Adult Fantasy: THE WITCH OF CAELHEARTH

Author's Name: ReLynn Vaughn

Category: Adult

Genre: Fantasy

Stage of Completion: Mostly Polished and Looking to Query

Preferred Critique Style: Straight to the Point

Cat Person or Dog Person: Cat person. Will take any cat on the planet. More selective about owning a dog.

Tea or Coffee: Allergic to both! Haha! Hot Cocoa forever!

 Short Pitch

When spellcaster Willa Garrity finds that the enemy she thought dead in battle is very much alive and plotting a new coup, she’ll have to reenter the Royal Court and find his henchman in the heart of power. If she fails, the Kingdom will fall and the war that haunts her will end up killing her.
 

Writing Sample

Smoke from the last of the fires, sulfur from the blunderbusses, blood and offal and decay all perfumed the early evening air. Across the field, ravens hopped among the bodies and a few human scavengers hunted for trophies or gold in the uniforms of the fallen. Here and there, a broken pike or spear rose from the earth, fluttering with a tattered flag on the breeze.

There remained little to be done now, at the end of the battle. The living had retreated, in victory or defeat. They took the injured with them, to be tended back to health or nursed into the grave. And the dead…well, the dead were unconcerned.

She stood like a statue in front of what had been their command tent, the steel of her breast plate shining through the smudges of red ichor and yellow mud. The same wind that moved the flags whipped the tatters of her own gown around her ankles. Pain clawed at her, stretching her muscles to the breaking point and grinding into her bones. She longed to fold down onto the ground and never get up. To sleep eternally like so many others who lay staining the grass and churned mud in front of her. Instead, her horror rooted her to the ground.

Atticus stood just to her left and behind her. He'd remained after coming to her side after the Baron's men broke and ran.