Harrisonburg authors release new fantasy novel nationwide

Authors Chris Justis and Ian Leviness announce the nationwide release of their new novel, “Twilight of an Empire.”

Readers will enter into Gwyneran, a realm that is finally at peace after the 10 provinces are united under one king for the first time since the fall of the ruling Hiervalan brotherhood — King Feramond’s Bloodless Five. The king’s tenuous hold on the realm is broken when Silas Barrad, the charismatic lord commander of the Azarians, seizes Actaentum, the Imperial City. Lord Commander Barrad and his army begin to advance north through the realm and the cracks of the late king’s alliance begin to show.

Here — heroes are not born from legend, but they are created from ordinary individuals thrown into extraordinary circumstances. A battered young girl, a soldier of fortune, a daughter of grapes, a carpenter’s apprentice, a smuggler lord, a disgraced bodyguard and two young nobles will be forced to work together; as their lives, and the realm’s future, hinges on their success.

Published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the book is available through bookstores nationwide, from the publisher atwww.tatepublishing.com/bookstore, or by visiting barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.

Justis is a junior at James Madison University, where he majors in justice studies and minors in creative writing. He enjoys spending his time with fine cigars, writing the Hiervalan Series, listening to the Flobots and watching the Daily Show (though not in that exact order). His influences in literature as well as life are Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan and Stephen Colbert.

Leviness is an English major at Roanoke College who writes in every spare moment he can find. He grew up in uptown New Orleans, where he went to more Mardi Gras celebrations than most people go to in three lifetimes, before he moved to Richmond, Virginia, for middle school and high school. In 2011, he went on a life-changing trip to France and Spain which proved to be one of the catalysts for the story. When he arrived back in the United States, he was poised to do whatever it would take to publish the novel.