The third and final book in the Summer Realm Trilogy, Battle of Wind & Fire is out now! And this completes the trilogy.
The relief at finally finishing
this project and having all the books out for everyone to enjoy is huge. It's
been two long years of collaborating, writing and developing the world and
characters. And then realising we were going to have three books on our hands,
and not just one! Although it's bittersweet, too, as one of the authors,
Michael Wombat, is no longer here to celebrate with us. And since the end of
October, when we had the complete first draft down, and he told us he was too
ill to continue helping to deliver it, things have been quite chaotic trying to
get it ready as soon as possible. But we did it! Hooray! And I know he would be
over the moon too! I did manage to capture his thoughts and feelings about it
while he was still able, by getting him to fill in this
Q&A for me!
Order your copy by clicking on the book cover below.
The second book in the Summer Realm Trilogy, Savage Invasion is out now!
Order your copy by clicking on the book cover below.
Four heroes, four quests, one mission: save the Summer Realm
Cockatrice attacks are intensifying as the fate of the Summer Realm hangs in the balance. Ulysses Rasselas, Minister of Secrets & Lies, has limited contact with his agents, but he’s sure the rumours that Guardwinder Cleaveskull has been poisoned are incorrect; reliable reports tell him that the man’s elaborate winged-helmet has been seen on an old airship over the Saher desert.
Councillor Cooperson is causing disruption as he searches for his runaway son, who, Rasselas’ spies inform him, is travelling with agent Ash. He only hopes the boy’s expensive education proves valuable in locating firebird seeds.
Worryingly, the agent from another world, Tricky, is seeking assistance from Khymeia’s magical guild. Rasselas hopes it’s not related to the ‘Order of the Swarm’ he’s investigating. Surely, nobody intentionally opened a portal to let these creatures in? Definitely not Tricky, despite the whispers of the order’s rogue mages. A talk with their ring leader in freezing Snowcrest should clarify things. And maybe he’ll catch wind of agent Wren’s progress while up there. She’s elusive – but that’s why he recruited her.
Time is running out. Rasselas needs the four to complete their quests, because the prospect of the army falling, and the realm along with them, is too much to bear.
If you like epic fantasy with dark themes, and action adventure with an array of unique characters, including LGBTQIA+, bad-ass women, and disabled people living their best lives, this steampunk fantasy will keep you reading into the night.
The first book in the Summer Realm Trilogy, Agents of Secrets & Lies is out now!
I've had some big news this month, Dead Lake, Book One in the Tricky's Tales series was picked for a BookBub Free Email featurel! 🥳
BookBub is a site where you can get huge book bargains on new books and old, especially from big name authors, such as Ramsey Campbell, Dean Koontz, Stephen King etc (I've seen discounts recently from all three). All you have to do is sign up (it's free) and get their daily offer emails. (Don't forget to follow me there if you do - M K Boers / Miranda Kate)
For a self-published author like me, it's the Holy Grail of book promotions - only 1% of Indie authors get accepted as they mostly cater for the big publishing houses. I've been trying for about 18 months to get one of my books accepted, and it's finally happened. Hooray!
So how do you benefit? Well this in turn means Dead Lake is going to be free for a whole week (or until 11th of January)! I haven't given this book away for four years, and I'm unlikely to again for a long time, so don't miss out!
And here is the cover for Book Three, Battle of Wind & Fire, due out on the 20th of March 2026. The pre-order is now live!
Preorder your copy by clicking on the book cover below.
Four heroes, four quests, one mission: save the Summer Realm
The Summer Realm is under attack. Monstrous flying beasts are using a portal between worlds and devouring entire villages.
All hope rests on a team pulled together by the Queen’s Ministry of Secrets & Lies and the Guild of Mages: a thick-headed airship guard, a cocky thief, a reclusive mage, and a complete unknown – a witch the guild called in from another world.
They need to obtain ingredients for a unique spell – but will they be able to find them before the entire realm has been ravaged?
The first book in the Summer Realm Trilogy, Agents of Secrets & Lies is out now!
We are releasing the following two books quickly in six week increments:
Savage Invasion is due out on the 6th of February but the pre-order link is already live!
Preorder your copy by clicking on the book cover below.
Four heroes, four quests, one mission: save the Summer Realm
The Summer Realm is under attack. Monstrous flying beasts are using a portal between worlds and devouring entire villages.
All hope rests on a team pulled together by the Queen’s Ministry of Secrets & Lies and the Guild of Mages: a thick-headed airship guard, a cocky thief, a reclusive mage, and a complete unknown – a witch the guild called in from another world.
They need to obtain ingredients for a unique spell – but will they be able to find them before the entire realm has been ravaged?
Battle of Wind and Fire is due out on the 20th of March, but the pre-order will go live next week.
Michael Wombat passed away from cancer on the 21st of December 2025. Before he became unable to do anything on the computer, I asked him to fill out a Q&A about our collaboration on The Summer Realm. This is what he had to say about it.
Who is Michael Wombat as a
writer? What inspired you to put words on the page, and publish books?
I wrote my first book in secret. None of the family knew
about it until I published it in 2012. Warren Peace was inspired by stories I
told my daughters about unlikely adventures of our pets at the time. I was
urged by friend and fellow author Alex Brightsmith to self publish, and have
never looked back.
What was your initial inspiration
for The Summer Realm? When did it begin?
I was reading Much Ado About Nothing, Hero’s words in Act 3:
“And bid her
steal into the pleached bower, where honeysuckles, ripen’d by the sun, forbid
the sun to enter, like favourites.”
The word
‘pleached’ (intertwined vines) struck me. I asked myself, what if stories could
be pleached and intertwined? It all stemmed from that. And then Victoria
Pearson wrote Sun Dust* and my Sundust* were probably the seeds of my interest in
entwined stories, and indirectly led to the Summer Realm.
*See below
What came first – the
worldbuilding or the character development?
One of the greatest things about this collaboration is the
way the Summer Realm world grew organically along with the characters as the
four of us wrote and exchanged ideas, picking up prompts from each other and
shaping them into something more. A minor character in one author’s tale often
turns up in another strand in a major role. Everything grew together, and that
is rather wonderful.
What made you decide to make it a
collaboration with other authors?
Well, if I was intertwining stories, it only made sense for
other authors to write the stories that would intertwine with mine.
How did you choose the authors?
Easily. I asked the three authors I know best, who are also
the most talented, and fortunately they all saw the potential in my proposal
and jumped on board. Thank goodness, because our resulting four leading
characters are all wildly different, but spark off each other brilliantly.
Did you find it easy working with
three other authors? How did you collaborate and decide on things? Were you the
main decision maker, or was it all unanimous?
It's an absolute delight working together. We natter away in
our WhatsApp group brainstorming and supporting each other. I don’t really know
whether I’m the chief arbiter: maybe at first while we were all finding our
feet, but I’ve always been keen to stress that this project belongs to all of
us, not just me, so I think by now we’re all making decisions.
Tell us more about you character,
Cleaveskull – how did he evolve as you were thinking and planning and drafting,
and were there any surprises along the way? If so, what were they?
He was almost fully formed in my head before I started,
being based on a D&D character* I role-played in the 1980s. He’s a lot more
nuanced in the books than he was then.
*Michael shared this picture of a tiny figurine he has had since the 70s of Cleaveskull's character.
Did you envisage it being a
trilogy at the beginning? Did you think it would be a longer or shorter
project? Have you been inspired to write any other stories in the same world?
Crikey, no. I thought we’d struggle to write a book thick
enough to have a spine title. The Realm, though, grew so beautifully into a rich,
deep universe that in the end I think we’re lucky to contain it in just three
books. There’s plenty of scope in the saga for sequels and spin-off too, with a
possible sequel already being roughly planned. I’ve half-written a spin-off
feel already, which may or may not see the light of day.
If you had to choose one place in
the Summer Realm to go on holiday to, where would you pick and why?
I think Shasym, the desert city. Bustling narrow streets,
loud colourful bazaars, a strong educational and artistic output, and a large
airship port.
Is there a place in the Summer
Realm there you’d like to live?
High Vebren, the city of trees, without a doubt. It’s in the
middle of a forest, with different levels, walkways and buildings all fashioned
in and among the crowded, living trees. It sits by a lake, from which the River
Vebren flows through the rest of the Realm. In my head it’s stunningly
beautiful.
