Writer's Grove

The new old story

Ready for a saga? Here we go: About eleven or twelve years ago, I published a “short story” which was really a novelette called “The Chapel Perilous.” It was a frame story set in between TRICKED and TRAPPED that actually provided a good chunk of Atticus O’Sullivan’s origin story—how he came to be the Iron Druid rather than just a Druid. Originally published in the anthology Unfettered, edited by Sean Speakman, I dropped it as a cheap ebook online and it wound up functioning as either an excellent intro to the series for new readers or a juicy lore drop for folks who were already a few books in. It’s been out of print for most of this year, alas, and that’s because of BOTS.

Early this year, some bot at the Big River site decided to shut down my account because I had unpublished my books in the US and republished them in Canada—a procedure that I had asked about in advance to make sure I was doing it right! It didn’t matter. Everything was toast. It took weeks and weeks to get reinstated and prove that I was a real boy, and it was just an absolutely insane experience.

This extinction event occurred before I could even attempt to republish “The Chapel Perilous.” And since republishing seems to trigger those bots, I simply decided to let it go. It’s not worth it to risk wiping out my entire catalog for a novelette that’s $1.99.

BUT! A spiffy reader—a new one, in fact, who just discovered the Iron Druid Chronicles—reached out and asked me about the story, because she saw it listed on series chronologies but couldn’t find it anywhere. She wondered whether I might make it available on Kobo. Sure, I thought. I could do that.

So I did. I updated the cover font but kept the exquisite cover art by Galen Dara, made a few expansions and revisions to the text, and now “The Chapel Perilous” is available everywhere except the Big River and Google Play. If you want to snag it on Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, then heck yeah, you can do that! If you’re in German-speaking countries or France, it’ll show up on Tolino (Thalia) or Vivlio. And eventually—it can take a couple of weeks—it’ll be available to check out in libraries, but you probably need to ask your library to snag it for you. You can do that through the Libby app.

Please join me in bathing your eyeballs in the glorious cover art, which still stuns me with its atmospheric gloom and creepiness eleven years later (this is a low-res file because my blog is silly about file size):

Let me just say: Galen nailed the look. This was set in the sixth century and armor back then was somewhat basic—there was certainly no plate armor to be had. And if you’re into grail legends like I am, then this should be evocative to you—the chapel surrounded by a perilous graveyard. What precisely happens there varies from legend to legend, but it’s always perilous (as advertised) for the questing knight. He must pass this test before he crosses the wasteland and comes to the castle of the Fisher King, where the Holy Grail is kept.

So, whether you’re a new reader or a spiffy “old” reader who just missed it somehow, “The Chapel Perilous” is again available on most platforms, and I hope you enjoy!