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Welcome to the Speculative Fiction Showcase Meet My Character blog hop! Last week's stop was at Aurora Springer's site. Aurora Springer is a scientist morphing into a novelist. Whimsical stories in weird worlds. Science fiction and fantasy, love and war with a spice of humor. Aliens and outer space! Check out her blog to meet her alien character Sa Kamizan Veedak.  Mominur Rahman illuminatedimages.co.uk Last time I did a Meet My Character blog hop (that one was with one of my Goodreads groups), we got to know Silas Vendine, hero of Daughter of the Wildings. This time it's leading lady Lainie Banfrey's turn.
1) What is the name of your character? Is he or she fictional or a historic person? Her name is Lainie Banfrey. She's fictional (but don't tell her that!). 2) When and where is the story set? The story is set in the Wildings, a fantasy world inspired by the American West of the 1880s. Non-magical people have fled from persecution in the mage-ruled civilized land of Granadaia to settle in the wide-open Wildings. 3) What should we know about him or her? Lainie is the 19-year-old daughter of a moderately prosperous (though far from wealthy) cattle rancher in Bitterbush Springs. It's just her and her father; her mother died when Lainie was 6 years old, and her older brother was killed in a shootout between feuding miners and ranch men. She's a hard worker, tending to both ranch chores and housekeeping, and she's an excellent cook. She's proud of her full 6-year education at the Bitterbush Springs Town School, and she loves to read all the penny-thriller novels she can get her hands on. 4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his or her life? Lainie was born in the Wildings to Plain (non-magical) parents, but she inherited magical power from a grandmother who was a mage. Mages are hated and feared by the Plain settlers, so Lainie has to hide her power. She's torn over her power: she wants to be able to use it to do good, but she's been taught all her life that wizards are monsters with no heart and no soul. When a dangerous renegade mage comes to Bitterbush Springs and stirs up a feud, Lainie meets Silas Vendine, a bounty hunter on the renegade's trail. To her, he seems like the man of her dreams, even though he's a mage. Lainie's power is discovered by Silas, who is legally required to either Strip her of her power, which would leave her a helpless, mindless shell, or to take her to Granadaia to be trained in magic, a process that would probably destroy the young woman she is and turn her into the monster she's afraid of becoming. Lainie refuses to go along with either option, and Silas can't bring himself to force her. Lainie teams up with Silas to stop the renegade mage. The renegade discovers her power, and then the whole town finds out about it, with the result that her whole life is uprooted and sent in a direction she never imagined. 5) What is the personal goal of the character? She wants to learn to use her power while remaining herself and not becoming a monster like she's always been taught mages are, and to use her power to protect the peace and freedom of the people of the Wildings. At the same time, she wants to convince the settlers that not all mages are evil, and eventually make it so that mages and Plain folk can live together peacefully. 6) What is the title of the book(s), and where can find out more? The series is Daughter of the Wildings (click to go to the series page for book extras, buy links, and more information). Book 1: Beneath the Canyons (now available) Book 2: Bad Hunting (now available) Book 3: The Rancher's Daughter (coming soon) Book 4: To the Gap Book 5: City of Mages Book 6: For the Wildings 7) When was the book published? Beneath the Canyons was published November 2014, and Bad Hunting was published just a few days ago, Feb. 20. Anticipated release for The Rancher's Daughter is May 2015. Update: The next stop on the Meet My Character blog hop is Cora Buhlert, discussing her hero Richard Blakemore. Cora Buhlert was born and bred in Bremen, North Germany, where she still lives today - after time spent in London, Singapore, Rotterdam and Mississippi. Cora holds an MA degree in English from the University of Bremen and is currently working towards her PhD. Cora has been writing, since she was a teenager, and has published stories, articles and poetry in various international magazines. When she is not writing, she works as a translator and teacher.
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 I'm pleased to announce that Bad Hunting, Daughter of the Wildings Book 2, is now available at the following ebook retailers: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | OmniLit | Smashwords | DriveThruFiction. It'll also be on iTunes, which for some reason is being really slow. The regular price is $3.99, but through Feb. 24, 2015, you can get it for the special introductory price of $0.99! (or the international equivalent)
If you haven't read Book 1, Beneath the Canyons yet, now's your chance; it's also on special for only 99 cents through Feb. 24! The paperback edition of Bad Hunting will be coming in a few weeks. And now, on to book 3, The Rancher's Daughter! I can't say yet when the release date will be; I would love to publish it in April, but May might be more realistic. I'll keep you posted on the progress! And in the meantime, watch for Lainie to be featured on the Speculative Fiction Showcase Meet My Character blog tour this weekend, right here. Update: Bad Hunting is now available on iTunes! The delay was because there was something in the book description Apple didn't like (they're picky about some things) and I thought I had fixed it but I hadn't :P. All fixed now.  Yes, it's finally here, the day I turn the manuscript of yet another novel into a lovely ebook, the last step before releasing it into the world. The first time I did this process, it took 2 weeks; I've now got it down to a day or two, depending on length of the book (lots of chapters take more time to do). This isn't counting the paperback version; I do that in my spare time after the ebook release.
So I'm taking a quick break between preparing the html file and running it through the ebook generating program (I use Sigil) to announce that Bad Hunting will be available in just a few more days at a wide variety of ebook sellers. There'll be some special promotions in connection with the release; to make sure you don't miss out, sign up for my email alerts. (I only send these out when I have a new release or special offer to announce; no spamming!) Also, this was cool, I had a guest post yesterday at the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a blog devoted to indie fantasy, science fiction, and related genres. One other bit of business, Facebook has become pretty much useless for announcing my blog posts, book news, buy links, and special offers. If you want to keep up with what I'm doing, there are several other ways you can do this: follow me on Twitter (not my platform of choice, but I do tweet my blog posts and release news) and/or on Google+, bookmark my main site, and/or subscribe to one of my blogs: main site, Blogspot, or Wordpress (same content, just different platforms and options for following). Time for lunch, then back to work!  Yes, I know February is almost halfway over! Just a quick update post. Job one this month and last month has been getting Bad Hunting ready for release. I'm at least a month behind schedule - the stretch between Thanksgiving and when we took our son back to school after New Year's took a lot out of me, it was fun but exhausting - and working hard to make up time. I've got myself on a more or less regular work schedule (hard to do when you work at home and you're your own boss!) and progress is finally happening. Bad Hunting is in the final proofreading stages, and I'm looking at a release date of Feb. 20. Stay tuned for release news and some special promotional pricing; to make sure you don't miss out, sign up for my email alerts. Don't worry, I'm too lazy/busy to spam, and you can cancel any time.
All other projects have been put on hold until I get back on track with the Daughter of the Wildings schedule. This includes getting Tales of Azara ready to release and working on my other Estelend novels and the Urdaisunia sequel. They haven't been abandoned; they're just waiting their turn. On my A-Z reading challenge, for H I read The Hawk and His Boy, book 1 of the Tormay Trilogy by Chirstopher Bunn, then had to take a detour to read the rest of the series. I'm halfway through book 3, The Wicked Day, and it's wonderful. Time to post this and eat lunch, then back to work!  Introducing author N.J. Paige and her novel Rise of the Nephilim: Fire and Blood: 1. Tell us a little about yourself. First, I want to thank you for having me as a guest on your blog. A little bit about me: well, I'm a mom of two wonderful children and wife to the best husband in the world-my best friend. 2. When did you start writing, and why? This may be a little cliche, but I began in high school. I found it as a way to express all my frustrations as a teenage girl. 3. What do you write, and why? What do you enjoy about what you write? My goal is to write across many different genres. However, currently, I find that I'm drawn to Fantasy/Science-Fiction. The most important thing for me though, no matter what genre I happen to be writing in, is to support the foundations that I believe to be the foundations of Humanity-love, empathy, honor. 4. What is your latest book or series? Any forthcoming books? My latest book is a new series, Rise of The Nephilim: Fire And Blood. Its foundations are love and empathy-two of Humanities foundations I referred to earlier. Also, you are the first to know, my new release, Code Human, will be out 4/25/2015. Its foundations lie in love, honor, empathy, and I'll add, respect. Both series have kick-butt heroines who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.  5. "Welcome To My Worlds": Tell us a little about the world of your latest book or series.
Rise Of The Nephilim: Fire And Blood is set in an subterranean world-Babylon, where there are large lakes, cave structures with some modern utilities such as electricity. Think of a medieval village, with some sort of modernity. Its core is beneath New York City. In this world are strange beings-Epochs, Imps, and Fallen Angels, not to mention Nephilims. 6. Introduce us to some of your characters. What do you like about them? Well, some of my characters are Maxine Lauren-the main charater. Although Maxine has been bullied all her life for her unique features, and has every reason to hate the world, it is her love for her family and for Humanity that will save the world. Also Amand, Maxine's Fallen Angel father. He is set on destroying the world, for he so hates Humanity, but his love for Maxine, his Sarai, and her human mother, Maybie, is cutting that hate down a little at a time. And I must not forget Mathias, the golden Angel from the Realm of Angels. He is Maxine's first love. And he is willing to risk everything to protect her and to show his love for her-an unforbidden love. 7. A fun fact you would like your readers to know about you or your book. Hmm. A fun fact. Let me think. Well, I have a passion for gardening. And one of my dreams is to one day build a home that is completely off the grid and will provide food for me and my family via greenhouses and so forth. Aslo, I love to hike and do all kinds of outdoorsy stuff. 8. Blog/site link, and where your book is available. Rise of The Nephilim is available at Amazon. Where to find N.J.: Website | Goodreads | Twitter I want to thank you again for having me as your guest. [Kyra sez: You're welcome :-) My pleasure!] Read on for an excerpt from Rise of the Nephilim: Fire and Blood: Beneath the Canyons, Book 1 of Daughter of the Wildings, is now available at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, OmniLit, Smashwords, CreateSpace, and DriveThruFiction. Coming soon to Barnes & Noble (which is once again being laggy with the updates). Update: Canyons is now live at Barnes & Noble! Still plugging away with final edits on Bad Hunting; in the meantime, here's a sneak peek inside the book, with Lainie and Silas on the trail of a killer:  The next day, thunderheads started building up over the hills early in the day. Silas and Lainie still went on foot, leading the horses, as they continued looking for tracks. Being down in the washes when there might be rain upstream could be a deadly mistake, so they kept to higher ground as much as possible. The humidity made the heat even more oppressive, and the air was filled with a tension that only a thunderstorm could relieve. Rainbugs clicked and buzzed in the brush, heralding a chance of rain, their noise constant and maddening despite its welcome message. By late in the morning, the clouds over the hills towered high and white, nearly black on the bottom, and a curtain of gray gradually thickened across the highest hilltops in the range. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The wind coming down from the hills picked up, bringing a promising smell of rain. So far that morning, the search had been just as futile as the day before. Then, about mid-day, Silas paused and looked down into the wash they were following. "What's that?" Surprise that he had found something, and a touch of fear, jolted Lainie out of the haze of heat, frustration, and boredom she had sunk into. "What's what?" "I thought I saw -- wait here." He walked to the edge of the wash and pushed aside the thorny brush growing there, then started climbing down the sloping bank. "Be careful," Lainie called, nervously eyeing the storm up in the hills and thinking of the killer who could be lurking down in the creek bed. "I won't be but a moment," Silas called back as he disappeared into the wash. Lainie peered anxiously after him, but he was soon out of sight. Almost she wanted to go after him, so he wouldn't be alone down there and she wouldn't be alone up here, but there were the horses to consider -- Without warning, a cold, violent downdraft from the hills crashed into her, followed by a wall of dust. Dirt and sand swirled around her, blinding her, clogging her nose. Behind her, Mala and Abenar neighed in panic, the sound muted and torn apart by the wind rushing past her ears. In her anxiety about Silas, Lainie realized, she had forgotten to hold onto the horses' reins. She spun around and lunged to grab the reins before the horses could run away, and missed, and stumbled to the ground. She came up disoriented, with no idea which way she was facing or where the wash was. Even the sounds of the horses were lost in the roar of the wind. "Silas!" she tried to call out, but the wind stole her voice and blowing grit filled her mouth. She froze in place. Every child in the Wildings was taught that if you were lost in the wild, you should stay put so you could be found. Wandering around, especially in a blind panic, would only get you more lost. She couldn't be more than a few steps from where she had been and from where Silas had gone down into the wash, she told herself, trying to stay calm. The wind buffeted her side to side and front to back, but she fought it, trying to hold her ground. Even small steps would add up, taking her away from where Silas could easily find her. A pair of arms came around her from behind. Relief swept away her panic; Silas -- The grip of the arms tightened mercilessly around her, and the stink of old alcohol and long-unwashed body hit her nose. Terror surged inside her. Before she could fight back, a rope of glowing green power wrapped itself around her legs and arms, stinging her skin and nerves, and the cold edge of a knife blade pressed against her throat. At the touch of sharp metal on her skin, her cry died in her mouth. In her mind, she saw clearly the scene that Silas would find when the dust storm passed: her lying dead on the ground, her throat carved open, and no sign of the murderer who came and went like a spirit, without a trace. "Stay still and quiet, and I won't have to kill you," a male voice whispered harshly in her ear. Watch for Bad Hunting, coming soon!
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AuthorI am Kyra Halland, author of tales of fantasy, heroism, and romance. Sign up for my email list
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