Cover Reveal: Hera Takes Charge

My term of full-time teaching is over and I am back to writing! It feels great.

Hera Takes Charge is the third full-length novel in the Olympus Inc. series, where I mix Greek mythology and glamour magazine publishing in what I’m sure is an excellent use of my Classics degree. Hera is also the end of this particular arc1. Finishing that arc makes it a tricky book, in both plot and emotional content, and I have to say that I’m relishing the challenge. It feels a bit as if I’m on one of those multi-level obstacle courses where you walk tightropes between trees and climb massive nets.

Sure, I’m wearing a figurative helmet (of experience) and I’m metaphorically hooked up to a safety line (of writing buddies), but the adrenaline is still kicking in!

Hera Takes Charge is set to come out in December (hey, why not pre-order yourself a holiday treat?), and the way the timing has worked out with teaching/writing, I received Alison Cooley’s fabulous cover well before I had more than a sketchy draft plan. This is pretty standard in indie publishing, but new to me. I’ve got to say I like the feeling: here is an image to inspire me as I unwind Don and Hera’s journey.

And here is that cover:

Alison just keeps getting better; I look at all these gorgeous blues and teals, at the exuberant sprawl of the peacock2 feathers, at the glint in Hera’s eyes and the tilt of Don’s head and I’m like yes, this is them. Ambition and forbidden love and twenty years of yearning, all wrapped up in one image.

I want to finish telling their story so much.

And so, here is the prologue to Hera Take Charge! This scene takes place prior to every other work in the Olympus Inc. series, so you can read it totally spoiler-free. But if you’d like to catch up, you can grab Penelope Pops the Question (free!), Persephone in Bloom, and Aphrodite Unbound.

PLEASE NOTE: This prologue is unedited and barely proofread, and literally everything in it is subject to possible change before final publication. I made several changes just while writing this newsletter. But I am EXCITED, and I wish to share the joy!

Hera Takes Charge: Prologue

The evening before Hera married her husband for the second time, she opened her apartment door to find her brother-in-law waiting outside.

“Don!” she said. “This is wonderful! We weren’t sure you could make it.”

Don didn’t return her smile. He looked travel-worn and rumpled in his plaid shirt and denim jacket. Hera hoped he’d brought something suitable to wear to the ceremony and reception, but the stained duffel bag he was holding didn’t bode well. She made a mental note to contact her assistant.

“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said, his voice rough. Had he been drinking? There was a definite beerish aroma. But he looked steady on his feet.

“Well, come in and sit down for a moment,” Hera said, stepping back from the door. “We kept your seat reserved, of course. Are you bringing a date? Do you have a hotel, or are you staying with Hades?”

“Is Zeus here?” Don asked, unmoving.

“No,” Hera said, blinking at him. “He’s at his place. We’re spending the night apart before the wedding.”

“Romantic,” Don said, his voice much grimmer than the observation warranted. But he  stepped inside and laid his duffel bag down on the shining hardwood floor of her entrance nook, unlacing his work boots and stepping out of them.

One sock had a large hole in the toe. Hera looked at the flash of pale skin exposed there and winced. Well, the rest of him looked well-cared for, if worn. Don was tanned and a little weather-beaten, and could probably stand to moisturize more often, but his burly frame moved easily and he was clearly getting enough physical exercise. “How’s life on the boat?” she asked.

“Ship,” he corrected, and finally smiled at her. “When it’s big, it’s a ship.”

Hera was well aware of the fact, but she’d been after the smile, not accuracy. “Did you come here straight from the airport?”

“From the docks,” he said, and looked around her tidy living room. “This is a nice place.”

“Thank you. We’re moving into a penthouse downtown after the wedding, but I’m rather fond of this apartment. I thought I might keep it, perhaps rent it out.”

“Good call,” Don said, back to sounding grim again.

Hera elected not to ask him more about that, and instead murmured a polite apology, excusing herself to the master suite. A quick search through Zeus’s drawer in her dressing room provided a pair of gray cashmere socks, still in their cardboard box. She returned to the living room and offered them to Don, who was gingerly perched on her William Morris upholstered sofa.

“Oh,” he said, and covered his eyes with one big hand. “Thank you. A cast-off from Zeus?”

“Certainly not,” Hera said. “Brand new.”

“Won’t he miss them?”

“He won’t even know they were there.” Hera frowned at him. Don was occasionally erratic, but he was acting more than usually unusual. “Is everything all right?”

He peeled off his worn socks and stuffed them in his pocket, and she found herself unaccountably disconcerted by his naked feet. There was a sharp tan line across the front, where his deck shoes had left the rest of his skin exposed. The pale toes looked oddly vulnerable. She felt better—steadier—when he pulled the new socks on and covered them up.

“No,” Don said.

“Sorry?”

“Everything’s not all right.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I wanted to say this sooner, but it had to be in person, and now the timing is terrible. But I think I’ll be failing you if I don’t say it.”

Hera took a deep breath of her own and sat down on the sofa beside him. She was fairly certain she knew what came next. “Well, go ahead,” she said.

“Don’t do it,” Don said. “Don’t re-marry Zeus.”

“I appreciate your concern,” Hera said. “But I’ve considered the situation carefully, and I’ve made the best decision for myself and my happiness.”

It was a practiced spiel by now. She’d delivered it in the face of her mother’s vague curiosity, Minerva’s blunt disbelief, and Hades’s gentle concern. Saying it to Don shouldn’t have been harder, somehow, but she watched him flinch and felt guilty.

And then she felt annoyed at the guilt. She was making the best decision for herself. She’d thought it over many times before she’d come to her final conclusion, that giving Zeus a second chance was the right choice. For both of them, but especially for her.

She didn’t owe anyone an explanation, least of all Don, whose timing really was atrocious. The night before the wedding was not the appropriate moment to raise the issue, however well-intentioned he was.

And she didn’t doubt his intentions were good. She really did appreciate the concern.

It was just that he was wrong.

“Do you trust him?” Don demanded.

“Yes,” Hera said, without hesitation. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t.”

“And if he betrays your trust again?” Don said. “If he cheats again, what will you do?”

“Then I’ll divorce him again,” Hera said. “And Minerva wrote me a bulletproof prenuptial agreement, so I’ll be walking away much better off. But it won’t happen, Don. I promise you. Zeus has changed.” She laid her hand on his wrist, and he stilled under her touch. “Can you not admit the possibility? Do you not believe in second chances?”

“I know my brother,” Don said. “He doesn’t- Hera, he’s not good at caring about people. It’s not even his fault, not really. You know what our dad was like.”

Hera shuddered. Saturnius Kronion had been a genuine monster, a poisonous old man who tainted everything he touched. Dying in that hospital bed had been the best thing he’d ever done for the world.

“Zeus has done the work,” she said. “Hours of therapy, couples counselling with me. He’s worked on developing empathy. We communicate so well now, Don, it’s- he’s a different man.”

“Sure,” Don said. “He’d do anything to get you back.” He swallowed hard. “Who wouldn’t?”

Hera felt the first stirrings of alarm. She took her hand off his arm with studied ease and stood up, brushing down her skirt with unnecessary attention. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

“Hera,” Don said. His voice was ragged.

“I know that you’re just looking out for me,” she said, and tried a casual little laugh. It fell flat. “Very brotherly of you.”

“Brotherly,” Don said. “Right.”

“But I must ask that we stop discussing this. How have you been?”

“Do you love him?” Don asked, and stood up.

Hera made the mistake of meeting his eyes.

The Kronion boys didn’t look that much alike. Hades was lean and dark, taking after their father in looks, if nothing else, and his eyes were a dark, pansy blue, almost purple. Zeus was golden blond, with sky-blue eyes, movie star cheekbones and a winning smile. Don was blond too, but his hair was bleached lighter from sun and salt, and his eyes were a blue that was almost green. Those eyes bore down into hers, and she saw anger and fear and something she instinctively shied away from recognizing.

“Yes,” she said quietly, holding his gaze. “I love him very much.”

Don looked away first.

“Okay,” he said, and walked towards her door. “That’s all I needed to know.”

“You don’t need to leave.”

“I really do,” Don said. His voice sounded normal, but he was facing away from her, bending over to pull his boots on over his cashmere-clad feet.

“All right,” Hera said, with more bite than she intended. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Don’t count on it.”

“Don!” Hera protested. “You can’t come all this way, and then—“

“I can’t watch you do this again,” Don said, and straightened, turning to face her. His face was blank, rigidly controlled rather than emotionless. “I hope you’re right. I hope he’s changed. I hope you get everything you ever wanted, for real this time, because you deserve the man you love. And I hope he loves you the way you deserve.”

“But you think he won’t.” Hera felt heat flush her cheeks. Technically, it was Zeus that Don didn’t trust, but it felt as if he were doubting her too - her intelligence, her good judgment.

“That’s right,” Don said, and opened the door. “Sorry to interrupt your evening. Congratulations on your nuptials.”

He stalked out, and she closed the door behind him, with more force than was strictly necessary. The bang resounded through her quiet home, echoing unpleasantly.

This was just like Don. He’d turned up, ruined her equilibrium, and then run away again. Zeus, even in the worst times, when he’d barely troubled to conceal his infidelity, had never given her the least indication that he meant to leave. Indeed, it was her own leave-taking that had finally shocked him into understanding, made him realize she meant it, that it was monogamy or nothing.

That, if she had to, she could live without him.

But now she didn’t have to. Zeus had wooed her, with patience, persistence, and genuine remorse. He’d changed. He’d never betray her again.

And tomorrow, they’d be back together.

Forever.

Isn’t that nice? I’m sure everything will work out just great for Hera and Zeus, the clear endgame couple of this romantic arc.

Pre-order Hera Takes Charge here!