Tanya Lisle

  • Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!
    Green Team

    Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are NINE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GREEN TEAM–but there are also RED, BLUE, GOLD, ORANGE, TEAL, PURPLE, SILVER, and PINK teams for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

    If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

    SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

     
    Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the green team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).
     
    Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
    Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 3, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

    SCAVENGER HUNT POST

    I am hosting Lisa T. Cresswell for the YA Scavenger Hunt!

    Tanya Lisle
    Lisa T. Cresswell is an archaeologist by day, young adult writer by night. She has a healthy addiction to books, coffee, and drama-free zones.

    Find out more information by checking out her website or in the following places:

    Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

    Everyone’s heard of Blackbeard, right? The terrible pirate? Hollywood staple pirate character? But did you know that Blackbeard was a real person named Edward Teach? I remember as a kid thinking he was just a cartoon-ish character and being amazed to learn he was real. You can read all about him on Wikipedia.  Born in 1680, he only lived to be about 35 or 40 years old because he was finally captured and beheaded in 1718. Perhaps because it was so long ago, he’s become the stuff of legends? Even his flag is kinda creepy.

    The ghost of Blackbeard is the main baddie in my new novella The Color of Water. He was such delicious fun to write, re-imagined as a modern day biker. Here’s a sneak peek of my heroine, Samantha, unexpectedly seeing Blackbeard, aka Teach, on the streets of Beaufort ~

    The summer sun was still hot enough to make me sweat, but it was cooling down as the shadows got longer. The rain had left steamy puddles along the sidewalks, but the sky was clearing just like Matt said it would. Seeing nothing unusual at the Queen Ann’s, I kept walking, turning down an alley to avoid all the tourists on Front Street. That’s where I saw them – a man and a woman having a hella fight in the alley. My heart jumped up into my throat when I realized it was Harley man – Teach.

    I ducked behind a dumpster and tried to blend into the back of a building. It didn’t seem to matter to Teach and his lady friend because their screaming argument suddenly dissolved into a groping, kissing thing. I couldn’t stop staring at them. Teach’s beefy, tattooed arms wrapped the woman like an octopus’s tentacles, his fingers snaking through her God-awful, red-orange dye job. She didn’t seem to mind. She kissed him like she was starving and he was a steak dinner. After coming up for air, they stumbled back inside the building.

    I saw the door was printed with ‘No one under 21 admitted’ as I hurried past. If he was going to kill her, he would have done it right there, wouldn’t he? I resolved not to tell Matt about it, since he obviously didn’t want me anywhere near Teach. I didn’t want to risk making him mad again. I picked up my pace, running a few blocks so I wouldn’t be late.

    You can find The Color of Water in print and ebook on Amazon and Goodreads! Enjoy~

     

    And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Lisa T. Cresswell, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 35. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the green team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

    CONTINUE THE HUNT

     
    To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Jessie Costin!

  • Since Legacy is coming out and I am very excited about it, I wanted to show off the cover a little. Because it is beautiful and it needs to be seen. And because it’s the last cover in the series, which means I won’t be getting any more of these!

    It’s bittersweet, is what I’m saying.

    legacy

    Not all magic is equal. Even hard work and determination is no match for skills passed on from generation to generation, each time being built upon and growing stronger. These old magic families have hoarded their secrets with every generation, using them to get ahead where they could – or leaving a mess for their progeny to deal with as soon as they have passed.

    Legacy delves into the people who have had the responsibility of generations passed down to them and how they use their family’s magic with the time they have left. This generation knows that eventually the End will eventually come for them and that they might not have much time to stop it. If they want to stop it at all.

    Pretty awesome, right? But, I’m nothing if not generous, so I won’t just be showing off the cover today. Here is a brief glimpse of all of the short stories that appear in the story as well:

    Foundations

    With the school nearly built, it’s time to start teaching the first students.

    Nostra

    John decides that just because his father is out of jail doesn’t mean he has to let his father revert business back to the way things were.

    As You Wish

    Breaking up is hard enough. When one person decides that the relationship isn’t going to end, sometimes it calls for drastic measures.

    Presently

    All of time keeps passing over Dawn in waves and she cannot quite figure out where or when she is anymore.

    Fair Warning

    Ciara knows that things are going to change, but she has no idea how much.

    Paperwork

    Thea knows that the Sibyl is working for the Syndicate now and she doesn’t like it. She likes going out to lunch with her even less.

    Teenage Exorcist

    Bree thought she was good at this whole dealing with ghosts thing. And then she moved to Vancouver.

    To Kill a Vampire

    At last, Victoria has found the man she must kill in order to be free of her curse.

    Mirror, Mirror

    Gabe finally heads home for a shower and some sleep to find his brother has commandeered his couch and brought their childhood nightmares with him.

    Absence of Answers

    Jason tried not to think too much about where he came from, but Dawn has the answers to everything he could ever ask. If he can just figure out the right questions.

     

    Don’t forget that there’s still a contest going to get this and the rest of the series for free! Enter now and you might get your hands on this before it’s released on April 4th!

    Twisted Eden Sector Giveaway

  • In honour of the last book in Tales from the Twisted Eden Sector coming out, I’m having a contest and I wanted to let you guys know first! I’ll be giving away all seven books in the series, including a signed paperback copy of Syndicate and the currently unreleased final book, Legacy.
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    Think of it as an easy way to get it a week early! Good luck to all who enter!


    Twisted Eden Sector Giveaway

    Contest closes March 25th.

  • liebsteraward-image3

    Big thanks to LeeanasCreativeBox for nominating me for this one! Definitely go check her out. So, let’s get to this!

    LIEBSTER AWARD RULES:

    Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
    Display the Liebster Award on your blog.
    Share 11 random facts about yourself.
    Answer the 11 questions you were asked.
    Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers for the Award and have them answer 11 questions.
    Let the other bloggers know you’ve nominated them.
    Copy the rules into your post.

    11 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME:

    1. I have read Island of the Blue Dolphins about six times, but I don’t actually remember any of it. ((I was in elementary school, so the memory is a little hazy.))
    2. I didn’t start really reading until one summer when I picked the biggest book I could find ((The Sword of Shannara)) in the hopes it would take a long time to read it and then mom told me I only had a week.
    3. I didn’t start writing a lot until high school, when I got positive feedback on a short backstory I wrote for my character in a friend’s comic she was making.
    4. I made nine things for my Christmas tins this year.
    1. I am a marathoner when it comes to shows. I said I would watch Supernatural and I think I finished 7 seasons in two weeks.
    2. I have read the books for Game of Thrones and have not seen the series.
    3. I don’t have either cable or Netflix at the moment.
    4. I don’t actually live in Vancouver. It’s just the default location I give because no one outside of the Lower Mainland knows where my city is.
    5. I seriously considered moving to Ontario and starting over not long ago. Unfortunately, I blew all the money I would have used doing it on a trip out to Toronto and found out how damn expensive it is to get across the country.
    6. I have plans for a trip that would take me about a month and a half to complete and about $7,000. I don’t know if I’ll ever take it. ((I don’t think there’s a job out there that will let me take that much time off))
    7. When I was younger, I wrote a lot of fanfiction. It is still available online because I can’t access the account. ((And I don’t use that email account anymore. It doesn’t exist. No, I’m not telling you where those fics are.))

    MY ANSWERS:

    1. What was your favourite toy when you were young?
      I had two stuffed animals that I loved. A pink teddy bear and a green bunny rabbit named Pink Bear and Bunny.
    2. Which band or musician would you recommend to the world?
      2NE1. I’m still on a KPop kick and I love these women.
    3. What is your all-time favourite TV series?
      Whose Line is it Anyway? I have a deep love of that show and it is great to get me out of a funk.
    4. If you could ban one thing in this world, what would that be?
      The question “What are you?” and all derivatives of it in the context of trying to figure out what race or ethnicity someone is, because I really hate it.
    5. You have to stay on an island Survivor-style for a whole month. You’re only allowed to take five things with you. What five things (not people) would you take.
      Tough. I think I’ll go with laptop, ((With a whole lot of books about surviving on an island and some writing projects to work on pre-loaded onto it)) solar powered charger, a tent, a knife, and potatoes. I think I can figure out how to cook a potato on a deserted island. ((If all else fails, I will overheat the laptop and boil the thing.))
    6. Do you think there are aliens ‘out there’?
      Statistically speaking, probably. I don’t think they’re super interested in contacting humans, though, in the same way we’re not using a lot of resources to contact them.
    7. Which book do you read when you’re in a ‘there’s nothing to read’ mood?
      I usually try to read Sophie’s world again. One day, I will finish that book.
    8. Why did you start blogging?
      Originally, to post my stories up online. At least, that was the reason for my first site.
    9. Which of your posts are you most proud of?
      I don’t know if it’s on here, but I wrote a post about how writing your first draft is like running away from zombies. Always liked that one.
    10. Do people get your sense of humour?
      Not always. My references tend to be a little obscure, and not in the cool way.
    11. If you found Aladdin’s Lamp, what wish would you make?
      The final wish is always free the genie. The first would probably be for something lame like financial stability for the rest of my life. The second would be for my own magic powers.

    11 QUESTIONS FOR MY NOMINEES:

    1. What is the worst movie you’ve ever seen?
    2. What is your second favourite song?
    3. What book have you reread the most times and why?
    4. What’s your zombie apocalypse plan?
    5. What’s your go to snack food?
    6. What’s your favourite fiction genre?
    7. Ebooks or print books?
    8. Do you listen to any podcasts? Which ones?
    9. Do you read any comics and which ones? Any recommendations?
    10. How addicted are you to your phone?
    11. You wake up one day with the ability to raise the dead. What do you do with this power?

    MY 11 NOMINEES:

    I don’t know that many people out in the blogging world just yet, so here’s a shot at 11. ((And who I think are also under 200. I’m not sure where to find that number.))

    1. Aditi Pallod
    2. Busy Bri Covered in Pink
    3. Rantings Of A Third Kind
    4. officeboredomblog
    5. 2D’sworld
    6. Yellow Wolf Enlightenment
    7. MORGAN JT BLOG
    8. A Cooking Pot and Endless Tales
    9. Bun Karyudo’s Scribblings
    10. blabberwockying!
    11. MUSINGSOFAMAPLETREE

  • To be clear: I am not a fan of the romance genre in general. It’s a genre that’s been targeted at me my whole life that I have never liked. I don’t mind it as part of the narrative where it isn’t the most important thing, but on its own, I find it irritating and predictable, often playing mostly on gender tropes that I’d rather would just die.

    But I have a lot of supernatural romance on my Kobo. I downloaded a lot of free books once upon a time and they looked like they would have more supernatural than romance in it. Plus, I know romance is a bit of a weak point for me, so I wanted to see how other authors with more experience handled it. I figured reading them would be an educational experience and I would get something useful out of the experience, even if I knew it would end predictably.

    I’ll give them this. I didn’t see any of these endings coming. Mostly because most of them made no goddamn sense.

    So let’s go through what appears to be the rules of the genre, near as I can tell. I read three of these books so far all the way through ((And gave up on others)) and I’ve noticed a few trends that they all share. Please note, I didn’t read anything with a love triangle.

    1. Straight female protagonist, probably in her 30s. Most have some sort of job that allows them to be independent.
    2. She’s gotta be hot, but she probably doesn’t know it.
    3. She also has no parents. She can have grandparents or parental figures, but her direct parents are dead. ((I think this is supposed to be the grown up Disney princess genre))
    4. She’s married at the start ((Even if you don’t know it right away!)) to a guy who is an alcoholic. He’s probably also cheating on her. If he is, he’s gotten the other woman pregnant.
    5. It is definitely his fault the relationship is failing/has failed. The main lady is absolutely,100% not at fault for the failed relationship.
    6. The woman has no friends who could be potentially romantically threatening. All potential male friends are either gay or in relationships.
    7. The love interest has some sort of female fetish type job, or at least one with a super sexy uniform. ((I got a doctor, a fireman, and a sheriff))
    8. It’s set in a small town, or it feels like it must be a small town.
    9. The love interest is completely perfect. At least, the book will really try to sell this guy as a completely perfect man, no matter his actions. ((Letting the protagonist off of crimes that she’s definitely guilty of, taking her to a romantic cabin in the woods instead of a hospital))
    10. When she hooks up with the love interest, she is still somehow married to the unrepentant douchebag she was with before.
    11. Children are always important to the main lady in some way.
    12. At about the 2/3 – 3/4 mark, she will have a heart to heart with the unrepentant douchebag ex and they will come to an agreement of some sort. And then he will die soon after. They will still be married. ((This still technically happened in the one potential exception.))
    13. Even if the main lady ends up killing someone, it will absolutely not be her fault that it happened. It was probably even something out of her control. ((The sea murdered people for her!))
    14. There should be minimal if any scenes in a hospital. If the main lady is hospitalized, she can definitely just walk out of there.
    15. The reveal that leads into the climax will make me want to throw my book out a window. ((A HOUSE THAT EATS LOVE))

    While I think I could definitely write one of these books at this point, I am not going to. This is not my genre. I’ve seen positive and glowing reviews for all of these books and I just can’t with this type of escapist fantasy. I understand why, but it’s just not my thing.

    On the other hand, I still have more on my Kobo. And I have no plans to delete them.

  • First and foremost, I refuse to accept that this is the end of the series. As an end to the arc, it’s perfectly servicable and plenty interesting. As the end of the books all together, no.

    This time, Harper ends up going to Portugal to deal with Purlis and one of Carlos’ old enemies. The whole story revolved largely around Carlos instead of either Harper or Quinton, getting into how he became a vampire in the first place and taking a look at his sordid past while trying to stop the bone mages from bringing forth a dragon that would destabalize Europe.

    I’m against it as an end to the series mostly because it revolves around a secondary character rather than our lead. I still have plenty of questions about Quinton and Harper to be answered, ((And a desire to have Harper dance as a plot point because for how often I’m told about it, I’m almost never shown)) and instead the book goes off about the vampire who was the crutch for the first bit of the series. While it was nice to have some more Carlos and get a bit more information on him, as the final book in a series is not where I’d want it.

    I could probably also do without any more Carlos/Harper moments ever. The dialogue between the two felt very off somehow and this whole Carlos thinking Harper is the best thing ever that he would also like to have sex with turned out to be really awkward more than anything else. I don’t know what to make of it, but I felt like it probably could have been cut.

    Quinton, on the other hand, only brought up friendship once! It was awful and then the issue finally dropped. At last. I hope that when the series continues, ((And for all my complaining, I do hope it does)) that never comes up again. Ever. It’s my least liked subplot in anything I’ve read recently and I really didn’t want it handled so directly in a book about adults. None of these sounded like conversations I’ve had with other people. No more of them.

    I was actually really surprised that so little of the book ended up being about Quinton or Purlis. It might have been his organization, but for all he was built up, Purlis didn’t actually do much in the book. He delegated the torture to someone else. He might have caught Harper initially, but she kept getting passed off to the bone mages. He kind of reacted to the soul link in that he felt it now and then when Harper got injured, but so little was about Quinton and Purlis that I was kind of disappointed when he was taken care of at the end.

    Speaking of, I can’t wait for Quinton and Harper to finally be married because it means that everyone stops saying spouse-in-soul or coming up with other married-not-married terms for them. When they elope ((You know that’s how it will go down)) then we can get back to everything back to being about Harper nearly getting killed and saving her damsel of a husband. ((Who still needs to get beat up so bad that Harper comes to his rescue. Why has this not happened yet?))

    I think that’s most of why I’m a bit unsatisfied at this point. I thought that this was the end of the series, but there’s so much left unresolved. The epilogue consisted of a lot of telling about what happened to the smattering of characters, left out a bunch of other characters, and we get the answer to a marriage proposal. I don’t even get a dose of ferret in the book when Chaos ((The ferret)) has appeared in literally every other one. I don’t know what happens to her.

    Still, there were good parts too. I did like meeting Quinton’s sister and her kids. And it was nice to see the Danzingers again one last time, even if we only get to see them the once. Mara even got to do something and give us a nice reminder of how far Harper has come. The magic, again, was nicely done ((Even if that bone swapping was very convenient)) and it didn’t wait until the half way point to pick up the pace. When things were moving, they were fantastic and there were a lot of little subplots and research that were interesting.

    It’s just not a final book. Labyrinth was a final book. It was about Harper, about being a Greywalker and about what her role was in the story. This was the end of a story arc where Carlos stepped in and helped save the day again with a “Stay Tuned for More Adventures!” at the end.

    I’m going to hold out hope for a new book and a new arc one of these days. I liked the series and I want a proper conclusion to it eventually. I’m just going to have to think of Revenant as a book that ended on a “To be continued…” for now and hope that eventually there is more.

    [AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”B00G3L6LY4″]

  • I have been doing NaNoWriMo ((National Novel Writing Month)) for years and for years I have also been running a poll to decide which book to write. Up until now, I have done it on my other site, but I’ve decided to bring the poll here this year, particularly since so many of my NaNoWriMo projects are being rewritten and edited for publication.

    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]The Sword Prince
    Prince Siegfried, after an unfortunate encounter with a basilisk, was cursed to be a sword at the bottom of a lake. When he is removed from the lake by his descendants, he becomes a boy again just in time for the throne to be attacked. He finds himself caught in the middle and his curse slowly taking hold once more.
    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]Arcleo
    Mirabella knows she is a princess. She knows because she doesn’t want to be an innkeeper’s daughter. When a group of people come through the inn looking for the real princess of a conquered kingdom, Mirabella sneaks out to join them on their quest to fulfill the prophesy to retake the kingdom. The journey isn’t quite what she had hoped, full of danger and uncertainty, and she is not the only potential princess they’ve picked up in their travels.
    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]Sky of Butterflies
    Deciding to try their luck on their own, Mateo and Serafina venture out of their orphanage and into the wide world outside, only to be swept up in a revolution. The robots have caught their world up in a tyrannical rule while the rich remain safe behind gilded gates. The kids, however, soon learn that the resistance is not all that it seems to be… and neither are they.
    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00002]Static
    Roughly a year after the events of White Noise, Willow suddenly recovers from her vegetative state and takes Max with her, provoking H&R to try and deal with the situation. Harrison is not a fan of what that means and starts to learn just what H&R have been up to, the real reason of their research, and how far they will go to keep their research private. He still doesn’t know what Willow wants and still can’t quite remember what happened the last time he went into H&R.

    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]City Without Heroes
    In a world full of supervillains and superheroes, Indira’s parents have decided to take jobs in the crimeless city of Whitten. She couldn’t be happier about it. Super powers run in her family and Indira is psychic, though plays her powers down as much as possible to keep from being roped into becoming a hero herself. Her uncle distrust the place, but Indira quickly settles, not realizing the price that comes with keeping a city like Whitten free of both heroes and villains.

    (more…)

  • In Possession, it is some time later and Harper’s rib is no longer cracked. She is approached by a woman whose sister may or may not be possessed by a ghost, which leads her to several people dealing with the fear of insurance agencies and their own comatose family members who are also exhibiting strange behaviours which turn out to ultimately be the doing of a god that I’ve never heard of ((And therefore Harper could not Google)) and Quinton’s dad. Kind of.

    This book was odd in that I was expecting something more along book 4. In Vanished, everything drove the story toward the climax of the first arc and this one felt like it was more setup for that inevitable climax-building novel. I think this was mostly due to Quinton being completely removed from most of the narrative because he was off playing spy or having spats with Harper while she was still debating whether or not she was being a good friend/lover/etc. ((The subplot just won’t die.))

    I also kind of want to smack Quinton. This friendship thing has gone on long enough. It might be because I’m still remembering the soul link in the back of my head while I’m reading all this and he’s picking up on nothing, or it’s the fact that he seems to be off dealing with the main plot and having adventures I’d like to see while Harper is dealing with what feels like a B plot, but the fact that he has taken himself out of the majority of the novel annoyed the hell out of me.

    And let’s talk a little about that main plot. In the main plot that we don’t get to see, Purlis stalks Harper and they have one altercation before we stop seeing him for a while. He has apparently brought a goddess of hunger out of Europe and to Seattle, as well as opened up a facility where he experiments on the paranormal. We are told that these experiments are awful, but see precisely none of them. ((Even when they go into the facility. ow hard would it have been to just have them walk past a window and see a screaming vampire with a sun spot pointed somewhere on him and his intestines on the table next to him? The room could be sound proof. It would have added some nice atmosphere.)) We never see what his ultimate goal is either, but Quinton instead tells us that he’s out to make the US the most powerful country in the world and make the rest of the world bow to it. He’s a super villain.

    He’s also constantly referred to as “Papa Purlis” which would have annoyed me if Harper didn’t also call him “Daddy Purlis” at some point. Harper, you are in your thirties. You don’t like the guy, just call him by his last name. It’s really just that easy. Just because you’re kind of magically married to Quinton doesn’t mean you have to refer to him as your father in law every time you mention him.

    I did enjoy the Harper plot line, though, once it picked up at the 50% mark of the book. The pieces fell into place and, if I didn’t know this was the second to last book in the series, it would have been a lot of fun seeing her dealing with the ghosts who haunted her personally. ((Although still no idea what was with the black ghosts vs any of the other ones.)) The mechanics of the hauntings and going through old Seattle and Pike Market’s history were great elements and I liked the idea of the big bad of Harper’s plot being Lizzy Hazzard riding the tail of a famine god.

    Really, most of my issues with the book stem directly from the fact that I know it’s the second to last book and it’s not directly building up to that climax. I realize this time, the central point of the conflict is probably going to be Quinton rather than Harper so it makes sense that he’s the one having plot-related adventures, but that just made his absence in the book that much more evident.

    I think I might need a Quinton side story of just this book. He did end up strapped to a chair by his father and he was about to be fed to a god before his girlfriend showed up. We never really did find out what any of that was about, only that it ended with Purlis getting shot in the leg and Quinton being very nice to him in getting him to a hospital for the not at all life threatening injury. I don’t really get what happened there, because the dialogue all felt forced and the scene felt like things needed to happen so they happened as opposed to the characters acting of their own accord.

    I also need a Cam book. Now that I have solid confirmation that Edward is dead and Cam is now the reigning king of the vampires in Seattle, I want to know how that happened and how he came to own this strange house by the sea that he’s living in. Really, I just want to know a lot about what happens with the vampires at this point because I feel like a lot of stuff was skipped.

    There was also the weird religious bit at the end. Apparently there was an angel that healed them all at the end of the story. Or maybe it was a ghost, except that ghosts don’t do that as near as I can tell. It was such a strange moment of needing everything to end happily that I’m not really sure what the point of it was. Harper isn’t carrying injuries into the next books anymore, so that wasn’t why it happened. The other characters effected were side characters. Is it to bring a religious aspect into the book near the end? Will it somehow be plot relevant? Will it be thematically relevant?

    I’m thinking it was probably for the happy ending and a clean wrap up before the end of book hook into the final installment. Here’s hoping it all wraps up nicely at the end of Revenant!

    [AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”0451465458″]

  • With Tales from the Twisted Eden Sector now under my name, and Evidence, the fifth book of the series ((Simya Academy is more of a spin-off)) coming out on September first, I figured I should at least talk a little about the series. Since I’ve been writing a lot of young adult urban fantasy, the more mature supernatural horror might require an introduction.

    Tales from the Twisted Eden Sector

    The magic of the world never really went away. It’s just been hidden, forced into back alleys and out of the public eye for so long that some don’t believe that it ever existed at all. Scattered across the world and hidden away into the back streets, there are many who know otherwise and make it their lives to hide it.

    They have more than enough work on their hands as they seem to be at the center of something big. The fabric of the universe seems thinner here than anywhere else. Their sector sees more enchanted items, dangerous people and strange creatures than any other. The appearance in recent years of children born with an innate ability to perform a single spell with no training in their sector and theirs alone has baffled them and flooded their files. Something is coming, but without knowing what it might be, they are forced to deal with it one case at a time.

    Every book in the series contains 11 short stories, mostly in chronological order within the book, and all of which are linked thematically. There are several characters that appear in several stories throughout the books at different points in their lives. ((In theory, you could follow just one character in the books, or even assemble the shorts on your own to follow the characters you’re interested in.))

    It is a largely nonlinear project, though. The books are told one on top of one another. For those who want to check it out, but can’t handle not knowing when one story happens in relation to another, I have a timeline you can check out here. ((A little out of date now, but I’ll be updating it soon!))

    If any of this interests you, do check it out. If not, don’t forget to vote in the book poll!

  • So Seawitch is both about a boat named Seawitch and about an actual sea witch. Harper has to find out what happened to an old boat that washes up on shore because apparently the Guardian Beast has taken on the role of paranormal boss man now, and teams up with Solis to do it.

    This series is a very different one from the first five books. I’m really noticing that the mysteries are easier to figure out, even if they are a bit more twisted in family politics than before. Perhaps this is how it always was but now I’m reading those explanatory sections that I dislike more ((Or that they’re being better integrated into the text so it’s not all in one massive dump)) but I feel like all the portions about the mystery are being handed to me. ((Oh, he saw the girl? Well, she’s probably still alive and a sea witch. Gary is some mythical creature that is super rare and looks like that thing the other character saw? Guess who’s not dying right now!))

    On the other hand, Solis gets a whole family and backstory. I love Solis now. He is my favourite.

    I don’t get the soul bond thing. Is it just emotions? It manifested as being able to feel Quinton’s physical pain initially, but now it seems to only reflect his emotions when they are in a mid-range and she’s not looking directly at him. And he’s not feeling any effects as near as I can tell. I’ve taken to assuming he’s hiding it to keep Harper from worrying, but I’m still hoping for a little more on it than being used as a plot device in the last book. ((And it better damn well be used a plot device for all the emphasis that’s being put on it.))

    We have to talk about this friendship thing that keeps coming up. Yes, Harper does tend to use her friends as resources and probably should have lost a lot of them after putting them in that much danger in the first five books, but maybe stop harping on the “How do I be a good friend? I don’t know how to friend!” subplot? Quinton keeps bringing it up and Harper keeps talking about it in ways that are a little too on the nose to sound real. It sounds like an after school special and I’m really hoping it’s not an important plot point.

    And now, Tanya complaining about the technology in the Greywalker series:

    Also, can we cut Harper some slack on going to her friends, who are a legitimate witch ((An Irish one at that)) and a paranormal researcher, for help on dobar-chu, ((Big Irish otters that can talk?)) which is a term I have never even heard of before and have no idea if I’m spelling right? She found minimal information from looking them up online and they are resources that probably know more about it than the online databases that she can access with her probably incorrect spelling.

    I am super happy that Harper is trying to do some Google. I like that she’d trying to look things up on her own. It’s just also fine if she also gets some more information from her friends who probably know more than she does and know more about what’s accurate.

    Back to our regularly scheduled book talk.

    The series is definitely progressing toward some big confrontation with Quinton’s father, but the book is feeling a lot like the mysteries are getting easier. Everything just wraps up so neatly at the end and I`m left wondering if this could be better if it were written without the case and just the main arc happening. I mean, it would be shorter, but it might make it feel more like the previous iterations.

    Also, I still don’t know if Edward’s alive. I know next to nothing about what happened at the end of the fifth book still. I also don’t know how much time has passed anymore. Before, she busted her knee one book and that injury carried over into the next, but I’m wondering if this cracked rib is going to stick around. These books feel like they won’t have that anymore.

    I mean, they’re still fun. I think I got spoiled by the fourth and fifth ones in how quick they all happened and how much they focused on Harper and the plot that a return to the old formula feels like a bit of a step backwards.

    Two more left. Here’s hoping everything rapidly picks up!

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