Mary Fan

Mary Fan

What is your latest release and what genre is it? The Firedragon (A Flynn Nightsider Tale) – YA dystopia/fantasy

Quick description: Almost a hundred years after supernatural creatures ravaged the earth, the magic-wielding Enchanters rule over the former United States with an iron fist as the totalitarian Triumvirate, keeping the people safe in exchange for their freedom. When fourteen-year-old Aurelia “the Firedragon” Sun is selected to represent the nation in an elite international monster-fighting competition, she hopes to prove to the world that the non-magical, such as herself, are equal to the Enchanters. But she soon realizes that there’s something sinister behind the contest. Before she can uncover the truth, though, she’s pitted against the most dangerous monster known to mankind – a beast no one’s been known to survive.

Brief biography:
Mary Fan is a hopeless dreamer, whose mind insists on spinning tales of “what if.” As a music major in college, she told those stories through compositions. Now, she tells them through books—a habit she began as soon as she could pick up a pencil. And what stories she has! Currently, she has three series in progress: her well-received Jane Colt sci-fi novels (Red Adept Publishing, released 2013), her upcoming Flynn Nightsider YA dystopian fantasies (Glass House Press, 2015), and her recently contracted YA fairytales, Fated Stars (Glass House Press, 2015). Mary would like to think that there are many other novels in her bag, and hopes to prove that to the world as well. And though she’s well on her way, she can’t help dreaming of more.

Mary lives in New Jersey and has a B.A. from Princeton University. When she’s not scheming to create new worlds, she enjoys kickboxing, opera singing, and blogging about everything having to do with books.

Links to buy Mary’s book:
Amazon Worldwide – eBook
Barnes & Noble – eBook

Mary’s promo links:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
Goodreads

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on my new YA high fantasy series, Fated Stars, which is currently under contract with Glass House Press. It takes place in a fantastical world in which enchanted creatures such as unicorns and mermaids dwell alongside humans. The first book, Windborn, tells the tale of an airnymph trapped by dark magicians seeking to steal her powers over the wind. In her struggle to escape, she discovers that there’s far more at stake than her own life. An ancient evil is stirring, one foretold to engulf the entire world in fire.

Mary’s reading recommendation:
Stone & Silt by Harvey Chute, a young adult/children’s book about a half-native girl living in 1800s British Columbia who must clear her father’s name after he’s implicated in a dastardly murder.

Jennifer Ellis

Jennifer Ellis

What is your latest release and what genre is it? My latest release is entitled A Pair of Docks and it is a middle-grade to adult fantasy.

Quick description: Fourteen-year-old Abbey Sinclair likes to spend her afternoons in the physics lab learning about momentum and gravitational pull. But Abbey’s rational scientific mind is put to the test when her older brother, Simon, discovers a mysterious path of stones that allows them, along with Abbey’s twin brother, Caleb, to travel back and forth between their world and what appears to be the future.

But knowing the future is both addictive and useful and Abbey, Caleb, and Simon are not the only ones who are using the stones. They soon realize their lives are in danger from a man known only as Mantis. Abbey, Caleb, and Simon must follow a twisting trail of clues that will lead them from their autistic neighbor, Mark, to a strange professor who claims to know the rules of the stones, and to multiple futures—some of whose inhabitants don’t want to stay put.

It will take all of Abbey’s analytical skills to unravel the secrets of the stones, uncover the threads that tie the futures together, thwart Mantis’s plan, and, most importantly, keep her family alive—now and in the future. For surely witchcraft exists only in storybooks, and quantum physics can explain everything.

A Pair of Docks explores Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the meaning of time, the potential for parallel universes, and the boundary between science and witchcraft. It is the first novel in the Derivatives of Displacement series.

Brief biography:
I live in the mountains of British Columbia where I write, spend too much time on skis of all kinds, and work as an environmental researcher. I write contemporary action-adventure fiction with a dystopic edge for both adults and children. I like math problems, being outside, cats and expensive cheese. Somewhere along the way, I managed to acquire a Ph.D. in geography and two supportive boys who eat lots, are an endless source of amusement, and can out ski me any day of the week.

Links to buy Jennifer’s book:
Amazon Worldwide – eBook and print

Jennifer’s promo links:
I blog randomly but regularly at www.jenniferellis.ca and can also be found on Twitter.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on the second novel in the Derivatives of Displacement series. I am about 20 percent in and am excited to see where Abbey, Caleb, and Simon’s adventures take them. I hope to publish that novel in November 2014. In the meantime, I am also finishing off my romance novel, In the Shadows of the Mosquito Constellation. It is at the editor’s for a copy-edit and then it will be proofreading time. I hope to have it out in April 2014. It has been completely re-written at least six times and has been sitting on my computer since 2007, so I will be glad to finally put it out there and see what people think.

Jennifer’s reading recommendation:
I just finished Bedtime Story by Robert Wiersema. It was a really fun read that for me managed to straddle that difficult position of being both literary and genre.