GUEST AUTHOR: The Eye and the Arm by Andrew Q. Gordon

Andrew has an exclusive excerpt for us and a giveaway!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: The Eye And The Arm

Series: Champion of the Gods #2

Author: Andrew Q. Gordon

Length: 99,775 words/296 Pages

Release Date: April 14, 2015

Blurb: Champion of the Gods: Book Two

After defeating Meglar at Belsport, Farrell returns to Haven to recover from his injuries, but Khron, the god of war, has other ideas. He gives Farrell a new mission: free the survivors of the ancient dwarf realm of Trellham from their three-thousand-year banishment. To fulfill Khron’s near impossible task, Farrell will need the help of his distance ancestor, the legendary wizard Kel. But Kel has been dead for a thousand years.

Farrell finds information hinting that Kel is alive, so he moves his search to Dumbarten, Kel’s birthplace. To reach Dumbarten unannounced, Farrell and Miceral disguise themselves as mercenaries on board a merchant vessel. Their journey is disrupted when pirates attack their ship. While attempting to subdue the attack, Farrell is struck down by one of Meglar’s minions.

Unconscious and trapped in his own mind, Farrell’s only chance for survival rests with Miceral and the peregrine king Rothdin entering his thoughts and helping him sort fact from illusion. To reach Farrell, they will need to rely on an untested spell from one of Kel’s spellbooks. If they succeed, Miceral can guide Farrell home safely. If not, Farrell will destroy not only himself, but Miceral, Rothdin, and everyone around him.

Exclusive Excerpt

“So tell me.” Miceral’s voice cut his morose daydream short. “Why the bad day?”

“Do you want to kill the night’s festivities already?” Farrell laughed, but he knew telling Miceral wouldn’t ruin his mood. “Let’s just say Endor may need a new monarch. Jursten is a dead man—and he knows it.”

“What’d he do?”

“Not what he did, but what he didn’t do.” He took another bite and washed it down with half his water. “My biweekly attendance at the morning complaint session was this morning.”

Miceral nodded. “I know. I helped you get dressed.”

“And I’m sure I looked splendid with my face so red it nearly burst.” He chuckled, remembering Horgon looked almost the same. “Normally the sessions are boring, painful, or annoying, but today topped all three. A merchant from Respital complained that merchants from Endor were stealing business from their market and demanded reparations.”

“Stealing?”

With the fork in his mouth, Farrell tried to speak, then stopped to swallow. “Exactly. As if being at war with Meglar wasn’t dire enough, they’re worried about merchant wars.”

“Farrell, trade is their livelihood. It is that important to them.”

“Agreed.” He drained his cup and then refilled it. “But their complaint was that the existence of Endor’s market hurt their business.”

Miceral chewed his bread and shook his head.

“To make matters worse, Respital’s fat, lazy, worthless pile of pig turds of a king, Covis, agreed with his subjects and demanded Jursten repay his merchants.”

“How is that Jursten’s fault?”

“He should have declared war on Respital and cut off Covis’s fat head. Instead, he agreed with his merchants, declared impasse, and sent the matter to me to decide.”

“That’s what he’s supposed to do, isn’t he?”

“Yes, but he’s also required to attend. Then again, his absence was meant as a sign of how utterly stupid he found the whole affair.”

“Sounds like you agreed with Jursten.”

“Of course I did.” He felt anger rising inside him as he recalled the morning’s events. Taking a deep breath, he held it until some of his ire faded. “His failure to appear gave Covis the opening to argue that Endor conceded the claim because Jursten didn’t come to argue in their defense. When the idiot made that statement, I lost my temper. I mean, really lost it. I told him if he ever set foot in my council chamber again, I’d find the nearest clutch of Chamdon and deposit him the in middle with the command to rip him to pieces.”

“Wow, bet that went over well.”

“The crowd cheered my decision, until Horgon silenced them with a stare. Then your father lit into that fat dung heap. I thought Covis was going to cry. To cool me off, your father sent me to weapons.”

“How’d that go?”

“Worse.” Farrell tried not to laugh. He’d have to make things up to Master Baylec later.

“Worse? How?”

“I guess I was still distracted. After one too many stinging blows, I created an invisible, body-hugging shield around myself. For a while, Baylec didn’t catch on, but when he did, he became irate. He lectured me for a time, then called Master Thomas over to help yell at me. Being in the wonderful mood I was in, I told them both off.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, wow. I mean, I understand the concept of training, but I don’t see any point in letting him hurt me.”

Miceral shook his head. “The pain is supposed to motivate you to work harder to avoid future hits.”

His mouth full, Farrell had to chew before he could answer. “I think I understand the purpose of training, but it was clear I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for the pain to make a difference.”

“Maybe you should have called off the session.”

“That’s what Baylec said. Now that I’ve cooled off, I somewhat agree, but at the time I was mad. I told him that as weapons master it was his responsibility to assess if I was well enough to train. That means mentally and physically. And that he should never again try to beat me into condition.”

“What did he say to that?”

“At first he and Thomas seethed, so I added that not only am I the prince of Haven, I’m also the one who has to fight Meglar. Hurting or maiming me is detrimental to both responsibilities.”

“Also a good point.”

“They seemed to think so too, and then we all calmed down.

 

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Giveaway

FIVE Winners will win one e-copy of ANY book* each from DSP Publication’s backlist.

*Giveaway is of any currently released DSPP book, which excludes the books that are on pre-order and “The Eye And The Arm”.

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About the Author

Andrew Q. Gordon wrote his first story back when yellow legal pads, ball point pens were common and a Smith Corona correctable typewriter was considered high tech. Adapting with technology, he now takes his MacBook somewhere quiet when he wants to write.

He currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his partner of eighteen years, their young daughter and dog. In addition to dodging some very self-important D.C. ‘insiders’, Andrew uses his commute to catch up on his reading. When not working or writing, he enjoys soccer, high fantasy, baseball and seeing how much coffee he can drink in a day and not get the shakes.

Follow Andrew:

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/andrewqugordon,

On Twitter: @andrewqgordon,

Or just email him: andrewqgordon@gmail.com

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