Purchase
Available in paperback and in ebook formats at distributors everywhere!
DSP is running a special price offer on the series during the blog tour!
Book #1: $1.99 – Book #2: $2.99 – Book #3: $3.99
🌟 Please join me in welcoming author TJ Nichols to Stories That Make You Smile! TJ is here today celebrating their fabulous Studies in Demonology series. TJ kindly brought along an excerpt from Warlock in Training, and sat down for an interview. Pull up a chair and join us to learn more about TJ’s writing process and upcoming stories. 🌟
Studies in Demonology by TJ Nichols
Angus Donohue doesn’t want to be a warlock…
Publisher: DSP Publications
Cover Artist: Catt Ford
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Pairing / Genre(s): M/M Urban Fantasy Romance
Studies in Demonology Series on Goodreads
Warlock in Training
Book #1
Length: Novel / 78k words / 228 pages
Release Date: February 14, 2017
Can be read as a standalone story.
Angus Donohue doesn’t want to be a warlock. He believes draining demons for magic is evil, but it’s a dangerous opinion to have—his father is a powerful and well-connected warlock, and Angus is expected to follow the family tradition.
His only way out is to fail the demon summoning class. Failure means expulsion from the Warlock College. Despite Angus’s best efforts to fumble the summoning, it works. Although not the way anyone expects.
Angus’s demon, Saka, is a powerful mage with his own need for a warlock.
Saka wants to use Angus in a ritual to rebalance the magic that is being stripped from Demonside by warlocks. If Angus survives his demon’s desires and the perils of Demonside, he’ll have to face the Warlock College and their demands. Angus must choose: obey the College and forget about Demonside or trust Saka and try to fix the damage before it’s too late. Whatever he does, he is in the middle of a war he isn’t qualified to fight.
Excerpt – Warlock in Training
IT WASN’T that Angus Donohue couldn’t summon a demon; it was that he didn’t want to. He didn’t even want to be here. A cool breeze brushed against his skin, and the trees around him rattled like a closet full of old bones. Maybe if he didn’t put enough will into the spell the whole thing would fall apart.
If he couldn’t summon a demon, he’d fail the class and get kicked out of the exclusive Warlock College his father had forced him to attend. While there was a certain prestige in being a warlock, it wasn’t what Angus wanted to do with his life. He certainly didn’t want a demon to draw magic from. He had to fail this class. His father would be horrified, but Angus would be free from all things magical.
“Widdershins, three times,” the lecturer commanded.
All the college students of Demonology 102 started walking anti-clockwise around the circles they had carefully constructed out of will. Angus suppressed the shiver. He wasn’t afraid of demons. Okay, maybe just a little. What if his demon was something truly monstrous?
Last semester they’d been learning about the different types of demons and the theory behind drawing magic from one. This semester was about putting that knowledge into practice. Those people with magic who didn’t draw on demons were called wizards and usually sold their services cheaply in the local paper. Angus didn’t want to be a practicing wizard either. Just because he had magic didn’t mean he needed to make a career out of it, and telling his father that hadn’t been a wise move. His father had spent three hours railing about why wizards were dangerous and should be banned from practicing magic.
So here he was, trying to summon a demon that he didn’t want, to give himself more of the magic that he didn’t want either. He let his circle weaken and his attention drift. He would not summon a demon.
He’d have rather been a vet.
Maybe studied medicine.
Although the rich, these days, saw specialist warlock healers who had demons. Though his father sneered at them too. He sneered at anything that didn’t increase his power and standing. That he was on the board of the East Vinland Warlock College did not make life IT WASN’T that Angus Donohue couldn’t summon a demon; it was that he didn’t want to. He didn’t even want to be here. A cool breeze brushed against his skin, and the trees around him rattled like a closet full of old bones. Maybe if he didn’t put enough will into the spell the whole thing would fall apart.
If he couldn’t summon a demon, he’d fail the class and get kicked out of the exclusive Warlock College his father had forced him to attend. While there was a certain prestige in being a warlock, it wasn’t what Angus wanted to do with his life. He certainly didn’t want a demon to draw magic from. He had to fail this class. His father would be horrified, but Angus would be free from all things magical.
“Widdershins, three times,” the lecturer commanded. All the college students of Demonology 102 started walking anti-clockwise around the circles they had carefully constructed out of will. Angus suppressed the shiver. He wasn’t afraid of demons. Okay, maybe just a little. What if his demon was something truly monstrous?
Rogue in the Making
Book #2
Length: Novel / 87k words / 286 words
Release Date: May 22, 2018
The blood sacrifices have brought rain to Demonside, but across the void, the Warlock College of Vinland is still storing and gathering magic, heedless of the warnings of the international magical community. The underground is full of warlocks who disagree with the college, but do they care about wizards and demons or only about snatching power?
With a foot in each world, Angus is no longer sure whom he can trust. The demons don’t trust humans, and even though he is learning more magic, he will never be one of them. He is human and only tolerated. Some demons would be happy to slit his throat. It’s only because his demon is powerful in his own right that Angus is alive.
Saka only has a year to prove that Angus’s people can change and that the magic taken will be rebalanced, but the demons want action. His affection for Angus is clouding his judgment and weakening his position in the tribe. Time is running out, and he must make a choice.
Blood for the Spilling
Book #3
Length: Novel / 93k words / 280 words
Release Date: November 27, 2018
Sheets of ice are spreading across the human world, ushering in an ice age as the magic drained from Demonside turns that world into a desert. Angus and reluctant warlock Terrance have defected from Vinland to the Mayan Empire—a land of dark and potent magic. But the Mayans aren’t offering sanctuary for free.
Nor is the world willing to stand back as Vinland attacks, and the backlash will affect all magic users.
Mage Saka has no tribe. He is now just another refugee fleeing the dying Demonside. He knows the conflict brewing now will be worse than the first demon war. Countries are banding together—not just against Vinland, but against all magic. Where will the powerful Mayan Empire stand?
Angus might have the power to fight Vinland and the Warlock College, but the cost will be terrible. Saka is torn between helping Angus and stopping him. And Terrance would do anything for Angus, but he’s terrified of the man Angus is becoming, even as Saka is warming to the idea of a relationship between the three of them.
No matter what choice they make, victory will be bittersweet, and when the ash settles and the snow melts, nothing will be the same.
☆ Author Interview ☆
Welcome, and thank you for stopping by! Tell us a little about yourself and your writing goals.
Hi, I’m TJ Nichols. I write gay urban fantasy and I sometimes slide over to paranormal romance. I love world building and making my characters suffer *evil laugh*.
Did your story turn out as you’d originally planned, or did it veer off in another direction?
When I started the Studies in Demonology series I thought it would be three novellas—I got the trilogy part write but the books are 80000-90000 words each. The more I wrote the more complex the world became and I was having too much fun to worry about my original plan. I just went with it. When I started writing I knew how it would end, but I didn’t realize how dark it would get between the first and the final scene.
Did any of the characters in this story lead the story astray of your original plan?
Terrance was supposed to be a walk on/walk off minor character, but once he was there I knew he was crucial to the plot and a key player in the end—that and Angus really needed a human on his side.
Do you schedule a certain amount of time for writing each day/week, or do you just work it in when you can? Would you like to change this, or does your current method work well for you?
I wake up early and write 1000 words (or thereabouts). This is much easier in summer when it’s warm and light. But I stick with it because it means the words are done for the day, then I can do edits (or sometimes extra words) in the evening after work. It works most of the time except for when I have to turn around edits really fast, then the words go out the window and I’m up early editing :/
Tell us a little bit about your work(s) in progress!
The Mytho series is my work in progress. Lust and other Drugs came out earlier in the year, Greed and other Dangers is in edits and I’m writing book 3 at the moment. It’s set after the mythological universe collapsed into our worlds, so the vampires and satyrs and dragons (and so on) refugees all trying to make a new life on Earth. The series follows the same two characters as they navigate this new world. Jordan is a human cop and Edra is a dragon shapeshifter and they definitely shouldn’t be having any kind of relationship, but neither can resist the temptation.
How do you develop a story idea? Do you always use the same method? Specifically, which do you develop first in your story building, the characters or the plot?
Characters always come first for me, usually with a sense of the world they live in. I then work up the idea in a notebook, which then becomes my story bible (especially important in a series). The plot and character and world grow together as I build the idea into a story. I need a solid grasp of the world before I start writing, but once I start I make all kinds of new discoveries. It’s like researching a holiday destination to get a feel for what you need to pack and what you might like to see and then arriving and smelling the air and tasting the food and finding even better stuff to do.
Do you put together a playlist and/or soundtrack for your books (or for particular scenes from your books)?
Sometimes. Sometimes it happens while I’m plotting. I’ll hear something that suits the theme or aesthetics of the word (a particular sound or style of music). Other times It happens later. When writing a series it’s a really useful shorthand to drag my brain into the right space.
What’s your most useless talent?
I can do the splits.
Werewolves or vampires?
Why not both?
Meet the Author
TJ Nichols is the author of the Studies in Demonology and Mytho series. Having grown up reading thrillers and fantasy novels, it’s no surprise that mixing danger and magic comes so easily. Writing urban fantasy allows TJ to make sure that evil gets vanquished and the hero gets his man.
With two cats acting as supervisors, TJ has gone from designing roads to building worlds and wouldn’t have it any other way. After traveling all over the world and Australia, TJ now lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Blog/Website | Facebook | Twitter (@TobyJNichols) | Newsletter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon
Also by TJ Nichols
Check out the other blog posts and reviews here.
➜ Sign up to become a tour host here
