Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry to all of my dA friends that I have paid no attention to them for the last few months. I do appreciate your support for my work over the past several years, and I feel like I owe a lot of the guts I had to get my new big project done to your encouragement. So that's my excuse! I've finally signed the contract with Luthando Coeur
luthandocoeur.com/ an imprint of The Zharmae Publishing Press
www.zharmae.com/ and am busily finishing up "Sundown, Sunrise," the first of a series of three novels I will be writing for them. Here are nice things they've said to describe the work (I hope I'm not violating any copyright restrictions by using their copy on my blog):
"Luthando Coeur is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of Sundown, Sunrise by Michael Cleaves. This is a moving, powerful fable with elements of Gnosticism. In many ways the editors of Luthando Coeur are reminded of Philip Pullman, although their are also intimations of Classical texts. Cleaves' work is inspired, and Sundown, Sunrise stands a chance of becoming a modern classic. Readers will look forward to the successive volumes, for Sundown, Sunrise is but the first installment in a projected Land and Sky trilogy.
Sundown, Sunrise is the tale of three teenagers coming of age during a war that is consuming their respective peoples. The Ge are a tribal society whose territory is coveted by the prideful and calculating Inhabitants. The Ge are a peaceful people, but if war has to happen, they are willing and able to fight. As the violence spreads beyond the Ge's borders, the teenage heroes must venture to seek help from the other peoples in the realm before their society is annihilated. On their quest the principal characters discover a world above their own, where powerful voices vie for control of everything. The three travel across cultures, times, places, and even into other dimensions, ultimately recognizing that only by working together can they stop the mysterious beings that control their peoples."
Anyway, here it is! I might publish some character drawings in the next days just to give people a taste of what the world I constructed looks like. Thank you all for your support!