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An Epic Fantasy Book Series with a Sci-Fi Twist
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"I got utterly lost in this rich, thoughtful universe!"
“My new favorate series! Featuring a diverse cast of lovable characters on a wild journey through an intricately built original world. What’s not to love?”
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SORCERY
AND STARLIGHT
Book One of
The Dragons of the Cosmos
“My new favorate series! Featuring a diverse cast of lovable characters on a wild journey through an intricately built original world. What’s not to love?”
Magic, war, and sibling rivalry.
And a genre-bending twist.
SORCERY AND STARLIGHT
Book One of The Dragons of the Cosmos Series
"Magical, heartwarming, exciting, and often hilarious!"
“I’m officially in love with Sora, Mars, Korvig, and the rest of these relatable rascals! Come for the big political ideas and military adventures, stay for the bickering and comedy and heart.”
Sora Griffynel, the Captain of The City, finishes every assignment the Emperor gives her; her brother Mars can’t even finish breakfast. But now their tolerant, 3,000-year-old empire is withering before the blows of a fascist and bigoted tyrant. When The City falls, the two squabbling siblings set off on a quest across the known continents of Mana to redeem her honor, prove his worth, and save their world.
Gathering a motley crew of unlikely heroes—a foul-mouthed pirate, a wisecracking thief, a slippery merchant, two desert assassins—they brave mountains, jungles, seas, and deserts, Sora in search of military allies and Mars chasing mythical beings of great power that may or may not actually exist.
But neither can imagine what awaits them at the end of their journey—they’ll have to leave their world to save it.
To save their world,
they’ll need to leave their world.
“Not your typical fantasy novel—the language is fresh and modern and beautiful, there’s incredible depth in the worldbuilding, and the moral implications of the political struggles that drive the plot are truly meaningful.”
"An epic at the crossroads of Middle-Earth & Tatooine."
“I was utterly transported to the lush world of Mana, filled with warring nations with distinctive cultures and thousands of years of history—and I never could have expected what was hiding in the stars.”
“Prepare to get addicted. Whether you’re Team Sora or Team Mars, you’ll be rooting for these squabbling siblings to save their tolerant civilization from tyranny by discovering what’s beyond their world.”
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Plot Twist #2: J.M. Kowles is People!
Specifically, we're two middle-aged dads and long-time media pros who are fulfilling our shared childhood dream: to make smart, heartfelt, character-rich, immersive, genre-bending fantasy and sci-fi.
J.M. Kowles is the pen name of Joshua S. Howes and Matthew J. Kolsky, childhood friends reunited around a mutual dream. Growing up near Chicago in an idyllic suburb in the halcyon 1980s (basically, in a John Hughes movie), Josh and Matt were "cool nerds" (at least, they thought so) who were usually found secretly reading a fantasy or sci-fi novel when they were supposed to be paying attention to a teacher, coach, minister, dentist, crossing guard, exasperated school nurse or long-suffering parent. Our minds were shaped by the addictive, character-driven adventures of classic SFF series like Dragonlance, The Wheel of Time, Earthsea, The Belgariad, Shannara, The Death Gate Cycle, and of course LOTR (in fantasy) and Foundation, Dune, Ender's Game, Childhood's End, and the Hainish Cycle (in sci-fi).
Fast-forward a few decades and we've found ourselves back in the same suburb after decades on opposite coasts, parenting small children while working at various jobs with varying degrees of success. We both still read secretly, or daydream about reading, or imagine what we'd read if we were writers who wrote what we wanted to read, all the time--say, during a Zoom meeting, or at a baseball game, or while making up bedtime stories for our own kids. One day, Matt called up Josh and said, "Hey, life is short; you want to do something crazy and write a fantasy series?" Josh said, "You had me at crazy." In fact, he added that he'd been kicking around an idea for blending magical fantasy adventure with thought-provoking, galaxy-spanning science fiction. Thus, a daydream became a project.
A year and a thousand draft pages later, we've completed the first two books in the DRAGONS OF THE COSMOS series, and we're building up to the launch of Book One: LOOK TO THE STARS.
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P.S. If you really want to hear about it, we have a lot of experience developing the writing and storytelling skills needed to craft a book you’ll actually love.
So, if resumes are your thing, herewith:
Joshua S. Howes has published fiction in Ploughshares and The Best Young Writers and Artists in America; been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the David Nathan Meyerson Prize, and the Nelson Algren Award; won the Bocock-Guerard Fiction Prize at Stanford; and taught fiction at Columbia University, where he earned his MFA. He has also been a Chicago Tribune reporter and educational entrepreneur.
Matt Kolsky has enjoyed a two decade career as a radio host, podcaster, humorist, and journalist. He enjoyed a modicum of success as a sports radio host for 95.7 The Game (KGMZ-FM) and KNBR (680/1050 AM) in San Francisco; he’s also been a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, NBA broadcaster, and host of various podcasts including the recently deceased favorite The Toy Department.
(Basically, Josh is literary style, plot mechanics, and world-building; Matt is character, comedy, and hooks; and we're both heart and ideas.)
Help pick our first cover design!
We know a great cover will get our books in more readers' hands, so we're asking YOU -- our first readers and fans -- to help pick the cover for Book One of The Dragons of the Cosmos series: SORCERY AND STARLIGHT.
*** Yes, the title on these cover designs is wrong -- it's the old title of Book One, before our earliest fans voted on the new one! For now, imagine these designs with the right title, SORCERY AND STARLIGHT. We'll fix it when you choose the final cover, promise!
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