Cover Reveal: So Sing the Barrows by Steve Hugh Westenra

In a deep dark wood, a deep dark secret festers, and an exiled Nordic witch must uncover the face of a murderer who wears the mask of a death god. Vengeance, survival, and the lives of her friends demand it.

Wytha Naemisdottir is a witch, banished to the frigid mainland for failing to save her king's newborn child. If she can find a gift worthy of the king's forgiveness, Wytha can return home alongside her warrior lover and misfit companions. But the mainland is contested territory, and its dense woods are haunted. A black-robed stranger watches her from the coastline, the fishermen who greet her have taken to worshipping a foreign god with ties to Wytha's southern heritage, and rumours abound of an invader whose vanguard is picking off villages one by one.

Worse still, someone is summoning spectral barrow-wights that attack Wytha's people. Creatures straight out of myth, pitch-black and faceless, the wights can separate skin from bone with a touch. But uncovering the face of the summoner raises a disturbing question: is a stranger responsible, or is the summoner one of her cherished companions?

As the search for answers entangles Wytha in the sinister politics of mainland, it reveals an uncomfortable connection between the revival of an ancient blood rite known as the wild hunt, the sly tactics of the eastern invader, and Wytha's own ancestral past. The deeper Wytha and her friends are driven into the forest, the further into disputed territory they find themselves, and the thinner Wytha's grasp on her sanity.

COVER ARTIST: Steve Hugh Westenra, with enhancements by Cal Black. No AI was used!

GENRE: Mystery, Thriller

LINKS: Goodreads | ARC Sign Up Form | Spotify Playlist | Pinterest

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Steve is a trans author of fantasy, science fiction, and horror (basically, if it’s weird he writes it).

He grew up on the eldritch shores of Newfoundland, Canada, and currently lives and works in (the slightly less eldritch) Montreal. He holds advanced degrees in Russian Literature, Medieval Studies, and Religious Studies. His current academic work focuses on marginalized reclamations of monstrous figures. He teaches the History of Satan; Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion; and Religion and its Monsters.

Steve's books include The Wings of Ashtaroth, The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle, and So Sing the Barrows.

Twitter: @stevewestenra

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stevewestenra.bsky.social

Instagram: @stevehughwestenra

TikTok: @stevewestenra

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Hi! I'm Marie, a Filipino SFFH author and book reviewer currently based in the UK. I’m the co-author of The Prophecies of Ragnarok, a Norse myth new adult urban fantasy trilogy, and I also have several short stories published in anthologies and literary journals.

You can find more info about me and my books, and also subscribe to my newsletter for more content, here. And if you like what I do, please also consider supporting me on Ko-fi! 🩷 https://ko-fi.com/mariesinadjan

If you fancy a short read, I have a cozy reimagining of the Norse myths about Hel, but it's just under 70 pages and can be read in one sitting. ✨ Plus there's a swag kit coming soon! Includes a "membership card," a bookmark, a sticker, an origami dog, and an exclusive 500-word story 🫶🏼

All things end, and all must die.

But death is not always the end.

When Geiravor Lokisdottir was stripped of her name and cast out of Asgard, torn from her family and the life she had known, she thought she’d lost it all. But in the shadows of Niflheim she discovers the path to her destiny, and what it truly means to be queen.

This is a prequel short story to THE PROPHECIES OF RAGNAROK trilogy by Meri Benson and Marie Sinadjan, and a retelling of the myths involving Hel, the Norse goddess of death and the queen of the underworld.