THE HOWLING DELVE by Jaleigh Johnson

Instead of doing a weekly or twice-weekly debut round-up, I've decided to announce them one at a time. It's just too time-consuming the other way. Besides, the individual novels will get more exposure this way.

Another novel that released on the 10th of July was The Howling Delve by Jaleigh Johnson. It is a Forgotten Realms novel. It seems to me that writing a novel for a franchise such as Forgotten Realms can be a smart thing to do. On the one hand, you don't hold your own copyright. But on the other, you have a huge hoard of fans who pick up every Forgotten Realms book that comes out. Many authors got their break by writing for such shared worlds as the many owned by Wizards of the Coast along with Battletech and Star Wars. It would have to be a labor of love, and I imagine that you would have to know that world extremely well. I also know that the competition to get a contract to write such a book can be tough. Unlike other publishers, you generally submit a proposal to write such a book, even if you are an unknown author.

The blurb reads: "An orphan mage returns to the only home she's ever known to find if transformed into a dungeon, her former master missing or trapped within. To make matters worse, the thieves that hold the dungeon won't let her leave --not for supplies, not for help. It will take all of her courage, skill, and magic to survive long enough to figure out what happened to her home." There is a sample chapter at the Wizard's website. Johnson also keeps a blog and she updates it fairly often.

Remy did a review over at The Fantasy Review. In fact, he deserves a hat tip; were it not for his review I would have missed this novel. The Beezer Review also has a review up.