arrogant? 

I’m shocked you would ask that. I am modest when you consider my vast talents and powers. 

All right. Robina asks, “Do you actually feel anything when a young man ‘polishes your blade’?”

I’m certainly able to feel it when my blade is touched, whether by a gentle hand with an oil rag or by an enemy Sardelle and I are eviscerating. The former is definitely preferable. The latter is so untidy. 

Unlike incineration?

Precisely.

For our final question, Cindy poses the deeply thoughtful and profound… “I want to know what’s the weirdest thing she ‘saw’ someone do when they thought no one was looking.”

Your readers believe I spy on people?

Well, they’ve read the books. They know all about the colonel whose office is across the hall from Ridge’s.

Ah. I might damage their young and impressionable minds if I share the weirdest things people have done. Getting unlikely objects stuck in bodily orifices. Pretending to be mythological heroes by clutching blanket-capes around their shoulders and stabbing vile enemies with broom-spears. Having long and involved arguments with their furniture. Talking to animals. Vigorously fantasizing about famous pilots, infamous dragons, and brilliant soulblades…

Er, talking to animals isn’t that weird.

What about when you believe they’re talking back? And want to have a deep and meaningful relationship with you? Let’s not even go into the iguana incident. 

The… iguana? On second thought, why don’t you finish up by telling folks what they can look forward to in your new novel? 

My new novel? I’m not the one getting married.

No, but it’s a forgone conclusion that Ridge and Sardelle never would have found happiness together without you.

That’s absolutely true. And it’s about time someone acknowledged it. All right, your readers can look forward to… no more than two scenes with that couch in it. Maybe three. Also some bonding time between Ridge and Angulus. An explosion in Tolemek’s lab. A ridiculously pompous dragon showing up often (please tell me that isn’t the shape-shifted Bhrava Saruth on the cover of the book).

Er, you saw that, did you?

I’m pretending I didn’t. Lastly, your readers can enjoy spending more time with me. What more do you need?