Book Spotlight: The Sword in the Street


The Sword in the Street by C.M. Caplan

I'm excited to have been chosen by Escapist Tours for one of their very first tours. Escapist focuses on books in the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror genres. The Sword in the Street looks like it will be a great read, and I get to tell you all about it when my spot on the tour comes up on January 4th.





THE SWORD IN THE STREET

Hired blades ought to be better at making ends meet. 

John Chronicle bleeds his patron’s foes in savage duels. While he's disgusted by the petty grievances and corporate laws he champions, even the promise of security is better than nothing at all. But how long can he depend on a wage that barely pays enough to cover his rent?

His boyfriend Edwin is familiar with dependency. Reliant on his parents' goodwill to supply the drugs that keep the spirals of his mind in check, he wants nothing more than to get out from under their thumb. A solution comes when he finds a document full of knowledge that was, impossibly, forgotten. But while he could use those secrets to rewrite the gentry’s unjust laws, it might cost him his relationship - or John’s life.

The two find themselves entangled in the web of intrigue surrounding the laws, the swordsmen, and their sponsors. They’re forced to question how bloody they’re willing to get for a shred of agency. But will they survive this tangle of deceit together?

The Sword in the Street, was a Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off semi-finalist in 2021.




AUTHOR BIO

C.M. Caplan is the author of The Sword in the Street. He’s a quadruplet (yes, really), mentally disabled, and he spent two years as the Senior Fiction Editor on a national magazine – while he was still an undergrad in college.

He has a degree in creative writing from Salem State University and was the recipient of the university’s highest honor in the arts. His short fiction also won an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Writers of the Future Contest.

Caplan’s introduction to fantasy came through J. R. R. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin. He has a tattoo that roughly translates to Valar Morghulis, as written in Tolkien’s Elvish script, in an acknowledgment of that fact. 

He currently lives in New England, where he works remotely for a social justice theater company.




Sword in the Street link:

C. M. Caplin is self-published, and this, his first book, is available now from the booksellers below: 

📘 Buy this book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powells | Bookshop.org or find it at an independent bookstore near you.