
After the events chronicled in Bedlam's Bard, world-saving bard and magician Eric Banyon moves into his new New York apartment hoping to settle down to the quiet life. No such luck: his building is a safe-house for a group of occultist Guardians protecting the city from supernatural evil. And there's a new evil for them to guard against....
When unethical drug researchers discover that they can induce amazing mental powers using psychotropic drugs, they begin planning to raise a drug-enslaved army of mercenaries and grow very, very rich. But this gets the attention of Aerune mac Audelaine, lord of the dark Unseleighe Sidney, who hopes to use the drugs to break through to the human world and feed on the suffering there. Both plans will bring terror to the world-and both are threatened by the very existence of Eric Banyan.
With his possibly loyal companions-a beautiful elven half-breed and a gargoyle Eric heads for a three-way battle of wizardry that will determine Gotham's fate-and his own.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Mercedes Lackey, author of the bestselling Heralds of Valdemar and Bardic Voices series, began life as a child and has been attempting to rectify that error ever since. Named for actress Mercedes McCambridge, she has been trying with no success to get the Benz automobile authorities to recognize the natural link between her name and theirs, and offer her the use of an M100 or some variety of high-end sports car for gratis. This, too, has had a distinct lack of success. Other than writing she can be found at various times prying the talons of the birds of prey she is attempting to nurse back to health out of her hands, endangering her vision by creating various forms of Art Beadwork, and cross-stitching dragons, gryphons, and other semi-mythological fauna. At the moment, her hair is red, her favorite color is green, and she is covered by various members of her flock of pet parrots, cockatoos and macaws, all of which are trying to help her type8shgalal-akejbejks9ife.
Rosemary Edghill, after holding the usual array of Weird Writer Jobs, including freelance graphic designer and vampire killer, settled down to a career as a full-time writer. She has written three books in the Twelve Treasures series, urban fantasies about elves and subways, as well as books in genres ranging from romance to mystery. She has also collaborated with such masters of fantasy as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Andre Norton. Of this collaboration, Mercedes Lackey writes, "I needed a new partner for our Bedlam Bards series ... Rosemary was the only possible writer who was sharp enough!"
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What Eric does not know is that his parents are allied with the evangelist Billy Fairchild, who himself is a tool of the evil Unseleighe elves, who feed off human sorrow and suffering. Fairchild specializes in getting “bad” children to shape up, which is accomplished by letting a soulsucker—malevolent creature from the elf world—drain the victim of all talent, creativity, and will, leaving an obedient zombie husk behind. If Magnus and his friend Ace, who is also on the run from her twisted parents, fall into Fairchild's hands, they will join the Unseleighe's zombie ranks. And even Eric's bardic magic may not be enough to save them.
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Mercedes Lackey is the acclaimed author of over 145 novels and many works of short fiction. In her "spare" time she is also a skilled needleworker, jewelry maker, and collector and costumer of asian ball-jointed dolls. Many of her works go to charity auctions for good causes. She has also been known to play City of Heroes MMORPG and D and D with a close group of friends. Mercedes lives in Oklahoma with her husband and frequent collaborator, artist Larry Dixon, and their flock of parrots. Over half of their parrots are rescues. Her website is www.mercedeslackey.com.
Photo by Mercedes Lackey (her own work)
Michael B. Caffrey (1958-2004) was many things -- a writer. An editor. An artist. A contracts administrator . . . but if you asked him what was most important, he'd say none of those things.
Instead, he'd say being Barb Caffrey's husband is all he'd ever aspired to be, granted with a twinkle in his eye and a whole lot of self-deprecating mockery besides.
In his lifetime, Michael sold only one story, this a co-written effort with his wife, Barb, in BEDLAM'S EDGE (edited by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill). After his untimely passing, other stories were sold to the Written Word Online Magazine and to e-Quill Publishing.
Two of those stories have been re-released as independent e-books here at Amazon, "A Dark and Stormy Night" and "On Westmount Station." These are in his Joey Maverick universe, which takes place in the far-future Atlantean Union, and are works of military science fiction. (His wife, Barb, finished up the second story, and edited and smoothed out the first. But they are substantially Michael's efforts.)
Michael wrote other things, too, including humorous fantasy, alternate history/fantasy, straight science fiction and more. But his first love was for military science fiction, which is why these stories have been the first to be re-released.
Michael was an effervescent presence, at once worldly wise and unassuming. He was a student of comparative religion, called himself a "Zen Sufi Pagan" and lived in San Francisco, California most of his adult life. He also loved to watch both professional baseball (Go, Giants!) and football (where the Joe Montana trade both irked and amused him, considering Steve Montana was waiting in the wings), was a witty and entertaining conversationalist, and was the type of guy who'd do anything for anyone without complaint.
Michael had many interests. He loved to read, especially sailing adventures (past, present and future), and thought of ships in space as just another type of sailing ship, albeit with more technology. He was a person of principle who believed the unexamined life was not worth living -- but while you were examining your life, why not have as much fun as possible while you were going about all that dull and dreary stuff?
If you're interested in reading more about Michael B. Caffrey, please stop by Barb Caffrey's Blog anytime as she often discusses Michael's influence on her life and career, and does her best to keep his spirit alive and well.
Barb Caffrey is a writer, editor, musician and composer from Wisconsin. She holds two degrees, is an inveterate and omnivorous reader, and is the writer of the comic urban fantasy/romance AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, its sequel A LITTLE ELFY IN BIG TROUBLE, and a wholly unrelated LGBTQ-friendly fantasy romance with spiritual overtones, CHANGING FACES. (The latter has also been called "Freaky Friday" on acid. She'll take that as compliment.)
Her stories and poems have appeared (or will appear) in many places, including several Darkover anthologies (the most recent being CITADELS OF DARKOVER), HOW BEER SAVED THE WORLD, FANTASTIC SCHOOLS HOLS, and many more.
She's the widow of Michael B. Caffrey (1958-2004), and has vowed that Michael's work -- his words -- will live on as long as there are people to read them. It's because of this vow that she's republished Michael's Adventures of Joey Maverick series, which currently consists of "A Dark and Stormy Night" and "On Westmount Station." (More stories will be forthcoming -- promise.)
She follows politics, loves sports, watches far too much reality TV and finds the judicial reality TV show "Hot Bench" cathartic. What all this says about her is anyone's guess. Find her at Elfyverse (AKA "Barb Caffrey's Blog") for discussions of all and sundry, or visit her at Facebook . . . she promises she won't bite. (Much.)