Top Pearls Revisited - Winners

The giveaways for My Top Pearls Revisited event have ended and The Random Number Generator picked 4 winners!

Barbara E. won a signed copy of Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams

IreneRJ won a copy of The Real Werewives of Vampire County signed by Jess Haines

Melliane won a signed copy of Alien Tango by Gini Koch

Jeffe Kennedy won a signed copy of Mind Games by Carolyn Crane

Congrats!

All winners have been contacted.
Thanks to everyone who dropped by and commented and a special thanks to Laura Bickle, Jess Haines, Gini Koch and Carolyn Crane for their participation.

Top Pearls Revisited (+ giveaway) - Laura Bickle

Last year I made a list of my top favorite reads of 2010.
4 debut authors ended up on that list and they kept on writing and impressing me with their books. I decided to revisit last year's list and tell you about what these awesome authors have been up to, what we can expect from them in the future, ask them some questions and to give away some books.

First up is Laura Bickle.


Last year Laura ended up on my Top Pearls list twice, under both of her pen-names: Laura Bickle and Alayna Williams

In 2010 she had 2 releases as Laura Bickle and 1 as Alayna Williams:
Released under the pen-name Laura Bickle were Embers and Sparks, which are book 1 and 2 in the Anya Kalinczyk series and they feature psychic medium Anya and her awesome familiar Sparky, a fire salamander.

And released under the pen-name Alayna Williams: Dark Oracle, book 1 in the thrilling Delphic Oracle series, which features Tara Sheridan, a criminal profile who uses tarot cards to guide her in her investigations.


2011 brought book 2 in the Delphic Oracle series: Rogue Oracle.
Rogue Oracle is an amazing read. It’s grim, gritty, scary, intense and in my opinion utterly awesome. If you haven’t read it yet, I can only advice you to remedy that situation as soon as possible.


What’s next:
At the moment it’s looking grim for the Anya Kalinczyk and the Delphic Oracle series. So far there’s been no word that Pocket Books will contract Laura Bickle for more books in both series. A real shame as both series are awesome.

But there is good news as well!

2012 will bring a new series by Laura Bickle:
THE HALLOWED ONES, pitched as "Witness" meets "28 Days Later" in which an Amish girl must protect her family from a violent contagion, even as fear and denial threaten to erode her community from within.

Doesn’t that sound awesome!?

Book 1 will release in the fall of 2012 and book 2 will release in the spring of 2013.

Be sure to keep an eye out for these books and if you don’t, you can be sure I will remind you ;-)


And now for a short Q&A with Laura Bickle:

- What was your favorite moment of 2011?

I got to spend a week this summer hiking with my husband. We found a little waterfall in the bottom of a gorge that tasted like iron. I took my shoes and socks off and waded in that little pool. The sun was shining, and it was really a lovely time, being that close to nature.

We also adopted a new cat, Luna. She's a big sack of sugar - all love and snuggles. Bringing her home was a true joy.

- What will you be doing on New Year's Eve?

Ah, I'm not much of a partier. I'll be ensconced at home in fuzzy jammies, probably reading a book or watching TV. Maybe I'll be writing. There will be a cat draped on me, I'm quite sure.

I might contemplate a list of New Year's resolutions. All the standard stuff: increase word count, lose that last ten pounds, clean out the closets, etc.

- What are you looking forward to in 2012?

2012 is going to be an exciting year for me. In fall, my first YA book will be released by Houghton Mifflin's Graphia line. It's called THE HALLOWED ONES, and it's pitched as "WITNESS meets 28 DAYS LATER." I'm working on the sequel now, and that will be released the following spring.

I'm also looking forward to attending RT Booklover's Convention in April in Chicago. My critique partners, Marcella Burnard and Jeffe Kennedy, will be hosting a reader party with me called: Sidekicks - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It'll be wonderful to reconnect with my fellow authors and meet new readers.

------

Laura, thanks for dropping by and I wish you a wonderful New Year's Eve and a great 2012!

------

Haven’t read any of Laura’s book yet, or still missing one of them?

Now is your chance to win a signed copy of one of Laura’s books (Embers, Sparks, Dark Oracle or Rogue Oracle)
Rules:
- leave a comment for Laura
- don’t forget to mention what book you would want to win
- leave a way for me to contact you

This giveaway is international and will run until the 9th of January 2012. A winner will be randomly chosen soon after that date.

Don’t forget to check back the next couple of days for news about my other Top Pearls authors of 2010 and for more cool giveaways.

Yet Another Winner

Winnie, the winner of the Oracle giveaway told me she won Rogue Oracle at another giveaway, so she only claims the signed copy of Dark Oracle.

This means I got to draw a second winner who'll get the signed copy of Rogue Oracle!

And the lucky winner is:
Katie Dalton

Congrats to Katie and thanks to Winnie!



Stay tuned for a review of my latest zombie read later today

Winner of The Oracle giveaway

Here's the moment 13 of you have been waiting for:
The random number generator told me who won Dark Oracle and Rogue Oracle by Alayna Williams!

The winner is:
winnie

winnie: I'll be emailing you!

Everyone else:
Thanks for your interest in Alayna's guestpost!

Two of Swords - Guestpost by Alayna Williams + giveaway

Today I bring you a guest post by the amazing Alayna Williams!
Some of you might know her book Dark Oracle was on my list of favourite Pearls of 2010 and so far Rogue Oracle, her second book in the Delphic Oracle series, is on top of my favourites list of 2011. Not only does she write awesome books both as Alayna Williams and Laura Bickle, she's an awesome person as well.

As part of her Bewitching Book Blog Tour she'll tell you all about the tarot card Two of Swords and she's got a really cool giveaway for readers of my blog as well.

---------------------------

Image of Two of Swords from the Hanson-Roberts Tarot.

Two of Swords: The Balance
by Alayna Williams

I use Tarot cards a good deal in my writing, to give me ideas about creating characters and develop plot points. Sometimes, I pick cards on purpose that catch my eye, but more often, I deal them out at random. I let my imagination roam over the pictures to generate situations and connections among characters

One of the cards that's intrigued me most over time is the Two of Swords. It shows a seated woman wearing a blindfold. She balances two swords over her shoulders. At her back is the ocean and a crescent moon. It's a very mysterious card, one that takes on a different meaning with each reading.

The suit of Swords is tied to the element of Air: communication, mental faculties, logic, and messages. In numerology, the number two is about love and harmony - and it's ruled by the intuitive power of the moon. The Two of Swords usually signifies compromise, withdrawal, denial...and sometimes a stalemate. The woman is holding the swords to shield herself, and she is blindfolded against considering options. The ocean, representing the vastness of emotions, is at her back...and she's trying her hardest to put her head down ignore it. The moon has risen, and the moon-driven tide's going to rise and engulf her unless she rouses herself and takes action.

The concept of the card reminds me of the myth of Eros, who is often depicted as wearing a blindfold. Eros was the son of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. But even that was up for dispute...some scholars believe he was a primeval force that came directly from Chaos: love, passion for life.

In ancient Greece, Eros was not the chubby cherub we know today. He was a handsome man who carried a bow and arrow - whoever he shot fell hopelessly in love. The idea of the blindfold - which came later - signified the idea that love is blind. Love can make us powerless and make no rational sense. We love whomever we first lay eyes upon after we are struck by the magic arrow.

With that idea in mind, I consider the woman in the Two of Swords. She's blindfolded herself to avoid considering her emotions - the ocean behind her. But all's not lost. She can still hear the ocean. And the lesson of the card is to listen to intuition, to love. She must consider these with as much weight as the tangible, rational swords on her shoulders.

Not that she should cast them away...the swords are sharp, useful weapons. But she needs to remove her blindfold, face the tide. When she listens to her intuition and her intellect, the Two of Swords becomes a balanced force to be reckoned with.


---------------------------

Intrigued?
Then you really should pick up Rogue Oracle (and Dark Oracle as well if you haven't read it yet).


This is what Rogue Oracle is about:
The more you know about the future, the more there may be to fear.

Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around - and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn't need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.

Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards - and Tara's increasingly ominous dreams - suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationships with the mysterious order known as Delphi's Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen…

ROGUE ORACLE is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble among others.

Read my review of Dark Oracle here and my review of Rogue Oracle here

And now for the really cool giveaway I told you about at the start of this post!

Alayna Williams has been so generous to offer not just Rogue Oracle, but both Dark Oracle and Rogue Oracle as a set to one reader of my blog.
Signed!

Yes, you read that correctly:
You could be so lucky to win both books of the Delphic Oracle series!

So leave a comment about Alayna's guestpost or tell why you want to win these awesome books and cross your trotters or fingers ;-)

Some rules for the giveaway:
- This giveaway is International
- Leave a comment before March 31
- Leave a way for me to contact you
- You don't need to be a follower to enter
- Winner will be picked at random on March 31 and announced that same day or the day after.

Teaser Tuesdays - Rogue Oracle

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm rereading this one as it's awesome!
Haven't read Rogue Oracle yet?
Check back on Thursday for a guestpost by Alayna Williams.
It's going to be really cool I can promise you!

"The more I learn about how you think, the more I wonder..." He shook his head. "It's like the rest of us see light in the visible spectrum, and you see infrared and ultraviolet."
(page 33, Rogue Oracle by Alayna Williams)

Rogue Oracle - Book Review

Rogue Oracle (Oracle #2) by Alayna Williams

What is it about:
Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around—and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn’t need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.

Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards—and Tara’s increasingly ominous dreams—suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationship with the mysterious order known as Delphi’s Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen. . . .

What did I think of it:
I absolutely love Dark Oracle, the first book in this series, so I was more than eager to read Rogue Oracle. And let me say:

WOW!!

Rogue Oracle is dark, gritty, disturbing, intense and utterly awesome!

Tara and Harry both have some serious fights on their hands in this book and I must confess they had me worried about their safety and happiness more than once. Even though the overall tone of the story is grim it never crosses the line that makes a story too angsty and desperate for me, instead it drew me in just as tightly as the first book did, cheering on Tara and Harry and cursing those who make their lives difficult. Rogue Oracle is a more than worthy sequel to Dark Oracle and I can only hope there will be more books in this series as I am now officially in love with Tara.

Why should you read it:
It's a totally awesome, intense Urban Fantasy read.

Top Pearls of 2010

2011 is almost here so I decided to make a post listing the books that I most enjoyed reading this year.

I'll start of with the five books/series that blew me away and are not just on my top list of this year, but also made it on my list of all time favourites. Suprisingly enough all 4 authors of my top 5 pearls list had their debut as published writer this year*. I certainly hope we'll hear lots more about them in years to come.

(*please do not wack me if I'm mistaken and missed out on earlier work.)

I'm not going to try to say which one of these five series/books is the best as my feelings about that change depending on wether I'm in the mood for vampires, aliens, ghosts, tarot or disillusionists.

Anyway: here they come in random order:


The Justine Jones: Disillusionist trilogy by Carolyn Crane
So far there's two book out in this series: Mind Games and Double Cross
Mind Games was unbelievably cool and Double Cross was even better. Gritty, witty and full of action and heartache. I'm looking forward to reading the last book of this trilogy in 2011.

The Katherine (Kitty) Katt series by Gini Koch
I stumbled upon this series as the cover artwork by Daniel Dos Santos drew my attention and was hooked from the start as the stories are even better than the covers. So far there's two books: Touched by an Alien and Alien Tango, but luckily there's lots more books to come. The next book Alien in the Family will be released in April 2011.

The Delphic Oracle series by Alayna Williams*
There's one book out in this series so far: Dark Oracle.
This is a book I wanted to read as soon as I heard about it, but I had to wait a couple of months before it was released. And it was so worth the wait as it was even better than I had hoped. Highly underappreciated in the book blogging community in my opinion, this book drew me in and wouldn't let me go until I finished it (not that I wanted to go I must add). I'm looking forward to Rogue Oracle, which will be released in March 2011

The Anya Kalinczyk series by Laura Bickle*
So far there's two books out in this series: Embers and Sparks.
I loved Embers, especially because of Sparky, Anya's familiar, but it was Sparks that blew me away with it's total awesomeness. It's not clear at the moment if there will be more books, but I'm really hoping there will be.

The H&W Investigations series by Jess Haines
So far there's one book out in this series: Hunted by the Others, but the next book, Taken by the Others will be released in January 2011 and there's lots more to come.
Shia dances on that thin line that makes a heroine either likeable or a total bitch. For me the scales tipped to likeable though. Add some other cool characters to that, a kick ass story and intriguing, but nasty politics and you got me hooked!


*Yup, one author is on this list twice. Alayna Williams and Laura Bickle are one and the same.



So now you know my five top pearls of 2010, but I'm not stopping there! There's two more lists I want to share with you.

The Best of the Rest:


Favourite YA read of 2010: Downsiders by Neal Shusterman
The Ebook that got me into reading ebooks: Wolf Signs by Vivian Arend
Best Zombie read of 2010: Soulless by Christopher Golden
Best SciFi read: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre


Honourable Mentions:


Once Bitten, Twice Dead by Bianca D'Arc
Deadtown by Nancy Holzner
Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder
the Iron Duke by Meljean Brook


And lastly I want to mention a book that might have made it on one of my lists if only I started reading it sooner:

Afterlife by Merrie Destefano
Reading this book at the moment and so far loving it.

Eagerly Waiting For:

Here's three books that are on the top of my Wishlist, but as they're not released yet I'll have to be patient.

Enemy Within by Marcella Burnard
(Releases November 2nd 2010)

After a stint in an alien prison torpedoes her military career, Captain Ari Idylle has to wonder why she even bothered to survive. Stripped of her command and banished to her father's scientific expedition to finish a PhD she doesn't want, Ari never planned to languish quietly behind a desk. But when pirates commandeer her father's ship, Ari once again becomes a prisoner.

Pirate leader Cullin Seaghdh may not be who he pretends to be but as far as Cullin is concerned, the same goes for Ari. Her past imprisonment puts her dead center in Cullin's sights and if she hasn't been brainwashed and returned as a spy, then he's convinced she must be part of a traitorous alliance endangering billions of lives. Cullin can't afford the desire she fires within him and he'll stop at nothing, including destroying her, to uncover the truth.
---------------

Alien Tango by Gini Koch (Katherine "Kitty" Katt #2)
(Releases December 7th 2010)

It's been five months since marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt started working with the aliens from Alpha Centauri, and she and Jeff Martini are getting closer. But when an experimental spacecraft is mysteriously returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest of her team are called in to investigate. Now the team must survive murderous attacks, remove a space entity from a group of astronauts, and avoid an unhinged woman with a serious crush on Kitty's high school boyfriend. And that's all before evil masterminds decide Kitty's extermination is vital.
---------------

Rogue Oracle by Alayna Williams (Oracle series #2)
(Releases February 22nd 2011)

Criminal Minds meets Fringe in this urban fantasy series featuring Tara Sheridan, a criminal profiler who combines Tarot card divination with her training as a forensic psychologist.

Agent Harry Li asks criminal profiler Tara Sheridan to consult on a case in which a half-dozen Cold War-era intelligence operatives have disappeared. Harry suspects a high-level conspiracy, but Tara isn’t so sure: despite the lack of bodies, Tara’s Tarot cards strongly suggest there is a killer at work.

Beset with strange visionary dreams, both helped and hindered by her tenuous connection to an ancient secret society connected to the mythic Delphic Oracle, Tara must find a shadowy killer who, if not stopped, will continue to poison the future of all humanity.
---------------



So....
What books are you eagerly waiting for?

60 Followers Giveaway!

My blog hit 60 followers yesterday!

That needs to be celebrated ofcourse, so I decided to do a small giveaway!

I'm giving away a copy of Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams.
(Not this particular copy in the picture btw, that's mine and mine only and I'll defend it with my life (yes, it's that good I think), but I will buy the lucky winner his/her own shiny new copy.)

So now for some rules ofcourse:
- You must be a follower of Pearls Cast before a McPig
(and note that if you're not a follower yet, you can ofcourse become a follower, but please do not become a follower just so you can win free stuff. Become a follower because you actually like my blog.)
- You must leave a comment to let me know you want to enter and please leave a way for me to contact you.
- You can enter until september 11th, I will pick a winner on september 12th.

Well, that's it!
And this giveaway is international!

Character Connection - Tara

We all have characters we love. Let's spotlight these fantastic creations! Whether you want to be friends with them or you have a full-blown crush on them, you know you love them and want everyone else to love them too!

Character Connection host by
TheIntrovertedReader.blogspot.com

The character I connect with this week is Tara from Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams.

Tara is a great character in my opinion:
She's scarred, both mentally and physically, but even though she is afraid because of the things that happened in her past she doesn't let that stop her from doing what she knows needs to be done. A kind of courage that I can really admire.

Besides that she can use tarot cards to help her see things more clearly.
She's an ex-profiler and she used the cards to help her understand the criminals and killers she had to hunt and she uses them to advice her on other things as well. I think tarot cards and their symbolism are very interesting myself so I love how Tara lets them help her, but she never loses sight over the fact who is in control: Her and not the cards!

Throughout 'Dark Oracle' Tara goes through a process of (re)growth that is so good to see and at the end of the book I was both happy and sad. Happy to know how things turned out for Tara, but sad that there wasn't anymore to read about her. so I'm very glad there's going to be at least one more book about Tara: Rogue Oracle, which will be available in March 2011.

Dark Oracle - Book Review

Dark Oracle by Alayna Williams

What is it about:
As a criminal profiler, Tara used science and her intuitive skill at Tarot card divination to track down the dangerous and depraved, including the serial killer who left her scarred from head to toe. Since that savage attack, Tara has been a recluse. But now an ancient secret society known as Delphi’s Daughters has asked for her help in locating missing scientist Lowell Magnusson. And Tara, armed with her Tarot deck, her .38, and a stack of misgivings, agrees to try.

Tara immediately senses there is far more at stake than one man’s life. At his government lab in the New Mexico desert, Magnusson had developed groundbreaking technology with terrifying potential. Working alongside the brusque but charismatic agent Harry Li, Tara discovers that Magnusson’s daughter, Cassie, has knowledge that makes her a target too. The more Tara sees into the future, the more there is to fear. She knows she has to protect Cassie. But there may be no way to protect herself—from the enemies circling around her, or from the long-buried powers stirring to life within. . .

What did I think of it:
I've been wanting to read this book since the first time I heard about it as it sounded really cool.

And it is! I love this book.
The mix of tarot and profiling is very well written and Williams sure knows her tarot too I can tell you. The story is suspenseful and compelling with rich and vivid descriptions and even though Williams uses various viewpoints this didn't distract me from the story as sometimes happens, but instead it felt right as it gave me extra insight in the story that made it come even more alive.
Tara is a character you can really care about and I was happy to see her grow throughout the story. Voodoo Bride wants me to add she loves the romantic storyline in this book and I have to agree with her that it really fits within the overall story. All in all I hope there'll be many more books in this series as I want to know what's next for Tara.

(The next book Rogue Oracle will be released in March 2011)

Why should you read it:
Anyone with an interest in tarot will love this book as well as anyone who likes a decent Urban Fantasy story that doesn't focus on creatures, but more on personal magic powers.

Alayna Williams also writes under the name Laura Bickle.
Check out my review of Embers by Laura Bickle here
and my interview with Laura Bickle here

Interview with Author Laura Bickle

After reading Embers by Laura Bickle I really wanted to know more about Sparky (Anya’s familiar), the next book in this series and about Dark Oracle, a book that Laura Bickle wrote under the name Alayna Williams. I asked Laura Bickle if she would agree to an interview and I’m delighted to tell you all she agreed!

I’m thrilled to be here! Thanks so much for having me. I’ve included a photo of my plush salamanders, for the pigs’ amusement!


Laura, thanks for coming and welcome to Pearls Cast before a McPig. And thanks for the really great picture of your salamanders! It’s always good to see other plush animals having fun. Now let me start with the first question.

Sparky is an amazing character. He’s cool, mischievous and fun. Oh, and Voodoo Bride says to tell you she thinks he’s really cute too. How did you come up with him?

I wanted to write about fire salamanders, since they really haven’t gotten much press since Paracelsus’ time. I thought that a fire salamander would be a somewhat unusual familiar, since Paracelsus and other ancient philosophers thought fire elementals were too fickle to keep as familiars.

Sparky is a composite of all the pets I’ve ever owned. None of my pets have been particularly well-behaved (some have been pretty feral), and Sparky is the result.

Any chance Sparky will meet any other familiars in upcoming books? (Pigs would make very good familiars for those dabbling with earth magic and we can find truffles. Just saying)

I’d never thought about pigs as earth familiars – excellent idea! I think that pigs and salamanders would get along famously. Salamanders love cats and dogs, after all. Pigs would be special.

Wow, thanks. I think pigs are special too, but all the other animals here disagree.
Talking about upcoming books. Will there be more books after Sparks?

I would love to do more books after Sparks. But, like any other series, I think that’s probably dependent upon how well EMBERS and SPARKS sell.

There are more critters in SPARKS. In SPARKS, Anya’s investigating a rash of spontaneous human combustion cases. With the help of the ghost hunters and a soul collector from the Underworld, she must track down the supernatural source of the fires…and keep Sparky’s newly-hatched newts safe from a malicious celebrity psychic.

Sparky is guarding a nest of newts hatching in Anya’s bathtub. There are more than thirty of the little guys, and Anya definitely has her hands full.

More than thirty newts? Sounds like there’s going to be a lot of Sparky related action in the book! I’m looking forward to reading it even more now.

*
On to the next question:
Anya sees ghosts and works together with a team of ghost hunters. So far she has encountered not only ghosts, but also some other creatures. Can we expect zombies to show up? Those aren’t too far removed from ghosts in my opinion. I’d love to see Sparky kick some zombie ass.

No plans for zombies. Yet. Though I agree that would be most excellent. I really enjoyed Zombieland, but it seems as if the best zombie ideas are already taken.

Hmmm…how about zombie pigs? Zombie pig familiars?

Now that sounds like a great idea! Who wouldn’t want to read about Zombie pig familiars. I think you should start writing before someone else steals this brilliant idea.

On to Dark Oracle. Tara is a(n ex) criminal profiler who uses tarot cards in her investigations. I must say that sounds really cool, I love the symbolism used in tarot. How did you come up with the idea and do you use tarot cards in your daily life?

I do use Tarot cards in my daily life. Like you, I love the symbolism and the story of the hero’s journey told in the cards. I literally wrote that book with a deck of cards in hand as story prompts.

Tara was inspired by the Queen of Swords. That card kept coming up for me, and I felt that it was time to write about her. I made her a criminal profiler, because of my own background in criminology.

From what I read about Dark Oracle it’s also Urban Fantasy. Will we encounter magical/supernatural creatures or does it focus more on supernatural/magic powers alone?

Yes, DARK ORACLE is also urban fantasy. It focuses primarily on supernatural and magic powers…no creatures, really. The series focuses on an order of oracles who have existed since the time of the Oracle of Delphi, called Delphi’s Daughters. Tara used to be one of them, but has struck out on her own. A lot of her personal conflicts deal with her estrangement from them and from herself.

DARK ORACLE deals with magic, but it also deals with science. Tara has to help find a missing scientist who’s unlocked the secrets of dark energy. I try to balance the magic and science, throw in a dollop of conspiracy, and stir well.

Voodoo Bride wants to know if there’s any romance in Dark Oracle.

There is more romance in DARK ORACLE. Tara is drawn out of her self-imposed exile by an intense federal agent, Harry Li. In her Tarot readings, he is her Knight of Pentacles. I hope that Voodoo Bride will be pleased.

Sounds like I’ll have to fight her for who gets to read the book first.

If you had to pick a tarot card for Anya, Sparky or Tara, which card would you pick for them (and why)?

Great question! Anya would probably be best represented by Strength. Strength shows a woman holding the jaws of a lion closed, which represents mastery over the beasts within oneself. Anya has to struggle with her dark side, and this card represents that conflict well.

*

Sparky is the Knight of Wands. His card would belong to the suit of Wands, since they traditionally represent the element of fire. Sparky is full of restless energy, always on the move. Like the Knight of Wands, he can be volatile and unpredictable.

*

Tara would be the Queen of Swords. She’s very much the Ice Queen, exiled from the world and attempting to understand it with both intuition and logic. She was scarred for life by a serial killer, and that’s left her with a great deal of sorrow that I see in that card.

*

Wow, some impressive picks. Thanks for this extra insight in your characters.

And now for the last question:
Do you have any other series planned besides these two series?

I have an epic fantasy that I’m shopping around. No word on that one yet, but you’ll be the first to know if it finds a home!

I hope you get people interested. If it is as well written as Embers I for one would love to read it. Thanks again for dropping by and for answering my questions. I’m looking forward to reading both Sparks and Dark Oracle.

Thanks so much for having me over to chat!

For those who haven’t read Embers yet: Be sure to pick it up and read it. It’s really cool!

Sparks will be available in August and Dark Oracle around the 25th of May according to amazon.com

*the Tarot cards in the pictures are from the 'Mage: the Ascension Tarot' which has different names for the suits even though they mean the same as the normal tarot, but the cards shown are (as you might have guessed):
Knight of Swords
Strenght
Knight of Wands
Queen of Swords