Title: Serena’s Fall
Author: MK Smith
Published: August 4th, 2015
Publisher: Champagne Books
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content Warning: Minor language
Recommended Age: 14+
Synopsis
Betrayed by her once-upon-a-naive-time friends, Serena, the last Water Fey, can’t touch any man she would ever want without dooming him to a hero’s brutal death. So she lives outcast among her own kind, caring for orphaned Fey children, casualties of an ancient war that broke magic and doomed the Fey to possible extinction.
Now her friends are back, desperate to use her powers to stop the return of the greatest evil the Fey have ever faced. Prophesy says if she doesn’t magic-up a hero and bond him to a mysterious, mystical sword, the human world will be the next to fall.
Two potential heroes surface—Lance, the free spirited surfer, and the doomed warrior Gramm. Both men want her, both need her, and both have a claim to her heart.
But Serena’s tired of human heroes dying because some Water Fey said so. With her combat boots strung tight and her corset even tighter, maybe it’s time to weave some new lines of destiny. Goth style.
Excerpt from Serena’s Fall by MK Smith
I couldn’t stand still. I paced alongside the boxes and ran my nails down the cardboard. If I were a cat, my hair would have stood on end, and my tail would have twitched.
Chloe said nothing. Her eyes darted between Rachel’s and mine but couldn’t find a place to land.
I waited for her to say something brilliant, but I didn’t expect anything would make me want to be part of her Alice in Wonderland insanity. This was Morían. Morían Le Fey. The walking genocide who painted the White Isle in blood, broke the flow of magic, and decimated every Fey clan this side of the veil in a single night—oh, and started a war that killed millions of humans.
Sure, we’ll handle her.
Heat radiated out from my core, and my skin tingled as if I were breaking out in a cold sweat. But Water Fey didn’t sweat. I tugged at my corset and wished I had laced tighter. We didn’t stand a single chance in all the nine hells at fighting one of the most powerful Fey in history.
“Well, I’m listening. But this is beyond crazy. We’re eighteen years old, not one hundred eighty. We’re barely old enough to even have powers by Fey standards. And the Incarnates, the most powerful Fey from each clan, who stopped her last time were thousands of years old.” I hoped I wasn’t sneering too loud.
Rachel ignored me and threw her best you’re wasting my time look at Chloe. “So, where is she staging her comeback?” Her tone said she wasn’t expecting much of an answer.
“The vision’s…complicated.” Chloe focused on Rachel, with less naked hostility, but her voice rose sharply. She chewed her bottom lip. Complicated my ass. She was hiding something.
“So you don’t know.” Rachel went right for the kill. “Was it even your vision?”
Chloe stomped her right foot. “Yes. It was.”
The proximity alarm sounded in my head. Crash imminent, I decided to speed it up so I could go home. Chloe’s moment to take the lead had passed. If she had straight answers she would have spoken up by now. She had to be hoping we could roll back to the days when—details irrelevant—we’d have done anything for each other.
Those days were gone.
About the Author
MK Smith writes urban fantasy with attitude, telling stories filled with quirky imperfect characters trying to survive life, friendship, and each other. Part Choctaw, all storyteller, a neighbor taught him to love fantasy when she gave him his first book. Since then he has flown on dragons, carried baleful magic in faraway lands, fought supernatural powers, and lived the melancholy of the eternal elves. But the Fey are closest to his heart. And he loves telling their stories round the fire or at his keyboard late into the night. And he’ll keep telling those stories until he becomes a story himself.
Author Interviews
Where’s home for you?
My
home is wherever I can brew coffee, enjoy time with family and friends, and
write. Mostly I live in the North Texas, but I spend a great deal of time on
the coast and in the mountains.
I
know it sounds a little vague, but I’ve seen my share of good and bad times and
I’ve learned that home is where you can enjoy the simple private things that
make your own life worth living. Add to that people who know you, smile when
you come up the walk, and genuinely welcome you inside—and you have all the
home you need.
I’ve
known billionaires who had less.
What’s the most valuable thing you’ve
learned?
When
I learned how to be a good friend, I learned how to be my authentic self.
What is your most embarrassing moment?
So
many to choose from…a few months ago some friends came over to help me lay wood
flooring in my gameroom. Less than 5 minutes after they arrived I slid on a
small plush toy, went airborne, and hit my head against the wall. Half stunned
I had to be helped onto a bed, and I lay there wondering if I had a concussion.
So I picked a number over 100 at random, 127, and tried to factor it in my
head. Well 127 is a prime number so it has no factors other than itself and 1.
But since I couldn’t do the math, I became convinced I had a concussion so I
lay still, and an ambulance was called.
Meanwhile
my friends kept putting in floor. By the time everything had been sorted out my
floor was installed, and I was ruled concussion free and a major geek.
What’s your favorite line from a book?
I
know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it
laughing.
Are any of your characters inspired by
real people?
Absolutely,
while most of my characters are a collection of different people, some of them
are strongly inspired. For example, Amanda is a combination of one of my
elementary teachers and one of my mother’s close friends. While Chloe is equal
parts one of my children and my mother’s free spirit—particularly in her wild
teen years.
Do you have a routine for writing?
Yes,
I’ve had to put some serious discipline in place to manage the juggling act of
my media presence and my writing. Ideally, I’m up early and do all my social
media and email. Then I slip into the kitchen and knockout breakfast. Once
breakfast is done, and everyone else is out the door, I take coffee or tea and
put on my headphones. Once the headphones are on, I’m writing for 4-5 hours
minimum before I stop to catch up on mid-day media. Then the afternoon is a key
time for me to edit other people’s work and get in some down time before
everyone gets home.
Where and when do you prefer to do your
writing?
I
prefer to write in the morning or late evening, but morning writing is usually
my most productive. Physically I have a space that I created to be my own when
I write. I like polished wood and so I write on an antique table from Thailand
with a multi monitor setup: one screen for my work in progress, and another for
writing references like google to fact check and an online thesaurus to use when
my software tells me the same word is showing up too often in a chapter.
What’s the best compliment you’ve ever
received about your writing?
“I
couldn’t put it down.” Seriously, I know that is a cliché but the effect on an
author of hearing those words is powerful. For someone to appreciate what you
have written so much that they stayed up late to finish is a thrill that sinks
into my soul.
What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had
to write?
The
cabin scene between Rachel and Serena. Rachel needs Serena to open her end of a
magic bond that connected them when they were thirteen. But that bond led to
Rane, Serena’s boyfriend, dying. In the cabin they are contending for dominance,
arguing over guilt and innocence, and making decisions about who they want to
be relative to each other. And for much of the spoken conversation many issues
are indirect. So I also had to juggle keeping the words in contact with the
meaning of what the girls are really discussing.
As a
writer, I find weaving that kind of multilayered tension is a far greater
challenge than crafting an alien world or a magical duel.
What are you working on now?
I
edit for other authors in many genres: romance from sweet to high heat, Scifi,
Dystopian, children’s books, and, of course, Urban Fantasy.
Personally, I am currently working on a series
romance project with an amazing author. The sequel to Serena’s Fall, and a YA
fantasy about a very feisty cat.
Giveaway Details
There is a tour wide giveaway. Prizes include the following
A $50 Amazon gift card.
Giveaway is International.
