Hello and welcome to the cover reveal for Dan Fitzgerald’s classic adventure fantasy series, The Maer Cycle! Formerly published by an indie press, Dan has recently had his rights reverted to him and has decided to relaunch the series with in fashion. As such, I have the immense pleasure of revealing the new covers for each of the books in the series today and I am so excited to be able to show off these awesome new covers, which were made by Fiona West!
Dan has written up a short article to accompany the reveal, which I have added in below, but I want to first say that I absolutely love these new covers! I think Fiona did an incredible job with capturing the classic fantasy feel and I can’t get over how cool it is that they look so much like old D&D modules. I love it!
Now, over to you, Dan!
Reintroducing The Maer Cycle!
Back in the day, I played D&D and every other role-playing game I could get my hands on. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was my jam. I was obsessed with the look of the old D&D modules, and I wanted to give a hint of that vibe for my fantasy series. Fiona West designed the covers with that in mind, and I think they do a great job of conveying the TTRPG feel of the books.
In 2018, I was playing D&D and GURPS (the super technical Generic Universal Role-Playing System for ultra-nerds only) for the first time in decades, and it awoke a part of me that had long fallen into shadow. The games were great, and we made some amazing moments together. We also spent hours doing the logistics of combat in between bouts of role-playing. It got me thinking of writing a novel like a TTRPG campaign where the role-playing and narrative arcs would be the main thing, but still with the hack and the slash and the occasional exploding fireball.
That’s when I started writing Hollow Road. I’ve always loved the feeling of a low-level TTRPG campaign, where your chance of getting killed is never zero, and where every battle against a handful of orcs is a thrill. And I wanted that banter you can get when you’re really in character.
Enter three childhood friends: Carl, a soldier turned mercenary for hire, Sinnie, a circus archer eager for adventure, and Finn, a freshly trained mage on his first tour out in the world. They’re hired to take the body of an old friend back to the village for burial. Mysterious circumstances. You can imagine.
It gets better: mythical creatures called the Maer, half human, half beast, have been sighted in the area, and no one’s heard from the village in weeks.
Time for an adventure!
I won’t spoil what happens next, but it turns out the legends about the Maer got quite a bit wrong, and considerable drama (and fighting) ensues.
After the first book, I was excited to write my first Maer point of view characters, which are mixed in with the humans in The Archive. They band together to seek the legendary Archive, buried by the Maer in the Time Before. (Coincidentally, that’s the name of my upcoming trio of romantic fantasies set 2,000 years before the Maer Cycle) Many hearts intertwine and some are broken as they face hardship and foes on a long mountain journey to this mythical place.
The Place Below takes place 25 years after The Archive and features a young scholar of mixed Maer and human parentage. Her quest for knowledge leads her to the Place Below, where the fabled Skin Maer live in the darkness with an undead scholar named Kuun. There’s a bit of get-the-gang-back-together energy in this one, which is bittersweet, but when the violence kicks in, teamwork makes the dream work. Content warning: the book features a society that recycles its dead in ways that some people may find disturbing.
I’m very excited to re-introduce the Maer Cycle, with covers that capture the feel of the books. They’re all in the 300-ish page range, so they fit nicely into modest-sized TBR slots. Thanks for reading this far, and if you’ve a mind to check out the books, Hollow Road is $.99 and all the books are on KU.
You can purchase The Maer Cycle or add them to your Goodreads shelves below!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ko8Zhg
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20592778.Dan_Fitzgerald
About the Author
I am a fantasy and romance author living in Washington, DC with my wife, twin boys, and two cats. When I am not writing, I might be gardening, doing yoga, cooking, or listening to French music.
I write fantasy in part because the state of the world demands an escape, but also because fantasy provides another lens through which to view what we are living now. Part mirror, part magnifying glass, part prism.
I write romance because we need more love in the world, and sometimes we need to know things will work out in the end. My first published romance will be Wings so Soft, coming in summer 2023.
What you will find in my books: Mystery. Darkness. Wonder. Action. Romance. Otherness examined and deconstructed. Queer and straight characters living and fighting side by side. Imaginary creatures and magic with a realistic touch.
What you won’t find: Extreme violence. Sexual assault. Unquestioned sexism or discrimination. Evil races. Irredeemable villains. Predestined heroes. An ancient darkness that threatens to overspread the land. Interested? Check out The Maer Cycle trilogy (character-driven non-epic fantasy) or The Weirdwater Confluence duology (romantic fantasy with meditation magic).
Author Website: https://www.danfitzwrites.com/
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/danfitzwrites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanFitzWrites
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danfitzwrites/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20592778.Dan_Fitzgerald
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dan-Fitzgerald/author/B0999QVRTG
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