When Fantasy and Reality Collide Among the Smoke and a Curse
is Born
Anytime a fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi author develops a new
world, she has to create everything from scratch or decide which parts of the
real world to incorporate in the story. I’ve spent hours, days, weeks pondering
the world of the Mayflower Mages. Some of that world is entirely made up, like
the magic system. Some of it is reality; both books are set in a real city.
Some of it is a mesh of reality and fantasy, like the origins of the Republic
of Mage Territories. Instead of Puritans coming over to the New World on the
Mayflower, it was witches fleeing the inquisitions.
Another example of that mesh of reality and fantasy is the
mages’ curse words. I wanted their choice words to reflect their culture, so I
had to create new twists on our foul language for upset mages to fling about
the pages. As the series continues, I keep lists of the curse words and who
tends to say which ones so that I can remember them all.
I’m not much of a bad word girl myself. Or at least I don’t
say them out loud very often. I keep them in the mental realm. That can be
problematic. Sometimes the barrier to the mental realm and the spoken realm
thins…and breaks. I’d like a cure for that. A magic cure, in fact, since I’m
all about magic and clearly should have been born with psychic powers at the
minimum. (What? You too? I totally understand.)
While I wait for my personal magic to come online, I give
the people who live in my head plenty of special powers. The heroine in Enchanter’s Echo has enormous amounts of
fabulous, beautiful power. She’s an enchantress, a rare breed in the mage world.
She’s very special. But she’s gotten herself into a bit of a mess, and it’s
making her quite nervous and anxious. When anxiety grips hers, she tends to
lose control of her magic. Sparkly clouds of power surround her…much like the book
cover shows, only she’s very embarrassed about this glitter. Blasted sparkly
clouds, she calls it. In fact, she says it on one of the first pages of the
book.
As I was in the midst of editing this book, I had to take a
break to cook supper for the kiddos. I had spent hours going over and over the
first pages. Not a smart endeavor since the words eventually merge into a
knotted mesh in my mind. So the cooking break was much needed to clear my head.
Alas, I lost control of the grilled cheese and blackened that baby. Word to the
wise, if you’re distracted, do not attempt a grilled cheese sandwich. Try soup
instead.
“Mom, what’s that smell?” asked a child with ten years of scorn
so sharp in his voice that it ricocheted around the house.
I burned the blankety
blank grilled cheese. That’s what that smell is. The words bounced in my
mind, silent and light but very present. I didn’t explain aloud because he came
into the kitchen to see for himself.
He peered into the smoking skillet that cradled the black
square. “How is that even possible?” His face was tight, his nose pinched. The
disgust! The horror!
I looked into the skillet with faux shock, getting my drama
on. “Blasted sparkly clouds! I burned the grilled cheese!”
It just came out. It was so appropriate for the moment. You
see, this child does not approve of a drama mama. He never has, and the vast
majority of the time, I oblige, providing him with the steady, calm, serious
mother he prefers me to be. It’s not that out-of-character for me anyway. Er,
not totally. But no cook needs a repulsed critic. After all, accidents and
distractions happen to the best of us.
He scrunched up his face at my theatrical response and
backed away. He paused in the doorway of the kitchen. “Do we even have more
bread?”
Oh. Crap. I was supposed to go to the grocery.
“Blasted sparkly clouds! I forgot to get the bread!”
And poof! A curse is born.
Enchanter’s Echo
Mayflower Mages
Book Two
Anise Rae
Genre: Paranormal romance
Publisher: Kensington/Lyrical
Date of Publication: February 17, 2015
ISBN: 9781616505394
ASIN: B00PP2ZX8M
Number of pages: 270
Word Count: 99,685
Book Description:
Aurora Firenze lives a quiet life hiding in a junkyard. Her repair shop is the last hope for gadgets and gizmos before they get tossed onto the trash towers. Fortunately, Aurora can fix almost anything, including mages, though repairing people with metal enchantments is highly illegal.
Edmund Rallis, heir to the Rallis senate seat, has spent months hunting down his errant enchantress. He’ll play every game he knows to win her back and entice her to share the secrets she hides. But he’s inadvertently put her on the frontlines of a new game, one with an opponent who’s determined to destroy Rallis Territory and drive the Republic toward war. If the new enemy isn’t stopped in time, Edmund will lose his enchantress again—and this time there won’t be another chance.
Available at Amazon BN Kobo iTunes
Excerpt:
The keep-out
spell awoke at her approach. The enchanted mesh of vines and branches that
blocked the entrance to Rallis Territory’s forbidden forest vibrated in welcome
as its creator returned. Aurora Firenze cast her vibes along the perimeter of
her spell, testing and prodding. Its strength resonated back. It was as strong
as it had been six months ago when she’d created it and hid her secrets within
the forest’s depths. She let go of a relieved breath, but it didn’t cure her
tension.
Her nerves were
strung tight, as if she’d spent hours placating customers in her repair shop.
But the day had been quiet. She’d even made decent progress—fixing a curling
iron with a too-hot heating spell and a stapler that had a bad habit of chasing
the boss around the conference table. Yet a restlessness itched at her skin
with an unpleasant persistence. She’d closed up early and headed out for the
short walk to the forest. Within its heart, she’d find the peace to wash away
this unease.
She sent another
stream of vibes into the keep-out spell. A discreet doorway formed. With a
quick glance around the barren field and the junkyard behind her, she stepped
beneath her illegal spell.
As she brushed
against the branches, a faint thump sounded at her feet—the soft crash of a
pinecone or a weak branch falling to the ground. A normal forest noise. She
flinched anyway. Her glitter puffed around her in an anxious cloud as her mage
energy escaped her control. It was the fifth time today. Enchantresses did not
make good criminals. She should probably let the other three in existence know,
in case they were considering lives of crime. Those blasted sparkly clouds
would blow their covers wide open.
She lifted her
foot to continue into the small forest that was tucked inside the territory’s
capital city, but stopped. A proper lawbreaker should investigate mysterious
noises outside her lair. She turned and scanned the ground for the culprit. A
gold coin glinted in the crisp weeds. That wasn’t normal. She reached to pick
it up, scanning the field and the junkyard beyond with a twitchy gaze. Empty.
She was alone.
Behind her, the
forest shuttered closed, nearly catching her in its fortress wall. She jumped
forward with a surprised lurch at the swat of vines and twigs. A basic rule of
illegal enchantments: get out of the way or risk being incorporated into the
spell.
Ignoring the
sting of the swat, she stared at the coin. It was tarnished at the edges, a
used-up charm. See-me-not was embossed on its golden surface. She jerked her
head up. A man stood ten paces away. He was tall, broad...beyond familiar.
“Edmund,” she
whispered. A shiver tiptoed across her shoulders like kisses, soft lips that
hid a sharp bite. Her nerves stretched thinner yet, trapped in a battle between
memories of lovers’ frolics and the promise of a dark fate that had just
materialized from thin air.
Behind her, the
forest’s trees rustled with the wind, a warning to retreat, one she dare not
heed. Not until she knew why he’d finally come searching for her. She hadn’t
thought he’d ever come back.
He prowled
forward. “Hello, princess.” Though his words might have held some affection,
nothing of the lover she’d once known appeared in his countenance. He lifted
his left hand to reveal a glowing ball of mage vibes in his palm. His blue eyes
reflected the tiny flashes of energy, and his power snapped in the air like a
miniature electrical storm. The heir to the most powerful territory in the
Republic had quite a steam of anger built up.
Dark hair waved
across his forehead, and little curls peeked out at the edges of his neck.
Though the wind buffeted and pushed at Aurora, winter’s boldness didn’t dare
touch Edmund, not his hair, nor his dark gray suit or scarlet tie.
The hard slope
of his nose matched the sharp lines of his jaw and cheekbones. When he smiled,
he was deadly handsome. At the moment, he was simply deadly.
“Aurora.” He
cast her name through the air and a piece of her soul tumbled away, as if it
might dash toward him and cling like a forlorn, discarded lover. But he hadn’t
discarded her....
“You stand
accused of melding earthen metals to human flesh with an enchantment.”
Her heart
thumped once, hard and loud, and then took off with a sprint, drenching her
veins from head to toe with lightning sharp fright.
Goddess, he’d
found out. How?
Even as she
thought it, he revealed the answer. The glow faded from his ball of energy to
reveal a small metal sphere. Her racing heart shriveled at the sight, pulling
the rest of her organs with it, as if they thought to hide, seeking a chance to
slip past this disaster unnoticed and, perhaps, survive. She shifted her feet
on the ground, unable to resist the fear pumping through her core. Run, her gut
whispered. She couldn’t afford to listen... not with the evidence sitting in
his hand.
The sphere was
heavier than it looked. She knew that. After all, she’d made it...and thought
it long gone. He closed his fingers around it, capturing her fate within his
fist.
“How’d you get
that?” Her fast words shot out, hustling forward before fear, creeping up her
legs with tingles and pricks, stole her voice.
“You ought to be
down on your knees thanking me for confiscating it.” His voice was sharp and
cutting. He sounded like a stranger, his jokes and teasing wit long gone.
“What did you
do? Sneak into the junkyard and pluck his eye from his skull? Has it been
hiding under your pillow for six months?” Not at all where she’d thought it
was. Betrayal jolted through her. “Hardly actions befitting the heir of the
mighty Rallis realm.” Her voice wavered.
“You have no
idea what I’ve done.”
About the Author:
Anise Rae has been reading romance novels since she first discovered her grandmother’s stash of books hidden away in a cabinet. Learning that she wasn’t the only one dreaming about love and magic was a turning point in her life. She started her own stash of books and wrote a few too.
A native of Ohio, Anise long ago moved south, armed with boxes of romance novels and degrees in chemistry and library science. Creating chemistry on the page between two lovers proved to be a lot more fun than working with test tubes in a lab or searching patent databases. She refocused on writing.
Her stories revolve around heroines who dare to stand up to society’s expectations and be true to themselves and heroes with plenty of savvy to fall in love with such brave women.
Anise lives in Atlanta with her two children and a fluffy dog that has an amazing ability to find dirty socks.
For information on future releases and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter at www.aniserae.com
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