A header? What in the world? 🤨

Yeah, I guess I'm trying to look like "the real deal" now. By next Wednesday, our first group of new friends from the Fates and Mates anthology will find their way here . . . and I'm nervous. Somehow I have to get them to like me. This introvert is BAD at that! 😨 Got any pointers?

OK, enough doom & gloom. How about an explanation for this email's title? You'll have to make it down to the bottom for that. I'm on the hunt for clicks! 😉

Writing Updates

Plugging away at Numinous Fortune, the LAST book in my His Name Was Augustin series. Why yes, there's a link attached now─the preorder is up on ALL online platforms! 🥳

Read on for a sneak peek at what Swanie faces at the start of Numinous Fortune. I plan on sharing weekly snippets ONLY with you, as a gift for the faithful readers who've stuck with my fumbling newsletters. 💖

Numinous Fortune Snippet

Went hunting for a picture of horses and discovered that apparently, I don't take a lot of horse photos. But I found a cute shot of some ponies my husband and I met in Belgium a while back, so they'll represent the setting for today's snippet.

“I don’t know what to think, or what to do,” I confessed, my voice breaking over the words. I buried my face in the horse’s tawny mane and mumbled, “I don’t want Prince Otto that way, not at all. But Muniche does, and she’s stronger than me. She’s whittled away at me for twenty years, fueling my need to serve the Teuton people, to help them, to protect them, to lead them at my Leitaeri's side. And here in this place, Prince Otto is my Leitaeri. And he’s destined to die in a month. Every historical account agrees on that.”

I heard Freia sigh, and I lifted my forehead from the horse’s neck, giving her a grateful pat. “We have no right to take away the life God has granted,” my friend said, her back turned to me again. “In battle it can be justified, but no one seeks to harm you here. You left your enemies in the future. And yet you wish to play God over your own life, your own destiny. You can’t be certain your path is complete if you take up the knife yourself.”

“I know. I know,” I groaned, stomping away from her to the far end of the barn’s hallway and back. “I don’t want to kill myself with Prince Otto. I want to go to Augustin’s cabin, to bare my heart and stay with him for all of eternity, like we promised in our vows. But he’s going to be on earth for another four hundred years, and it’d probably be worse for him to have me only to lose me again.”

*********************

Yeah, you were expecting a cute tale about horses, but instead you got existential philosophy. Oops.💀

5 Days of Fantasy

Soooooooo this is the part where they're dropping like flies. 🪰 Since I've been faithfully sharing a promo or giveaway every week, I scrambled to join one that runs only until Friday. (Yeah, I'm behind. Again.)

This collection of limited-time freebies started with 17 books.

Three days later, only 5 are left. 👀

My first novel, Arcane Gateway, is still hanging on (gasp!), but whether that'll be true by the time you see this email is anyone's guess. If you wouldn't mind clicking the button below & then sending me a quick report, I'd be eternally grateful. (Yeah, Arcane Gateway is indeed FREE. Now's the time to snag it.)

✨ Free Books! ✨

There will be a lot more of you hanging out with me next week, so if you think up any ways for me to ingratiate myself with readers unaware of my existence, PLEASE send me a reply! The promos & giveaways will continue, but should I keep sharing snippets & photos that go along with them? Updates on the sales of my own books? Customer reviews? Occasional normal life stuff?

Let me know! You're freaking AWESOME!

Talk to you soon,

C.L. Carhart

Download Arcane Gateway for FREE here: https://books2read.com/hnwaag

Get Lurid Curse, my latest release, here: https://books2read.com/hnwalc

Get Veiled Magic, a bonus story, here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/jp1vp51i52

Preorder a secret project here: https://books2read.com/lunarrisingset