The ebook versions of Charge of the Lyte Brigade have been submitted for pre-order to Amazon and Smashwords and will be going live on March 21st (i.e. a week from today).

As far as I can tell, there’s no way to set paperback books for pre-order on Amazon, so I’ll have to set that version to go live manually. It’s also hard to judge how long it takes for Amazon paperbacks to go live, so it’ll either be a few days before or after the ebooks do.

With that in mind, in anticipation of the release of Charge of the Lyte Brigade, here’s some art of the stories guest star, Melisa Grevling.

Now, she is, of course, a Wilderling.

And if I’ve been burying the lede about what a Wilderling is: it’s a person descended from a group of shapeshifting wizards who retains certain animal-like features and the ability to transform into a fully animal form at will.

Melisa is a badger Wilderling and is a little sensitive about being mistaken for a raccoon.

For a bit of behind the scenes information: her name is Melisa partly as a reference both to the fact that the real-life genus name for badgers is Meles and the fact the name Melisa is ultimately derived from the Greek for “honey” (technically, it means “honey bee”) as a reference to Internet darling species the honey badger — which, however, is not a member of the Meles genus.

Also, “Grevling” is Norwegian for “badger.”

So, again, Charge of the Lyte Brigade: available (at long last) next week.

Also, keep track of everything that happens with Realmgard by following me on social media or my email list: