Breakfast With My Muse

Today I welcome as my guest blogger Michigan science fantasy romance author Lynda K. Scott, whose latest book is ALTERED DESTINY. 

by Lynda K. Scott
 

I got up late this morning and staggered into my office where my muse, aka Wookie the Alien Kitten-Queen of the Universe, waited impatiently beside her food dish. The minute I crossed the threshold, she spun in a tight, miffed circle and gave an annoyed squawk which I interpreted to - "Feed me!"

It's always nice to be recognized for your value and purpose in life.

Wookie was in a better mood once she had some kibble in her bowl and began purring like a little motor boat. I figured it was safe to go fetch my own breakfast. Hubby, who the girls (Wookie and her minion, Zuzu) refer to as the Dad, was buried in his newspaper oblivious to everything around him. I prepared our cereals, Zuzu's morning treats and Wookie's cat grass (I cut several blades of grass from the pot I keep on my counter after learning that it's unwise to give her the entire pot at one time). When I finally sat down, both Wookie and Zuzu were ready. Wookie curled around the leg of my chair and meowed, "Grass, now."

Zuzu gave her a silent look that said "Impatient, much?" But she didn't say anything. That's because Zuzu is far too smart to disparage the Queen of the Universe. I winked at Zuzu while I held a blade of the freshly cut grass for Wookie. I don't disparage Her Majesty either.

"What are plans?" Wookie asked around her cat grass. Her eyes closed in delight at the fresh taste of grass.

Wookie, being my muse, is always right to the point. She knows that left to my own devices I wouldn't do much more than read a good book or play games on the Internet. Zuzu eyed her treats lined up on the table. A drop of drool dangled from her lip to plop on the tile floor. I gave her a cookie. "I'm writing this morning. 10 pages I need to do at least 50 by the end of the week."

"That's good." Hubby grunted behind his paper. It rattled as he turned the pages.

Both girls watched him for a minute in case he had treats to offer them. He's a good man but talk about writing leaves him glassy eyed and suggesting I add weird elements to the plot. Like I don't come up with my own weird ideas, lol.

That's the problem. Ideas are plentiful. They leap and bound through my head wherever I turn during the day and follow me into dreamland at night. I have plenty ideas. Sometimes I think I have too many. Because when I sit down to write, I get the 'frozen-in-the-headlights' feeling that animals feel when a car races at them.

I'm not afraid of the ideas, though. I'm intrigued by them, stunned by them and overwhelmed by them. Which to use? Which character best works with the idea? (Yeah, I have characters just waiting for a chance to appear in a story too but that's a subject for another post.)

And, more importantly, when should I write them?

That's my major problem. Parking myself in front of the computer and actually putting these weird ideas to use. That's where Wookie, and even Zuzu, come in handy. You see, they like routine. So we do our breakfast routine, check with Hubby to see if he has any plans that needs my cooperation, and check the calendar to see if I have any appointments that aren't filed in my memory banks.

Putting the act of writing down as a routine assures that I will at least be in a position to actually write. I'm a hedonist at heart so if I don't do this, I won't write. It's that simple.

I'm not sure how other writers handle it, if they just automatically head to their writing area, but I need a routine to keep me on track. I may not always get my 10 pages or they may be sheer rubbish but by keeping the routine, I'm making the effort and that's important.

When my breakfast routines are done, Wookie joins me in the office, finds her sunny spot and purrs. That's my hint to get busy. So include your muse in your daily routines...even if s/he isn't an alien kitten. See if that helps you get the words on paper.

Thanks for appearing her today, Lynda!

Here's where you can find Lynda on the web:

Website http://www.lyndakscott.com.

To join her newsletter, send a blank email to: LyndaKScott-Newsgroup-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lyndakscott

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LyndaKScott

Facebook Author Page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynda-K-Scott/201599553208653

  

 

Altered Destiny 

by Lynda K Scott

Science Fantasy Romance

Available in ebook formats

Stranded on an alternate Earth, architect and Jill-of-all-trades, Liane Gautier-MacGregor must find her way back to her homeworld before she's enslaved...or falls in love with a man who is the exact duplicate of her ex-husband. 

Devyn MacGregor's alter ego as the Reiver Lord is the only way he can fight the Qui'arel and their nefarious Bride Bounty, a tax paid with human females...until he meets the oddly familiar woman who claims he is her husband. And who sets in motion the rebellion that will either free his countrymen or destroy them.

Buy Links: 

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Destiny-ebook/dp/B00579FKFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308920443&sr=8-1

Nook http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Altered-Destiny/Lynda-K-Scott/e/2940012882417

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/79552

 

 

What would you go back to see?

If a time machine existed, what events would you go back in history to see? Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address? John F. Kennedy’s “I am a Berliner” speech? Maybe if you’re particular bloodthirsty, you’d like to go back far enough to see Anne Boleyn beheaded. Or to storm the beach at Normandy for the D-Day invasion.

Except for the beheading, I’d enjoy witnessing all of those events and many more. But an event I have always wished I could have been present for would be to be in that field in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, when a particular aircraft crashed.

Was it really an aircraft? The government has maintained all these years that it was a failed weather balloon. Probably true, right? Still, witnesses at the time insisted it was a spacecraft and that alien bodies were taken from it. Mostly likely it was just a weather balloon — real life can be so dreary.

The great thing about writing is that it’s just like having a time machine. No, it’s even better. Through my new Magical Mystery, MAGICALALIENATION, I not got to visit that field, I was able create the truth about what really happened there.

And not just Roswell, either. I also got to decide what really goes on at the infamous Area 51 at Groom Lake, Nevada. And if you think you know what those places are all about, you’re in for a big surprise.

MAGICAL ALIENATION once again features fake psychic Samantha Brennan and genuine Celtic goddess/FBI agent Annabelle Haggerty. Cheerful Samantha figures she has finally hit the mother lode in this book, having signed on as the spiritual adviser of the aging bad boy of rock, Rand Riker. It’s all fun and games at first, and Samantha, deserves some fun after her breakup from her former beau, Angus, the ever-hot Celtic god of youth and love and laughter, who, after stealing her heart, broke it by having a fling with a mermaid.

If only Rand weren’t headed to the New Age town of Sedona, Arizona to host a benefit concert for the most hated man in America, militia guru Normal Frankly, accused of trying to kill Arizona’s charismatic senator, Kenny Campbell. Samantha tangles with goddess-in-hiding, Special Agent Annabelle Haggerty of the FBI. Though Samantha and Annabelle were once mismatched partners in crime, they’re now on opposite sides, since Annabelle has become responsible for Senator Campbell’s safety.

Tensions spike when Normal Frankly’s militia pals free him from captivity. In their raid, they not only abduct his judge and jury, but also a passing U.S. Army convoy, allowing them to take possession of prisoner who has been the government’s most closely guarded secret for over sixty years — the Roswell alien.

By writing MAGICAL ALIENATION, I not only had the chance to look into unexplained happenings of the past, I also was able to look into the future, to a time of unprecedented war of the gods that manifested on Earth as an unheard of worldwide storm.

MAGICAL ALIENATION picks up with HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE left off, introducing new gods and goddesses, including Fiona, Annabelle’s secretive goddess mother, and the trickster gods of Lugh and Taliesin, responsible for such real present-day phenomenon as bizarre weather patterns and crop circles. There is a reason why Allyson James, the national bestselling author of Stormwalker called Magical Alienation, “…a hilarious tangle of gods and goddesses.”

With gods wielding unimaginable powers, and the shape shifting rock people twisting the very surface of the earth, as Sedona heads into the darkest night the planet has ever seen, Samantha rightfully concludes the fun and games have truly ended, and she wonders which, if any of them, will survive it.

But when Celtic gods are involved, nothing is ever as it appears.

Mostly, I love that they allowed me to travel to a space that was so fun. I hope you’ll find it so, too.

What would you travel back in time to see?

Researching Relaxation

Today I welcome guest-blogger Amber Polo. In her fictional life, Amber writes fun, quirky romances and fantasies, such as FLYING FREE and ROMANCING REBECCA, but her latest publication is a welcome nonfiction book, RELAXING THE WRITER: GUIDEBOOK TO THE WRITER’S HIGH, and CD and MP3, RELAXING THE WRITER RELAXATION CD: A POWERFUL 20 MINUTE RELAXATION METHOD, which provides specialized, much-needed relaxation techniques for writers. 

Sounds relaxing? Well yes and no.

About 5 years ago, I self-published a relaxation CD, Relaxation One Breathe at a Time, a how-to-do-it with a track guaranteed to put you to sleep. I had only a few copies left and the packaging company was out of business. I decided to re-record and make a few changes. And, by the way, why not write a book about relaxation for writers. I imagined a book that would be useful for anyone, but with special stuff for writers who spend a lot time reading and writing.

Six months later I have a beautiful self-pubbed book, a POD, CD and MP3 download, plus a 10-minute MP3 download of a hand meditation that helps you focus and relax without leaving your computer.

Full disclosure. I am a librarian and a yoga teacher. I love research and I’m good at teaching people to relax. I’ve read widely and studied under many teachers, so plunging into research sounded like a wonderful break from writing romance and fantasy. (It did work. I’m now so ready to step back into my fantasy worlds.)

I decided to include over twenty major areas and hundreds of suggestions. I checked each topic for new material and narrowed the best ideas down to the most useful suggestions for writers. I kept it short and light, and hopefully fun to read.

The hardest section was what I first called “Drugs.” I thought it was a cute title to write about the legal “drugs” found in your neighborhood health food store, that manipulate moods would be fun. My editor really didn’t like that, even with comments like “do your research” and “every body is different.” I then interviewed an expert in herbal remedies and alternative practices to be sure I wasn’t going to get anyone one in trouble and changed the chapter title to “Teas and Tonics.”

Two of My Most Interesting Research Topics –

The Writer’s Fork: Since the hand was one of the book’s themes. I read up on palmistry and found references in two books to a “writer’s fork.” I included what little I learned to the book and later found an expert to interview for more information. http://relaxingthewriter.blogspot.com/2011/11/does-your-palm-reveal-you-are-writer.html.

Shaking: The practice of shaking has become one of the most popular chapters. (Remember the Sufi’s – one of which was named Rumi and wrote a lot of good poetry still read today) Shaking can be both meditative and also a nice joint loosening exercise to free tension after lots of sitting and hunching over a computer. Anyone can shake without special equipment, cute outfits, or joining a club.

I added an appendix of teachers and their books and videos that I found especially helpful, some who work primarily with writers and other creatives. I even reviewed some iPhone and iPad apps that might be useful in relaxing a writer.

Over all, the project was perfect for remembering good advice and new research. It made me rethink practices I teach in order to present them simply and safely in print. The downside was that with every relaxation technique I studied, I felt I should be doing more to relax MYSELF. I found myself saying, “Writing a book on relaxing is really stressful.”

Relaxing the Writer: Guidebook to the Writer’s High and the audios aren’t just for writers, but stressed readers and writers will especially enjoy the tidbits and quotes from authors. Great gifts for your favorite writer, too. Check them out here: http://www.wellredcoyote2.com/pd-relaxing-the-writer-guidebook-to-the-writer-s-high.cfm and here: http://www.wellredcoyote2.com/pd-relaxing-the-writer-relaxation-cd.cfm.

 

A Magical Time!

Magical Alienation, the second title in my Magical Mystery series has just debuted, and I couldn’t be happier!

The publication of a new book is always an exciting and rewarding time, the culmination of loads of work and the realization of a vision that has sustained the writer for some time.

But every book in a series is special for different reasons. In the first book in a series, a writer breathes life into characters that have existed as mere sketches in her mind, and they often grow in ways that even the author hadn’t anticipated. Relationships are forged. A voice the writer only heard in her own mind, booms out into the world.

For the most part, the voice booming from the first book in my series, High Crime on the Magical Plane, belonged to Samantha Brennan, a funny, boisterous fake psychic with a highly eccentric wardrobe. In the relentless pursuit of her goal of being a popular celebrity spiritual advisor, Samantha dealt herself in on an FBI case, the kidnapping of a movie star, apparently by a set of stalkers. Samantha never expected that during the course that case her entire world would be turned upside-down. Never would she have expected to discover that the agent assigned to the case, Special Agent Annabelle Haggerty, was also a modern Celtic goddess, descended from the gods and goddesses depicted in the mythology books. And never did Annabelle expect to be paired with precisely the kind of flaky, fun mortal that she deplored. Samantha and Annabelle sure made a mismatched pair.

But there were compensations. Samantha did succeed in turning the ancient, but immortal and ever-hot, god of youth and love and laughter, Angus, into her own personal love-slave. The stakes couldn’t have been higher, though. As the case took one bizarre twist after another, Samantha thought that if Annabelle and her family of deities couldn’t stop Armageddon from coming down on them, what chance did a poor little fake have of surviving.

The first novel in a series is in essence a setup, a launch pad for the entire series. A second book is different. Second books sometimes bring surprising new themes.

In Magical Alienation that means exposing the U.S. Government’s most closely-guarded secret of the last sixty years: the truth about what seems to have been an alien invasion that occurred in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, and what exactly has been going on at the mysterious Area 51.

Second books in a series allow the writer to test the relationships forged in the first. Initially, in Magical Alienation, Samantha and Annabelle find themselves on opposite sides this time around. Annabelle is assigned to the security detail of Arizona’s junior senator, Kenny Campbell, the target of a militia terrorist assault. While Samantha, through her employer, rocker Rand Riker, actually works on behalf of the most reviled man in the country, militia guru Normal Frankly, who to most observers isn’t quite normal, accused of mounting a terrorist campaign against Senator Campbell.

We get to meet new characters, including Senator Campbell, with his fuzzy definition of Family Values, and his oh-so correct political wife, Kelly. And Rand Riker, Samantha’s new boss, the Aussie, aging bad boy of rock ’n’ roll, who will do anything to achieve eternal youth.

We meet new gods and goddesses, including Fiona, Annabelle’s beautiful mother, who’s not quite as adept at hiding her secrets as a goddess should be. Was she the woman Samantha heard canoodling in Rand Riker’s luxury suite, or did Fiona harbor another secret? As well as Lugh and Taliesin, trickster gods involved in crop circles and who once beached an iceberg in the tropics, who just can’t get enough fun, as long as it’s at the expense of mortal Earthlings. And Gwydion, god of enchantment and illusion, whose trick stuns the world.

Second books allow us to visit new places. Magical Alienation takes Samantha and Annabelle to Sedona, Arizona, the Vatican City of the New Age, at a time when a monstrous harmonic convergence brings extraordinary power to Sedona’s famed energy centers.

Mostly, with second books, authors get to introduce shocking, unheard of action. While the mysterious rock people twist the very surface of the earth and Sedona heads into the darkest night the planet has ever seen, Samantha wonders which, if any of them, will survive it.

But when Celtic gods are involved, she should know, nothing is ever as it appears.

The best part of a second book? It’s that it invariably leads to the third book in the series. I can’t wait to discover what that will hold.

So you want to inject the paranormal into your writing...

Crossing paranormal with other fictional categories — be they mystery, romance or general fiction — couldn’t get any hotter. But there are pitfalls those new to paranormal writing can easily fall into, which can doom a manuscript. Here are some tips to help you avoid those pitfalls:

1. The worst mistake newbies can make is thinking the supernatural elements are just tack-ons. The paranormal aspects must an integral part of the storyline. If you can imagine removing the magical elements, while telling the same story and having it turn out the same way — you’re not using it right.

2. Readers need to understand the rules governing the magical aspects of the world you’re depicting. You can explain those rules — and whatever consequences might result — either explicitly or by allowing the reader to absorb their essence by showing them at work. Most writers use a combination of both. Some can be accomplished by including a character that encounters the paranormal for the first time. The reader can learn how these rules function as the character does, and the reader can share her surprise.

3. You need to decide whether the magical aspects are known to the general populace of your world, or not. Either way works, but there is a built-in level of conflict if your paranormal beings have to struggle to hide their natures. In the Harry Potter novels, the muggles — non-paranormal beings — are generally unaware of the wizardry being performed in their midst, which provides lots of opportunities for conflict, as well as humor.

4. Characters who possess supernatural abilities must be seen using those abilities, or we need to know why not. For instance, Annabelle Haggerty, the Celtic goddess/FBI agent protagonist of my Magical Mystery, MAGICAL ALIENATION, needs to be careful how much magic she performs at the FBI, where she must hide her secret nature. But I once worked with a writing client who described her protagonist as telepathic with animals, yet the character never displayed any telepathy in her frustrating interactions with animals, until the three-quarter point of the novel, for no reason that was ever explained.

5. Magical characters must still be real characters, as richly developed as those not possessing paranormal abilities, yet not be perfect beings, either. Your novel should contain challenging personal growth arcs for these characters, too, even if they also have some extraordinary abilities. 

6. Just as everything comes together in the climax of any other novel, it must in a paranormal work. The solution your protagonist employs to meet her goal must rely on both her natural and supernatural abilities, to bring about a solution that works on both levels. She should also overcome her personal challenges, achieving personal growth as she achieves her story-objective.

7. Most importantly, even magical beings have to earn their successes. If you allow your protagonist to finalize the action in the climax with the effortless waving of a wand, or some solution not inherent within the storyline, you will lose your reader’s respect. If you change the magical rules you’ve already established to allow your character an effortless solution, you’ll also lose that reader. For the reader to continue to suspect disbelief, she must trust in the integrity of your novel. If you want to get around some generally accepted paranormal beliefs, find a realistic way to do it. In the TWILIGHT series, for example, Stephenie Meyer circumvented the belief that vampires can’t go out during the day without burning up by choosing a locale that’s heavily overcast.

Writing paranormal can be extra challenging because so much has to be integrated, and it must work equally well on multiple levels. But it’s great fun to write, and these tips should speed you on your way toward writing paranormal cross-category success.

Are they out there?

 Given my town's -- Sedona, Arizona -- reputation for being Woo-Woo Central, I suppose it’s inevitable that some visiting smart alecks ask, “So…any spaceships land here lately?”

I usually answer with the straightest of faces, “The mother-ship lands every afternoon in the parking lot, but I wouldn’t advise taking it, since it’s the local, not the express.”

The usually just stare at me then, and I’m never sure whether they think I’m crazy, or if they are. I’m honestly surprised by how often we get that question — really, too many times to count. I don’t even know where it comes from. I associate Sedona with crystal stores and psychics, along with such non-metaphysical avenues as hiking and great views. Not aliens.

I’m not one of those people who has ever seen evidence of alien visitations. If E.T. popped up in my kitchen, I think my heart would stop.

And yet, as a lifelong science fiction fan, I love the idea. I was weaned on it. Who can forget how, in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Michael Rennie instructed Patricia Neal to give the robot Gort the command, “Klaatu barado nikto,” to keep it from destroying the Earth?

So it’s not a surprise that a sci-fi strain has found its way into my writing in the forthcoming second adventure in my Samantha Brennan and Annabelle Haggerty Magical Mystery, Magical Alienation, which will debut shortly. 

For a writer, fantasy of any kind presents the ultimate “What if…?” situation. The most exciting aspect is when the writer takes actual facts and/or widely accepted urban legend, and mixes in a giant helping of imagination, to create something that nobody has ever seen before, but which feels as if it really could happen right in our world.

The first book in the series, the Lefty Award-nominated for Best Humorous Mystery, High Crimes on the Magical Plane, introduced fake psychic Samantha Brennan and genuine Celtic goddess/FBI agent Annabelle Haggerty, along with Angus, the ever-hot ancient god of youth and love and laughter, who becomes Samantha’s love-slave, as well as leprechauns, banshees and other mystical beings, who shake up Samantha’s view of the universe.

Magical Alienation picks up with High Crimes on the Magical Plane left off, introducing new gods and goddesses, including Fiona, Annabelle’s secretive goddess mother, and the trickster gods of Lugh and Taliesin, responsible for such real present-day phenomenon as bizarre weather patterns and crop circles. There is a reason why Allyson James, the national bestselling author of Stormwalker called Magical Alienation, “…a hilarious tangle of gods and goddesses.”

It explores what may have happened in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The craft that crashed there then — which the U.S. government has always insisted was a weather balloon, but which local residents at the time insisted was an alien aircraft, with actual alien inhabitants — and the persistence with which this rumor has continued to circulate to this day, has always fascinated me. In all likelihood it was a weather balloon, but what fun is that? That’s where the “What if…?” scenario and imagination comes in. Magical Alienation not only explores that crash, it probes the mysterious Area 51 in Nevada. And if you think you know what those places are all about, you’re in for a whale of a surprise in Magical Alienation!

In science fiction, particularly the old films, earthlings are often depicted as the buttheads of the universe. We’re seen as beings so careless with our own environment and theirs that other creatures have to come from planets across the galaxy to give us a collective slap on the wrist to keep us from messing up all of space. You have to admit that Michael Rennie as Klaatu seemed the ultimate universal diplomat in The Day the Earth Stood Still, while we savage earthlings sure proved him right when we shot him.

Some of the characters in Magical Alienation can’t dispute that butthead-theory, including Rand Riker, the bad boy of Rock ’n’ Roll, who’ll do anything for eternal youth, Kenny Campbell, the junior senator from Arizona, with his curious definition of “family values,” as well as a rouge militia unit whose form of domestic terrorism has a decidedly magical twist.

Throw in a horrific harmonic convergence and the darkest night the planet has ever seen, and it’s not clear which of these characters can possibly survive it.

That’s why Darynda Jones, author of Second Grave to the Left, wrote, “It’s intriguing and IMPOSSIBLE to put down! Get this book. You will not be disappointed!” And why fantasy author, Jeff Mariotte, author of the Dark Vengeance series, described it as: “…fearless, frenetic, and funny. Kris Neri's tale of gods and rock stars and fake psychics has more twists and turns than a French braid, and she employs all her mystery-writer's chops to keep readers spellbound from beginning to end, wondering who’s really who and what’s really next.”

I just call it the most fun I’ve ever written. And let me remind you, as Samantha discovers, when Celtic gods are involved, nothing is ever as it appears.

Book Review: FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT by Darynda Jones

Do you woo-woo? I do. I’m really thrilled by the still-growing popularity of the urban fantasy genre and other paranormal fictional forms, not just because I write funny urban fantasy (or magical mystery, as my publisher calls it), but because I also love reading it. A really creative paranormal writer can set my imagination soaring. The problem is that whenever a publishing trend takes hold, some writers jump on the bandwagon and simply rehash what others have done. Look at what happened when THE DA VINCI CODE hit the heady heights of top bestsellerdom — we saw far too many Catholic Church secret conspiracies and capers set in museums. Now, suddenly, everyone who was anyone in history was a vampire — Robert E. Lee, Richard Nixon, a couple of popes... Where is the freshness this genre demands? The new paranormal beings?

Well, you’ll find a particularly wonderful one in the debut novel by New Mexico author, Darynda Jones, FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT, and its new sequel, SECOND GRAVE ON THE LEFT.

Lively, sparkling Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and a full-time grim reaper. From her first day in this world, the day she was born, she assumed the job of helping the souls of the newly-passed-on to go to the light. She doesn’t know what happens to them after they do, it’s just her job to help them to move in that direction. But some of the recently-departed don’t want to go, especially when they died as a result of violent crime. Then they want justice before moving on. Since Charley is a PI, the daughter of a retired cop, niece of an active one, and a frequent consultant to the Albuquerque PD, she’s the ideal person to give it to them. In FIRST GRAVE ON THE LEFT, it’s the three senior partners of a law firm — all murder victims — who need her to unravel the cause of their demise before they’re ready to give up this realm.

The ghosts aren’t background figures here, they’re highly engaged, sometimes learning important truths that would have helped them in the lives they’ve just lost during this in-between stage. Some are just transient figures in Charley’s life, as they wait for her to find out who killed them, and deal with those they’re leaving behind, while others are more permanent fixtures in Charley’s life and home. The permanent ghosts are hilarious, especially when they think they’re still performing earthbound activities. And as with lots of ghost stories before this one, sometimes it’s funny when Charley finds herself locked into a conversation with one of the departed, while in the presence of a living nonbeliever who thinks she’s talking to herself, and maybe just nuts.

Distracting Charley during her search for the bad guy is the unsettling, though super-hot, dream sex she’s been having with an entity who has been following her all of her life, who might be dead, but who might actually be something else entirely. The exact nature of this super-supernatural being is just as a fresh and surprising as the precise way Charley’s gift is depicted as functioning.

While a distinctive genre today, urban fantasy is actually the amalgamation of other genres, of crime, fantasy and romance, though the exact percentages will vary by novel, and will often reflect the background of the author. My own, and those of other mystery authors, will often emphasize the mystery, though the crimes reflected will usually take on a supernatural quality. Darynda Jones’s sparkling series is stronger on paranormal romance and fantasy aspects, but while the crimes and their investigation represents a smaller segment of FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT, they are well done, with the need for justice strongly projected, and the resolution highly satisfying.

The best part of this series is its sassy, snarky, sexy protagonist, and the cheeky charm of a voice that will grab you from the first page and won’t let go of you until its satisfying conclusion. Original, engaging, and not to be missed. 

-- Kris Neri

High Crimes & AM AZ

I appeared recently on the AM Arizona TV show to talk about HIGH CRIMES ON THE MAGICAL PLANE. So fun!

Before I went on, I reviewed everything I wanted to say and just hoped to remember it all. During my segment, though, I don’t think there was a thought in my head…except perhaps to hope I sounded okay as I blathered on, and to note how good the hostess’s makeup looked and to hope mine looked as good. It all went by so fast, and I found it impossible to speaking while simultaneously thinking about what to say.

I hoped it sounded good. You be the judge -- see it.

– Kris Neri