Sunny didn’t want to ritually sacrifice her grandmother. But it would have all been worth it— if she hadn’t been caught.

I’m reaching out to you about my adult fantasy novel. OF DYING SUNS combines the adventure of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Elder Race with a fantastic world inhabited by talking animals as in Daniel Polansky’s The Builders. OF DYING SUNS will appeal to readers who grew up on classic series like Redwall and Warrior Cats.

Warm days and clear blue skies torment the cat-like Miutians. Desiccated corpses lie in the furrows between rows of withered crops. Sunny knows a spell that would bring her people rain, but lacks the power to cast it— until she uses a forbidden ritual that consumes her grandmother’s life. The ritual works, but her plan to hide the body doesn’t. For her well-intentioned transgression, her chief outlaws and exiles her.

Cast out into the arid cerrado, Sunny gets rescued by a strange, furless creature: Michael, a “human.” He claims he can reverse her exile, but he won’t tell her how. And in return, she’d have to blow open the gateway that imprisons his people with her forbidden powers. Sunny agrees to help Michael, but not to trust him— because he refuses to reveal his plans, his past, or the true nature of the conspiracy he belongs to.  She’s wary of his secrets and determined to uncover them.

Then he abandons her.

Stranded among the wolf-like Atrofex, Sunny has only Michael’s cryptic journals to guide her. She’ll have to decide whether to believe his promises, and decide whether saving her home is really worth liberating the dangerous, technologically advanced humans. And she’ll have to decide quickly. The Knights Abjurant, enforcers of international law, are on her tail and determined to bring her to justice.
OF DYING SUNS is the first half of a planned duology, complete at 78,000 words.

I am bilingual in English and Portuguese, and took inspiration from the peoples, wildlife, mythology, and landscapes of southeast Brazil.