JAMES HETLEY
|
James
A. Hetley is an
architect
and retired Kempo karate instructor who lives in Maine. He also served
three
years in the U. S. Army during the Vietnam war, and has worked such
diverse jobs as electronics instructor, trash collector, and operating
engineer
in a refrigeration plant. The Summer Country is his
first novel.
|
Dragon's Bones
published by SRM Publisher, LTD
Few things in Stonefort are exactly what they seem.
Stonefort, small fishing
village and harbor and township and
island, sits off the Maine coast, about as far Down East as you can get
without passing through Canadian Customs. Only the Salt Hay
Bridge
connects it to the mainland and the rest of the Boston
States. If you
held a vote, probably more than half the residents would choose to blow
up that bridge and all it implies.
In this latest
installment in the Stonefort saga, Maine author
James A. Hetley revisits the tough land when a logging camp becomes the
center of illegal activity in this world and perhaps in another as
well. Nurse and cop, both must face a special duty in the
face of
Dragon's Bones.
Dragon's Teeth
Cover Art by Don
Seegmiller; Cover
Design
by Annette Fiore
Published by ACE Books
ISBN: 0-441-01431-3
An ancient evil is
coming...
Two unusual families have
lived in the
backwater town of Stonefort, Maine, for generations -- the
shapeshifting Morgans and the Haskell witches. They get along (usually)
and work together (when necessary), but their alliance has been uneasy,
to say the least. Now the vengeful spirit of a dark sorcerer,
hungry to live again, will force them to unite once more.
In the arid Southwest,
Caroline
Haskell isn't sure she's ready to give up grad school -- and freedom --
for family responsibilities. But a mysterious artifact she's
learned about through her studies could be the key to thwarting the
undead sorcerer...
Meanwhile, a shady young
woman slinks
into Gary Morgan's life. She's absorbing his attentions --
and
family secrets. And she may have a connection to the
plastic-wrapped corpses sprouting up on Morgan and Haskell land.
Now the Haskells and the
Morgans must
distinguish friends from foes -- and real family from the kin that
kills.
Due
for release
November, 2006.
Pre-order from Amazon.com
Click
here
for
an excerpt
Few things in the town of Stonefort are exactly what
they seem...
Take the Morgans.
They've lived in this hardscrabble Maine
town since time immemorial -- and this family of smugglers and thieves
has been hiding its magical heritage for just as long.
And then there are the Haskells. People don't talk
about it to
outsiders, but there has always been a Haskell witch, caretaker of the
Haskell House -- a place of refuge where no woman has ever been harmed.
But evil is coming to Stonefort. Don Antonio, a drug
lord and
frighteningly powerful sorcerer, covets the Morgan family's most
closely guarded secret: its alliance with the magical being known as
the Dragon. Now, seventeen-year-old Gary Morgan must claim his heritage
and save his family.
But first he will have to master the power of the
Dragon -- a
task that may prove impossible without the help of the current Haskell
witch. The Haskells and the Morgans must overcome their differences
before a sorcerer wielding the power of the Dragon destroys them
all....
Order
from Amazon.com
or Barnes
&
Noble.com
Booklist (starred review):
"All of
Hetley's
characters are truly memorable,
and he does
a seamless job of
blending several
magical traditions.
This one
hooks you from page 1.
Well done!"
Publishers
Weekly:
"Solid writing, an
evocative sense of place and delightful characters
will leave
readers
breathlessly anticipating the promised sequel."
The
Best
Reviews:
"This urban fantasy is
as
good as it gets."
Greenman
Review:
"This may very well be
Hetley's best book to date, just in terms of
complexity,
originality, and
fast-paced excitement."
Locus:
"When Daniel Morgan paddles his
kayak into a smugglers' cave and falls
into
the clutches of a
gang led by a
"Columbian drug lord,"
this
opening scene
works like the start of a
TV thriller --
an
attention-grabber. From then on, the pace rarely
slows."
The battle between worlds, between dream and
reality, between
the
Old Ones and mankind, has begun.
In the realm known as the Summer Country --
the violent land
of
blood and magic where myth and legend are all too real -- Maureen
Pierce has claimed
her place among the powerful. But her many scars have yet to heal. She
struggles
to come to terms with her tragic life, while trying to find some way to
allow
the warrior Brian Albion into her heart. Her sister, Jo, still lives in
the world of men -- fighting the demons that have haunted her own
nightmares.
But the sisters' unresolved fear and anger
are about to be
turned
against
them -- as Fiona, the dark witch whom they vanquished together, seeks
revenge. And she has allied herself with the dread dragon Khe'sha. Now,
the only
chance they have is to overcome the pain that has cursed them their
entire
lives, and face sinister forces bent on their destruction...
Order
from Amazon.com
or Barnes
&
Noble.com
Booklist:
"Hetley's
seamless
blending
of 'real' and mythical realities is pure magic,
every bit as enchanting here as in The Summer Country."
Library Journal: "Fans of urban fantasy in the style
of Charles
de
Lint and Tanya Huff
should enjoy this well-written sequel to The Summer Country."
Publishers Weekly: "...this sequel to the critically
acclaimed
The
Summer Country (2002)
confirms that Hetley has created that rarest of gems, a Celtic fantasy
worth
reading."
Charles De Lint (Fantasy
&
Science Fiction, April 2005): "...a rich and rewarding
experience...
the promise Hetley showed in the first book blossoms fully in this
sequel."
Click
here
for
an excerpt
The Summer Country
Cover
Art by Lori Earley; Cover
Design
by Rita Frangie
Published by ACE Books
ISBN: 0-441-00972-7
Mass -market paperback ISBN: 0-441-01220-5
Le royaume de l'été (French
language edition)
ISBN: 2-915-15932-7
For
twenty-eight years, Maureen
Pierce led a
fairly ordinary
life,
maybe a slightly tough one for a woman of her age, growing up on the
wrong
side of the poverty line in Naskeag Falls, Maine. But she did all right.
Then
she met Brian Albion, and
everything
changed. If she can
believe
him - and Maureen has had some hard lessons in why you don't believe
men
- she carries a blood legacy that goes back to the old country. Only
this
is the really old country, the land of Mordred and
Merlin,
where
deadly battles are still fought with magic, and a woman who carries the
blood
of the Old Ones is a prize to be desired - or a threat to be destroyed.
. .
Locus
Magazine 2002
"Recommended
Reading" Selection
Booklist Magazine "Top 10 SF/Fantasy" Selection
SFBC "Featured Alternate" Selection
Buy it now at Barnes
&
Noble.com
Also available in print and e-book form at Amazon.com
Click here for an excerpt.
Praise
from Charles de Lint,
author of The
Onion Girl:
You don't find many
books like
this,
never mind first
novels.
Hetley's The Summer Country is like an old Irish
whiskey - dark
and
smoky, abounding in flavor and detail. For the jaded reader of Celtic
fantasies
such as I've become, bone-weary of all the pale and limpid novels that
try
to pass themselves off as the real thing, it's such a treat to find a
book
as strong as this. The Summer Country is all the
things a good
novel
should be: a tightly-written, resonant, single-volume story rich with
flawed
characters, dark visions, and quiet joys, with a whisper of true
mystery,
lying there in wait at the very heart of it all.
Praise
from Lynn Flewelling, author of The
Bone
Doll's Twin:
Jim Hetley's The
Summer Country
is a
wonderful debut
novel, by turns beautiful and utterly brutal. There's nothing soft and
fuzzy
about this fantasy land. Hetley gives us a raw, gritty world of hard
edges
and merciless determination, peopled by characters who live and strive
with
complete veracity regardless of which side of the mystical veil they
hail
from. His mix of "real world" elements with the Celtic mythos is a
delight.
Praise
from Anne Bishop, The
Pillars of The
World
A well-written tale full
of
action,
adventure, and
deceit
- with an unusual heroine looking for her rightful place in the world.
Excerpt
from Library Journal
review:
Hetley
combines Celtic
legend with
modern-day
psychological
suspense to produce a hybrid fantasy reminiscent of Charles de Lint and
Tanya
Huff.
Excerpt
from Locus review:
.
. . compared to standard
pseudo-Celtic
fare, The
Summer
Country kicks butt.
Excerpt
from Booklist review:
Beautiful,
dark, and
gritty, this
first
novel is a real
winner.
Science
Fiction and
Fantasy Writers of
America
www.SFF.net
Charles de Lint's
Homepage
Lynn
Flewelling's
Homepage
Anne
Bishop's Homepage
E-mail the author
Jim's
LiveJournal
Account
Backgrounds
used with permission
of Reed
Mihaloew.
Page layout by Michael
Hetley.
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