Taking Flight: My Most Personal Story Yet Soars to Life in "Skyborne"

Releasing September 22nd, 2025

"When the sky breaks, only the broken can learn to fly."

In just two weeks, I'll be sharing something incredibly close to my heart with you: Skyborne, the first book in The Skyshattered Realms Saga. While I've always poured my soul into every story I tell, this one carries a weight—and a love—unlike anything I've written before.

A Story Born from Love and Loss

When I began crafting the world of floating islands and sky pirates, I didn't realize I was creating something that would become a tribute to the two most influential men in my life: my father and grandfather. Both pilots, both heroes, both called home to fly beyond the clouds where I cannot follow.

The dedication reads: "Dad, Grandpa—though you've both been called home to fly beyond the clouds where I cannot follow, I carry your lessons with me. Until we meet again in clearer skies, this story of courage in the clouds is for you."

Every time I wrote about Elira Dane navigating her ship Stormbone through the treacherous skies of the Hollow Reach, I felt their presence. Every scene where she demonstrates the values they taught me—courage in the face of impossible odds, protecting those who can't protect themselves, never giving up even when the world brands you a failure—I could hear their voices guiding me.

Welcome to the Skyshattered Realms

This isn't just another fantasy romance (though trust me, the tension between Elira and the mysterious Riven will leave you breathless). This is a world where floating continents drift through endless skies, where the surface below is cursed and forbidden, and where elite pilots navigate between survival and vengeance in ships that dance on the wind.

Elira Dane was once the Empire's most promising ace—until the Blackwing Incident destroyed her entire squadron and branded her a failure. Six years later, she's a cargo runner haunted by that night, flying her father's mysteriously advanced ship and keeping her secrets close. But when enemy fire forces her below the safety threshold, she discovers that everything she's been taught about her world... and herself... is a lie.

Characters That Stole My Heart

As I developed Elira, Riven, and the incredible cast of sky pirates, and exiled nobility, who populate this world, something magical happened. They began teaching me lessons I didn't know I needed to learn. About resilience. About found family. About the difference between surviving and truly living.

Elira's journey from a broken survivor to someone who could unite sky and storm mirrors something I think we all experience—learning that our wounds don't make us weak; they make us warriors. Her relationship with Riven, the exiled heir of the Drakenkin Court, explores what happens when two people who've lost everything find something worth fighting for in each other.

Why This Story Matters Now

In a time when the world often feels fractured and unstable, there's something powerful about a story set in a literally shattered world—one where the pieces of the earth float separate in an endless sky, yet people still find ways to soar, to connect, to love fiercely despite the void between them.

The Skyshattered Realms aren't just a fantasy setting; they're a metaphor for resilience, for finding beauty in brokenness, and for the truth that sometimes the most magnificent things are born from destruction.

A New Adventure Awaits

Skyborne launches September 22nd, and I can barely contain my excitement to share this world with you. Whether you're a longtime reader who's followed my gothic romances and fantasy series, or you're discovering my work for the first time, I promise you've never read anything quite like this.

This is a story of sky pirates and dragon shifters, yes, but at its heart, it's about courage, love, and the unbreakable bonds that tie us together—even across impossible distances.

For all who serve in the skies above and guard the dreams below.

I can't wait for you to meet Elira, Riven, and the incredible world they inhabit. In two weeks, we all take flight together.