A Rising Darkness (Paperback)

Meriq was six years old when he was taken as a prize in battle and handed as a gift to the Crown Prince of Zetaria. Rescued from a life of depravity by Anubis; the King’s Vizier and Mage, he was raised as his son and counselled in the ways of magic, and of diplomacy. When Anubis is mysteriously murdered, sixteen year old Meriq replaces him at the head of the King’s council. As a Dark Army sweeps across the land bringing death and destruction in its wake, Meriq must raise an army and unite the Kings to ensure that the rising darkness does not engulf them all. About A Rising Darkness: "To classify it as gay fantasy would do ‘A Rising Darkness’ a great disservice. First and foremost it is an epic that also works as a military-nuanced fantasy, heartrending romance and meaningful social commentary…. The first installment of The Hand of Justice saga will surely appeal to fantasy fans who enjoy their reading fare ambitious and at times brutal, a la George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire.’" BlueInk Review

I have been writing for a number of years always hoping that one day I would publish. When I first wrote A Rising Darkness it was called The Eye of Zoar. "The Eye" was originally intended to refer to the magical name for Meriq's skill. The original manuscript, together with the storage discs were lost during my move from Saudi Arabia back to England and it has taken me sometime to re-write it . . . I have deliberately avoided the use of words like 'telepathy' and 'telekinesis' as these our "our words" and have no place in Zetaria. I have called candles 'lightsticks' and made other changes for the same reasons - to try to create sense of a culture alien to our own. My work as a psychiatric nurse has always taken precedence until at the ripe old age of fifty-five, I decided to retire and go part-time so that I could work on my books. I am a Pagan priest and an ordained minister of the Church of Spiritual Humanism and I write as far as possible drawing on the myths and legends of my own faith and those of the various priests and shamans I have encountered in my travels. Iwrites for pleasure and now I want to share that pleasure with my readers. I hope this brings you as much enjoyment in the reading of it as it gave me in the writing of it.