Does Fiction Press just hate me, or does everyone have to do html to edit their stories? Because I'm not all that great at html...

-8-

This is the official announcement that Black Fox (now FOXHART) is published! The details are in my profile, but it's all very exciting. And also, if you've only ever read it here on FictionPress, then the book is now Twice As Long! as it was before, with new challenges and characters and...stuff. If you've read it on LJ, then ...you've probably seen most of it, but there's still some new scenes here and there.

I can't put the book back up here (and really, the three chapters are probably too much of a teaser in the first place), but I'm going to add the 'excerpt' that you can read, just so I'm not breaking rules and only putting up an author's note or whatever. Enjoy, and don't forget to buy a copy!

Excerpt:

Prince Gair was waiting in a room outside the Imperial Court. He looked as though he'd been given barely enough time to wash and change after coming off the road. His clothes were an odd synchronization of 'Veld styles and Cheil patterns, and Gair seemed faintly uncomfortable in them.

Or perhaps it was just the waiting, on top of the lack of rest.

Gair nodded at Cavan. "I thought we were no longer allowed to carry weapons," he said in 'Veldian. There was a nasty quality in his tone, and while part of Cavan knew he should overlook it, old habits die hard.

"Clearly you thought wrong," Prince Cavan snapped; enmity between Ostveld and Estveld was a habit so ingrained it was nearly a way of life.

"Did cowering Ostveld lick its way into a better deal?" Prince Gair sneered.

Cavan's spine stiffened. "We've been given the same deal Estveld has," he said. "And that includes royalty on both sides being allowed to carry weapons, and have a small number of personal armed guards. I guess you must not have heard, since you were a prisoner and all."

It was possible that, had someone from Norveld also been present, they would have tried to keep peace between the two princes. Norveld itself had been trying to do that with the two countries for time out of memory. But no such person was present.

"And where was the esteemed Ostveld prince while I was being taken prisoner?" Gair said. "Oh, I know. He was safe at home, hiding behind his father's illness."

"It was not by choice!" Prince Cavan snapped.

"You would have preferred to lead your troops to defeat?"

"We would not have lost if I had been there!" Cavan hissed, hand going to the hilt of his sword.

"Well, we'll never know, will we?" Gair retorted.

Cavan tightened his grip and opened his mouth to respond, but just then the door to the Imperial Court opened. Both princes were forced to mold grimaces into smiles as they prepared to be introduced to His Esteemed Majesty, the Emperor of the Known World—and now their sovereign lord.