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Mon, 03/31/2008

Ephesian Letters by Karen Chance:

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When I was asked to be a guest blogger by Anne Sowards, my lovely editor at Roc, I jumped at the chance. I probably would have anyway-publicity! for free!--but this is an especially good time because I actually have something to say. For the first time I have two books appearing in a single year: Embrace the Night, the third Cassie Palmer novel (April 1) and Midnight's Daughter, the first Dorina Basarab (coming to a shelf near you in October). I'm really excited about both books because each in its own way breaks new ground. But this post would be really long if I talked about both books today, so look forward to hearing about Midnight's Daughter on Wednesday.

The plot for Embrace the Night centers around a real historical puzzle: the meaning of the Ephesian letters, a six-word incantation once carved into the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. It was one of the earliest known incantations, dating to at least the 4th century BC, was perhaps the most widespread and was reputably the most powerful. An abbreviated form of its first two words-Aski Kataski-eventually came to be used in the same way "hocus pocus" is today: as a way of referring to magic in general. But the meaning of the phrase was lost when the temple was burnt to the ground in 356 BC by Herostratus, a nutjob who hoped to be immortalized for destroying one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. He got his wish, but humankind lost a treasure. And the forgotten meaning of the Ephesian Letters became the oldest riddle in all magic.

Embrace the Night ends the first trilogy of the Cassie Palmer series, which involved Cassie becoming Pythia, the supernatural community's chief seer, and began a potentially cataclysmic war in the magical world. Embrace the Night explains what's actually behind the war and gives some great back story on three main characters: Cassie herself, Mircea, the five-hundred-year-old vampire who claims to be her master, and John Pritkin, the mysterious war mage with anger management issues. I love putting O'Henry type twists and turns into everything I write, and this novel probably has more than anything I've done so far. It also opens the door to the next set of three books, which center around the war itself.

For sample chapters from Embrace the Night, check out my website (www.karenchance.com). There's a lot of other fun stuff there, too: the ubiquitous book trailer, a graphic novel version of chapter one, contests, games and assorted other goodies. Poke around, you never know what you'll find. Just be careful-the staff has been known to bite.

Tomorrow: why some vampires rock, and others just ...suck.

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