The Founding of Foxwick - guest post by Cherie Reich

The Founding of Foxwick

by Cherie Reich

Gather around, children, and let me tell you the tale of how the Kingdom of Foxwick came into being.

Once upon a time, a publisher put out a call for an anthology about assassins. Ooo, assassins are pretty cool. They are usually pretty badass, and it could be fun to write a story for the anthology. The publisher had an interesting stipulation too. They only wanted the first five hundred words of the story before they’d consider reading the entire thing.

But what should I write about? Who was my assassin and who would he/she have to kill?

I selected a female assassin. There are a lot of male ones, so I thought a female would stand out. But who would she kill? Someone royal/presidential/etc.? Perhaps someone close to her. No, no normal human would do. I wanted something bigger. A story that would take notice.

She would assassinate Death himself.

Once I figured out why she would have to kill Death, then I needed a setting. This was a fantasy anthology, and they wanted a Medieval-esque world. I had no readily available world to drop the main character in. I searched some fantasy world naming generators to figure out a name.

Foxwick came up in the second or third search. Foxwick. I liked it. A lot.

Thus, the Kingdom of Foxwick was born with badass Princess Umbria as this particular short story’s main character. Umbria features in five out of the seventeen short stories in People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors, and she’s mentioned in a few others.

A call for a short story inspired a whole new world. And although the story “Lady Death” was short-listed yet not accepted into the anthology, I couldn’t be more grateful for the founding of Foxwick.

The kingdom hangs in the balance.

War threatens Foxwick on all sides.

The dreaded Shadowlands gains more souls. From the shrouded trees in Greymist Forest to the arid Blackden Barrens, monsters roam in search of their next victim. Sirens lure ships beneath Merrilea Sea. In cold and snowy Wintermill, royals plot to claim Foxwick as their own, even if they must use dragons and sorcery. Marriage between Foxwick’s king and Lochhollow’s princess creates a perilous alliance. Although brave Valdale will come to Foxwick’s aid, the cost may be more than a true friend can stomach.

Set over a hundred years, these seventeen fantasy short stories explore the people, creatures, and lands in and around the Kingdom of Foxwick.

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Cherie Reich is a speculative fiction writer and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her books include the horror collection Once upon a Nightmare, a science fantasy collection titled Fall of Gravity, and the fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles and The Fate Challenges. Reborn is her debut novel. She is the vice president of Valley Writers and a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Untethered Realms. For more information, please visit her website.

Review for Claudia Must Die

Blurb:
Claudia doesn’t feel like herself anymore—she feels like prey. Her husband’s hired goons have stalked her all the way to Boston and will only stop their pursuit once she is dead.

Divorce is not an option. Instead, she has stolen a bunch of her man’s money to disappear into another life.

In order for Claudia to live, someone else must die. A lookalike college student becomes the target capable of freeing her from an awful marriage. 

The plan goes horribly awry. Instead of murdering Claudia’s double, the assassins shoot the woman’s lover who is the cousin of a powerful Irish mobster. Claudia becomes hunted by all involved. Can she survive? Should she?

My review:
Claudia has become the hunted. Her mobster husband will stop at nothing to see her dead, and Claudia will do whatever it takes to stay alive. Even if that means she has to set another woman up to take her place. Everything erupts into chaos when the assassins miss and an innocent woman is killed. Claudia is back on the run, and this time, she's hitched a ride with her lookalike and vengeful friend. Surrounded by people who want to kill her, how will she survive?

This unique thriller keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's intense and quirky in a way that reminded me a bit of Pulp Fiction. We have fantastic characterization along with unexpected twists and turns in the plot. It's dark and gritty with the right dose of humor.

I confess I wanted to kill Claudia myself. She's impulsive and selfish, but she's a fighter. I could sympathize with her wanting to be free of her abusive husband, but she went to great lengths which included setting up Parker, a woman who looks just like her, up as the assassins' target. Parker was fascinating. Quiet yet deep, I connected with her and rooted for her survival. The Woolf brothers and Francis were just as entertaining.

This was an awesome read! T.B. Markinson hasn't let me down yet. I highly recommend this book and all her excellent works.

Excerpt:

At first, everything had been roses and wine. When others warned her about Dennis, Claudia laughed it off. 

“Use your head,” Claudia’s mother had said. “How could a man in his early thirties make so much money owning a handful of run-down bars in two small towns in the West?”

“What, you think he’s a drug dealer or something?” Claudia had broken into hysterics. “He hardly looks like a gangster, Mother. Dennis doesn’t wear any jewelry. Not even a wedding ring.

In Claudia’s mind, a gangster would at least wear a gold necklace. And, he had excellent table manners. There was no way Dennis could be a thug. How many scrawny five-foot-six guys were?

 

They had married after seven months. Neither had intended to marry so quickly, but they had visited Vegas for a long weekend, got drunk, and got hitched. It wasn’t until Claudia moved into Dennis’s house that she started to notice things. He wouldn’t come home for days, and when he did, he refused to tell her where he had been. He racked up a lot of mileage on her car, not his. When Claudia asked about it, his reply was a cold stare that made her legs feel like jelly. Granted, one of his bars was in Greeley, but that was only a twenty-minute drive from their home in Loveland. How did the miles add up so quickly?

After a year, they started to fight constantly. Verbal arguments. After another year, the fights turned violent. Claudia ended up in the hospital—still nothing serious enough for her to walk out. Not yet. Instead, she started hoarding cash. In the beginning, it was a little bit here and there. It was simple. Claudia would request cash back when she used her debit card at the grocery store. Dennis liked her cooking; he never questioned how much his wife spent on food. When she realized her embezzlement plan would take years, not months, The Hunted chose a more drastic solution. The next time her husband crossed the line …

About the Author:

T. B. Markinson is an American writer, living in England. When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling around the world, watching sports on the telly, visiting pubs in England, or taking the dog for a walk. Not necessarily in that order. T. B. has published A Woman Lost, Marionette, and Confessions From A Coffee Shop.

Mailing List: Sign up to TB’s New Release Mailing List here. Your email will never be shared and you will only be contacted when a new book is out.

 
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