A week from tomorrow, Elis’s next novel starts at Patreon!
Serial killer and witch Elis O’Connor finally has a lead on her missing brother, and it’s brought her right back to the person who betrayed her, the one witch she doesn’t want to ask for help: Melinoë Takata.
While she weighs whether or not hopping dimensions with someone she doesn’t trust is worth it—or whether her brother is indeed a lost cause, considering it’s probably a one-way trip—once more the police coming knocking at her door. But this time they don’t bring suspicions and hopes she might incriminate herself: now they have actual evidence for arrest. With more than a hundred kills under her belt, it was probably only a matter of time before the OPP’s occult department was ready to charge her with murder.
The problem? Their evidence is for one homicide she didn’t commit.
And relying on Melinoë might be her only way of getting out of it.
Clickity-click to head over to Patreon to sign up. Her serials are available to all patrons from $1/month and up (and you can sign up for a year for <$11).
It has one of my favourite opening chapters ever, in which Elis kills a guy who likes to defend rape in fantasy novels on Reddit:
I pointed at him. “MedievalHistoryFan365, right? I am such a big fan. I’ve read, like, all your posts. There was the one about how rape is historically accurate so and therefore justified even though dragons and wizards aren’t, and how it ruins immersion if you remove the sexual assault of women in a fantasy book—oh, and my favourite, how asking for fewer books with rape is akin to censorship. Really brilliant stuff. Very deep. You’ve clearly given rape a lot of thought.”
“Who the fuck are you?” he blurted out at last.
“Oh, I’m Elis O’Connor. I’m here to kill you.”
“What?”
“I’m here to kill you. But I assure you, one day it’ll be considered historically accurate for women to murder men who are pro-rape neckbeards on the internet.”
He shifted forward in his chair like he was about to rise while one hand fumbled behind him for what I presumed was his phone.
I raised my hand and threads of crackling blue electric light wove around my fingertips harmlessly before arcing toward him.
The lightning darted past him to zap the cell phone next to his keyboard, the screen cracking and going dark.
Wayne looked back at the phone and then at me, frozen in his chair now.
Good.
“I don’t understand,” he said at last, his brows launching low over his eyes in confusion.
“Is this one of those instances where I need a man to explain it to you so it sinks in?” I spoke very slowly, enunciating my words. “I am here to murder you.”
“For what I post on the internet,” he said.
Finally, he was getting it. “Yes.”
“Because of what I post on the internet!” He raised his voice and I winced—I might have to cut this banter short.
“Well, see, I’ve been through your comment history going back three years. And at least forty-five percent of the posts are specifically concerning your belief that rape in fantasy novels is necessary and realistic, and that asking for less rape is akin to censorship. Which it is not, by the way. It all sounds really pro-rape, to be honest, which contributes to a culture that normalizes the sexual abuse of men, women, and non-binary persons—many of whom are already marginalized and at risk for abuse.”
“That’s not a reason to kill me…”
“I mean…” I mimed considering it, tapping my gloved finger against my chin. “Isn’t it, though?”
“But I’ve never raped anyone!”
“Are you sure about that? Because I’ve seen your unwillingness to back down when told ‘no’ online and I’m aware of complaints about you to H.R. at work.” Of course fuck all was done at work since H.R. existed to help the company, not the employees—maybe if this man had ever been made to listen to the word “no” in real life or online, I wouldn’t feel compelled to murder him.
Alas, here we were.
He went quiet at that and seemed to comb back through his memory. “I… No, no, I’ve definitely never raped anyone.”
I still wasn’t sure about that, but he was getting murdered regardless.
“You can’t kill people for what they post online. It’s not real. That’s—that’s—”
“If you’re about to say censorship, let me stop you there. This is not censorship—I’m not with the government. I’m a private individual, not representing any governing bodies, nor have I enacted a law to limit your speech. This, much like the six times you’ve been put on temporary bans at forums, is a consequence to your actions. Of course, unlike those instances, I am actually cancelling you here. Literally. You’re being cancelled for your pro-rape comments, bro. Do you have any last words?”
This is the third book, and while I’m working on a formal Demons/Elis reading order list, here’s her series plus the this-would-probably-be-a-good-idea other books.
Elis O’Connor
Book 1: Blood Ties–available everywhere in ebook and paperback, or you can get it on Payhip for 50% off with the coupon code THROWTHEWHOLEMANOUT.
Prequel: Season of the Bitch–I’d honestly recommend it ahead of Witch Hunt, so that’s why I’ve put it here, but you can read it at any point. Available widely in print, a polished ebook for $5+ patrons, or find the rough draft in the archive at Patreon.
Book 2: Witch Hunt–there is unfortunately no paperback or final draft yet, but I’m going to try to get that done for the end of August/September. Right now, there’s a cleaned up (but unedited) draft at Patreon as a downloadable ebook. (If you plan to follow along as Soul Spell posts, I am very sorry there isn’t a final polished version yet.)
Book 3: Soul Spell–that’s this new one! Starting June 3.
You can stop right there! Elis’s series can stand on it’s own.
But if you’re starting from scratch and you’re a completitionist, you can actually start with the Demons of Oblivion series, or go back and read it after you’ve met Elis:
Demons of Oblivion
Easiest way would be the big five-book boxset, or you can get the bundles (Vol 1 has three books, Vol 2 has the last two). Individual books are out in paperback and ebook. They are:
- Bloodlines
- Hunter
- Lineage
- Exhumed
- Oblivion
Then the one that’s pretty directly related to Blood Ties is a post-Oblivion novella Counterpoint: Always Kill a Boy on the First Date. All are available everywhere (20% off at my Payhip shop with the code SPRINGSALE until May 31, though!).
Elis’s books are set twenty-five years after Oblivion. Even then, there was due to be another five-book arc that I wasn’t able to write due to piracy, so yeah, if you’re an old series fan–or you do Demons of Oblivion first–you’re going to wonder what you missed. Bits and pieces get filled in, particularly with Witch Hunt and Soul Spell.
This new book is “done”–I finished the zero draft a few days ago. I need to go back and weave some things in, and fill in a couple of beats, but I’m hoping to get that all done in July and chapters all scheduled. I think it’s due to end around January or February. Several are already scheduled so there won’t be any delays–updates go out the first Friday of every month at 10am EST.
I’m pretty excited to share this new book with everyone, so I hope existing patrons enjoy and that some new folks who want to see Elis’s adventures will consider joining.
Writer of urban fantasy, thrillers/mysteries, and horror.