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Category: self-publishing

  • The Time Has Come to Return the Sword

    The Time Has Come to Return the Sword

    Arthur Pendragon hasn’t drawn Excalibur in eleven years. He’s fifty-six, tired, and finished pretending the sword still belongs to him. So he loads it on a donkey and rides alone into the mountains of Snowdonia to return it to the water.

    He doesn’t expect anyone to be waiting for him there.

    It’s a quiet story about a king at the end of his legend โ€” and what he finds out about his life when he gets there. Set in the world of The Halls of the Shadow King, for readers who like their Arthurian fiction grounded and a little unexpected.

    99 cents on Kindle right now.

  • Western Literature with a Magical Realism Twist

    Western Literature with a Magical Realism Twist

    Nora Callahan can feel trouble before it has a name.

    She calls it reading weatherโ€”a sense, inherited from a grandmother she barely knew, that warns her when a man has already decided something terrible and just hasn’t done it yet. It saved her life once, in a trading post in New Mexico, when she walked out the back door for no reason she could explain. It’s saved her more times since.

    But Nora didn’t come west to be anyone’s oracle. She came to build a life after her husband’s death, on a parcel of land between two families who don’t know yet that they’re about to tear each other apartโ€”and a man riding into the valley who gives off no weather at all. No pressure, no warning, nothing she can read. Just a blank where a person should be.

    Now everyone she’s come to love is standing in the path of something she can feel coming and can’t stop, can’t name, and may not be able to warn them about in time.

    THE RIM COUNTRY, Book One. Coming Soon! (More on this book!)

  • The Questions “The Rim Country” Asks

    The Questions “The Rim Country” Asks

    The Rim Country isn’t really about the 1880s. It’s about a question that hasn’t gotten any easier to answer: what do you do with the people you love when you can see them heading toward something irreversible, and you can’t honestly tell them they’re wrong to go?

    The novel sits inside ideas that feel less like history and more like a mirrorโ€”the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and why people confuse them; how revenge dresses itself up as justice when accountability is absent; and how two communities stalemated in a grudge war are often the last to notice they’re being played by ambitious outsiders.

    Nora Callahan, the woman caught in the middle of it, doesn’t get to stay above the fray and dispense wisdom. She has to live inside the not-knowing, the same way we all do when the people around us make devastating but somewhat defensible choices we can’t stop.

    THE RIM COUNTRY, Book One. Coming Soon! (More on this book!)

  • War is Coming to the Valley!

    War is Coming to the Valley!

    Nora Callahan’s gifting has kept her alive more than once—it’s how she knows, long before neighbor ranching families will admit it, that war is coming to the valley and she can’t stop it.


    THE RIM COUNTRY, Book One. Coming Soon! (More on this book!)

  • The War They Forgot to Put in the History Books

    The War They Forgot to Put in the History Books

    Most Arizonans know the name Tombstone. The O.K. Corral. Wyatt Earp. The gunfight that lasted thirty seconds and generated movies and a hundred years of mythology.

    Fewer know about Pleasant Valley.

    In the summer of 1887, a feud erupted in the Tonto Basin between two ranching families โ€” the Tewksburys and the Grahams โ€” that would kill somewhere between thirty and fifty men over the next five years, wipe out the male lines of both families, and leave a valley so saturated with violence that the survivors renamed it just to escape the memory. By body count, the Pleasant Valley War was the deadliest range conflict in the history of the American West. It makes the O.K. Corral look like a disagreement over a fence line.

    And almost nobody outside Arizona has heard of it. And few inside Arizona, to be honest.

    I’ve been researching this conflict for the better part of a year, and the more I dig, the more convinced I am that the Pleasant Valley War is one of the great untold stories of American history. Not because of the violence โ€” though the violence is extraordinary โ€” but because of what the violence reveals. This wasn’t a simple feud between bad men. It was a collision of cattle and sheep interests, racial prejudice against the half-Native American Tewksbury family, the corrupting influence of a territorial cattle baron with political aspirations named James Stinson, the arrival of hired killers like Tom Horn, and the fundamental question of who had the right to determine what an ideal ranching valley was for.

    Why I’m writing about it as fiction

    When I first encountered the Pleasant Valley War, my instinct was to research the history for a possible historical fiction novel. But the historical record has a gap at its center that no amount of research can fill: the inner lives of the people involved. We know what happened from a few differing perspectives. We don’t know what it felt like to watch it happen from inside the valley, day by day, before anyone knew how it would end. That feels useful to me. Is this the sort of pressure between opposing sides we’re feeling today — and are we equally unsure of the outcome?

    As someone who loves filling in these human gaps of history, I revel in the knowledge that this is where beautiful fiction lives.

    The Rim Country is my attempt to inhabit that gap. The novel follows Nora Callahan, a widowed Irish immigrant who settles in Pleasant Valley in 1882 โ€” five years before the killing starts โ€” and finds herself positioned between the two families as their friendship slowly becomes something else. Nora has an unusual gift: a barometric sensitivity to the intentions of the people around her, a kind of reading weather that gives her early warning of what’s coming and no way to stop it.

    She is fictional. Everything around her is as historically accurate as I can make it.

    The Mogollon Rim, which forms the northern boundary of Pleasant Valley and rises 2,000 feet above the Tonto Basin floor, is the novel’s central symbol โ€” a wall between worlds, between the valley’s closed world and the open country above, between what the valley was and what it was becoming. I’ve driven that rim. I’ve stood at the edge and looked down into the basin and understood, in a way that no map communicates, why the people who settled there felt both protected and trapped.

    That feeling is what I’m trying to put on the page.

    Why Wattpad?

    I’m publishing The Rim Country serially on Wattpad, which means you can read it chapter by chapter, free, as it develops. There are fourteen chapters posted now, covering the years 1882 through 1884 โ€” the friendship, the partnership, the betrayal, and the first death that makes everything that follows inevitable.

    Serial publication is how Dickens published. It’s how most of the great Victorian novels reached their audiences โ€” chapter by chapter, with readers waiting to find out what happened next. There’s something fitting about telling a story of this era the way stories were told in that era.

    If you’re interested in Arizona history, the Pleasant Valley War, or simply in fiction that takes its geography seriously, I’d invite you to start at the beginning. Chapter One is short. The mule is opinionated. The valley is beautiful.

    It won’t stay that way.

    [Read The Rim Country on Wattpad โ€” free]

    Tod Newman writes historical fiction under the Desdichado Books imprint. He reviews books at todnewman.com and posts about the writing life, Arizona history, and whatever the Mogollon Rim is doing today.

  • I Have a New Novelette โ€” and It’s Almost Free ($.99)!

    I Have a New Novelette โ€” and It’s Almost Free ($.99)!

    I’ve been living in the world of the Old Testament prophets for a long time now. The Eyes of Gehazi took me deep into the strange, volatile orbit of Elisha and his servant, Gehazi. The Prophet and the Queen dropped me into the exhausted, visionary mind of Jeremiah, taken hostage to Egypt. Both of those novels ask a lot of their readers โ€” they’re long, layered, and they don’t apologize for it.

    So I wanted to build a door.

    The Unknown Prophet is a 17,000-word novelette โ€” long enough to sink into, short enough to finish in an evening โ€” and it’s only $.99 (Amazon won’t let me keep it free, but I’d like to).

    It fictionalizes one of the strangest and least-discussed episodes in the entire Old Testament: the unnamed man of God from 1 Kings 13 who walks north alone, confronts a rebellious king at an idolatrous altar, watches God split stone and restore a withered arm, and then gets betrayed on the road home by an older prophet who should have known better. The story ends with a lion and a burial and a grief that has no clean resolution.

    What I love about this story is what it doesn’t explain. The biblical text gives us almost nothing about who this man was, what he was thinking, or why he made the choice that killed him. That blank space is where I live.

    If you’re new to my Prophetic Series, this is the place to start. If you’ve already spent time with Gehazi or Jeremiah, you’ll find the same world โ€” the same dust and wind, the same God who is present and terrifying and not always easy to understand.

    You can grab the ebook for only 99 cents on Amazon. If it finds you well, I hope you’ll wander further in.

    OTHER LINKS you might find interesting:

    The Halls of the Shadow King: Brittania Calls – Learn all about this fourth novel in the Halls of the Shadow King series!

    Tod’s thoughts about the damage that Post-modernism has done to modern literature

    Tod’s Book Reviews

  • Britannia Calls: A Red Dragon, Fionn mac Cumhaill, and Early Christians Who Didn’t Survive by Being Timid

    Britannia Calls: A Red Dragon, Fionn mac Cumhaill, and Early Christians Who Didn’t Survive by Being Timid

    The fourth book in The Halls of the Shadow King series is now available on Amazon Kindle. It’s called Britannia Calls, and is a Christian retelling of Celtic mythology (and possibly an Arthurian origin story!). Set twenty-something years after the adventures of Amal in the first three books in “The Halls of the Shadow King”. My intent is that the reader has the option to treat this as either the fourth book or as a standalone introduction to the series. Here’s the overview:

    Highlights of the Action

    What are the highlights? Third-century Roman Britain. A red dragon sleeping under a Welsh mountain. A Christian awakening spreading through the island that the dragon finds deeply inconvenient. And a team sent from Antiochโ€”led by Amal, the Shadow Kingโ€”to do something about it.

    They’re joined by Finn McCool and they briefly meet Taliesin. Yes, those two. One is an immortal Celtic warrior who has been fighting supernatural evil longer than most civilizations have existed. The other is a blind former druid who serves a different master now and carries scars from the last time he tried to face the dragon alone.

    The early Christians in this story didn’t survive Roman persecution by being cautious people. They survived by being stubborn, brave, and entirely convinced that the darkness was going to lose eventually. A primordial dragon will test conviction in a cavern deep beneath Mount Snowdonia.

    Mythical Celtic Setting

    Britannia Calls is historical fiction rooted in the third century ADโ€”a few years before the reign of Emperor Constantine. The narrative swims in early Celtic Christianity, and the pre-Roman mythological traditions of Ireland and Wales. The supernatural elementsโ€”dragons, Pattern-sight, binding rituals drawn from Hebrew and druidic traditionsโ€”are built on that historical and literary foundation, not cartoons layered on top of it.

    If you’ve read The Apprentice or Into Deeper Waters, you already know Amal. If this is your first encounter with the series, Britannia Calls works as an entry point. The format keeps it focusedโ€”one mission, one mountain, one ancient enemy.

    What’s Next?

    I’m already thinking about the next project. Another Old Testament prophet, most likely. Different era, different landscape, same fundamental conflict: someone who has been given a gift they didn’t ask for and a task they’d prefer to refuse. He won’t know what hit him.

    HOW TO PURCHASE THE BOOK!

    Find Britannia Calls on Amazon (Kindle only): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0GS3PDF8R

    Paperback is available exclusively on my web store here at todnewman.com!

    Other LINKS about this Novel

    Q&A with the Author

    Reviews of the First Book in this Series

    Early article “hyping” this book!

    Detailed Cover Art process post

  • Q&A for the Author of The Halls of the Shadow King

    Q&A for the Author of The Halls of the Shadow King

    Q&A with W. Tod Newman, Author of The Halls of the Shadow King

    Being a full-time author means dealing with a strange paradox.

    No one outside your immediate circle will ever read your book without marketing. For introverted authors who loathe self-promotion, this stinks. But I’ve accepted it as necessary. Most of us write because we believe we’re offering something valuableโ€”entertainment, wisdom gleaned from experience, or both. That value disappears if we never reach the right readers.

    I’ve also learned that there are sadistic people out there who find great satisfaction in tearing down authors through anonymous one-star reviews. Often these come from individuals who never bought or read the book. I’ve heard stories of authors receiving one-star reviews describing entirely different books from the one they wrote. Amazon rarely removes these unless they’re extreme violations. They’ll tell you it averages out eventually.

    Getting actual readers to leave reviews? Nearly impossible. Whole industries exist around “review farming” to manufacture early buzz for new releases. I find this distasteful.

    So here’s my attempt at a different approachโ€”a Q&A based on questions people have actually asked me. Maybe some stray Google search will bring an interested reader this way. Stranger things have happened.

    Question: How did you come up with the idea for The Halls of the Shadow King series?

    Most authors writing Young Adult series don’t start with AD 280 in the Roman Empire. This choice reflects my love of researchโ€”after writing two novels set during the Old Testament prophets, diving into this era was easy and enjoyable.

    But the idea came as a question: “What would have happened if the powerful gifts seen in the early church had manifested during Roman persecution?” The timing seemed obvious. Emperor Valerian launched unusually harsh persecutions that began suddenly and ended just as suddenly under his son. My research never turned up a compelling reason why.

    Amal emerged as the answer to that questionโ€”a gifted young man drawn from street crime in Damascus into a secretive organization dedicated to furthering The Way. His gift combines elements I’ve seen scattered through legends worldwide. Why not place a character who can reshape reality at the center of world-changing events?

    Question: Is Amal a perfectly powerful character like Superman?

    I struggled to keep Amal human. I don’t enjoy all-powerful, all-good characters in literature. Besides his extraordinary gift, I gave Amal something perhaps more valuable: humility.

    Where did this come from? Partly from the kindness of his Creator, but also from making mistakes and learning his capacity for error. He never feels fully confident to me, which makes him real.

    If anyone actually reads this and engages, I’ll keep writing these Q&A pieces until people get sick of it!

    Want to Check out the SERIES? Head over to my store (product is fulfilled from Lulu.com, which makes a nicer paperback product than Amazon).

    Question: Why do you love writing so much?

    I’ve asked myself this since high school. Writing was something I kept pushing forward on despite never being satisfied with the output. Eventually I started appreciating my own style and discovered that I could finally complete works I’d started and abandoned. The Halls of the Shadow King is an exampleโ€”I wrote about half of it between 2016 and 2018, then let it rest. After publishing my two Old Testament prophet novels in the 2020s, I returned to “Halls” and found I could finally tell Amal’s story the way it needed to be told.

    But why do I love it?

    I write because I like to share. What I’ve learned and gradually understood about life might be transferable to others. My reading taste has always leaned toward the classics, where authors were less distracted by material things (and iPhones!) and more focused on sharing their wisdom, their hearts, and their imaginations.

    I think readers may detect this influence in my writing. I hope it has a good effect.

    OTHER LINKS about this Series

    Reviews from Readers’ Favorite

    UP NEXT in the Series

    COVER ART process. Yes, I do my own covers (not AI).

    BEHIND THE SCENES of the making of the series

  • Reviews of “The Halls of the Shadow King: The Apprentice”

    Reviews of “The Halls of the Shadow King: The Apprentice”

    Here are a few of the professional reviews I’ve received on the first book in the series. I’m not really obsessed with reviews or marketing my books, but I won this review package in a Independent Book Contest and figured I ought to repost. They were all 5-star reviews… Readers’ Favorite does seem to give a fair number of 5-star reviews, but it’s hard to know the percentage since they don’t post anything lower than 4-star. Still, maybe good?

    Find the Full Series on Amazon HERE

    Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readersโ€™ Favorite

    The Halls of the Shadow King: The Apprentice by W. Tod Newman follows Amal, an orphaned street thief in third-century Syria, fighting to keep his younger sister Neffie alive in a harsh and unforgiving world. When slave traders take her, he discovers a remarkable ability to reshape reality, altering outcomes and alliances in ways others cannot. His daring rescue of dozens of enslaved children draws the attention of the Shadow King, who leads a network safeguarding followers of The Way across the Roman Empire. As Emperor Valerian intensifies the persecution of bishops and believers, Amal is tasked with infiltrating Rome and influencing the emperor. Guided by sages and strategists, he must master his powers while confronting ancient, formidable forces that threaten the empire and the survival of The Way. โ€œThat is the balance we all must find โ€“ between power and restraint, between action and wisdom. Today you learned more about both than a hundred lessons could have taught you.โ€

    The Halls of the Shadow King: The Apprentice by W. Tod Newman is a really ambitious undertaking, but the author handles it well. I love the contrast of scale, authority, and vulnerability. Amal and Neffie are small children entering spaces filled with political and mystical authority, and we quickly learn that Amal, as a seemingly powerless protagonist, is about to navigate a complex, threatening world. The world-building itself is phenomenal. Newman constructs a richly layered world with cultural, historical, and mystical dimensions. References to both tangible and legendary histories suggest that Amalโ€™s experiences are part of a broader continuum. The inclusion of diverse locations and scholarly networks, like the Alexandrian manuscripts and the Wandererโ€™s travels, anchoring these elements in a historical context, got me wondering how, through Amal, visions and altering events will shape future outcomes. Overall, this is a solid first entry into the new series, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

    Reviewed by Makeda Cummings for Readersโ€™ Favorite

    Amal, a young street orphan and thief, begins life under the cruel hand of the Roman Empire. His existence is one where Christians face persecution and slavery. When his sister, Neffie, falls prey to slave traders, Amal sets out on a harrowing quest to save her. Along the way, strange supernatural powers begin to stir inside of him when the dangers close in. Gradually, Amal’s journey draws him deeper along a secret path called The Way. Ultimately, he is guided by an enigmatic spiritual leader called the Shadow King. Soon enough, he meets friends and foes who force him to value the power of trust while embracing his true purpose. With time running short, Amal stands between light and darkness. Will his inner strength guide him toward freedom or plunge him deeper into the shadows? Find out in W. Tod Newman’s The Halls of the Shadow King.

    This captivating novel is more than your average YA historical fantasy. It is a story about inner turmoil and resilience. Set against the backdrop of Roman persecution, W. Tod Newman passionately writes about how ordinary people can find extraordinary strength to do brave things when faced with oppression and suffering. Through Amalโ€™s eyes, readers will bear witness to how spirituality, power, and self-identity can clash in a world dictated by secrets and hidden threats. I’m genuinely amazed at how well the story merges real history and magical elements, making Amal’s encounters both believable and exciting to follow. The author knows how to create characters that come alive and stand out throughout the book. Each character, from the Shadow King to Amal and Gallien, conveys different ways people respond to issues like fear and control. From beginning to end, The Halls of the Shadow King challenges readers to think about the price of truth and what it means to withstand internal and external darkness. It truly is a literary gem.

    Reviewed by Isabella Harris for Readersโ€™ Favorite

    The Apprentice by W. Tod Newman is the first installment in The Halls of the Shadow King series. Set during the Roman era, Amal, a young street thief, is searching for his sister, whom he believes has been kidnapped by slavers. During his search, he is overwhelmed by an extraordinary power that grants him the ability to reshape reality. He uses this power to successfully rescue his sister, with other children held hostage by the slavers, leading them to seek refuge in a community of worshippers called The Way. Unfortunately, the followers of The Way Amal are being threatened by the Roman Empire, which strongly opposes their beliefs. With Amal’s newfound powers, the fate of their beliefs now rests on his ability to understand and harness his extraordinary gift.

    I was really impressed by how W. Tod Newman was able to blend a historical setting with faith and mysteries. The Halls of the Shadow King shows the reign of the Roman Empire and the struggle the followers of The Way suffered at the hands of the Romans. I loved how remarkably the characters were developed, especially Amal, who goes from a young street thief to someone on whose shoulders the fate of an entire religion lies. The pacing kept me engaged, which allowed me to fully understand Amalโ€™s motivations and his journey of fully harnessing his powers. The Halls of the Shadow King: The Apprentice covers themes of humility, determination, greed, deceit, and much more. I recommend it to readers who are interested in historical fiction with a touch of extraordinary mystery.

  • The Historical Fiction Dragon Book Readers Have Been Waiting For

    The Historical Fiction Dragon Book Readers Have Been Waiting For

    Looking for a historical fiction dragon book that breaks all the fantasy tropes? You’ve found it.

    After three books of supernatural intrigue spanning from Damascus to Rome, The Halls of the Shadow King series is taking an unexpected turnโ€”straight into the mist-shrouded mountains of ancient Britannia.

    And this time, Amal faces something he can’t simply outsmart or outmaneuver: a dragon.

    From Street Thief to Dragon-Binder

    When we first met Amal in The Apprentice, he was a desperate thirteen-year-old stealing maps to save his sister. Now, as the Shadow King leading a vast underground network across the Roman Empire, he’s being called to confront an ancient evil that has terrorized British villages for generations.

    But here’s the twist: he might not be able to kill it.

    This isn’t your typical historical fiction dragon book where the hero simply slays the beast and rides off into the sunset. In fact, Amal’s mission is far more complexโ€”and far more dangerous.

    What Readers Are Saying About This Historical Fiction Dragon Book

    “I thought this was historical fiction with a supernatural edge. Book Four turned it into something entirely differentโ€”and I couldn’t put it down.”

    The fourth installment, Brittania Calls, takes everything that made the first three books compellingโ€”the intricate plotting, the richly researched historical detail, the exploration of power and humilityโ€”and adds something readers will love: a dragon.

    But not the dragon you expect.

    The Mission: Binding an Ancient Evil

    When three young Britons arrive at Amal’s safehouse in Malta with desperate pleas for help, he learns that the persecution-free awakening spreading across Britannia is threatened by something older than Rome itself. A dragon, dormant for decades, is stirring in the western mountains. Moreover, if The Morriganโ€”the ancient entity Amal barely survived in Romeโ€”is behind its awakening, the consequences could reshape the entire empire.

    Amal’s solution? Assemble a team unlike any other:

    • Finn, the Irish warrior-prince with knowledge of Celtic magic
    • Andreas, the scholarly priest with expertise in ancient texts
    • Four Carthaginian practitioners experienced in binding rituals
    • Three desperate British youths carrying fragments of forgotten druid wisdom

    Their goal isn’t to slay the dragon in some heroic confrontation. Instead, it’s to bind itโ€”seal it away using ancient rituals that combine Carthaginian, Hebrew, and Celtic traditions into something entirely new.

    Why This Historical Fiction Dragon Book Hits Different

    Historical readers will love the meticulous research into 3rd-century trade routes from Carthage to Britain, the authentic portrayal of early Christian communities, and the seamless blend of Roman, Celtic, and North African cultures.

    Fantasy readers will devour the dragon lore, the exploration of binding rituals versus destruction, and the way ancient spiritual entities interact with the physical world.

    Literary fiction fans will appreciate the deeper questions: What does victory look like when you can’t simply destroy your enemy? How do you wield supernatural power with humility? What happens when your faith requires you to walk into situations where success isn’t guaranteed?

    Historical Accuracy Meets Celtic Magic

    What sets this early Christian fiction apart is the exhaustive research behind every detail. The trade goods carried from Carthage to Britannia? Historically accurateโ€”wine, olive oil, grain, and garum (fermented fish sauce) were staples of Roman-era commerce. The Atlantic crossing through the Pillars of Hercules? Based on actual Carthaginian trade routes that predated Roman dominance.

    However, the magic system isn’t borrowed from modern fantasy. The binding rituals draw from genuine ancient traditionsโ€”Carthaginian texts on containing spiritual entities, Hebrew practices of spiritual warfare, and Celtic druid wisdom that survived Rome’s suppression of their culture.

    A Three-Week Voyage Into Darkness

    The Atlantic crossing alone is worth the price of admission. As Amal’s team sails from Carthage through the Pillars of Hercules into the wild Atlantic, they’re not just traveling to Britainโ€”they’re preparing for spiritual warfare unlike anything they’ve faced before.

    They study ancient texts on binding rituals. They train in coordinated combat tactics. They listen as the young British woman Branwen sings songs her grandmother taught herโ€”songs that contain fragments of the original ritual that once sealed the dragon away.

    And slowly, they transform from a group of individuals into something more powerful: a unified force capable of confronting ancient evil.

    Behind the Scenes: Researching the Dragon

    Creating a believable historical fiction dragon book required diving deep into multiple mythological traditions. Celtic dragon lore differs significantly from Greek or Norse traditions. The ancient Britons viewed dragons not as mindless beasts but as intelligent, potentially corruptible beingsโ€”guardians who could be twisted into monsters.

    This research led to one of the book’s central questions: What if the dragon wasn’t always evil? What if ancient kings made pacts with it, offering worship in exchange for protection? And what happens when such a creature, corrupted over centuries, can no longer be reasoned with?

    The Questions Readers Are Asking

    Q: Do I need to read Books 1, 2, and 3 first?

    While Brittania Calls can stand alone, the full impact of Amal’s journeyโ€”from street thief to apprentice to Shadow Kingโ€”is best experienced from the beginning. Plus, his confrontation with The Morrigan in Rome sets up crucial context for the Britannia mission.

    Q: Is this Christian fiction?

    It’s historical fiction set in the 3rd-century church during Roman persecution. The characters are believers navigating how to use supernatural gifts faithfully. But it’s written for a broad audienceโ€”anyone who loves well-researched historical fiction with supernatural elements.

    Q: Does the dragon get killed?

    No spoilers! But I will say this: the resolution challenges typical fantasy tropes in ways readers are finding surprisingly satisfying. This spiritual warfare fiction takes a different approach to victory.

    Q: How accurate is the Roman Britain setting?

    Extremely. From the garrison locations to the trade networks to the tension between Romanized Britons and unconquered tribes beyond the Wallโ€”every detail is grounded in historical research. Even the dragon’s lair placement is based on actual Celtic sacred sites in western Britain.

    Q: When does the book release?

    Brittania Calls is coming soon! Meanwhile, check out the full series (Kindle or Paperback) on Amazon HERE. At Desdichado Books, we attempt to keep the prices as low as possible to prevent any barrier to potential readers.

    What Makes This Series Unique

    The Halls of the Shadow King isn’t your typical “hero with a sword saves the day” fantasy. It’s about:

    • Power wielded with humility rather than domination
    • Communities working together rather than lone heroes
    • Spiritual warfare that acknowledges some battles are about containment, not conquest
    • Historical accuracy that brings the 3rd-century Mediterranean world to vivid life
    • Deep questions about faith, calling, and what it means to serve something greater than yourself
    • Multi-cultural perspectives blending Roman, Celtic, Carthaginian, and Hebrew traditions

    A Map of Amal’s Journey to Britannia

    The team’s route takes them through some of the most strategic locations in the ancient Mediterranean:

    • Antioch โ€“ Network headquarters where the mission begins
    • Cyprus โ€“ First gathering point for intelligence
    • Rhodes โ€“ Strategic maritime crossroads
    • Crete โ€“ Where they survive a devastating storm
    • Carthage โ€“ Where they recruit the binding specialists
    • Through the Pillars of Hercules โ€“ Entering the wild Atlantic
    • Western Britannia โ€“ The dragon’s domain

    Each stop adds crucial pieces to the puzzleโ€”knowledge, resources, and team members who will prove essential in confronting the dragon.

    The Author’s Vision

    W. Tod Newman set out to write a different kind of early Christian fictionโ€”one that didn’t shy away from supernatural elements but grounded them in historical reality. The result is a series that appeals to fans of Bernard Cornwell’s historical accuracy, Stephen Lawhead’s Celtic spirituality, and Frank Peretti’s spiritual warfareโ€”but with its own unique voice.

    “I wanted to explore what would happen if someone with genuine supernatural gifting lived during the Roman persecution. Not a sanitized, safe versionโ€”but the real questions: How do you use such power faithfully? What does it cost? And what happens when simply ‘winning’ isn’t the point?” โ€“ W. Tod Newman

    Ready to Join the Voyage?

    If you’re tired of the same old fantasy tropes… if you love historical fiction that doesn’t sacrifice accuracy for drama… if you want characters who wrestle with real questions about power, faith, and purpose… then this is your series.

    Start with The Apprentice and watch a street thief become something extraordinary.
    Continue with Into Deeper Waters as the stakes expand from one city to an empire.
    Proceed to The Hidden Order which is the conclusion of the first three novels and explores conflict with ancient evil powers and saving the soul of Rome.

    Then Finish with Brittania Calls as Amal faces his greatest challenge yet in the misty mountains of Britannia.

    Because sometimes the most powerful victories don’t come from destroying your enemies.

    Sometimes they come from learning to bind themโ€”and trust that the Great King’s purposes will ultimately prevail.

    Available Now at All Major Retailers

    The Halls of the Shadow King series by W. Tod Newman
    Published by Desdichado Books

    Order your copy today:

    Connect with the author:
    Website: todnewman.com

    Twitter/X

    “Newman has crafted something rareโ€”a historical fiction dragon book that respects both history and faith while delivering edge-of-your-seat supernatural thriller pacing. The Britannia storyline is his best work yet.”

    Tags: historical fiction dragon book, early Christian fiction, Roman Britain fantasy, spiritual warfare fiction, Celtic magic historical novel, 3rd century Rome, Carthage to Britain, dragon binding ritual, The Halls of the Shadow King