Dearest Reader,
Something strange happened this month, and I told the short version on Facebook, but here's what actually went down.
To Tame a Viking Warlord was supposed to be a standalone. One book. One couple. One glorious sweep from Orkney to Scotland to Morocco. Torstein Hagansson had his story, I had my big ideas, everything was tracking well and I felt like a woman who had her life together.
And then the sisters of the Secret Order turned up.
That was the first crack. Because you cannot politely ask those women to leave. They walk in, they take stock of your carefully planned standalone, and they simply stay. And where the Order goes, trouble follows, so of course the Norman Brotherhood came shouldering in next, sinister as ever, absolutely refusing to remain in their own series where I put them.
And then an ancient relic wandered into the plot.
Of course it did. I cannot write a book without one. At this point it's less a plot device and more a personality trait. I fought it. For weeks. I lost.
To Tame a Viking Warlord is now Book 3 of the Keeper of Secrets series, which meant it also needed a cover that told you the truth about what you were actually buying. That cover is done and I love it more than the original, so I suppose the voices in my head were right. As usual. Don't tell them.
Right. Now for the apology.
The release date has moved to 24th September. I am genuinely, properly sorry. But remember, for those of you who pre-ordered a copy of this book aaagggeeess ago directly from me, my lovely assistant Tia (and BookFunnel) still has all your emails saved. Even if you received a refund due to the release being delayed, you will still receive a FREE auto-delivered copy of the book on release day!
Now, here's the honest reason things got delayed again, because you deserve one. Turning a standalone into a series book is not a matter of changing a few names and calling it a day. Threads had to be woven back into the wider tapestry. Continuity had to be checked against everything that came before. A whole extra layer of intrigue needed room to actually breathe instead of being crammed into the last four chapters.
Rushing it would have given you a book that sat slightly wrong in the world. And you'd have felt it.
What I can promise is that the story got bigger. Deeper roots, higher stakes, considerably more danger than my original version ever contained. Epic is not a word I throw about lightly, but here we are.
Now let me tell you about the part that nearly broke my brain
Writing a book that runs from medieval Orkney to Scotland to Morocco sounds wildly romantic until you sit down and realise you have to make two people actually talk to each other.
Here's the problem.
Torstein is a Norn speaker. Norn, for those who haven't fallen down this particular rabbit hole, was the North Germanic tongue of Orkney and Shetland. And here's the bit people forget: in 1049 Orkney wasn't Scottish. It was a territory of Norway. Right there, sitting practically on Alba's doorstep, answering to a king across the North Sea.
Samira is Moroccan, and part Sahrawi.
So. Between those two people you have an entire ocean of languages. Norn and Old Norse in the north. Gaelic and early Scots in Alba. Norman French and Latin threading through the church and the courts, Latin being the closest thing the medieval world had to a universal work email. Then down the Atlantic coast where the tongues shift again, and finally into Morocco with Arabic, and the Amazigh and Hassaniya threads running through the south.
How on earth do these two communicate?
That question took weeks off my life. My mind damn near imploded.
So stay tuned. And brace yourselves for my attempts at medieval languages 101. HA! I've done my homework, I've triple-checked sources, and I still fully expect a linguist somewhere to read one line and quietly put the book down.
Worth it.
Something to tide you over
I'll be sending a newsletter out shortly with a longer exclusive excerpt from To Tame a Viking Warlord. Just enough to get you into the feel of it. If you're not on my mailing list, now would be a very good moment to fix that.
And then there's Ruadh
Book 4 of Keeper of Secrets is To Tame a Highland Laird, and it belongs to Ruadh MacDonald and Heather Boyd.
If you've read Sorcha (The MacGregors Book 2) or Highland Warrior (Keeper of Secrets Book 1), you already know Ruadh. He's Yesenda's brother. He is also the man who cannot occupy a room with a certain Scottish lass without the two of them squabbling like seagulls over the same chip.
A number of you have written to ask whether those two were ever going to get a story and the answer is YES. You were right to ask. Their story is coming.
Book 4 has everything I love throwing at a couple. An ancient relic, naturally. Sinister threats, action, adventure, and a healthy dose of romantic comedy, because Ruadh and Heather make nothing easy, least of all for each other.
Check out the new cover above. Release date will be added soon.
Where to find everything
Pre-order To Tame a Viking Warlord: https://books2read.com/u/boNpBv
Read a preview chapter: https://payhip.com/b/Asofz
Sign up for my newsletter for extended sneak peaks of my books.
Thank you, as always, for your patience, and for being the sort of readers who let me follow the voices in my head wherever they decide to wander. Even when they wander from Orkney to the Sahara and back.
See you on the 24th. 🥁
Elina xoxo