Jaki Demarest conquered the Ottoman Empire in 1417, declaring herself Emperor and God. She then went on to wage cruel war on neighboring European states, carving herself a vast territory and earning the soubriquet Jaki the Terrible. Her faithful, muscular and scantily-clad minions describe her as "kind, thoughtful and please don't kill me."
Just kidding.

No, Jaki is one of those odd souls who never wanted to be a writer. She isn’t remotely qualified; she doesn’t own any cats, isn't married with the requisite three-to-five children, and doesn’t have a secluded ranch. But, alas, her Very Psychic Mother ™ has been announcing for close to thirty years that Jaki was going to be a writer, and mom was right as usual. This is Jaki's third book, and the fourth is in the works.

Jaki has long and cheerfully studied multiple forms of armed, unarmed and stage combat, earning herself scars, broken bones and a couple of pleasant hospital trips in the process. (There is nothing worse than hospital gefilte fish, with the possible exception of an eternity spent in a small Second Empire drawing room with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Don't even go there.) Relationships with Jaki tend to be a bit Klingon; she once managed to hospitalize a Navy SEAL in a sparring match, after which they decided to date.

In her spare time, Jaki is a professional actor; she played Hamlet, Mephistopheles and numerous less interesting roles in New York, did a national tour of Cyrano de Bergerac, and has starred in a handful of dubious indie films. She’s currently directing/acting/etc. for a Washington DC-based classical theater company called the Rude Mechanicals, findable at www.rudemechanicals.com.

Thanks and love to her family and friends, without whom she would be a lost little Mongol, alone in the rain…

Web Site: www.jakidemarest.com.

The Cardinal's Heir