The Clay Queen
The Children of Clay Book 1
by Ono Ekeh
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction
With her armies defeated, Queen Nouei’s enemies march north to capture her. The earth god’s only hope is to alter history before they
arrive. To become stronger she must restart her divine journey by reincarnating as Bridget Blade. But what if Bridget doesn’t want to be a god?
All Bridget wants is a simple life with love and family. But she is confronted by a destiny she doesn’t even understand and burdened by
powers and impulses she struggles to control. Bridget must choose a path that leads her to Nouei or, must force the Queen to settle for Bridget’s modest ambitions.
Two women, two destinies, one life. Who will prevail?
Clay to Ashes
The Children of Clay
Book 2
Bridget Blade is both a god with an insatiable desire for love and adoration and a human plagued by insecurities, fears, and anxieties. Unaware of her true divinity she longs for the kind of love and a happy family she's never had. Her husband, Jeremy, though, seems more interested in turning her into a research project that he can commercialize.
When Bridget discovers her new abilities she revels in the discovery that she is a god. But her new powers attract unwanted attention and Bridget must fight for her independence and survival.
But when survival means giving up the adoration she craves Bridgett must
confront the desires that drive her. Does she want freedom or does
she want adoration? She can have one or the other, but not both.
Clay to Ashes Excerpt
from Chapter 1
Sister Vesta Kaypore ran down the stone hallway as fast as she could, her footsteps resounding in her ears. The dormitory doors to her right blurred until she arrived at the infirmary at the end of the hallway, where Bridget Blade lay unconscious as she had for the last four months.
“In there, Sister.” Brother Juan, a fellow member of the Order of Ryna, opened the door for her. The room was brightly lit by the midday sun, with a mild breeze carrying moist, earthy scents from the woods behind the monastery.
Sister Kaypore gasped as she moved her fellow Ryneans out of the way.
A man brandishing a knife stood over Bridget’s bed. With the gleaming blade grasped in a reverse grip, he pointed it downward over her chest, while he pressed his other hand flatly between her breasts. He’d dragged off her covers and hospital gown, exposing her upper torso, which was honeycombed with black scars from skin graft surgeries she had undergone as the result of radiation burns.
Sister Kaypore clutched her hands to her heart in compassion for the man. Tear stains traced channels from his unblinking eyes as he scanned the room, staring at each sister and brother present as though daring them to interfere. His eyes brimmed with fresh tears as thick wetness ran from his nostrils. This was a man maddened by grief, probably having lost family in the tragedy months ago during the Miracle of the Sun here at the monastery. Since the radiation discharge and stampede that followed, thousands of mourners had traveled to the monastery to pay their respects to the dead. Many had become disruptive, some even violent.
Bridget’s part in all the events was a carefully guarded secret. The Order knew. The French, U.S., and Chinese governments all knew enough, as did the Vatican. Many people were present when Bridget was rescued from an electromagnetic field that she likely generated, and also when she appeared to emit ionizing radiation from her body. She was too much of an oddity to keep a secret forever, although most of the people present had been discreet about the information so far—most, but clearly not all.
The shutters had been ripped off and the window panels shattered. A grappling hook attached to a climbing rope hung from the frame, next to an overturned IV pole.
The room was quiet and still. It was as though Sister Kaypore had walked in during a natural pause in the activity.
“Who are you?” she asked, keeping her voice as calm as she could.
The man’s hand trembled. “I lost everyone. My father, my mother, my cousin, my sisters.” His eyes watered. “My sister, Zanel, was crushed. Her head was smashed in. My mother just died from her injuries… all because of this stupid religion.”
All six sisters and brothers attending to Bridget had backed off to the edges of the room. Sister Kaypore took a step into the buffer zone between them and the assailant.
“Don’t come any closer. I’ll kill her.” His tears streaked down his face.
“Why her?” Sister Kaypore asked. “Why not me, or Brother Juan here, or Sister Mascomb?” She pointed at Bridget. “Why her?”
“I have friends. I heard talk. They said there was a witch in here that you’re protecting. She caused all this. Why would you protect her?”
“Does she seem like a witch to you? Look at her! Does she look like a witch?” Sister Kaypore took two more steps.
“I will kill her. I don’t want to harm you.” He raised his hand, holding his palm outward in Sister Kaypore’s direction. “Why is this religion like this?”
“Your family worshiped Ryna? Why not you?” she asked. “Did you leave the Faith?”
“I chose to follow Thysia,” he said with force. “That’s a religion that makes sense. It’s why no one wants to follow your cursed religion any more. Don’t come any closer!”
“I don’t think you came to kill her.” Sister Kaypore walked confidently to the bed and stood across from him. “Put the knife away. If you really wanted to kill her, you would have done so already.”
“I came to kill the witch.”
“No, you came because you want answers.”
Ono Ekeh is a fifth generation android whose initial programming has exceeded its original boundaries resulting in a self-conscious, fully functional, quasi-human life form. He is married to a wonderful human
woman and has four amazing kids. He is interested in religion, politics, science fiction, writing, food, mathematics, and other things.
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How many books are planned for the series?
ReplyDeleteHi Mary!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the question.
Hopefully, when it's all said and done, there'll be eight books of varying lengths. The first two The Clay Queen and Clay to Ashes (novella) are out. The third Icon of Clay is now on pre-order. Icon of Clay is about 60k words. The fourth installment (untitled as of yet) will be about 50-60k) and then the rest of the series will likely be 100K books each.
The complete story is largely written. Of course, the fine-tuning and cleaning up and polishings does take a while, but by early next year, the first five will be done and hopefully published.
The series will span 7,000 years and end in a dystopian world, so there'll be gaps but the overall story revolves around Queen Nouei and Bridget. Bridget as a character will dominate the first few and then the Queen dominate the last few books.
In terms of genre, the overall feel is supernatural fantasy with paranormal romance elements. Then there'll be very strong hard and soft science fiction and political/international elements. The last two books will have closer to a high fantasy feel.
Cheers
Hi Ono, wow, that's quite a series, sounds wonderful. Wishing you much success with it and looking forward to hearing more abaout the future books.
ReplyDelete