saints of storm and sorrow - a fantasy novel from debut author gabriella buba
In this fiercely imaginative Filipino-inspired fantasy debut, a bisexual nun hiding a goddess-given gift is unwillingly transformed into a lightning rod for her people's struggle against colonization. Perfect for fans of lush fantasy full of morally ambiguous characters, including The Poppy War and The Jasmine Throne.
Gabriella Buba is a writer and chemical engineer who likes to keep explosive pyrophoric materials safely contained in pressure vessels or between the covers of her books. She writes adult romantic fantasy for bold, bi, brown women who deserve to see their stories centered. SAINTS OF STORM AND SORROW, book one in the Stormbringer Saga, is her debut novel.
#pridemonth #lgbtqbooks #titanbooks #fantasy #anothermagicmonday #authorinterview #authorsontheair
Kerry Anne King talks Improbably Yours on the Desideratum Podcast
Desideratum is one of my favorite podcasts for several reasons! First off, host Theresa Bakken is such a thoughtful and insightful reader and interviewer — during our conversation she made me understand things about Improbably Yours that hadn’t been clear to me before even though I’m the one who wrote the book!
For example, I realized how so many things in the book aren’t what they seem — the characters, the quest, Improbable House, and even Vinland Island! It’s not just that they are all keeping secrets, it’s that appearances are deceiving and we are, all of us, often mistaken about what we believe to be reality.
Another reason I love Desideratum is because Theresa also includes a clip from the audio book in her podcast episodes. I’m super excited about the audio book for Improbably Yours, because it has dual narrators! Teri Clark Linden, who has voiced most of my books, is back to read the part of Blythe, and Flynn’s POV chapters are read by Aaron Shedlock.
Listen on Desideratum (and follow it!) or listen right here!
Here’s a quick little Behind the Scenes clip!
Talking Improbably Yours with Maddie Dawson - treasure hunts, Vikings, ravens, grandmothers & more
It’s no secret that I adore Maddie Dawson’s books — and if you haven’t read them, I suggest you rectify that immediately. We met through each other’s books, actually — we’d read each other’s work, and we knew before we ever met that we were going to be friends. Then we finally met once in person and the deal was sealed. Even though we live on opposite sides of the country, we talk regularly and read early drafts for each other.
So it’s not at all surprising that we had a ton of fun with this interview. We talked about the possibility that Flynn, the Viking in the story might possibly have been inspired by my very own Viking. We discussed ravens, grandmothers, and the idea that spawned Improbably Yours (an old, falling apart, grieving house rather than a character!)
Both audio and video are posted here so you can choose your favourite format! I hope you enjoy!
Fun chatting up Improbably Yours on The Storytellers with Grace Sammon
I had the pleasure of sitting down for an interview with Grace Sammon, host of the Storytellers Vodcast on the Authors on the Air Radio Network. We talked about my upcoming release, Improbably Yours and other things, and I enjoyed myself immensely! If you’d like to listen in, I’ve included links to both audio and video formats.
Here’s the video:
And here’s the audio:
Aging Well: happiness is the magic elixir
I had the fabulous opportunity to sit down with Patricia Greenberg for a chat about aging —not only gracefully, but joyously. We also talked about mindset, ways to calm anxiety, and focus on being your best and happiest self.
Watching this interview after the fact, I was struck by my own journey from an insecure and anxious young person who walked around believing she was horribly flawed and socially awkward, to a confident “older” woman who just really doesn’t have time for people who don’t like or approve of her.
Life is too short and too full of wonderful things to stress about the small stuff or worry about what other people think. You can catch our conversation here:
You can check out the Tapping Solution that we discussed here, if you’d like to check out EFT. I highly recommend this!
What is your happy place? Where do you find satisfaction and joy? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Fit the crappy stuff in the cracks and make room for joy
I recently received an email with the subject: “make room for joys” and it included this line:
“Instead of fitting fun in the cracks (which often means it doesn't happen), let joy get top billing. Fit the crappy stuff in the cracks.” ~ Jeannette Maw
What a concept!!!
A couple of times a week an email pops into my inbox from Jeannette Maw, a joyously inspired woman also known as The Good Vibe Coach. I love these emails, and the way they are waiting for me at the butt crack of dawn when I first focus my bleary eyes on my phone to satisfy my morning FOMO.
A recent email subject was, “make room for joys” and it included this advice:
“Instead of fitting fun in the cracks (which often means it doesn’t happen), let joy get top billing. Fit the crappy stuff in the cracks.”
What a concept!!!
Instead of entering our days braced for powering through dreaded tasks, diving into difficult (but surely important) conversations, and dwelling on the dismal – we could do what makes us happy and fit all that crappy stuff in the cracks! Eat dessert first! Play before work. Snatch some time to read that book we’ve been dying to read now, instead of waiting until the very end of the day when we’re too exhausted to enjoy it.
And only do the hard stuff if we have time for it.
Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Waking up in the morning and getting out of bed is so much more exciting when you have things to look forward to instead of a bunch of crappy stuff waiting for you.
“But!” I hear you say. “But, Kerry, I have a JOB. If I don’t go to work I’ll get fired and then the there will be no joy anywhere.”
“Um, Kerry? Bills have to be paid.”
“I keep a house running – like, you know, cleaning things and feeding people and watching the kids. I can’t just NOT do these things or everybody suffers.”
“Also, guess what? It’s important to know what’s going on in the world. I’m not planning on being an ostrich.”
Okay, okay. I know the drill. I lived the grind for years, and still fall into occasionally – but my life shifted dramatically toward the more joyful and delightful when I learned to start prioritizing and focusing on good things and reveling in the joy wherever I can find it.
The Giant Manure Pile of Life
Whatever we focus on grows – so when the crappy stuff is getting all of the attention, it can feel like we’re standing on a giant manure pile that spreads as far as the eye can see.
The silver lining to this situation is that manure makes for good fertilizer and helps things grow. Imagine the wonderland that could pop up out of all that s*!#!
Baby Steps Toward Joy
But let’s start small. Prioritizing the joy might mean anything, but here are five suggestions to get you started:
1) Skip the grueling workout and take a pleasure walk, preferably in a park or somewhere where there are grass and trees, or water and sky.
2) Take a mini vacation – 15 minutes, an hour – to sip a favorite beverage and read a book.
3) Dance party! Put on some upbeat music and cheat on your tasks with a solo dance party – or dance while you do them!
4) Make a date with a friend – lunch, a walk, a movie – find the time.
5) Look for things you DO enjoy, or that at least feel satisfying, in your daily routine. What small thing is fun or rewarding about the task that really needs to be completed now?
Suggestions of Crap to Shove in the Cracks
1) The news. Give yourself a break. Limit the time you spend letting all of that harsh reality into your world. (Personally, I think skipping it altogether isn’t a bad idea – you can be sure some well-meaning friend or family member is gonna fill you in on truly important stuff)
2) Social Media – give the doom scrolling a rest. It’s amazing how much time we spend either feeling sad about the tragedies and difficulties of relative strangers – or feeling jealous of other people’s apparently perfect lives (hint: nobody’s life is perfect). Follow cat and bunny accounts and people who hashtag #joy
3) Worry
4) Self-criticism – any self-defeating thoughts that tell you that you are not enough, that you’re flawed or broken, that you never get it right – or replaying internal evidence that others don’t like you, or respect you, or think you are enough. In fact, forget stuffing that crap in the cracks – bury it. (Or even hit up somebody like me for a little positivity coaching)
What joy will you make room for today? What crap will you shove in the cracks?
Improbably Yours and friends -- a (very partial) list of atmospheric novels set on fictional Islands
Confession: Vinland Island isn’t real.
Yep. The island where most of Improbably Yours takes place only exists in my imagination — and in the pages of the book, of course! Mind you, the Viking and I took a very serious research trip to explore the San Juan Islands, (where I just sort of plunked Vinland down into an available space) so we could get the atmospheric details right.
And by “very serious research trip” I mean we rented a VRBO on Lummi Island, took ferry rides, ate amazing seafood, walked by the water, and drank wine while watching a small island ferry come and go. It was a grueling and exhausting experience, as I’m sure you can tell, but one of the sacrifices I am willing to make to write a book!
You can read about some other atmospheric novels set on fictional islands here. And you totally should, because I suspect that you, too, might want to read some of them.
I also recommend that you check out The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley, a wonderful book about a community all pretending to interact with a man who has died, for the sake of the grieving widow who carries on as if he is still with her.
Colleen Oakley also very kindly read Improbably Yours and had this to say:
“This book has it all—a quirky island, a hot Viking, even ghosts!—but most of all, it has soul. I was charmed and moved by this lovely story that reminds us sometimes we have to dig up the past to remember who we are in the present. A real gem. ”
Friday Reads: Catastrophe -- the hilarious second installment of The Cat Lady Chronicles by Susan Donovan and Valerie Mayhew
Friday Reads
This week’s Friday Reads finds me just finished with Catastrophe - the 2nd installment of The Cat Lacy Chronicles, a mid-life paranormal women’s fiction series about a crazy cat lady who finds herself inadvertently anointed as “The Acolyte” — a woman bound to the service of the goddess Bastet with the inescapable and dangerous mission of killing the supernatural evil known as Apep — or dying in the attempt. I should say temporarily killing, because Apep always regenerates, requiring new acolytes to be anointed every sixty-some years.
Usually the acolyte is young, supple and gets years of training. Middle-aged, overweight, out of shape, crazy cat lady Felicity Cheshire has only days — and pursues her mission through outrageously untraditional methods, aided and abetted by her “goddess posse.”
These books are literally laugh out loud funny. Plus, there’s steamy romance, strong women, cats (a LOT of cats), and an immortal cat-shifting warrior whose job it is to whip Felicity into shape and help her overcome the evil nemesis.
DISCOVERING THE BOOK
The Cat Lady Chronicles found me by way of Pam Stack, head honcho and mistress mind behind The Authors on the Air empire. Pam loves the mid-life paranormal genre, has a wicked sense of humor, and is a bit of a crazy cat lady herself, so it’s no great surprise that she recommended these books!
ABOUT The Cat Lady Chronicles
Let’s start with the back cover copy for the first book in the series, Catalyst, because you really will want to start at the beginning:
What happens when a middle-aged cat lady learns she's humanity's only hope? Chaos. Catnip. Curse words.
One tough cookie...
Felicity Cheshire has survived cancer, medical bankruptcy, and the world’s slimiest ex-husband. Now she’s about to be evicted from the ramshackle Airstream on the Oregon coast that's home for her and her twelve rescue cats.
One last kitty...
When her car breaks down during a freakish rainstorm, Felicity spies an injured tomcat on the roadside and thinks, “how much trouble can one more be?” A lot, as it turns out. Soon there’s a naked mystery man in her bed and her small-town, middle-aged existence careens to WTF? territory.
Two weeks to save the world.
With her posse of badass BFFs at her side, Felicity takes a terrifying journey from has-been to hero, where she must face her darkest fears in order to save those she loves. She might even have to attempt sit-ups.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT Catalyst and catastrophe
These books are totally lightweight, funny, and snarky — but somehow or other the authors manage to keep the suspense building because of all that. There are romantic threads in play, with no promise of any happy ever after, so I definitely needed to find out if things were going to go right for these characters I love. And I do love them. All of the women, that is, and Tom. But there are also some characters that are so much fun to hate, and the Apep Ass Kicking moments are simultaneously hilarious AND satisfying AND suspenseful.
This is also a story of resilient, strong women discovering their own inner power even after life has given them a serious beating — and also discovering how to trust and rely on each other. And yes — opening themselves up to love again after previous romantic disasters.
When I finished Catastrophe, I promptly went to check on the status of book three, and was delighted to discover that Cataclysm will be out in the world on June 4th. Yes, I’ve pre-ordered.
You can find out more about the authors here — Susan Donovan — and here - Valerie Mayhew.
Do you have a mid-life paranormal that you love? Tell me in the comments!
Friday Reads: The Golem and the Jinni -- a gorgeously immersive fantasy novel by Helene Wecker
What’s up with Friday Reads?
Have you ever stopped to wonder what’s up with the whole Friday Reads thing? I mean, come on — hands up if you only read on Friday? But since Friday Reads IS a thing, I’ve hatched a plan to start posting here about whatever I happen to be reading when Friday rolls around. If it happens to be the cereal box? So be it. (Bets on how long I keep it up? I’m kinda notorious for bright ideas and then not following through.)
In this case, I did actually happen to be happily reading The Golem and the Jinni on Friday, and I have to tell you — not much in the world makes me happier than being absorbed in an immersive fantasy. And if I happen to be reading it while drinking a freshly made-from-scratch strawberry margarita (which I was) while sitting in my hot tub (which, alas, I wasn’t) all the better!
Discovering the Book
I’m always curious about the ways books and readers find their way to each other (if you’ve got a great story about how you found your favorite book, I want to hear it!) and in this case, The Golem and the Jinni was suggested to me by my writer pal Heather Webb.
We were a couple of days into a two-person writer retreat in Narraganset. I’d had a couple of drinks — okay, maybe three, which is a LOT for this lightweight — and declared my intent to write something just for fun. You know - step away from the constrictions of traditional publishing and the contract book I was working on, and write something for the heck of it. A romance maybe. Even an erotica experiment, just to see if I could pull it off.
At that exact moment, I got a text message from Pam Stack, the brilliant woman who runs the Authors on the Air Radio Network — and, by the way, reads like 400 books a year or some crazy number — and I told her I was considering experimenting with a “Love me Goat Herder series,” since goats are a long standing joke between us (don’t ask. Friendships are weird) and then SHE suggested maybe I try my hand at midlife paranormal instead.
Now, fantasy is my first love. If you’ve read my Kerry Anne King novels you’ll notice I always manage to infuse a tiny little bit of some sort of magic in there, even when I’m writing real world stories, and my Kerry Schafer books are all built around either fantasy or paranormal. So this idea made me sit up and start actually brainstorming.
By the way, if you don’t know about the mid-life paranormal genre, just do a search on Amazon or Goodreads. These are books about women whose mid-life crises get downright magical. They are full of snark and adventure and humor, and learning how to wield unexpected magical gifts, and also romance. Great fun to read.
But what magical gift would my character have? And then I thought - what if she’s a genie? That would be fun. Which was when Heather recommended The Golem and the Genie, and here we are caught up to now. Because obviously I ordered the book and fell in love with it. (And yes, if you’re wondering, I AM playing around with writing a mid-life paranormal romance featuring a reluctant genie.)
About The Golem and the Jinni
Let’s start with the back cover copy:
“An intoxicating fusion of fantasy and historical fiction. . . . Wecker’s storytelling skills dazzle.” —Entertainment Weekly
A marvelous and absorbing debut novel about a chance meeting between two supernatural creatures in turn-of-the-century immigrant New York.
Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in.
Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world.
Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice.
Compulsively readable, The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, in a wondrously inventive tale that is mesmerizing and unforgettable.”
What I Loved About The Golem and the Jinni
Despite the way I came to this book, I need to make it clear that this is not a lightweight, fun, snarky sort of story at all. It is a work of art, from that gorgeous cover through to the very last word, and it deals with deep questions about what it means to be human, and whether or not we are bound by the natures we are born with.
Chava, the golem in the story, reminds me of the android, Data, in the StarTrek Next Generation series, in the way that she is always trying to fit in and find her place in the world. I often read her scenes with my heart in my throat — will she find free will or will she be enslaved? What horrible things might she be made to do and is she capable of resisting the control of an evil man? And the Jinni - a once free spirit of fire now trapped in the body of a man - also has a wonderful character growth arc. Is it possible for him to feel empathy and compassion? Maybe even love? Will he ever be free?
All of these questions are set against the backdrop of turn of the century immigrant New York, in a way that made me feel like I was THERE - seeing the sights, smelling the smells, falling in love with the people. The characters are wonderful — those I was cheering for, and the one I wanted to destroy — and created with such a wonderfully human array of loves and kindnesses and jealousies and weaknesses and strengths.
Anyway. I was sad when I turned the last page, and delighted to discover that there is a sequel, which I will definitely be reading soon.
Check out author Helene Wecker’s website here, for more and to find all the buy links.
Have you read The Golem and the Jinni? Do you have a great story about how a book found you? Tell me in the comments!
Moms Read Genres Giveaway for Mother's Day
Enter this multi-author Mother’s Day giveaway for a chance to win FOURTEEN books! Hey, if you win and there’s a genre included you don’t love — gift it to a friend who does!