Leal's Return: welcoming new and returning cast

It's been four days since the release of Shadows and Embers, and now you are able to purchase the paperback on Amazon as well as the Kindle edition. I also recently added SandE to Authorgraph, meaning that you can now get a FREE autograph to go along with your ebook copy. If you stop my page you'll also see that you are able to request an autograph for Cursed With Power as well (in case you didn't know before).
It's exciting to think that with this book we're welcoming a whole new cast as well as some returning cast from CWP.  One of the biggest struggles I had writing Shadows and Embers was getting along with Leal enough so that we could agree on something. By the end of it all we got together well, and now it's sad to think that once again with the next book in this series I will be saying goodbye to Leal.  I really enjoyed writing this book, had certain songs I played on repeat through certain chapters, and at the end I was eager for the next part of the story.  As I've mentioned, though, the third book is not for either Celestria or Leal to tell.  I will be revealing the main character and the title of the third book later on; I don't know exactly when yet.
For now I'd like to focus on the present.
What was surprising with this book (and not originally planned) was that a new villain came about. So besides the new cast, including members of Destin we've never met before, there is also a new villain who rises and threatens the Dark magicians.
Something else you might have noticed is that all of the promos have had the same female model, who as I said earlier represents Nicia. I realize this is Leal's story, and I'm not trying to shine the light away from him, but I think he would have liked for people to see this was as much her story as it was his. No one in Destin had an easy life, and certainly did not simplify once the downfall of Dark magicians occur.
Lastly, I leave the interpretation of the title up to the readers. For different people it will mean different things. For me personally I chose it for several different reasons, but one of the main ones being because Leal mentioned seeing himself and other Dark magicians as "shadows and flames," and in all honestly I think he was right. (Specifically the quote was "In the darkness we are shadows; in the daylight we are flames.")  He saw that the world viewed Dark magicians in a negative way, and thus the way he described them was not far-fetched. Again, though, this is not the only reasoning for the title for the sequel.

That's all for now. I'll be later on this week when I have more to share. For now enjoy the summer while it lasts, and remember to read some good books!
Lindsey R. Sablowski