Now you can read the novelette Publisher’s Weekly called “A harsh and poignant take on the unicorn myth.” and Booklist claimed was “[A] deliciously dark tale of unlikely nuns and even more unlikely unicorns…”
…for only $.99 cents!
In 18th century France, a noble family prepares to celebrate their daughter’s arranged marriage by holding a traditional unicorn hunt. But when an unusual nun arrives at the chateau with her beloved pet to help the rich girl train, nothing goes as expected. Starring hunters, fine ladies, fancy frocks, and killer unicorns.
This story was originally published in last year’s Kiss Me Deadly anthology. It is a 2010 Locus Recommended Read. If you have been curious about the killer unicorn world but haven’t had a chance to read the full length novels, here is a marvelously low-cost, high-adventure way to see what I keep going on about. And if you have read Rampant and Ascendant but didn’t get your hands on the antho, here’s my novelette in all its glory!
Buy it on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. (dedicated Apple version coming soon! Darn technical difficulties…) Read a free sample here.
I love this story so much. It’s my first historical, my first published work in third person, and my first story (despite having published not one but two novels with swords on the covers) in which I actually buckle some swash.*
Okay. Off to write. I’ve got three hours before Q’s doctor’s appointment. Wonder how much I can get done?
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* My dictionary app tells me that, to my dismay, “swashbuckling” does not actually refer to swordfights, but instead to adventurous/romantic derring-do. Naturally, all my books have that (hello! Dude jumped off a moving speedboat in Rites of Spring (Break)), but let’s just pretend we’re talking swordfights here.
















April 5th, 2011 at 9:54 am
Swashbuckling originally was a type of swordfighting in which a side-sword and a ‘buckler’, a type of small shield for hand-to-hand combat, were used.
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April 5th, 2011 at 10:03 am
Cassandra, thank you. This is why I need you around. There’s TOTALLY swashbuckling in “Errant!”
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April 5th, 2011 at 11:46 am
You make doctor’s appointments for the guy who designs all of 007’s gadgets? Cool!
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April 5th, 2011 at 11:50 am
No, PR, for a snarky, trans-dimensional, godlike collective.
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April 5th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Speaking of swords on covers, I was looking through the books on my library’s shelving cart and I saw one with the same sword on it that ASCENDANT does. It was like Deja Vu. Seriously are there no good sword stock photos left in the world? Funny thing though I can’t remember what book it was.
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April 5th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Oh and also I was wondering. The chateau where ERRANT takes place sounds awfully similar to the chateau where Madame Jaeger resides in ASCENDANT. Am I imagining this? Or is it on purpose?
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April 5th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Emilia:
RE: sword: I saw that! The “astrid” on the cover of Rampant appears on another book, too. It’s funny. I don’t worry about it too much though. It’s like actors playing more than one role. Look at Alex Pettyfer — he’s in like every YA novel made into a movie these days!
RE: chateau. Hmmmm I dunno. What do you think?
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April 5th, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Diana, it’s entirely possible I spend too much time at medieval re-enactments ^_^
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April 5th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Yay! I confess (shamefacedly) that I own Kiss Me Deadly and have yet to read Errant. But I will. As soon as I finish my three books due at the library in a week. Gah!
Congrats!
Does the success of Errant mean that we may be seeing KU3 soon-ish?
I am very curious about SRSP, by the way.
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April 6th, 2011 at 10:09 am
Shame on you, Tiff.
You’re curious about SRSP but not BOED? Why,because the latter has been hanging around for years?
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April 6th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Oh, believe me, I am curious about BOED. But that curiosity is like white noise for me – it’s always there, I just choose to ignore it so it won’t drive me batty. =)
And yeah, SRSP is new. And its name invokes enough curiosity to make me speak up.
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April 6th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Well, that would have been my second choice. But wouldn’t he be more likely to have Kathryn or Jean-Luc make his appointments for him?
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April 8th, 2011 at 5:02 am
[...] Big News: “Errant” unleashed: http://www.dianapeterfreund.com/the-big-news-errant-unleashed/ – @dpeterfreund (Diana Peterfreund – [...]
April 9th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Bought it. Read it. Loved it.
I thought Q stood for Queen.
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April 9th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Yay! How exciting! I really love, love, love Rampant & Ascendant. Astrid is one of my favorite characters. Ever. I will definitely be checking this one out. Congrats =D.
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April 12th, 2011 at 12:21 am
i own “kiss me deadly” and i LOVED errant.
and now i’m going to have to buy the story for my kindle so it has all the killer unicorns possible!
my parents thought that i would save money with my kindle. i think i’m making a bigger dent.
(congrats congrats congrats!!)
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