The Purpose of Miss Shepley

It is the fourth day of Bloomsmonth, year 526 of the Common Reckoning, and away in the war-tattered Barony of Ewert, Edith Shepley is dressing for a ball she doesn't wish to attend.

Now sixteen years old, it has come time for Edith to fulfill her womanly purpose: to marry well and produce an heir to carry on Ewert's legacy. It's not a duty she particularly looks forward to, but between her education and her inheritance, Edith reckons she has nearly every advantage -- nearly.

Alas, red-haired, freckled, gangly Edith looks nothing like her dearly departed mother or her Folk kin. She takes after her father, though who he was, nobody knows. Edith looks like a Wyrm, and that's all anyone will say about that.

When an ambitious cousin decides Ewert should be his, with or without her hand in marriage, Edith is forced to balance her duty to others against staying true to herself -- a task made difficult by the fact that Edith isn't quite sure who she truly is yet.

Book One of The Unfinished Wyrm

Wattys 2017 winner in The Storysmiths!