The completed cover for the novel BLACK SNAKE by Sam Farren
The once-humble village of Zaunis has become the centre of all humanity. By writ of the gods, the people have constructed a castle that will serve as a gateway to one of the twin moons watching over them, where they need not fear the ever-encroaching ice.
Savu is amongst the thousands who have made the long journey south, though their exodus was no act of piety, nor was it driven by desire. They are one of the few survivors of Pallas, a country used as a stage by the surrounding kingdoms to wage war against one another. Savu now takes refuge in Keld, the country that finds it so easy to forget how brutally it annihilated their homeland.
Savu cares little for the castle, now complete, or the promise of yet one more home to lose. As all of humanity makes its slow migration to Zaunis, Savu finds theirself pulled in countless directions by witches, Spearmasters, and gods alike. There is something within Savu that humanity needs, something kept secret from even them, but they only have so much left to give to the people and gods who sacrificed nothing for Pallas.
BLACK SNAKE, the prequel to Bitfrost, is available for pre-order now and releases on 13/06/25
With BLACK SNAKE available for pre-order, for the next five days (until 3rd June, 2025), all my books are free! (For any who don’t know, yes, they’re all about lesbians—)
There’s Bitfrost, the sequel to BLACK SNAKE. It tells the story of Metis, a frozen wasteland of a moon, from the perspective of Zaun, a woman preserving her memory via journals after a traumatic brain injury. It’s full of gods, snakes, snow, yet more snow, and a slowly dawning sense of hope—even if everything can’t be magically fixed in a world where magic very much does exist.
The Mountain God Sleeps On Its Back is the tale of Laslin, a god in a mortal shell, travelling the continent and answering prayers, alongside her trusty giant lizard and messenger-hawk. Laslin is joined by Avery, a woman who it never occurs to her to not be in love with, and comes to resent the way her body is slowly changing more than ever. The continent is surrounded on all sides by the Empty Ocean, and dread permeates the air whenever anyone approaches those endless cliffs. For all it’s about love at first sight, Mountain God is a slow-burn romance that touches on the cycle of gods and the horrors of the distant past.
The Rotting Hound is a shorter read, following Vaşak, the appointed knight of the Emissary of Saturn, newly reborn into a mortal vessel. It’s a story of unconditional devotion, a rather literal take on soulmates who can’t live without one another, and two terrible people who are perfect for each other.
The Shattering of the Spirit-Sword Brackish is a two-part series. Castelle, the last Greyser and rightful heir to the throne of Fenroe, has been in hiding for fourteen years. Rebels stormed the capital, slaughtering nobles indiscriminately, and Castelle was one of the few who managed to escape the castle and flee across the archipelago. Just as she’s growing unbearably frustrated with waiting and doing nothing, she’s kidnapped in the night by a woman with a face full of scars. Castelle gets to see her kingdom for the first time in over a decade and must reckon with the changes. There’s also a haunted sword that’s a lesbian.
The Dragonoak trilogy is my oldest work, but hey, people still seem to like it! A necromancer runs away with a passing knight and gets caught up in trouble that spans several continents.
BLACK SNAKE is officially out today! It’s been a long time coming, and I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who’s made it possible and everyone who’s already picked up a copy!
If you’ve read Bitfrost, you’ll have to start thinking backwards for BLACK SNAKE. Metis, the supposed frozen wasteland of a moon, is a world of warmth, while the green-blue planet of Arcus is buried deep in ice and snow. The story starts on Arcus, telling the tale of the first exchange of worlds between humanity and the fae.
Sketches of Savu (they/them) and Ryka (she/her).
Taking place in the village of Zaunis, a once-humble settlement the gods decided would be the perfect location for a castle with little more explanation than “Just build it, it’s important,” BLACK SNAKE centres on Savu—a refugee living in the kingdom that destroyed their country, a blacksmith who wants to live a quiet life. Yet the gods keep appearing in their dreams and at their bedroom window, no matter how they try to ignore them.
Savu, having had a perfectly pleasant day until the god Helos (they/them) turned up in mortal form.
Much of Arcus has become uninhabitable at a startling rate as the temperature plummets, leaving only the nation of Keld and a few other countries along the equator habitable. Unlike in Bitfrost, the people have made a considerably better effort at adapting to the cold: magic is used to thaw out the earth and grow crops, and they’ve wisely not hunted their forests to extinction.
Life on Arcus is all about layers on layers on layers. Savu and Ryka have a shared heritage, which comes through in their clothing.
Ryka is one of Arcus’ many witches. Components for potions and the like are still fairly plentiful, which helps maintain agriculture, health, and physical comfort, which in turn keeps supplies flowing. Ryka lives in Laani, a neighbouring town, and her relationship with Spearmaster Grey soon brings her into Savu’s orbit.
You guessed it: more layers. Spearmaster Grey’s (she/her) clothes have a more Keldian twist.
Spearmaster and witch, Grey is a woman of many talents. After watching over Laani for many years, she leads the effort to connect Arcus to Metis by means of a portal in Zaunis’ castle. Unlike many who threw themselves at Zaunis the moment the gods arrived, Grey has made a point of continuing life as usual and dedicating herself to her citizens, not the cryptic whims of the gods.
Raanos (she/her), the god of all water but the sea itself, in a cute little hat.
Raanos appears in a burst of water and immediately makes herself human. She doesn’t just take on a mortal shell but actually becomes a human—she could tell you about her entire life up until that very moment, though it doesn’t exist. As a human, all the knowledge she once held is out of reach, perpetually relegated to her blind spot. In spite of that, she knows there’s something about Savu that catches her interest. She’s rarely not at Spearmaster Grey’s side.
As a god, Helos’ clothes are all for show.
Unlike Raanos, Helos hasn’t become a human—as seen in their golden eyes. They sift between forms as they please, most often appearing as the human pictured above and a wolf. Also unlike Raanos, Helos knows exactly what’s going on, but still won’t tell Savu. Things don’t need to make sense to Savu, after all! They only have to play their part. Helos, god of dreams, cannot be avoided even in the refuge of sleep.
While humanity has been stuck with Helos, the fae have had a much more orderly time with the ice-god.
And then, of course, we have the fae! They were only mentioned in Bitfrost, but they play an active, present role in BLACK SNAKE. Here’s one next to Savu for scale. They’re a feathered, taloned people, who thrive in the cold. They’re also monochrome, skin and feathers always in direct opposition: a white fae will have black feathers, a black fae white feathers, a light grey fae dark grey feathers, and so on.
Other characters you’ll meet include Spearmaster Kyn, Zaunis’ Spearmaster and the woman the gods first revealed themselves to; Kyros, sun-god, who is working alongside Helos but prefers to hide out in a forge than deal with humans too directly; Ain and Kara, the old married couple who have taken Savu in; Otava, who does nothing; and some sort of black snake?
You can pick BLACK SNAKE up here!
(This post was cross-posted from Sam's SubStack which you can follow here for all updates at no cost!
Sam did a brief Q+A about BLACK SNAKE recently and I thought I'd share it here as well for anyone interested!
Pre-orders are available now, and the book releases on 13/06/25!
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Q: Can you sum BLACK SNAKE up in a sentence?
A: Area blacksmith wants to live a quiet life with their adoptive lesbian mothers, but the gods have decided it’s their responsibility to get humanity to the moon before the world freezes over.
Q: How does BLACK SNAKE differ from Bitfrost?
A: Despite being set in the same world and dealing with similar subjects, there’s quite a big difference between the two books. Bitfrost is slow-paced and introspective, written as a series of journals by a woman with a traumatic brain injury, whereas BLACK SNAKE has a lot of momentum from the get-go. There’s a lot more action in BLACK SNAKE – well, by my standards – and the protagonists stand in direction opposition to each other, in a sense: Zaun is a former solider, and Savu is a victim of war.
Q: Were there any elements of the story that were much bigger than you thought they were going to be prewriting?
A: Yes and no! Due to its nature as a prequel, I knew how BLACK SNAKE had to end, and had a rough idea of the steps I would need to take to get there. The elements that ended up bigger than expected are mostly characters: Raanos, the god of water in human form, barged into the narrative and made herself at home, and fae such as Galatea got a much bigger role than expected. I’m glad I got to delve into Pallas and its history as much as I did, and that it fit naturally in the story.
Q: What was the biggest revision over the course of editing? What challenges or nuances were there with the continuity involved in writing a prequel?
A: One of the biggest changes was the removal of a character. I can’t say much on that without spoilers, but I hope the absence will be noted in the final work! Other than that, I was able to weave in some references to Meltwater – the sequel to BLACK SNAKE and Bitfrost – which adds a nice bit of surrealism to the story.
As for challenges with writing a prequel, I actually found more pros than cons in the process—possibly because it’s set so long before Bitfrost! I had my world-build, I knew the rules, and a lot of my settings were already established; I was able to dive straight in and get to the good stuff. The biggest restrictions came in the god Otava, as in Bitfrost she really hammers in the fact that she’s never been human before, and in not being able to change the fate of certain characters—which was honestly for the best, it gives the book a strong ending, but part of me wishes I could fix it.
Q: Your favourite cut titbit?
A: There was originally a scene with one of the fae being shocked and horrified that Savu was only twenty-eight, since by their standards, that’s practically still a hatchling.
Q: Who was your favourite character to write and the hardest character to write?
A: I have a lot of favourites, but for the sake of brevity: Ryka, because she’s so warm and bighearted; Raanos, because there’s a lot of mileage to get out of a human who knows she used to be a god but can’t remember all she once knew; and Helos, because who doesn’t like writing someone who’s incredibly annoying and cryptic? Spearmaster Kyn was definitely the hardest character for me to write; I kept trying to give her too big a role, when I needed her to be in the background, changing as the city and their surroundings did. I still wish I could’ve given her a little more time in the spotlight, but I think she fills her role well.
