Wing Dancer

Wing Dancer, the latest release in the Stormwalker series I write as Allyson James, released this morning! (For info, excerpt, and where to purchase, see: https://geni.us/Mdsge)

I am thrilled be back in this world. I wrote the first book (Stormwalker), a while ago, inspired by the landscape of Northern Arizona. It’s beautiful here, with vistas ranging from tall mountains (at 12,000 feet and change), to the stark beauty of Glen Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de Shay), the bands of the painted desert, the monoliths of Monument Valley, intriguing slot canyons, and vast stretches of red-earthed desert.

The lands are a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors as sun and clouds play their effects over the landscape. I imagined a small town in the middle of this emptiness, an intersection of two highways I called the Crossroads. Because I have a wild imagination, I decided the Crossroads would also exist between the real world and a supernatural one.

I invented an entire county and called it Hopi (there are Navajo and Apache counties nearby, so why not Hopi?), and put in two towns, Magellan and Flat Mesa. Magellan is not named, incidentally, for Ferdinand Magellan, but because of the nearby Mogollon Rim (the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau). I pretended it was the first settlers’ attempt to spell and pronounce Mogollon (which is actually like Muggy-on). If you want to go to the area in real life, take the 99 about twenty miles south of Winslow. I made up another highway at that point that goes another fifteen miles to Magellan.

The first story in this world was actually in an anthology my publisher was putting together. “A Little Night Magic” is the tale of Jamison Kee, Janet’s longtime friend and Navajo storyteller, who discovers to his surprise that he’s a shape-shifter (he changes into a mountain lion).

I didn’t want to introduce Janet Begay, the heroine of the Stormwalker series in a novella that might be lost in an old anthology, so I don’t mention her until she appears in Book 1. Jamison Kee suggests Janet, who is good at reading auras of places, to try to locate the missing daughter of Magellan’s chief of police.

Janet has seen an old hotel at the Crossroads (which was inspired by one in Gila Bend, south of Phoenix) that she feels drawn to, and decides to buy and renovate it. She’s there for other reasons that have to do with her past, and figures she’ll use the hotel as her base to find the chief of police’s daughter and deal with her own problems..

I hadn’t actually cast Mick when I started the first novel. I wanted Janet to find a love interest, but I wasn’t quite sure who she’d end up with.

Mick just walked in, announced he was Janet’s ex-boyfriend, and took over. Mick is like that. Naturally, he was a dragon shape-shifter, though he liked to keep that under wraps.

From there, the first book and the whole series mushroomed. I rarely sit and plot a story and all the characters all the way out before I start writing. I’m a “discovery” author (also known as a pantser, because we write by the seat of our pants). I put the characters on the page and watch what they do. Most of the time they surprise me!

So, from Mick came all the dragons (Colby, Drake, and now Titus), the dragon council, and Mick and Janet’s complicated past relationship. Janet’s family–her dad and grandmother, who live in Many Farms–also walked in and introduced themselves.

In Wing Dancer, I have Janet interacting more with her family, including her many cousins, and added a new friend for Janet’s grandmother. (But is he friend or foe?) The story is also very dragon-y, and I added to some of the dragon lore of this world.

The one character who has appeared in all the books and novellas is Coyote. I read everything I could about this trickster god who can be both evil and good, but he’s always unpredictable. He’s another character who walked in and said, “Here I am! Deal with it!” I love writing Coyote’s scenes!

This series is one from my heart. When it was first published, my trad publisher really didn’t know what to do with it. Sometimes it showed up in bookstores in the romance section, sometimes the fantasy section, and it didn’t get much marketing or publicity. Because of all this, I don’t think readers could find it, or knew what to make of it, and the publisher dropped it after book 3. (A similar thing happened to my Captain Lacey series).

I waited for years before I was able to regain the rights to Books 1-3 (I have them now, and they have been republished). For that reason, I had to stop writing the Stormwalker series altogether, because I could only retrieve the rights when the sales dipped below a certain threshold. Hence why there is such a gap between the last book and this one (though in story time, it’s only a few months).

Happily I now have full control of the entire series (except for the novella about Jamison, and another novella called “Double Hexed.”). I have them all out in e-book and print, have moved forward with audio, and have begun translations into other languages.

I have more stories planned in the series. This world is so rich in possibilities. Next time, I will explore the shape-shifters (called Changers in this series), with Janet having to enter a Changer pack to help them out of problems that of course turn deadly. (Tentative title of the book is Shape Changer.)

If you have made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading all this! I truly love the Stormwalker series. If you have not tried it, I’d be pleased if you take the chance. You do not have to read the novellas (I planned it that way), though of course do if you’d like. Start with Stormwalker, and go from there. I also have the e-books in 2 boxed sets (Volume 1, Volume 2), and a 6-book e-book bundle on my web store. All books are also in paperback from Amazon, B&N, and my web store.

If you are a Stormwalker fan already, then I hope you enjoy Wing Dancer!

Buy links below. Hillary is working on the audio book, which should be ready in a couple of weeks.

Buy from my web store: https://geni.us/PzHy (print and ebook)

Amazon: https://geni.us/xR1gB (print and ebook)

Kobo: https://geni.us/KADkMf (also in Kobo Plus)

BN: https://geni.us/nuUV4XL (print and ebook)

Apple: https://geni.us/xckIgHS

Google Play: https://geni.us/T4GBk9