Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.
Back in 2006, Lynn Viehl challenged her blog readers to write and give away a free e-book (complete list of participants here). The Horse Master was my contribution.
I wrote it for a rather selfish reason: I wanted to explore how two separate lines of the Green Land monarchy had originated, one “Shadowed” and one legitimate, generations before Shannari’s story in The Rose of Shanhasson. I hadn’t written a single Keldar story yet (I knew Keldar involved deserts and dragons, and that’s truly it), but Jake insisted that’s where he was from. I didn’t know what tellan meant when I made that his tribe name. I didn’t know about Chanda’s curse or Agni’s Coming.
The Horse Master started it all.
I’ve had so many people tell me that they read and enjoyed that story and then went on to pick up the other Keldari novellas at Drollerie Press. When Jayne reviewed The Fire Within, several people mentioned that free story, including Patricia Briggs! *squees* How amazing is that?
So here’s another huge thank you to PBW for starting that challenge, and here’s a big hooray for free reads!