Tomorrow, May 18, Lore Seekers Press will release a new Thieftaker novella, “The Witch’s Storm,” the first installment in a trilogy called The Loyalist Witch — Thieftaker, Fall 1770. Today D.B. Jackson offers his thoughts on the new project. Part I of the interview can be found below. Part II of the interview can be found at https://www.davidbcoe.com/blog/
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Hi all!
This is one of my favorite series EVER! And today, we are joined by D.B. Jackson to talk about a new Thieftaker story ( about to be released). David, tell my fans a little about the Thieftaker stories in general, as a reminder to fans of the series, and an introduction for those not familiar with them.
DBJ: Happy to! The Thieftaker Chronicles, and the many stories I have published in that same universe, take place in pre-Revolutionary Boston, beginning in the 1760s and continuing through the turbulent years leading up to the colonies’ break with England in 1775. Our hero is Ethan Kaille, a man with a dark past that has left physical and emotional scars on him. He’s an ex-convict, a convicted mutineer. And he is also a conjurer. He has rebuilt his life by becoming a thieftaker, someone who recovers stolen goods for a fee. So the stories tend to be mysteries, with a large dollop of magic thrown in, set against the backdrop of historical events.
Faith: Perfect! And now you’re releasing a new Thieftaker novella, “The Witch’s Storm.” Tell us about it?
DBJ: “The Witch’s Storm” is the first installment in a trilogy of novellas collectively called The Loyalist Witch — Thieftaker, Fall 1770. Now, the title is a bit of a mouthful, but I wanted to make clear that this new project picks up pretty much exactly where the original Thieftaker series finished. The last Thieftaker novel, Dead Man’s Reach (Tor Books, 2015), ended with the
Boston Massacre and its immediate aftermath. “The Witch’s Storm” begins on the eve of the trial of Captain Thomas Preston and the soldiers responsible for the March 5, 1770 shootings on King Street. Naturally, there is a new conjurer in town, a young woman with powerful magicks and ties to the Crown, who is trying to disrupt the trial. Ethan is hired by Samuel Adams himself to make certain that she doesn’t succeed.
Faith: Ohhhh. “The first installment in a trilogy.” I can count that high. So more novellas are coming?
DBJ: Yes! In a few weeks, Lore Seekers Press will release “The Cloud Prison,” the second novella in the sequence. And about four weeks after that, we’ll release the final story, “The Adams Gambit.” All of these novellas will come out first in electronic format. Later this summer, we will release the three novellas in an omnibus edition, and that will be in both electronic and print formats. The three novellas are each complete stories, but taken together they tell a larger tale.
Faith: Just like the original Thieftaker material, you have artwork from Chris McGrath. IT is gorgeous! You must have been pleased to get that.
DBJ: Pleased doesn’t even begin to tell you how delighted I was. Chris’s art has been integral to the series from the very beginning. To have this cover on the novellas meant the world to me. We are using the same image with different color schemes for all three novellas, and then the
original work, with the original color-scheme, will be on the omnibus.
(Interview continues at https://www.davidbcoe.com/blog/)
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D.B. Jackson is the pen name of fantasy author David B. Coe. He is the award-winning author
of more than two dozen novels and as many short stories. His newest project is a trilogy of novellas that continues his Thieftaker Chronicles, a historical urban fantasy set in pre-Revolutionary Boston. He has also written the Islevale Cycle, a time travel epic fantasy series that includes Time’s Children, Time’s Demon, and Time’s Assassin. As David B. Coe, he is the author of epic fantasy — including the Crawford Award-winning
LonTobyn Chronicle — urban fantasy, and media tie-ins. In addition, he has co-edited three anthologies — Temporally Deactivated, Galactic Stew, and Derelict (Zombies Need Brains,
2019, 2020, 2021). David has a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. He and his family live on the Cumberland Plateau. When he’s not writing he
likes to hike, play guitar, and stalk the perfect image with his camera.
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