Hazards of Love

Another title that could be more appropriate for a romance book, though it's actually the title of an album by the Decemberists that is sort of like a romance novel, complete with a rake.

Anyway, this the third book in the Tales of the Scarlet Knight series and it's the one that really starts to up the stakes by introducing the evil goddess Isis, who is the power behind the Black Dragoon.  In volume 0, Dark Origins, Isis was imprisoned by Merlin back in about 2000 BC or BCE or whatever they use these days.  In the prologue of The Hazards of Love, Isis is freed thanks to meddling Egyptologist Dan Dreyfus.

When Dan returns to Rampart City, to Emma's horror he has Isis on his arm as his wife.  Soon bodies begin to be found all over the city with their hearts cut out, leading the media to dub the murderer the Heartbraker Killer.  The situation gets worse for Emma when she's fingered as the killer and has to go underground.

Meanwhile Emma's witch friends and Marlin the ghost undertake separate journeys to find a way to defeat Isis before it's too late.  But if you read the E post then you already know there's just one way to defeat Isis.  How Emma survives this involves a little deux ex machina.  I don't feel bad abut that because there have been lamer resurrections in comic books over the years.  Though in my original notes Emma and Becky were both going to die.  In the epilogue we would have featured a park a few years later where two little girls are playing--the reincarnated Emma and Becky!  But later I decided against that, which is good for the reading public because it allowed me to write five more books.

The title not only refers to a Decemberists album but also how dangerous love can be.  Dan falling in love with Isis puts him (and a lot of other people) in danger.  Becky's love for her fiancee leads her to do some terrible things.  And Emma's love for Dan distracts her from the threat Isis poses.  Not that love is bad; you just need to be careful who you fall in love with.

Besides Isis, this is the first one in the series to talk about the "astral plane" where Merlin lives and introduced the coven outside of Mrs. Chiostro and her sister.  Though the depiction of the coven had to undergo some serious edits after I finished the series so it would align with stuff I wrote in later books, as well as the Sisterhood prequel.  The same happened with the revised second book, Time Enough to Say Goodbye.  For instance originally the coven was a bunch of old ladies who met at a motel somewhere like any normal convention.  But then later I created the secret lair for the coven when they all want to get together, so I had to go back and do some retroactive continuity.  It was good no one had published the series to that point so I could futz around with it for a while.

This and the rest of my books are available at the new Planet 99 Publishing site!