Today we’re spotlighting The Seven Thunders: Rise of the Twinkling Heir by O.C. Jaime!
Read on for more about the author, the book, plus enter the giveaway!
About the Author: O.C. Jaime
O.C. Jaime is a senior analyst in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Writer’s Center and the Steampunk Writers & Artists Guild. Drawing upon his background in mapping, worldbuilding, and storytelling, he has created in the Seven Thunders an immersive fantasy world and assembled a team of creatives to support it with multimedia content that can be leveraged for marketing and promotion, including an original soundtrack, in-world ephemera, and visuals (all available upon request).
Website * Facebook * Instagram * TikTok
About the Book: The Seven Thunders: Rise of the Twinkling Heir
“To Wear The Red, You Must Become the Red!” Warrior’s words, a Thunder’s words, words 12-year-old Hermium Goodspeed never imagined he’d say.
Scrawny, cerebral amateur tinkerer Hermium Goodspeed isn’t cut out to be a soldier—so he’s stunned when he receives a second letter to a Thunder – a red letter – to attend the most elite magic-military academy in the Thunderlands. At the grand fortress of Glimmeroc, Hermium is faced with the grueling training to join the ranks of the airjocks, who defend the skies with the help of their magical flying suits. Monstrous things stalk him inside the keep, that threaten not only Hermium, but the realm. In this place where he felt he’d never belong, Hermium discovers that he is heir to a secret destiny. With the help of his friends and legendary emissaries of the Gods, Hermium must face what hunts him to uncover the truth of his past. When the armies of light and darkness meet on the battlefield, only Hermium can tip the scales.
Rise of the Twinkling Heir is an upper MG Fantasy complete at 78,366 words and will appeal to readers who enjoy rollicking adventures featuring a reluctant hero like Wilderlore: The Accidental Apprentice (Margaret K. McElderry, 2021) and exciting rite-of-passage epics like Shadow Magic (Little, Brown, 2016) meets The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic Press, 2007). It is whimsical, steampunkish fantasy imbued with a vibrant voice, wry humor, and an unshakable charm that will transport readers to a unique and rich setting and have them eagerly anticipating the sequels.
Kirkus Reviews gave it Verdict: “Get it!”, calling it “A clever coming-of-age tale with a steampunk edge. . . . Readers will be enthralled by the author’s meticulous and detailed worldbuilding.”
~Excerpt~
The Rwaa hissed like a cat. “What’s wrong with your horn?” he sneered at the Qwee, backing away.
“What?” the Qwee said touching them both. His face went aghast. His right minotaur horn broke off, having turned ashy gray. It crumbled under his hoof. “My horn . . .” he bellowed. “The Triunes gave me these silver tips. No wonder I felt like my strength was being sapped from me; thought I was going mad. Mad indeed. What is this devilry?!”
“We are all touched,” said the Aegus. “I shapeshifted into a warney lark not but two sunrises ago to enjoy the morning plumeriola blooms in the royal gardens and found I had tarantula eyes on my head and eight wings to go with eight legs.”
“Where are the Triunes in all this?” said the Rwaa. “I know I’m new, but the Godhead would not be Godhead if something could reach them without their awareness. Perhaps if we went there together, they would take an audience.”
“No one sees the Triunes,” grumbled the Qwee. “The Aegus, once, and he was on his knees with his head down.”
“I saw nothing,” the Aegus made clear. “The Triunes speak. Were you not given a vision of the One Tree? And you, did you not just regale us of a dark and horrible dream that led you to walk the woods by night only to find the Woodwife? And you Qwee, each time you bathed the Vesperal’s roots, did you not feel the truth that what ails her affects us all? Was it not then that you felt your strength sapped from you like it had been purged from a clogged spigot?”
The Aegus pulled out the book he had so nearly overlooked. “This book,” he said, “was written by a Necrogist, and a rather devout believer of the highdead. There are pages here that speak of theories of unlocking unimaginable powers if but the conjurer is willing to pay the price. To comingle magics . . . necromancy and transmutation. What the outcome would be was the postulation. I would not have believed it if I was not shown by the One Tree by my percipient touch that someone had already attempted this. You will be shocked by what you see now. Vacatis liberatus,” said the Aegus.
The Aegus quickly removed the prisoner’s head-bag, having eased the bondage enchantment. Its chains loosened, and it stood there in the silence that followed like an anathema to all that was good and beautiful and resplendent in the grand pantheon that was the sacellum. A fell creature, unnatural, twisted, feral, made by a dark, never-spoken magic. It was dead and undead and remade. The stench of its mutated, rotting flesh competed with the fragrance of the sacellum’s burning incense. “Behold! The product of desecrated graves and ill words,” declared the Aegus.
“Abomination!” yelled the Qwee, snorting, ready to charge.
“It’s a clumsy creature, moves like its joints are greased with hardened lard. By Abrie’s tail,” said the Rwaa. “Is that braywolf and mortal I smell?”
“Necromorphy,” the Xylarook said in disgust.
“Hex us, vex us, If devils remake us, And from the dead take us,” sang Mave, horrifyingly so.
The lurching, lumbering creature lunged toward the Wood wife without care of consequence and with a speed that dispelled notions that it was sluggish or staggering. The Qwee charged, seeing red, and jumped to gore it through, to return it to the dirt and worms where it came from.
But the Aegus prevented it. “Arrestum,” he said, renewing his celestial hold.
“You usher this thing up here to the pillars of creation?!” The Qwee fumed. “Have you no fear of the Triunes? You go too far!”
“I go as I must. Would you rather that the dimensional order between the living and the dead fail?” retorted the Aegus. “Each plume that disappears from the One Tree severs one more ligament of the dimensional order. She weakens, and so it weakens. The Triunes abide it because of their unchangeable nature, and they will not break the first tenet to interfere in the world of men. They look to us. This ‘thing’ is our clue. Many more plumes go missing and we will soon be spectators to darkness covering the whole of creation and the death of all mortal kind.”
Title: The Seven Thunders: Rise of the Twinkling Heir
Author: O.C. Jaime
Illustrator: Leah Palmer-Preiss (Cover), Victoria Fomina (Stand-alone art), Misty Beee (Maps)
Release Date: 1 October 2025
Publisher: World of Thunders Books
Genre: MG Fantasy
Age Range 10-14
*Giveaway Details*
Seven (7) winners will receive a copy of The Seven Thunders: Rise of the Twinkling Heir (O.C. Jaime)! ~ US ONLY!
This cover is fantastic!