Wild Thing

(The bargain price of $0.99 for the Kindle edition may be ending this March.)

A warning from the author:

This series explores serious issues of male abuse of power, and female strength.

I still cry, reading some passages, though I also laugh at others, and at others, cheer. But it's not a light story, nor are the characters black and white. There are some very dark and abusive parts, though none graphic in my opinion. Basically: be guided by the reviews, before buying this book. )


IN 2036, magic returned to a world which neither needed nor wanted it. Several years later, an unusual young child is acquired by Dr Alex Harmon for his magic research at the Institute for Paranormal Dysfunction. He sets Sara to hunting an imaginary creature, unaware it is both real and far more dangerous than anyone could know.

Sara, too, though, has her own hidden depths.

She'll need them.

At the Institute she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Godsson, one of the world's most powerful mages - and an inmate. But when Sara's unique magic finally unfolds, Dr Harmon discovers the deadly consequences of creating an archetypal Huntress. While from a place far beneath reality, where Godsson helped slay the Enemy of Mankind, some thing, or things, have come hunting. And their first targets are Godsson, and Sara.


[About the Author]
Luke J. Kendall failed to drown on five separate occasions on Sydney's northern beaches. He worked in the IT R&D field while extremely happily married for 30 years to an adventurous mediaeval scholar 22 years his senior until her death in December, 2014.
Leeth's story has been 25 years in the making.

Length: 134,000 words (approximately 460 pages).

Note:

1) If you inform me of errors in this book before anyone else,and trust me with your email address, I'll send you a free electronic copy of the sequel as soon as it's ready.

2) I will also send you a free electronic copy if you're one of the 1st 20 people to write a substantive review (say, at least 100words) - good or bad, just so long as it's honest - and trust me with your email address.
Both lists appear at my All About Leeth blog.


Version history:

Release 2: Two typos fixed.

Release 3: Several typos fixed, twelve small sentence rewordings to improve clarity.

Release 4: Two rewordings, for clarity. One italic error fixed.

Release 5: Based on my reading of a proof copy of the print edition, found and fixed several small continuity errors, several typos, numerous small polishings of sentences, and change to US-style"quotation-punctuation".

Release 6: Expected to be the final correction set. General changes: hyphenate "N year old" as N-year-old" throughout; use numerals for time of day, not spelled out as words. 10 typos fixed. 3 small continuity errors fixed. About 70 small tweaks to wording or punctuation (many to avoid repetitions). Added a thank you to Louise Harris in the Acknowledgments.

Release 7: Updated the Release number and the draft sample chapter from the sequel to use the final text, following three rounds of critique from a professional editor. (@ThEditors).
Updated the title of the sequel. Since Vol 1 was published, the sequel has been split into two novels, so Vol 2 is now titled Harsh Lessons. (Shadow Hunt will be the title for Vol. 3).
The spelling of Prolog has been changed to Prologue.
These changes required updating the Table of Contents.
Tweaked the acknowledgments.

Release 8: Merely added review links into the Afterword/Publishing 2015 sections, and added a link to the sequel atthe end of the excerpt from the sequel.

Release 9: Fixed 2 typos, 2 small continuity errors, and did a final final polish for the Aurealis Awards 2016 contest: 74 other,mostly-small changes.

L. J. Kendall failed to drown on five separate occasions on Sydney's northern beaches. He worked in the IT R&D field while extremely happily married for 30 years to an adventurous mediaeval scholar 22 years his senior until her death in December, 2014. Leeth's story has been 25 years in the making.