query letter for 'Season of the Crow'

History remembers what it wants to, written by those who were not there. I was there. I am not a good man but I am a man, I have tried to set the things I have done wrong, right again. In this I have failed. All that is left for me is to tell her side of history. I raised her as my daughter. To this day I love her as such. This is the story of my daughter. This is the book of Owen.



Armend has resigned himself to old age when fate brings him a second chance at redeeming his sins in the form of a child in danger for what she is. Raising Owen along with his own daughter Litty, Armend blinds himself to the vast differences between the common race and that of the Sheillac, an ancient race that had disappeared from the lands over a millennium ago. As Owen grows up the baby fat disappears leaving behind a strikingly different creature apart from the common race.



Forced to flee from their mountain home when a townsmen is found murdered and three local boys turn up missing even Armend begins to question if Owen is innocent. Realizing he knows nothing about the Sheillac race he turns to one of the only people that know the truth about her, an old crone known as Mama. But even Mama's motives come under suspicion when he's separated from his girls and old enemies start to show up where 'tax collectors no longer come'.



Finding them selves in Pron during the Trades Festival both Owen and Litty forget their father's many warnings and enjoy the city. Running into two boys Owen soon falls for the one that calls himself Pike. But things come to head when even in a city as large and diverse as Pron Owen and Litty stick out and they're cornered in a small shop by an ambitious commander and his men. Tapping into her heritage out of rage, Owen kills the commander but not before it's too late.



This is the first book in a series of three, aimed at older male baby-boomers. the second and third books are already outlined and in working stages of draft. This story line is a prequel to 'Rise of the Black Empress' that also fallows Armend as he is trying to save Owen even from herself.