They say that the mark of a true writer is to write. That might sound obvious, but plenty of authors don’t. They become sidetracked, dry up, give up, or are just too busy enjoying their royalties (though not many could say that last one). By this yardstick Piers Anthony is as writerly as they get, having authored over 150 books.

He has claimed that one of his greatest achievements has been to publish a book for every letter of the alphabet, from Anthonology to Zombie Lover. That’s a cool achievement, but one thing he has yet to achieve (probably) is to be mentioned in the same breath as Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Until now.

The reason I’m coming all Piers Anthony at you is because one of our Greyhart authors (Lola aka LJ Hasbrouck) drew inspiration from his ‘Xanth‘ series when writing her own ‘Lineage of Tellus‘ books. Piers was gracious enough to read the first Tellus book and wrote some very positive comments for the August 2014 (or ‘AwGhost’) newsletter on his website (here). I think Lola was thrilled and so was I (when I was a teenager, his Apprentice Adept series had a big impact on me). 

Eleanor of Aquitaine doesn’t feature in Lola’s Tellus books but is one of the principal characters in Elaine Stirling’s literary historical mystery, Daughters of Babylon. We recently launched Elaine’s book at a special promotional price, which expires at the end of this week. So buy this book today!

While unexpectedly finding myself in downtown Toronto last week (practically on Elaine’s doorstep) I snapped this picture of our Ontario offices for the Tellus books. Some stern words were required when I saw the sign writer had missed off one of the ‘l’s!

Our downtown Toronto offices. Not at all connected with a Canadian telecoms corporation (honestly!)