Guest Blog by Faith Hunter and Review of Broken Soul and a Giveaway - September 12, 2014

Please welcome Faith Hunter to The Qwillery!

Beast for a Day

I have been asked by fans, a time or two, what I would do if I, the writer of the Skinwalker series, could turn into Beast for a day. Oh…my…(writer’s evil grin)

I should start by explaining a bit about the Skinwalker series. Try on for size a multi-book series about a character who started out as a five year old child, one who happened to be a Cherokee skinwalker, on the Trail of Tears, something like 180 years ago. The child was forced into her most common animal form—by her grandmother—and shoved out into the snow to live or die. The old woman was really trying to save her granddaughter’s life, to give her a fighting chance, but the action inadvertently resulted in the child accidentally doing black magic when her life was in danger, and she pulled the soul of a mountain lion into her body with her.

Now, speed ahead some 180 (plus) years, in current time New Orleans, where Jane Yellowrock is all grown up, a lean, toned six-foot- tall, golden-skinned woman, the only two-souled creature in existence. She rides a Harley (most of the time), has hip-length hair, and the amber-gold eyes of her species. And … She kills rogue-vampires for a living.

Jane’s Beast is her most common form, one she needs to turn into often to keep her other half happy. So, if I—Faith Hunter, writer and torturer of Jane—could be Beast, what would I do?

First thing is eat. Part of the Skinwalker magic system allows Jane to shift from one form to another and it has to get power from somewhere. In Jane’s case, it’s from her own calorie intake or body mass. She tends to lose weight (a lot of weight) if she changes from one form to another without eating. So after I change, I eat, hopefully a stack of steaks I have prepared, cooked the way I like them, not the way Beast likes them—still kicking. Just ick. Then I would take look at that magic system and see if I can bottle it because I have a few pounds I’d love to lose permanently. Also, I’d make a fortune if I could sell it, you know?

Second, I’d find a mountain to leap down, just for the rush. Mountain lions can leap down a 40 to 50 foot cliff easily. That would be much better than any rollercoaster. At the bottom (after the third or fourth leap) I’d sharpen my claws on a handy tree. Then I’d track down Leo Pellissier and give him a few scars to carry into his vampiric future. He did, after all, totally dis Jane Yellowrock not so long ago. He needs to come down a peg or two.

Then I’d lie in the sun on a rock and snooze, because that’s what cats do, right? Snooze in the sun? Yeah. And by then it would be nightfall and I’d have to come back into my own, slightly pudgy, short body, and just hope that the bottle blond hair holds its color.

Hope you like the series, and the newest book, BROKEN SOUL by Faith Hunter.

Broken Soul
Jane Yellowrock 8
Roc, October 7, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
Review Copy: Provided by the Publisher

Jane Yellowrock is a vampire killer for hire—but other creatures of the night still need to watch their backs….

When the Master of the city of New Orleans asks Jane to improve security for a future visit from a delegation of European vampires, she names an exorbitant price—and Leo is willing to pay. That’s because the European vamps want Leo’s territory, and he knows that he needs Jane to prevent a total bloodbath. Leo, however, doesn’t mention how this new job will change Jane’s life or the danger it will bring her and her team.

Jane has more to worry about than some greedy vampires. There’s a vicious creature stalking the streets of New Orleans, and its agenda seems to be ripping Leo and her to pieces. Now Jane just has to figure out how to kill something she can’t even see….

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Doreen's Thoughts

Faith Hunter has created a kick-ass heroine in Jane Yellowrock, a shape-shifter skinwalker who also hunts vampires and other supernatural creatures. In her eighth novel about Jane, Hunter continues to introduce different paranormal beings from a variety of mythologies. This time, Jane uncovers the mysteries behind Soul, another character that was introduced several books ago.

At this point in the novels, not a lot of time has passed since Jane first came to New Orleans and began working for the head vampire of the southern states, Leo. As mentioned in the last book, the European vampires, or Mithrans, are sending a delegation to meet with Leo and key members of the American vampires. Leo suspects that the meeting will lead to a battle to take over his territory, and he is willing to pay anything for Jane’s assistance.

As Jane and her comrades prepare for the visit, Leo’s home base is attacked by some mysterious creature that may or may not be associated with a pair of renegade European vampires and their human servant. This small group appears to be searching for mystical objects of power, some of which may be in Jane’s possession as well as Leo’s. Jane reaches out to one of her friends, the Federal agent Soul, to try to find more information on the creature.

In addition to the action that always occurs in her stories, Hunter focuses on Jane’s relationships. As an orphan since the 1800s, Jane has created her own family with former Ranger Eli and his brother, Alex the Kid, as well as the company Yellowrock Securities. After spending the last two books grieving for her prior relationship, Jane is now being courted by Leo’s former Primo servant, George. George is almost as old as Jane is herself, and as a vampire’s servant and now Onario, he no longer is altogether human. I really enjoy how his courting actions seemed to unsettle Jane, since they are so different from what she expects but fit her perfectly.

However, the main focus of the book is Jane’s association with Leo, the vampire master. He now is aware that she is a skinwalker and continues to push her into a closer relationship than she finds comfortable. She still is angry about Leo forcing her to submit to him feeding on her blood and resists any more bonds between them. What that means for her status in New Orleans is never fully resolved.

That is one of the things I enjoy most about Hunter’s novels. She sets up incidents and hints of things to come several books in advance and then builds upon those. Rather than feeling unsatisfied, the reader is thoroughly engaged in remembering those earlier clues and eager to see where Hunter will lead. As mentioned, her books never cover a significant amount of time in Jane’s world, and I am always hungry for the next one.

About Faith

New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter writes dark urban fantasy and paranormal urban thrillers.

Her long-running, bestselling, Skinwalker series features Jane Yellowrock, a hunter of rogue-vampires. Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series features Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality. She has a new paranormal crime solving series featuring Nell Nicholson Ingram, who can siphon away the magic of others, to be released in late 2015.

Under the pen name Gwen Hunter, she has written action adventure, mysteries, thrillers, women’s fiction, a medical thriller series, and even historical religious fiction. As Gwen, she is a winner of the WH Smith Literary Award for Fresh Talent in 1995 in the UK, and won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award in 2008. Under all her pen names, she has over 30 books in print in 29 countries.

Faith Hunter writes full-time, and is a workaholic with a passion for jewelry making, white-water kayaking, travel, all which appear in and are used in her novels. She gave up cooking for lent one year and the oven stayed turned off for so long that it refused to come back on and had to be replaced, but she is having a hankering for homemade bread, and is considering getting back to baking in her remodeled kitchen. Occasionally, she remembers to sleep. The jewelry she makes and wears is often given as promo items to fans who come to her signings, and is used as prizes in contests. She and her husband love to RV, traveling with their rescued Pomeranians to whitewater rivers all over the Southeast. (The poms don’t whitewater. The pampered dogs stay in the RV in lazy, air-conditioned comfort!)

Faith is a founding member of MagicalWords, a writing forum at www.magicalwords.net geared to helping writers of fantasy and other genres.

For more, including a list of her books, see www.faithhunter.net , www.gwenhunter.com and www.magicalwords.net. To keep with her, join her fan pages at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/official.faith.hunter

The Giveaway

What:  One entrant will win a Mass Market Paperback copy of Broken Soul (Jane Yellowrock 8) by Faith Hunter from the publisher. US ONLY

How:   Log into and follow the directions in the Rafflecopter below.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a US mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59 PM US Eastern Time on September 20, 2014. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

*Giveaway rules and duration are subject to change at any time without notice*

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