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I've run out of books to read to you - yes, I've read all the books in the world. (No, not really - I had an opening this week.) So, this week we delve into the backlist for a scene from the AURA series. Because I felt like it. :D  The AURA books are available singly, at all the usual places and also in a handy Box Set.
AURA Series Angel Martinez, Bellora Quinn AURA, the Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation: it’s a weird job, but somebody’s got to do it. A magical catastrophe tears the fabric of reality, causing unpredictable holes between worlds through which anything might fall—elves, centaurs, trolls, yeti. The brave officers and employees of AURA struggle daily to help the lost and injured, and contain the irretrievably violent while their research staff scramble to find a way to reverse the effect. Anything can and does pop through into the human world, sometimes with disastrous and deadly results. It’s a race against time to see if the AURA mages can repair reality and stop the inter-dimensional flood before something crosses over that proves strong enough to destroy the world. Pride Publishing Amazon Barnes and Noble Kobo
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Hello all! Reading from AURA #3 today, Kellen's Awakening - there is, for certain interested parties, a squirrel in this scene.  Kellen's Awakening
AURA 3 Angel Martinez and Bellora Quinn A socially challenged pixie and a former playboy incubus find themselves in the center of the maelstrom as AURA struggles to find a source for the escalating violence threatening the city. The staff at AURA has had a busy summer. Between chronic understaffing, dealing with warring goblin factions and an unusual number of hazardous Events, everyone is overworked. Sinistrus the incubus, newly hired as an AURA medic, actually enjoys his busy new life of responsible employee and faithful lover to his gorgeous police sergeant, Ness the centaur. Life would be perfect, except for a niggling suspicion about a colleague. Everyone else seems to disagree, but Sin’s certain something’s not right with that pixie. Kellen, a pixie crossover, loves his job working in AURA medical, even if he is something of an outsider. His job and the friends he manages to make are happy spots in an otherwise dark and secretive life. As the rest of AURA tries to discover the root of the inexplicable rise in violence and large-scale Events, Kellen fights to preserve his own life and what dignity he has left. Hi everyone! Today I'm reading from the beginning of Quinn's Gambit: AURA 1, partly because it's up for a couple of things over at the PRG Reviewer's Choice Awards but mostly because it was too damn fun reading a Groof scene. You'll see what I mean.  Quinn's Gambit
AURA 1 After a terrible magical accident at Berkeley created unpredictable holes between realities, all manner of non-human creatures started popping into our world. These displacements, called Random Anomalous Reality Events or RARE, have taken magic out of fiction and relocated it firmly in reality, resulting in a great deal of chaos and confusion. Displaced elf Valerian works with AURA, the Agency of Unnatural Resettlement and Assimilation, to intercept these beings as they appear in the human world, helping the peaceful ones and subduing the violent, malevolent ones. It’s good, satisfying work, and Val would be happy if he wasn’t so lonely. Quinten is a young mage just trying to get by, but New York isn’t the easiest city to make a living in. If his methods are sometimes morally dubious, his heart is still in the right place. Of course, for Quinn, the right place means firmly locked away, protected at all costs. Living by his wits and sometimes magically induced luck, he works as a ‘freelance magic user’, or unregistered mage and small-time con, according to the authorities. The last thing Quinn wants is to draw the cops’ attention, but when an Event happens right on top of him, he’s forced to turn to AURA for help. Valerian isn’t at all what he’d expected in an AURA cop, and he certainly wasn’t expecting to join forces with the sexy elf, a snarky drow and a bitter incubus, when certain individuals in power try to stop the RARE by any means necessary. Things are not all what they seem at AURA headquarters, and a greater evil lurks at the top than anyone could have imagined. Hi! It appears to be Thursday. That manic grin on my face stems from the realization that another week is sliding past me. I'm doomed. Anyway - News!  Gravitational Attraction has been translated into Italian! *muppet arm flail* Up for pre-order now at Dreamspinner, releasing March 7, 2017! (For anyone curious, this title is also available in French.) Attrazione gravitazionale Attirato da una misteriosa richiesta di soccorso, l’equipaggio della nave mercantile Hermes trova alla deriva nello spazio un vascello militare in apparenza vuoto. Al suo interno, sangue e resti umani imbrattano i corridoi e vi è un unico sopravvissuto, rinchiuso in una cella di custodia. L’uomo, bellissimo ma traumatizzato, attira l’attenzione dell’addetto alle comunicazioni della nave, Isaac Ozawa, che decide di prendersene cura, offrendogli la gentilezza e il calore di cui l’altro ha bisogno dopo gli orrori vissuti. Isaac ha imparato sulla propria pelle cosa significhi essere diverso, essere un emarginato, e questo rafforza il loro legame. Un tempo pilota promettente, ha subito dei danni fisici dopo che il suo cervello non è riuscito a fondersi con l’impianto necessario a pilotare i potenti caccia della Flotta. Il cervello di Turk non è da meno. Come risultato di un esperimento militare fallito, le sue naturali capacità sono state aumentate a livelli pericolosi. Quando un ammiraglio senza morale e assetato di potere rapisce Isaac, usandolo per convincere Turk a diventare l’arma catastrofica che ha sempre sognato, saranno necessari tutta la forza di Turk, l’ingegnosità dell’equipaggio della *Hermes*, l’aiuto degli enigmatici Drak’tar e la testardaggine dello stesso Isaac per riuscire a salvare l’intero universo. Cover Artist: Anne Cain Translator: Victor Millais In other news, Quinn's Gambit is up for Best M/M Paranormal Urban Fantasy and best M/M Paranormal Urban Fantasy Series over at the Paranormal Romance Guild. Voting is open until 2/12 - so if you have a chance, tons of good stuff to vote on!
Reviewer's Choice Awards for 2016 (The M/M items are toward the bottom and you do have to be signed into Google to vote.) Somehow I've managed to overbook this year already, just so you know. It's only February. Last but not least, I've been a good little author and have sent back final edits on Skim Blood & Savage Verse. Onward! That's a lot of things, isn't it? For a month where very little is happening, I have a bunch of news snippets today:
 Hi all! It's Friday and time for a reading. Since we're so close to Halloween, I felt like an excerpt from Quinn's Gambit since the AURA series has all sorts of fun monsters and ghoulies and such. So - the first time we meet Kai Hiltas:
 When we planned this series out, book 2 was going to be about Kai. It is still about Kai to a certain degree, but we suddenly had another character talking to us...and another...and another. Which is how we got Flax, and how this turned into Flax's story primarily and Kai had to take a grumpy secondary role. Depending on your point of view. For some of our beta readers, it was still all about Kai. ;) Flax's Pursuit has it's early release next week on 6/16! This means, if you pre-order from Totally Bound, you get your copy in your hot little e-hands on 6/16. Pre-order is up everywhere else if that works out better for you - all other distribution sites release on 7/14/15!  Flax's Pursuit: AURA 2
Angel Martinez and Bellora Quinn Totally Bound Publishing Totally Bound pre-order - available early on 6/16 All other pre-orders available 7/14: Amazon Kobo Quinn and Valerian have come through the trials of facing an undead lich queen and the perils of falling in love. Now they work to restore AURA to its previous strength and efficiency while navigating their new life with each other. Fortunately, they’re not in this alone. Kai Hiltas has taken over as the head of the research department at AURA and has become everyone’s favourite workaholic, everyone except his lover Tenzin, who has had enough of his late nights and broken promises. As Kai tries to salvage his relationship, he finds a teacher for Quinn, who also happens to be one of Valerian’s new officers, Flax Wolfheart, a sexy elf with trouble written all over him. Flax has motives beyond simply teaching Quinn to control his magic. He’s trying to recover from his own losses and failures, but he has a plan. The two newest elvish crossovers, Ash and Sage, are sizzling hot and might even like him. With them as backup as he tracks a deadly stone mage and figures out how to teach Quinn, Flax sees his chance to impress Val and snag a place by his captain’s side. On the hunt for both danger and redemption, Flax’s pursuit leads him ultimately down trails he never expected. You know those nice quiet months? Like, oh, April, when there are no conventions or book fairs, and you only have one release? Um, yeah, seems like a long time ago now... June is nutso crazy bonkers gonzo with waaaay too much going on. But I'll try to give you a rundown anyway, because if I don't enumerate, I'll get lost and eaten by the release dragons, and you'll never hear from me again. Oh! I mean, I have a lot to share with you! Yes! That's what I meant!  First up - a bit of Science Fiction drama! The Color of His Crest - released 6/6/15 - a bittersweet short story of a multigendered world and a young person who just doesn't fit, no matter how hard he tries. (.99 cents, you can't beat the price.) Amazon All Romance Mischief Corner Books The beautiful cover art (love this cover!) is by Catherine Dair.  Next - the return of AURA in the sequel to Quinn's Gambit! Flax's Pursuit: AURA 2 - up for pre-order NOW at Amazon and Totally Bound, releasing on the Totally Bound site on 6/16 - A murderer haunts the city, turning the unwary to stone. Between hunting this evil and corralling new arrivals, Flax struggles to guard both his life and his heart. (general release 7/14, including print release) Amazon Totally Bound  In Appearance Land - I will be at the Hockessin Art and Book Fair on 6/20! All sorts of local authors attend, I think there are 80 or so this year. If you're anywhere in the Delaware/Tri-state area, come see me. I'll be there as my given name self, Sandra Stixrude, but if you're planning on coming and want Angel books, let me know ahead of time!   Back to Releases - Offbeat Crimes is here! Paranormal Humor for your summer fun reads!
Philadelphia's 77th Precinct - the paranormal misfits squad The Pill Bugs of Time (Offbeat Crimes 2) releases 6/21 at Amber Allure Stick-throwing tumbleweeds, pill bugs and…time travel? Amber Allure Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters (Offbeat Crimes 1) is out there already, waiting on the Amazon release, but that should be this week. What good’s a squad of cops with psychic abilities if all of them are defective? Amber Allure All Romance In which Angel manages the reading in only two takes and there are no screaming kitties:  Flax's Pursuit
AURA 2 Coming from Totally Bound 6/10/15 (general release 7/12/15) Quinn and Valerian have come through the trials of facing an undead lich queen and the perils of falling in love. Now they work to restore AURA to its previous strength and efficiency while navigating their new life with each other. Fortunately, they’re not in this alone. Kai Hiltas has taken over as the head of the research department at AURA and has become everyone's favourite workaholic, everyone except his lover Tenzin who has had enough of his late nights and broken promises. As Kai tries to salvage his relationship, he finds a teacher for Quinn who also happens to be one of Valerian's new officers, Flax Wolfheart, a sexy elf with trouble written all over him. Flax has motives beyond simply teaching Quinn to control his magic. He's trying to recover from his own losses and failures, but he has a plan. The two newest elvish crossovers, Ash and Sage, are sizzling hot and might even like him. With them as backup as he tracks a deadly stone mage and figures out how to teach Quinn, Flax sees his chance to impress Val and snag a place by his captain’s side. On the hunt for both danger and redemption, Flax's pursuit leads him ultimately down trails he never expected. |
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About Angel
Angel writes (mostly) Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around queer heroes. Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware and full time inside her head, she has one husband, one son, two cats, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate. |
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