We thought it was long overdue to create some book trailers for Katherine M. Lawrence’s Yamabuki books, so here is the first!

This video includes cover reveals yet for Cold Fire, Cold Steel, and Cold Fate. But our main goal here is to offer a taste of the atmosphere, setting, and scope of the entire Sword of the Taka Samurai series, Katherine‘s first saga about Taka Yamabuki, a woman warrior who lived in Heian-era Japan and fought in the Genpei War.

The Sword of the Taka Samurai series crescendoes

For us as a small start-up publisher, this series has proven to be a long haul. We released Cold Blood in 2014 and Cold Rain the year after. Cold Heart came out this January. Cold Trail, Cold Fire, Cold Steel, and Cold Fate will complete the series.

From the start, our release plan has been simple: every book no longer than it needs to be; every release no sooner than when it‘s ready—but when it is ready, get it out there right away. The upside is we don’t have to cut bait to meet an arbitrary deadline. But some will point out that this represents a missed opportunity, and they would be right, for the downside of our approach on these books is that we’ve been losing out on the traditional six-month ARC window that would afford the chance to get the attention of professional book reviewers. As series editor, I’m very proud of Katherine M. Lawrence’s writing—powerful, lyrical, moving—and look forward to the day she garners the literary attention she deserves. With future books, including a standalone novel we are editing now, we will explore other options.

Meanwhile, we will keep putting out the Sword of the Taka Samurai books as soon as they are ready. Readers will note that, as the various storylines layer and weave through one another, the books are getting longer.

  • Cold Blood (22k words) presents young Taka Yamabuki’s first days ever alone on the road, carrying important dispatches to the capital as she discovers a world filled with interesting people and new experiences—when a rapid series of challenges threaten not only her mission but her life.
  • In Cold Rain (45k words), she finds herself trapped in a small town, realizing that her life as daughter and only child of a warlord is not anywhere as simple and safe as she had assumed.
  • In Cold Heart (83k words), Yamabuki must fight for her life as an assassin and a clan bent on vengeance converge upon her.
  • Cold Trail is longer still—yet every bit as rich and exciting, if not more so.

These thumbnail descriptions don’t even touch upon the other characters—Saburo, the assassin hired to kill her; Shima, his teacher (and more); Moroto, Yamabuki’s father determined to make her his heir; Lady Taka, Yamabuki’s mother, whose concern for Yamabuki comes from her own experiences as a warrior; Nakagawa, Yamabuki’s wordly teacher and mentor; Yoshinaka, the disinherited prince who plans rebellion against the Emperor; Tomoe Gozen, the wild young woman warrior every bit as accomplished as Yamabuki; and others yet to come—whose lives touch Yamabuki’s in joyous, heartwrenching, and often unexpected ways over matters of life, death, power, honor, fortune, duty, love, and redemption.

We hope you enjoy this epic tale.