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DARK FANTASY AUTHOR

Eddy Rose

Gladiators and grimdark stories

They stood amid the bones of an ancient arena, owner and gladiator, striking a deal where death was the prize.

The Black Hearth by Eddy Rose is a dark fantasy romance that blends the brutal spectacle of Gladiator with the grimdark mystery of The Witcher—then sets it on fire with a steamy, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers arc. If you crave a mature, ruthless heroine, a quiet, haunted gladiator, and a world dripping with blood and ruin, don’t wait—join my newsletter to get early access to news, updates, and ARC opportunities.

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Meet the Author

Eddy Rose

Eddy Rose writes grimdark fantasy filled with gladiators, grit, and romance. Her characters are morally grey, complex humans with emotional depth, strong character development, and often a fatal lack of social skills.

A psychologist by day and author by night, she builds brutal worlds filled with deadly arenas, rich lore, and her own hand-drawn maps.

Based on the Gold Coast, Queensland (at least in theory), Eddy is famously hard to find unless you’re her husband or son, but she’s deeply fond of her reader community and will shamelessly spoil them with free short stories and maps through her newsletter.

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In a place of blood and sand, the arena offers what he never sought.

A Taste of Blade and Roar, a Twilight of Blood short story, is out now. Grab your free copy here.

In the blood-soaked pit of the Switchblade Arena, survival is a spectacle, and death is entertainment.

The King’s newest gladiator, a young purebred beast raised for the arenas, must earn his place in the merciless head trainer’s team by surviving an impossible fight—a Slayer’s Pit. But as he steps onto the shifting sands, he discovers the arena offers far more than blood and death. What he finds there will shape the beast destined to become the Lion of Zarall.

A Taste of Blood and Roar is a Twilight of Blood short story and a prequel to Lion of Zarall.

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  • How I Stopped Letting Perfectionism Slow Me Down (Mostly)

    How I Stopped Letting Perfectionism Slow Me Down (Mostly)

    Like a lot of writers, I used to get completely stuck on a sentence. I’d write a line, realise it didn’t quite land, then spend way too long tweaking the phrasing or swapping out words until it felt right. I could lose ten minutes trying to decide between “stumbled” or “staggered.” It was exhausting—and more

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  • August updates and wrap up

    August updates and wrap up

    Every month I sit down thinking, nothing really happened, what am I even going to write? And yet, once I start, it keeps coming! The highlight was finally sharing a gorgeous new piece of character art — Lion and Saradra brought to life (credit below). There’s another one waiting to be released, and more still

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  • Psychologist Turned Author: What Makes a Character Feel Real?

    Psychologist Turned Author: What Makes a Character Feel Real?

    Being a psychologist influences my writing in two main ways—one is intentional, the other less so, but both shape how I build characters and how readers experience the story. The first is in how I create characters. Every character I write has a set of beliefs that guides their behaviours, motivations, and interactions with others.

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  • Early Readers Poorly Describe Beast of Zarall

    Early Readers Poorly Describe Beast of Zarall

    One of my favourite things about releasing a book is hearing what readers really think. I asked some of my early readers a few light-hearted (and slightly dangerous) questions about Beast of Zarall. I had so much fun coming up with these questions, and I had even more fun reading their answers. Sharing them here

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  • July updates and wrap up

    July updates and wrap up

    This month has been incredibly exciting. Well, the biggest highlight of the month was, of course, the release of Beast of Zarall! The launch went amazingly. Don’t get me wrong—launching a book is extremely tiring. There are so many tasks, so many little things happening (and not happening, and needing to be fixed immediately) behind

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