The Path of Blood

First promo poster for The Path of Blood - novel coming soon!

In a fragile land, where only the supernatural powers of carefully-bred Bloodlines of the Gifted can keep the menace of the waves of Crimson from tearing apart the fabric of reality, Erthel was born a Nomad, a Gifted with no bloodline, whose powers are weak and unreliable. Her widowed mother, a Nomad as well with no memory of her past, left scarred and crippled by her own unstable Gift, does her best to guide her through the Path of Blood, the training to master her Gift, and Erthel works hard to take care of her and follow her teachings. But when a mysterious stranger from her mother’s forgotten past confronts them, and her mother disappears in an abnormal wave of Crimson, Erthel’s whole world is turned inside out. Without her mother’s guidance, her Path of Blood is broken and her own sanity hangs in balance, blurring the lines between fears, nightmares and memories, as the strength of every Gifted lies both in the individual and their blood ties. Helped by Faurel, investigator of the forces of Crimson and youngest of the Arvelsen Bloodline, Erthel will have to find her own way through her Path and face the shadows of a past that has been hidden for far too long, in an effort to bring her mother back and discover the truth… possibly without losing herself in the process.

“The Path of Blood” is the story of Erthel and her growth as a Gifted, a daughter and a woman. I like to describe it as a fantasy mystery about love, family and free will.

The first draft to “the Path of Blood” was finished on October 13th 2010 at roughly 72K words. The editing phase of revision is currently in progress and I aim to have the final version done before July 2012.

Concept art and reference/info sheets on “the Path of Blood” can be found in my deviantART gallery, while I occasionally post snippets from the novel on this website for the Friday Snippets game. The opening scene of “the Path of Blood” can be read in English in its revised form here.

Warning: “the Path of Blood” features mature content that might be inappropriate for younger audiences.

[This post is also available in: Italian]