The three books making up the Rise of the Fifth Order trilogy came first. See, the Gates of Fire and Earth is the second book in the Games of Fire trilogy, which is the second trilogy set in my fantasy world of Myrrah. I could go on and on about plot holes, element mismatches between front and back, and then having to align everything (or make sure it aligns properly) to the four books that came before! OMG, the work involved has been huge. I may have given up on this book long ago if I didn’t know to remain patient and persistent. Thank goodness this will be my twelfth book. Even the edits were the MOST challenging that I’ve ever undertaken. I’m so excited as this book is behind schedule … because it just has refused to behave. While other Greeks used similar tactics, the Spartans’ relentless training gave them unmatched stamina and precision.I’m working on my final edits for the next book I will release, the Gates of Fire and Earth. Their warriors fought in battle lines, advancing toward the enemy in groups and protecting one another with overlapping shields (a formation called a phalanx). Spartan culture was marked by self-discipline, education and rigorous physical training for both men and women, and democratic leanings. Its society was organized around its legendary army, for which soldiers trained from boyhood. Sparta was at the height of its power at the time of the Greco-Persian wars. Greek victory owed much to the Spartan warrior state. Though the Greeks lost at Thermopylae, they later defeated the Persians’ attempt to overrun Greece at the Battles of Salamis and Plataea. Although modern scholarship holds that Persian numbers at Thermopylae were probably much smaller than the traditional estimation of over one million, the Greeks were unquestionably outnumbered, and the Spartans’ success in holding off the Persians for seven days is one of the most remarkable such defenses in history. Before the novel begins, the Athenians had defeated a first attempted Persian invasion at the battle of Marathon.

Simultaneous with the land battle, a naval battle took place at Artemisium, Thermopylae’s coastal pass.

The battle was part of Persia’s second invasion of Greece, led by King Xerxes I, against the Spartan King Leonidas and his alliance of Greek city-states. and the decade leading up to that year’s monumental battle between the Greeks and Persians at Thermopylae (“Hot Gates”), Greece.

Gates of fire book