About the Author
British-born A. L. Butcher is an avid reader and creator of worlds, a poet, and a dreamer, a lover of science, natural history, history, and monkeys. Her prose has been described as ‘dark and gritty’ and her poetry as ‘evocative’. She writes with a sure and sometimes erotic sensibility of things that might have been, never were, but could be.
Alex is the author of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles and the Tales of Erana lyrical fantasy series. She also has several short stories in the fantasy, fantasy romance genres with occasional forays into gothic style horror, including the Legacy of the Mask series. With a background in politics, classical studies, ancient history and myth, her affinities bring an eclectic and unique flavour in her work, mixing reality and dream in alchemical proportions that bring her characters and worlds to life. She also curates for a number of speculative fiction themed book bundles on BundleRabbit.
Her short novella Outside the Walls, co-written with Diana L. Wicker received a Chill with a Book Reader’s Award in 2017 and The Kitchen Imps won best fantasy for 2018 on NN Light Book Heaven.
Alex is also proud to be a writer for Perseid Press where her work features in Heroika: Dragon Eaters; and Lovers in Hell – part of the acclaimed Heroes in Hell series. http://www.theperseidpress.com
Tales of Erana: The Warrior’s Curse
He who bargains with monsters beware! A hero forges an unholy bargain with a witch and learns magic never forgets.
The story starts with some adventurers in the fictional world of Erana (the world from my series The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles) hunting treasure. In a terrible storm they take refuge in cave and one of the group – a female troll Pastseer warns them about the dark history and terrible curse on the treasure the rest are merrily stuffing into sacks.
She recounts the story of Saelth – a warrior hired by a cursed king to deal with the local monster, and the witch he encounters. I won’t tell you how it ends but it’s dark fantasy for a reason.
Promotional Links and where to buy:
Website:http://www.libraryoferana.co.uk
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pg/LightBeyondtheStorm
Twitter:https://twitter.com/libraryoferana
Universal Link:https://www.books2read.com/WarriorsCurse
Amazon audio:http://amzn.to/2Ei0EGeA
Audible:http://adbl.co/2buD5qk
Amazon UK:http://amzn.to/2j0EZXP
Amazon UK audio:http://amzn.to/2EzR40R
Audible UK:http://adbl.co/2bGSoi4
Barnes and Noble:http://bit.ly/2iBu6er
I-books:http://apple.co/2j0GNQz
I’m a Brit and we have a rich mythic and fantastical culture, to name a few things: lots of dragons – ask St George and the Welsh, King Arthur, Green Men, Giants aplenty, Robin Hood, Black Dogs, Witches and more. We have Celtic influences, Roman influences, French, German, Dutch, Middle Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Christian, Pagan etc. You can’t go far here without seeing some reference to a Mythic past on pub names (George and Dragon, The Angels, The Green Man, the Unicorn), street names, heraldry and insignia, and many other places many people are so used to they don’t notice.
Our kids read fairy tales, and legends. Santa Claus – mythic. Tooth Fairy – mythic. Garden Gnomes – mythic. That gargoyle staring down at you from the church – mythic. Robin Hood – mythic.
Tolkien, Lewis Carrol, J M Barrie and more recently JK Rowling have had a massive influence on literature. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t know the basic plot of Peter Pan, or Alice in Wonderland, and probably would see an elf as a Tolkien Elf.
Fantasy and myth have played a part in storytelling and lore since mankind first shivered around a fire. In some ways it helped to make sense of a terrifying and confusing world, and now, I think it helps us to escape from the mundanity of everyday. A world with dragons, unicorns, giants, and brave warriors with magic swords or rings is so much more interesting and appealing than say, commuting to a boring job, or paying tax, or picking up the kids from school. We can indulge our sense of wonder, and fear but also rest assured that such worlds don’t really exist… probably.
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