Hey ya’ll Jaime here! Welcome to my stop on the Authors Are
Rockstars tour! We’ve saved the best for last or at least in my opinion the
best. My author is Maria V. Snyder and she is one of my all-time favorite
authors and a really cool person as well! Oh yeah and there's two awesometastic giveaways as well so keep reading and fill out the rafflecopter forms below!!
So why do I think Maria deserves this rockstar status? Quite
simply because she does! Maria’s books were introduced to my life when I was
reading nothing but Paranormal and Urban Fantasy YA and adult both. When I
first grabbed Poison Study I was
worried I may not like it because I hadn’t read High Fantasy in a long time!
Like since before high school long time. But I shouldn’t have been worried, her
world building and beautiful writing grabbed me at page one! Yelena the heroine
in the story was so different than any of the others I had read! She jumped off
the page and slapped me, hard, and I immediately loved her for it. I also met
my #1 book boyfriend of all time in this series Valek.
My love for her books grew with each one I read. I finished the Study series quickly and jumped right into her Glass series. When those were finished I scavenged her website for her short stories of Sitia
and Ixia. I couldn’t get enough of the world and the characters! These are the
two series I re-read a lot!
Maria then wrote a sci-fi/dystopian for the YA crowd Inside
Out and followed it with Outside In and I fell for those books too. In my
opinion they ended way too early I could have read more of that world. I loved
Trella and Riley.
Maria started a new High Fantasy series The Healer books and I
devoured book 1, Touch of Power in
one sitting and I am dying to get my hands on book 2, Scent of Magic which will be out in December! Oh and I’ve also read
all of her short stories in any anthology she has been in!
Ok so enough about Maria’s books remember I said she was a
cool person? Well while I was scouring her site I found
ways to get signed bookplates by answering trivia. And oh boy I sent her email
after email with my answers lol do you think she got annoyed? Nope she was
awesome even gave me hints when I got a few answers wrong. Then she sent me all
my bookplates at one time. We even chat on facebook sometimes even though she
isn’t on there much. And oh boy do I wish she had twitter but then I’d probably
never leave her alone lol. Oh and her covers are gorgeous right? Well you
should check out the foreign versions! Her UK covers are some of my favorites!
Check them out in her Cover Gallery!
But enough about why I love Maria. She has an awesome post for
me to share with you check it out!!!!! This is Janco's advice for what you should do if you find yourself under a magical attack :)
Magic
Sucks
by Janco,
Second-in-Command of Ixia’s Security and all around fantastic guy.
So I’m
writing this down because my boss, Valek ordered me to. I don’t really want to, but hey, Valek’s the
scariest dude in Ixia and you don’t say no to him. Ever.
Anyway he seems to think it’s important that I explain to the new
recruits how I know someone is using magic, but I’m not promising this will be
well written or spelled correctly – if you can’t read my writing, well that’s
too bad for you.
And I
don’t know if anyone else can really feel magic, so, if after reading this you
think I’m crazy, then you probably can’t feel magic.
So how do
I do it? It’s complicated so pay attention, puppy dog! The lower half of my
right ear had been cut off by a big brute intent on decapitating me. Nice guy,
right? Anywho, my scar starts to hurt
when magic’s being used. It burns when it’s strong magic so I know I’m in big
trouble when it feels like someone jammed a hot poker into my ear.
Now, I
also get this creepy crawly sensation along my skin when there’s magic from
different sources. I can’t stand being in the Magician’s Keep in Sitia. Creepy Keepy is what I call it just for that
reason. It’s almost as if a million tiny
bugs are skittering along my skin. It’s
nasty believe me.
And I
should tell you that magic has a weight.
To me, the air around me feels…heavy at times and sometimes it
lacks…substance as if the magician has changed the very air itself.
Now
here’s a bit of advice on what to do if you’re under a magical attack. Most of
the time you’re screwed, but there are a few tricks I’ve learned. If you suspect a magician is reading your
mind, jumble your thoughts! Think of
lots of random things, concentrate on useless trivia or go over training drills
in your head. It makes it harder for
them to pick out the important stuff.
If your
body is doing things you wouldn’t normally do, a magician probably has control of your muscles. In that case, relax,
puppy dog, you’re trapped. Nothing you can do.
However, if you’re having bad thoughts – ideas like strangle the
good-looking Second-in-Command, you need to resist those inclinations. Count numbers backward in your head. It works, trust me.
Yes,
magic sucks. Magicians have an unfair
advantage and are sneaky little devils. Well, except my good friend,
Yelena. She’s the Soulfinder, but she’s
super cool. She never used her magic on
me unless she asked first. Plus she’s
one of the good guys. Ixia and Sitia would be majorly messed up without her. So
not ALL magicians suck, just ninety-nine percent of them.
Okay –
end of lesson, puppy dog. If you suspect
someone has magic, report it to me or Valek, pronto. Don’t try to be a
hero. Leave that to me.
OK Janco just rocks my world! Thanks so much Janco and Maria
for stopping by. Oh and I’m lucky to have two awesome giveaways for you today!
Harlequin Teen has donated one of Maria’s books to one lucky winner and Maria
threw in a complete set of her Glass series with the UK covers that’s open
Internationally!!!!!! Fill out the Rafflecopter Forms and good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
