Jessica A. McMinn

So I’ve finished my novel. Now what?

While I sit and wait for feedback from my beta readers, I’ve put together a comprehensive guide to the world of Whyt’hallen and everything you need to know about the upcoming Gardens of War & Wasteland Book I: The Ruptured Sky.

Once a garden for the gods, Whyt’hallen was a land divided by war. An ancient battle between the mortal world and the magical Meah-Hyren tore the sky and saw the land overrun with demonspawn. Now, the Goddess was dead.

But that was ancient history.

Amikharlia Holani wanted one thing in life: to know why she was alive. The first daughter ever born to her line, Amika was special—and feared. Bestowed with a power she didn’t understand. the princess left her home and her birthright in pursuit of answers.

And, she found them.

Caught up in a madman’s Prophecy, Amika learns her fate in reviving the Goddess and preventing Whyt’hallen from slipping further into ruin. But was laying the world to waste truly the way to save it?

So, what’s the backstory?

All the action of Gardens of War & Wasteland takes place the continent of Whyt’hallen, a veritable paradise created by the Goddess Miatha for her immortal First Born: the Meah-Hyren. Peace-loving and magically gifted, the Meah-Hyren flourished in the expansive forests—until the Meytarans came.

Miatha‘s mortal Second Born hailed from the lands of Mey on the other side of the earth, separated from Whyt’hallen and their magical siblings by the great Azure Expanse. When their lands succumbed to the Sickness, desperate leaders loaded the surviving people into ships and set sail across the ocean in search of safer ground.

The Meah-Hyren were receptive at first. They offered the Meytarans refuge on Whyt’hallen until their numbers grew. The Second Born reproduced at rates the Meah-Hyren had not anticipated. Their camps grew to cities, to kingdoms, and the forests were stripped to make way for their castles and pastures. With the Meytarans‘ unrelenting spread, the Meah-Hyren were pushed back to the fringes of their world. Soon, their generosity snapped.

No war is without casualty and no side suffered as severely as Whyt’hallen itself. The once lavish, fertile lands of the west were stripped to a barren wasteland under the corrosive power of Meah-Hyren magic. The unstable force of the war tore a rift across the sky, opening a gate to the realm adjacent–the antithesis of everything Miatha created: the Miekhel Ruim. Thousands of demonspawn flooded Whyt’hallen and presented both armies with a new, dangerous enemy. But the Meah-Hyren retreated. They withdrew to the last unspoiled isles of the world, leaving Whyt’hallen and the Meytarans to their demise.

Distraught from seeing her beloved garden and creations laid waste before her eyes, the Goddess Miatha surrendered her life force to mend the Tear, and used that of her four deity children to suture her spirit in place. In the godless world that followed, the Meytarans endured. Empires rose and fell; wars were waged and won; and somewhere in the middle of it all, a madman heard a prophecy.

Who are the main characters?

The Ruptured Sky follows an ensemble cast centralised around runaway princess, Amikharlia Elys Holani, the first daughter in recorded history born to the Kingdom of Holania. Escaping an arranged marriage to a suitor she despised, Amika walks out on her birthright to make her own decisions about what her life will be—and to learn more of the unusual powers that awoke in her childhood.

Rei-Hai Shaw is a childhood friend of Amika’s, stolen away from the Holanian captial of Adria at the age of thirteen to be inducted into the Tower—an organisation shrouded in mystery with connections all over Whyt’hallen. Rei’s allegiance to the brethren and the Tower’s own personal agenda are called into question when his latest target hits a little too close to home.

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Amika’s older brother, Crown Prince Kiokharan Ehrin Josten Holani is still dealing with the loss of his wife and unborn son when the consequence of Amika’s disappearance rears it ugly head. Insecure and alone without the support of his dear sister, Kio struggles to keep a hold on a kingdom verging on war all while tidying the mess Amika left behind.

After a chance meeting the demon huntress Amika, Kriah introduces the strange young woman to his exiled grandfather, a crazed Meah-Hyren hermit who sprouts madness about the Prophecy to revive the Goddess. Intrigued by the enigma that is Amika and her powers, Kriah slowly comes to realise that maybe his grandfather is not so crazy after all.

What themes are you dealing with?

The Gardens of War & Wasteland books will deal with a number of socially relevant themes including sexuality and mental health. Overarching ideas explore the tension between duty and desire; the weight of responsibility; and the battle to overcome internal and external adversity on the road to peace.

Well then, who should read it?

Anyone!

That said, Gardens of War & Wasteland is a New Adult dark fantasy series featuring a racially and sexually diverse cast primarily aimed at readers of all genders aged 18-30 years.

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