Witch Mirror (Hawthorne University Witch, Book 4) by A.L. Hawke

 

Release date: February 26, 2024

Subgenre: Paranormal Romance

 

About Witch Mirror:

 

 Reflections of a wicked witch.

Bryce and I are trying to revive Alondra’s old metaphysical history class. We’re in college again, this time teaching. But it’s stressful under our former teacher’s shadow. Not only that, there’s a new demon-witch messing with my love life. So I’m going through that again. Well, at least this time I have Alondra’s magic to protect me.


Actually, not only do I have her magic, her spirit is inside me, possessing me. But don’t worry, Alondra’s ghost is a positive force here to help Hawthorne. I mean…are you good, Alondra?


A witch council is gathering at my house to reflect on ways to save us. They’re convinced Alondra is evil, but Alondra and I are unsure they know what they’re doing. Well, if I can’t hold things together—inside and outside of myself—I fear my plans of finishing graduate school at Hawthorne U. and starting a family are going to shatter.

 

Excerpt:

 

Bryce stops his old gray BMW before a rickety old wooden bridge. He has to drive slowly so we don’t dive through the wooden planks and crash into the water below. The bridge is not much wider than his car. I hate seeing this bridge again. Not only is it always a legitimate danger to our lives, it was sort of the beginning of the Samhain Witch’s freak show. But I don’t hate Geneva Forest. All these trees are like home. Of course, as if the broken-down bridge weren’t bad enough, at the end of the bridge is a wall of white fog. That looks hellishly ominous, too, like we’re going to be swallowed by the white smoke after we cross over. Mira’s black van is behind us. We wait for her and, like last Halloween, she’s probably more worried than Bryce about falling through the wooden boards with her heavier van.
“She’s here,” says Afreyea, seated behind me, in her thick accent. That freaks me out. Gala is sitting beside her. “You feel her?”
“No,” Bryce grunts, but it actually sounds more like he’s saying “yes.”
Flakes of ice start hitting the windshield. Snow? In mid-March? What the hell? Isn’t all this weird enough? There’s not a cloud in the sky.
“It could totally be Hansel and Gretel, you know, Bryce,” I say. “She could be luring us inside to eat us.”
“I don’t see candy,” Bryce says, shaking his head. “That house, if you remember, was more like a fly-infested dung heap.”
“Beelzebub,” says Gala.
“Huh?” I ask.
“Beelzebub,” Gala repeats in her Romanian accent. “Lord of the flies.”
O-k-a-y. You know, these witches are supposed to protect us, right? We’re supposed to have a full-on witch showdown and kick some witch ass. So why does Gala sound scared? Then, to make it worse, Afreyea is whispering. At first, I thought she was muttering something about Beelzebub. No, she’s chanting an incantation in another language.
Ice now covers our windshield, and Bryce has to slow the car to a crawl and run his windshield wipers.
A rush of water splashes my passenger window and makes me jump. Did Bryce drive over a puddle? No, he has almost stopped. Is this the start of black magic shit?
I look back and see something I wish I hadn’t. Afreyea’s eyes are wide open. Apparently, the water splashing scared her.
“She’s here,” Afreyea says. “Brought your book, Cadence?”
Uh, I sure did.
“We end this now, Aurora,” Gala says. “We finally end this, sister.”
 

 

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About A.L. Hawke:

A.L. Hawke lives in Southern California torching the midnight candle over lovers against a backdrop of machines, nymphs, magic, spice and mayhem. With a medical science background, the author specializes in romantic fantasy and science fiction. 
 

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Grendel & Beowulf (Urban Magick and Folklore, Book 3) by C. Gockel

 

Release date: October 31, 2022

Subgenre:  Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy

 

About Grendel & Beowulf:

 

Once upon a time, in our ordinary world, there was a grandmother.

She died.

She was reborn as a Vampire in a world of Magick.

The grandmother de-aged. Her ailments healed, her body became strong, and her wrinkles faded.

Her wisdom, however, did not diminish. She knew monsters need monstrous names so they never forget the monsters they are.

She named herself Grendel, after the medieval haunter of borderlands and drinker of warriors’ blood, slain by the hero Beowulf.

The name seems appropriate. Grendel the Grandmother haunts the borderlands and drinks the blood of (mostly) evil warriors.

But in a Magickal world, names don’t just have meanings, they are prophecies.

And a new hero is rising. He has been molded since birth to fight evil, and been given the tools and skills to vanquish the most insidious evil of all: Vampires.

His name is Beowulf, and he’s coming for Grendel.

 

Excerpt:

 

“He’s … not … that bad a person,” Grendel said. “He’s only trying to kill me.” Arms and legs pumping, she raced along the deer path, almost too tired to answer herself. “He could be a … a … slaver …”
She panted. Faltered. Pain shot from the big toe of her right foot, and she went tumbling. Rocks and grit bit her palms, and her fangs bit her tongue as she hit the ground. Her own Vampiric blood, warm but unsatisfying, pooled in her mouth.
The Quest for human blood had gotten her into this mess to begin with.
“God damn me,” she muttered. Struggling to rise, knees and fingers slipping in cold spring mud, she snickered. “God damn me again.”
Off in the distance, wolves howled. Closer, bootsteps sounded behind her, and something else, the thrum of Magick like a drumbeat. That drumbeat had seduced her into getting too close to her pursuer. How far back was he? A hundred yards? Surely far enough away to execute Vampirism’s greatest trick. Snarling, she exhaled, and her soul ripped from her chest with her breath.
She left time.
Her body instantly felt lighter. Sound did not exist in the out-of-time, and the pre-dawn bird song vanished. The world became colder and dimmer, and the breeze no longer moved. The scant clouds that had been drifting steadily across the Midwestern sky hovered now, frozen in shape and place.
Pushing herself up, Grendel took a few steps and cursed.
She could still feel her pursuer’s Magick, and worse, she could feel him in the out-of-time with her. Humans could not slip out-of-time, but they could let a Vampire drag them out-of-time if they wore specialized “Vampire armor.” But Vampire armor only had an effective radius of about five yards. He should be too far away to be clinging to her wake like an unbloody barnacle.
Lunging along the deer path, Grendel felt the weight of the man chasing her with every step—not like a barnacle, she decided—like an anchor. Her mind spun faster than her feet on the forest floor. Her pursuer had to be young. He—she’d caught a glimpse of him, and he was definitely a he—had a young man’s strength and speed, and he was obviously powerful and skilled.
She had just a little more strength and speed than the elderly woman she’d been when she’d died. He would catch up to her soon, and he would beat her in a fight. She remembered the stakes she’d seen dangling at his waist and wondered if this was finally the end.
Faces of all those lost in her human life—husband, children, grandchildren—and those she’d lost—or murdered—in her Vampiric life flickered through her mind like a reel of old film. The lack of definition in the faces made them eerier. How long before that reel lost all semblance of those gone?
A fallen log invited her to sit. A boulder covered in moss looked like a delicious place to lie down. A stake would be quick and … “An end would be nice,” she whispered, the words lost in the soundlessness of the out-of-time.
More faces flashed through her eyes, and the words of one of the dead rang in her mind, You will save my family. And you will destroy those who did this. The voice was so clear and familiar, Grendel almost looked for the speaker’s ghost.
Snarling silently, Grendel pressed on, the drag of her pursuer growing heavier with each step. He was gaining on her. She could not outrun or outfight him. She couldn’t allow herself to be caught. She’d made promises.

 

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About C. Gockel: 

C. Gockel got her start writing fanfiction, and she is not ashamed! Much. She received emails, messages and reviews from her fans telling her she should 'do this professionally'. She didn't; because she is a coward and life as a digital designer, copywriter and coder is more dependable. But in the end, her husband's nagging wore her down: "You could be the next '50 Shades of Gray' and I could retire!" Unfortunately, the author isn't much for writing smut. She is sad about this; she'd love for her husband to be able to retire and just work for her so she could nag him.

 

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The Bolivian Incident (Hollis Whittaker, Book 2) by C.B. Shanahan

 

Release date: July 27, 2022

Subgenre: Supernatural thriller

 

About The Bolivian Incident:

 

An ancient medallion has turned ten-year-old Hollis Whittaker into the U.S. military's top target. Through the artifact, the boy shares a mind with an alien, and possesses the most advanced brain on the planet, capable of teleporting people through space and time.
A Native American woman, her grandfather, a computer nerd, the boy's best friend and an involuntary time traveler will do anything they can to help, but when Hollis' parents disappear, their plan to flee the country and relocate to Central America is scrapped.
Then a mysterious insect appears, followed by an old woman bearing another medallion. The Bolivian stranger has been endowed with different capabilities than Hollis. She tells him that he is unwittingly damaging spacetime and that the consequences could be disastrous.
Is the woman connected to a 1958 nuclear explosion in the Amazon Jungle? Can she help locate Hollis' parents? Can a ragtag band of misfits protect the boy against the mightiest military in the world? And what's all of this got to do with aliens?

 

Excerpt:

 

“I can show you. I’ve trained it.” The girl held a finger out and looked back toward the direction from where she’d come. A moment later, a large insect landed, its tiny legs tickling the hairs of her finger. It was blue from some angles and green from others, with four wings and four eyes. A purple diamond dominated its back as its wings tucked in.

The men sat in shock, both admiring the bug as it rested on Angela’s finger. Carolas moved his eyes to Sacha for a second before looking back to the girl’s visitor. “Sacha, tell me, do you recognize this insect?”

“We have all manner of wildlife in Bolivia, but this is new to me. I do not believe I have seen anything like this before.”

“Angela,” Carolas asked, “how did you train this insect?”

“I don’t know. It just comes when I want it to.”

“May I?” Carolas reached a finger out, gentle and slow. He placed it in front of the bug, nudging it as one might a bird trying to get it to change hands. The insect didn’t move.

“It just likes me,” she said.

He pushed harder and the bug flew up to Angela’s shoulder. The French man let out a belly laugh and pulled his hand away, causing Sacha to break into a smile. “In a million years I could not have guessed my introduction to Bolivia’s insects. Tell me, Angela, how long did it take you to train your pet?”

The girl leaned her head in toward the bug. “I don’t know. It followed me around and one day I just held out my finger and it landed on it.”

“Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.” Carolas’ eyes squinted and he raised a fist to his lips. “Do you think you would be willing to donate your little insect to science?”

Angela shook her head no.

“I really didn’t think so. Would I be able to buy it from you?”

“No. It’s not for sale.”

Carolas knew how much low wage workers made in Bolivia. And he had more money available to him than she could imagine. “Angela, what if I offered you five boliviano?”

The amount was more than her parents would see if they sold all of their meat at the market for the day, still the girl wouldn’t budge.

“Ten?”

She could not look the man in the face anymore. She shook her head no.

“Twenty, I cannot go any higher.”

Angela reached a finger up to her shoulder and the insect hopped on it. The man was offering more than her family would make in a month. At this point, her parents would have her doing chores for the rest of her life if she turned down the offer. She hesitated.

“Twenty-five,” said Carolas. He retrieved several bills from his wallet and presented them to her. “You’re a shrewd businesswoman.”

She closed her eyes and moved her finger toward the French man.

“Wonderful! Your parents have raised a smart little girl.” He produced his briefcase and opened the lid. “It will be okay in here until I can find it a suitable home.”

The girl nudged the insect into the case and Carolas shut the lid.

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About C.B. Shanahan:

 

CB Shanahan earned many awards as a journalist and spent twenty- two years on the road as a folksinger. He has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature with a minor in Philosophy and is a member of Mensa. Born in Ireland, he now lives in New Hampshire with the love of his life, plays music in his spare time, and loves to travel.

 

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Alondra (Hawthorne University Witch, Prequel) by A.L. Hawke

 

Release date: May 23, 2022

Subgenre: Paranormal Romance

 

About Alondra:

 

I fell in love with a goth, but she’s a witch.

Starting school at Hawthorne University was not going well, until I met my classmate Alondra. Allie was different. She was goth. But she was also mysterious, confident and fun. I was into that. My name’s Liam. My friends call me Lee.

Things got weird after I accompanied her to her haunts. Poltergeists and demons attacked little girls. I watched Alondra help exorcise these ghosts, but some of their evil stuck to me.

Well, being attracted to a witch was one thing; dating one was quite another. It seemed the closer I got to Allie, the more her witchcraft endangered my friends. And my soul. You decide. I chronicled everything here in her book.

Alondra is a prequel to the internationally bestselling Hawthorne University Witch series. The novel takes place twenty years before Broomstick.

Content warning: Alondra is a new adult college paranormal romance containing profanity, sexual scenes, adult situations, and, of course, witchcraft.

 

Excerpt:

 

In a dark corner in the ugly three-story building we call the Taylor Library lies a secret enclave known only to me and a select few nerds matriculating through Hawthorne U. I’m sitting alone there in one of the brown leather recliners, with dim lights overhead, studying my textbook. That’s when I notice small pieces of white paper floating down like snow onto my page. Then comes more. I look up and my girlfriend is standing over me, holding two books under her arm and letting torn paper spill over my book. Her long black hair is fixed in a ponytail, and she’s wearing a black button-down with a checkered skirt and black leggings. She’s makeup-less. Even her lips are red. The getup would almost be preppy, if it weren’t so black.

I shouldn’t be that surprised to find her. See, she’s one of the nerds who knows about my secret spot. And she’s got a big irritating grimace.

I glower at her. I’m really pissed. She pouts.

Then I look back down at my book and ignore her. She grunts.

“Found you.”

I lift an eyebrow. I sigh, shake my head, and turn to the next page.

She walks over to the recliner across from me and tries to slide it over. This is really funny because the chair must weigh, like, a thousand pounds. She sighs and gives up. Then she comes back over and sits on the couch beside me, but a bit too far—which I like—and heaves a big sigh.

“Sorry, Liam,” she says. “Didn’t mean to disturb your studying.”

“I’m not mad about that.”

“Oh… good.” Then she irritatingly puts one of her books to the side on the couch and opens the other one. She scoots back, pulls out a highlighter from her purse, and starts studying, as if we planned to study here together all along.

I look at her, but she doesn’t look up from her book. She just says, “Hi.”

“What are you doing?”

“Studying,” she says with a shrug, staring at her textbook.

I get up.

She grunts again, thinking I’m leaving, I suppose.

“I’m mad that you two didn’t say a damn word about what happened last night the whole drive home,” I confess, falling back in my chair. “When I awoke in the morning, dazed like last time, Jane was back to being your best friend and yapping with you about clothes and the newest fucking movie that just hit theaters. Why? You never explained anything. It was like Hilltop Bluff. I woke up to you telling Alice that the ghost was gone and all was well.”

“It was.”

“Jane fell into my arms terrified as if needing protection,” I say, shaking my head. “Protection from you.”

“Maybe you dreamed that?” Alondra quips. She laughs at my expression. I don’t. She seems like she’s in a really good mood, which actually upsets me more. “Oh, come on, Lee, Jane and I have had our differences. We fight and we make up. We made up. It happens all the time. Now it’s over. I heard her argument and I agreed. I won’t do that to her again.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Well…” She stops because, right then, a student with glasses and a backpack walks down the steps.

 

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About A.L. Hawke:

A.L. Hawke lives in Southern California torching the midnight candle over lovers against a backdrop of machines, nymphs, magic, spice and mayhem. With a medical science background, the author specializes in romantic fantasy and science fiction. 
 

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Interview with Amy Rosenfeldt, author of Aster's Coda: Exposure

Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Amy Rosenfeldt, author of Aster's Coda: Exposure.

Your debut novel, Aster’s Coda: Exposure was published on July 22, 2021. Tell us something about the title. What is Aster’s Coda?

Curses play a significant part in this series and its world, and a Coda is a curse ender. It’s typically someone in the line of the cursed family who does it. In the case of this series, it is the Aster family. In short, this series is about someone who will end their family’s curse.

The main character, Abby Tacker, is in her penultimate year of High School when things change for her. Who is Abby and what starts her on her journey?

I’ve nicknamed Abby Tacker my little emotional wrecking ball. She’s a history buff and soccer player who is grieving her mother’s untimely death. To make matters worse, she’s been facing an unprompted bullying problem for the past year. And days into her second to last year of high school a blood feud is thrown into the mix! It becomes a matter of finding who in her ranks she can trust to send her on the right path to survive - and yes, new otherworldly powers are included.

Abby meets new friends - and enemies - tell us something about them.

Abby finds new allies in the Sub Rosa, an organisation of otherworldly defenders which Abby soon finds out people in her family have been a part of. These guys deal with any conflicts and issues that regard multiple worlds, which are more often than not Telekinetic raids from the Merus Imperium. They are sworn enemies to the Sub Rosa, trained in the Mystic arts to master the mind, body and soul of themselves and others.

The blurb for the book begins “This world isn’t alone.” What other worlds will Abby encounter?

In the Aster’s Coda series there are Three Worlds that she ventures through: Faetos, Corryn and Earth. A power called Myst, pure energy, links them together. Faetos is very set in stone with a bunch of sorcerers of all different races hailing from there, Corryn serves as the inter-world hub as they have taken technological improvements from both worlds to strengthen their own, and Earth is ever oblivious to the situations going on.

On your web-site, you share the Spotify playlist for the book. Talk us through some of the tunes and what they mean to you.

I was trained as a dancer growing up, so music has been a big part of my life. It was only right to include that in my books. I feel like it has been really helpful to add emotional tension to scenes - especially fight scenes. The final fight scene in this book was written to Shatter Me by Lindsey Sterling, and it perfectly sums up Abby’s character arc in that moment. Twenty One Pilots and AViVA have been a couple of other musical influences for my series. 

What books have influenced you, whether from SF&F or other genres?

My earliest draft of this series directly copied Rick Riordan’s writing style if that’s any hint. I loved Percy Jackson’s take on urban fantasy. The Book Thief is also a huge favourite mine for that narrative voice too. I’d like to think my own book balances both.

What do you enjoy reading now?

Dystopian fiction, fantasy books in unique settings and World War II historical fiction. 

You review books for your blog. How does that affect the way you read and what you choose to read?

My blog has encouraged me to read more in genres I wouldn’t pick up as often like contemporary books. But I think once I got into reviewing it helped me out more with my reading and staying engaged with the books I read. It does mean that I stick out with mediocre books more often than I’d like to, but it’s all for the learning experience now!

You are working on the next book in the series, Aster’s Coda: Semblance. What can you tell us about the story?

Don’t want to spoil too much about the sequel to Exposure yet, but I can say this. Now that Abby’s found her place in the Three Worlds, it’s time for her to shape herself. This is gonna be the book where she officially comes of age.

You are particularly interested in what makes your characters tick. How important is character-driven writing to you?

It’s huge for me. Especially with books written in first person, I want to go deep into a character’s mind when I write them. If I wasn’t a writer I may have studied psychology.

In your spare time, you love Dungeons & Dragons and Community Theatre. Tell us more. Does playing D&D influence your writing or vice versa?

D&D has helped me a lot with writing fights. The way that fighting works in a mechanical sense in the game is that different classes become types of fighters and magic users, and thus they each have different ways they fight. Like a Rogue will wait for one killer shot while a Barbarian will get as many strong hits in as possible. This made me better think about how my own characters fight in a battle-focussed series like Aster’s Coda.

What next for Aster’s Coda - and you?

Semblance is only one of 20 books I have in my head waiting to be written. I better finish that one quick to save room for more stories!

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About Amy Rosenfeldt:

Amy Rosenfeldt is a New Zealand based professional daydreamer and the author of the Aster’s Coda series. Her lifelong passion for storytelling won her the Creative Writing award at her high school and a scholarship to study communications at AUT. She loves to dive deep into her character’s minds and discover what makes people tick, continuing to do so in community theatre and playing Dungeons and Dragons. When not crafting her next story, Amy can be found tap dancing her heart away or draining the energy out of her cat, Maxie.

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Interview with Chris H. Stevenson, author of Luck be A Lady

Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Chris H. Stevenson, whose new release Luck Be A Lady we featured on January 23.

What drove you to write an urban fantasy novel about the Goddess of Luck set in the present day?

I’d originally listened to the song Luck be a Lady sang by Frank Sinatra. I wondered why such lyrics. Why would a woman have something to do with luck? I happened to Google luck, or something similar, and that’s where I found the history of Fortuna, the Roman Goddess of Luck. Apparently, she was a real deity worshiped by the masses. What if she was real in today’s society? I thought it would make an interesting fantasy read. 

At the beginning of the story the hero, Mason Hart, is out of luck in every sense. Then he meets Felicity Fortune and his luck changes - for now. Tell us about Felicity and her less pleasant daughter Beshaba...

Well like I said, Felicity (my own name for her) was the Goddess of luck for the Romans. (Tyche was for the Greeks). Fortuna is often depicted with a gubernaculum (ship's rudder), a ball or Rota Fortunae (wheel of fortune, first mentioned by Cicero) and a cornucopia (horn of plenty). She might bring good or bad luck: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in modern depictions of Lady Justice, except that Fortuna does not hold a balance. Fortuna came to represent life's capriciousness. She was also a goddess of fate: as Atrox Fortuna, she claimed the young lives of the princeps Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius, prospective heirs to the Empire. In antiquity she was also known as Automatia.

Beshaba is the Maid of Misfortune, who was the daughter of Fortuna. The dark side. Her symbol is a rack of sharp-pointed black antlers on a red triangular field. Her divine plane is the Barrens of Doom and Despair, and she is the evil half of her mother. She’s chaotic and mischievous, brings bad luck and causes accidents. In my story, I put her directly at odds with her mother’s generosity and good personality. 

In these troubled times, why do you think the imagination turns to figures from myth and legend?

Times were much simpler then. Yet almost all of the beliefs were based on superstition. They had only to pray to an idol and rest assured that their dreams would eventually come true. Or at least, their questions would be answered. If you stop and think about it, it’s kind of a lazy way out of a predicament. How fortunate we would be today if we had the help, power and support of a true God or Goddess. It’s no wonder why we identify so much with our famous comic book heroes who have all of these extraordinary and magical abilities. 

You have a prolific and well-established career as a writer in more than one genre: science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, young adult (your specialty), thrillers and horror. Tell us and your readers about that.

I first began writing in 1987. Almost instantly, I published in many slick magazines and wrote two very popular and best-selling non-fiction books. I won an award in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. I wrote some novels at that time too—three SF novels and two thrillers. I got a huge agent right off the bat for one of the SF books. Truth be told, my book Dinothon was beaten out by Mike Crichton’s Jurassic Park, and never saw print. But I was on my way. After three years I took a very long hiatus in writing and resumed in 2005

I vowed to myself that I would write in all genres and test my talent. I was convinced that the book that sold the most copies would be my genre, my niche, and I would remain and concentrate there. Funny thing happened: All of my different genres sold about the same, straight across the board. So, I kept it up, never specializing, looking for that massive breakout novel. It never came. I only tried the YA genre about five years ago. That’s where I started winning many awards and making some better sales. Primarily, I’ve stayed there except for publishing some re-prints. But I’m still a Jack of all trades and a master of none. Which has plagued me for about the past 15 years. 

You have a blog Guerrilla Warfare for Writers in which you blog about the perils and pitfalls of life as an indie author. In October 2020 at the end of a dismal year for publishing and the arts, you penned a blog with the title: Quitting Writing? Tell us more about why you wrote that piece and the call to action it contained.

I’m a staunch writer advocate and industry watchdog, rivalling (at times) the tantrums of Harlan Ellison. I am for, and about the writer. Devotedly so. That article post that you speak  of came about when I read a farewell message in a writing group. This writer/author had no sales, no reviews, no fans, mentors, love or support. He had written about six or seven books and published them to Amazon. His story broke my heart and brought me to tears. Oh, did I ever know how he felt and the impact of failure. I had read other such stories. I have suffered many more years and books than he, but I had forged on by sheer doggedness. I knew I had to write a piece that would somehow convey a ray of hope for all those writers who thought that they were failures and untalented hacks. Coming from a vast history of thousands of rejections myself, I knew I had to set the record straight with this hurt and lonely crowd. 

I’m glad to say that you have not quit writing and Luck be A Lady is your latest book, though you have suffered serious ill health. What keeps you going?

I was terminally ill and then up-graded to critically ill. I’m on heavy meds and oxygen. I was given two years to live four years ago. I have nothing but a rented room and a computer. I keep me going. All I have is writing. Nothing else. My agent keeps me going. My fans and friends keep me going. Besides fame, friends and eight-by-tens, I want to leave a lasting legacy before the big editor in the sky calls me home. My last dream is a book-to-film deal. I’m in the beginning processes of that now. Screamcatcher: Web World has lifted a few Hollywood eyebrows. It will be a long journey for me to realize that dream. I won’t stop until I reach that mountain top.

You have had a long career and not just as a writer. Your bio says that you have been (and I quote) a newspaper editor/reporter, astronomer, federal police officer and part time surfer. How have your different jobs influenced your writing and where did you fit in the surfing?

I was born and raised on the beaches of California when long-board surfing was the hottest thing around. My law enforcement background has always helped me with police procedurals and thrillers. I was an auto mechanic for 25 years, and that has helped me explain mechanically technical scenes and plots. Astronomy brought me the stars and helped with the science fiction books. Any experience in my life translates to the page in some form or another.

You say you have been writing off and on for 36 years, having officially published books beginning in 1988. Tell us more about what got you started...

My actual writing period full time amounts to about 18 straight years. That means eight to 10 hours every day. I arrived late in my writing life. I was not much of a reader at all. It’s when I was 26 years-old that I read a short story in Twilight Zone magazine that hitched my star to literature. I was flabbergasted upon reading such a great, gripping tale. I thought I could do that too, and maybe even better! Oh, the things we imagine when we know next to nothing about the honorable craft of authorship. Honestly, it was that short that did it, and I can’t even remember the title. 

What do you read and have you any favourite authors, past or present?

I’m still partial to science fiction or fantasy. I love to write YA fantasy. But my tastes are all over the place—Poul Anderson, Joseph Wambaugh, Ann McCaffrey, Peter Benchley, Clive Cussler, Alan Dean Foster, Robert Heinlein, J.K. Rowling, Nolan, Phillip K. Dick and other golden era SF authors. 

Over the last year we have experienced a world-wide pandemic. How has this affected you and your writing?

It actually hasn’t affected my output and publishing, as well as marketing, promoting and pitching for reviews. I’ve been a lockdown way before the pandemic hit. I’m your real latch key kid. I am used to absolute solitude. 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” Apart from the problem of funding for the Arts, has the pandemic enabled an increase in creativity?

I have to say that I have not written any new books or have a WIP. What I have done is sell just about my entire (last) inventory of books to two publishers, plus rewrite several out-of-print books and see them off to print. I have made huge revisions and extensive editing on eight books in the past 20 months. My agent is holding on to three books she wants to continue to submit to the Big-5 (soon to be Big-4). As far as worldwide creativity during this pandemic? I think we’ve added untold huge numbers of new writers to the craft.    

You also write under a pseudonym. What prompted you to do that?

I simply wanted to separate my YA from my Adult fiction. I took on a female gender pen name for my YA. Please don’t even ask me why I did that. It’s complicated.

You have won several awards, including being a finalist in the L. Ron. Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. Tell us more about that...

The Hubbard award was for a YA short story which got me a finalist position (Things that go Clump in the Night). Since then: Grand Prize Winner for best Book in the Entranced Novel Writer Contest (The Girl They Sold to the Moon): Best YA Book of the Year in the N. N. Light Awards (Screamcatcher: Web World): The bronze medal for YA horror in the Reader’s Favorite International Awards contest (Screamcatcher: Web World), plus the five-star review badge, and a finalist position in the N. N. Light Awards (Screamcatcher: Dream Chasers). 

Will there be a sequel to Luck be a Lady?

I hadn’t planned on it. Only the fans would motivate me to push out a sequel for that one. Either that, or it becomes a break-away best seller. That would change my mind real fast!

What are you working on now? Do you have a Work in Progress?

The only work in progress I have is a book I shelved 10 years ago. It was the sequel to Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars. My publisher politely declined it because it wasn’t pure space opera like the first one. I never sent it out or let my agent see it. I just recently asked that publisher if he wouldn’t mind if I published that sequel (with the characters intact) to another house. He told me to let it rip. I did not want to cross any contractional agreements with him about reusing character identities or likenesses. I was quite surprised that he let me go elsewhere with it. I can probably use the main title and give it a different subtitle. It’s called Planet Janitor: The Omega Wars. I’m starting a stem to stern rewrite and edit on it right now. My agent does want to see this one. That’s where I stand right now.   

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About Chris H. Stevenson:

Chris H. Stevenson, (pen name, Christy J. Breedlove) originally born in California, moved to Sylvania, Alabama in 2009. His occupations have included newspaper editor/reporter, astronomer, federal police officer, housecleaner and part time surfer. He has been writing off and on for 36 years, having officially published books beginning in 1988. Today he writes in her favorite genre, Young Adult, but has published in multiple genres and categories. He was a finalist in the L. Ron. Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and took the first place grand prize in the Entranced writing contest for The Girl They Sold to the Moon. Other awards include YA book of the Year in the N.N. Light Novel Writing Contest, and bronze medal for YA horror in the Reader’s Favorite International Book Awards Contest. 

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