The Fall of House Bel’lator, Book 1
Old magic stirs against a broken world.
Centuries ago, Julian the Sorcerer broke the spine of the Mauran Empire. The empire’s death throes cast him into exile, but he has returned to Mauran soil, and the legends that stood against him before have been wiped away.
In the midst of Julian’s quiet rise, a woman made anonymous by her brother’s shadow and her father’s fear is at last presented with the opportunity to find her own identity. She cannot help but leap.
Thus begins the battle for the soul of Elizabeth Bel’lator—a battle whose outcome she alone can decide.
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Praise for The Watchman’s Oath
Behold, S.A. Grove’s magnificent land of Maura. Dragons and dwarves, elves and bards, visions and dreams—and its restless princess—captures, woos, and charms the reader throughout this thought-provoking saga of greed and betrayal. Elizabeth’s courageous journey of self-discovery is painful and maddening and you just want to cheer her on as she matures into the woman she is meant to be. Delicious prose from this author’s clever fingertips winds its way around the reader’s senses and holds you fast and begging for more.
~~~ Susan Ray Schmidt, author
The Story of The Watchman’s Oath
In January of 2011, I was wandering through the lower stacks of my university library, searching for little things to read–snippets of dusty books that caught my eye. There, I encountered a friendship in a book of celtic saints, and my imagination spiraled into the early versions of this story. I buried myself away in one of the library’s many closed study-nooks and started writing a fairly trite story about a pair of champions delving into a dragon’s pit.
The narrative evolved over time, and as winter melted into spring and into summer, the story became something unlike its early form. Come July, I was nearly done. At a 4th of July party, I received a text from my father saying, “Look, I’m going to print that thing in the morning, whether it’s done or not.” So I left the party, and I finished the first ever draft of my first ever book.
Eight years later, the story has evolved again. It’s gone through write and rewrite, reading groups and multiple reads with beta-readers. Once more, it has been made nearly unrecognizable from its previous iterations, but it’s done. At long last, it’s done and it’s ready.
The Watchman’s Oath is based on true stories woven together and embellished. The title was actually cannibalized from a short narrative about a man’s war against his own corruption. The battle for the soul of humankind, and the individual’s pivotal role in their own identity, is something that has always captured my attention. I hope it will catch yours as well.
And of course, there are dragons and magic, demons, elves, and goats. So that’s good too.
S. A. Grove 