December 2021

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

A pecan pie in a red, ruffled, ceramic pie pan.

We’re having a very relaxed Christmas, just me and Mr. M, so we’re spending the day playing video games in our pajamas. Our factory in Satisfactory is reaching epic proportions. 🎉

I didn’t really do any holiday baking this year, but I did make a pecan pie in my new pie pan because I didn’t want next Thanksgiving to be the trial run. :) Overall, it turned out okay, but I need to work on the crust edges a bit. The ruffled pan makes for pretty edges, but I made them a little too thick. Overall, though, it cooked beautifully, so win!

I hope your holiday (or your Saturday) was excellent, and I wish you all the best for the New Year. I’ll probably be scarce for the next week or so, but as soon as January hits, we’ll only be ONE MONTH from the release of Hunt the Stars, so expect some more promo. :)

Happy holidays!

Hunt the Stars ARC Winners & Chapter Two!

Hunt the Stars ARC Winners! Available Feb 1, 2022, preorder now! www.jessiemihalik.com/blog

Thank you all so much for your comments! I read every one, and it was such a joy to celebrate the wins this year, both big and small. I hope you all have a lovely holiday season and a very happy new year!

The random number generator has spoken, and here are the winners! Please follow the links to ensure it was your comment that was selected, since there were a few duplicate names.

#54 – Katrina Collins
#91 – Melissa Grant
#40 – Belinda
#130 – Ali B
#5 – Gale Miller

WINNERS: Please send me an email at mihalikwrites at gmaildotcom with the subject line ARC Winner. If you’d rather not figure out my SUPER SEKRIT email riddle, you can also use the contact form. Include your name, address, and who you would like me to sign the book to (or if you prefer no inscription). Please use the same email you used to comment.

Everyone else, I’m so sorry you didn’t win, but I’ve put up the second chapter of Hunt the Stars over on the book page to help ease the pain. :)

And if you still need to preorder HTS, I’ve got you covered, too!

Hunt the Stars Cover. A woman with a ponytail and a man with short hair in silhouette in front of a blue background of stars and alien planets.

Preorder now!
BookPeople | Copper Dog Books | Mysterious Galaxy
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Indiebound

Eclipse the Moon Cover Reveal & Snippet!

The cover for Eclipse the Moon is here, and it’s absolutely lovely!! Am I awful to tease you with this when Hunt the Stars isn’t even out yet? Yes. Am I doing it anyway? Also yes. :)

The cover will be going up on retailers soon, and I wanted to ensure you all got the very first peek at it! Behold:

Eclipse the Moon cover, featuring a man and woman in silhouette in front of a purple background with an alien planet.
Click to embiggen

Eclipse the Moon will be out in July of next year, so it’s not too long of a wait after HTS. I’m not putting the cover copy here just in case anyone wants to avoid all spoilers for HTS (they are very generic/minor), but you can find it over on the book page behind a spoiler tag.

If you’d like to get your preorder on, here are some handy links for you. (And thank you!!)

Get your copy!
Signed books from BookPeople
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Google Play | Kobo | Bookshop

Now, for a teensy snippet. This is not at all spoilery for book one, so enjoy this little peek at Kee and Varro!


I checked on the other plants, making sure they were healthy and strong. I talked to them as I worked, telling them how nice it was that they were growing food for us, and how pretty they looked with their green leaves and strong roots. It was mostly happy nonsense, but I’d read an ancient study that said plants did better when they were spoken to, and I tended to anthropomorphize them anyway, so talking to them came naturally.

I noted the tomatoes and other veggies that were ready for harvest and put them into the log so Tavi would know what was available for dinner. If she didn’t harvest them tonight, I would pick them tomorrow and put them in the galley for everyone to enjoy.

By the time I was done, several hours had passed. I hadn’t heard a peep from Varro, so I hoped he had fallen asleep. With nothing else to do, I approached the arbor on soft feet.

Varro’s head was tipped back, his breathing deep and even. I hesitated for a moment, then slipped into the arbor and sank into the chair beside his. I stared at the leafy vines overhead and enjoyed a moment of peace as the sweet smell of honeysuckle drifted around me.

“You talked to the plants,” Varro said, his voice low and rough. I bet he sounded just like that in the morning, sleepy and rumpled after a night in bed.

Heat crept into my cheeks at the imagined visual, and I redirected my thoughts to a safer subject. I peeked at him, but his eyes remained closed, so I went back to staring at the ceiling. “I thought you were asleep.”

“It’s harder to sneak up on me than you might imagine. Your approach was quiet but not that quiet.” After a pause, he added, “But the talking was nice.”

“It’s supposed to help the plants grow better, and it gives me something to do.”

“I enjoyed listening to you. It was soothing.”

I laughed quietly. “Most people would disagree.” I rolled my head toward him with a grin. “Have you considered that you may be part plant?”

“Mmm,” he murmured without opening his eyes, “perhaps that is why I’m drawn to sunshine.”

I glanced at his sun-kissed skin before reminding myself that he wasn’t for me. I purposefully kept my tone light. “Well, it’s hard to get sunshine in a spaceship, but you’re welcome to hang out in here with me for the rest of the week and pretend. If you want, I’ll even babble at you like you’re a plant.”

He slanted a glance at me, his eyes dark and fathomless. “I would enjoy that. Thank you.”

Get your copy!
Signed books from BookPeople
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Google Play | Kobo | Bookshop

And don’t forget, you still have time to enter to win an early copy of Hunt the Stars! See the linked blog post for details. Happy holidays!

Hunt the Stars ARC Giveaway!

Want to read HUNT THE STARS before February 1? Enter to win one of five ARCs! www.jessiemihalik.com/blog

It’s December, and that means we’re less than two months away from the release of Hunt the Stars on February 1! Cue panicked screaming, lol. To celebrate the upcoming release and get in the holiday spirit, I’m giving away five signed ARCs (advance reader copies).

See below for details on how to enter, but first, here’s a message from our sponsor—me! :)

Hunt the Stars Cover. A woman with a ponytail and a man with short hair in silhouette in front of a blue background of stars and alien planets.

The supply chain is kind of a mess right now, so if you want a paper book at release, I strongly suggest preordering it. To help you out, I’ve partnered with three independent bookstores to do signed books / bookplates. See this blog post for full details or just dive in and order from your favorite below!

Signed books / bookplates, while supplies last:
BookPeople | Copper Dog Books | Mysterious Galaxy
Please read the ordering instructions carefully!!!

Is an ebook more your style? Luckily, so far the ether that powers the internet hasn’t run low, but I would still really appreciate a preorder if you’re so inclined. :)

Preorder like it’s hot:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Indiebound


The critically acclaimed author of Polaris Rising takes readers on an exciting journey across the galaxy with the start of her brand-new series about a female bounty hunter and the man who is her sworn enemy.

Octavia Zarola would do anything to keep her tiny, close-knit bounty hunting crew together—even if it means accepting a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and bitter adversary. When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.

There’s just one catch: with so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons—for both anger and desire—she’s endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he’s promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal.

But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife’s edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie—with the quiet Valoff who’s been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. Because this time, her heart is on the line.

Want more? Read the first chapter!

And just in case you missed it the first time, here are those preorder links again… 😉
BookPeople | Copper Dog Books | Mysterious Galaxy
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Indiebound


My publisher is also running a new Goodreads giveaway this month, so if you’d like to increase your odds of reading the book early, you can hop over there and enter!

And now, what you’re all here for!

To enter to win an ARC, here are the rules. Please read them all! Incomplete entries will be ignored.
Update: Entries are now closed. Winners will be announced soon! Thank you all for participating!

  1. The entry period starts now and ends on December 17, 2021 at noon CST. You must be eighteen or older. Open to US and international readers. Void where prohibited.
  2. Leave ONE top-level comment (i.e., not a reply to another comment) below and tell me something positive about 2021 or something you’re proud you accomplished this year. Let’s celebrate the end of the year with some positives, because I don’t know about you, but I could certainly use some cheer. :)
    1. ALSO INCLUDE whether you are in the US or International. Shipping costs are out of control right now, so I’m limiting it to a max of two international winners. I will still pick by random number, but if two international comments have already been chosen, I’ll keep generating numbers until I hit a US comment. This means there may be zero, one, or two international winners, depending on how the RNG rolls. Good luck!
    2. Duplicate top-level comments will be deleted. You are welcome to reply to other comments, though, because those won’t count as entries.
  3. Comments must be on the giveaway blog post on my site (www.jessiemihalik.com). Comments on Facebook, Goodreads, etc. won’t count.
  4. Come back after December 17 and see if you’ve won! Five winners will be picked by random number and must claim their book. Instructions will be included in the winning post.

I’ll start: I wrote and edited Eclipse the Moon this year (and I’m in the US, just for completeness sake). Writing has been super difficult all through the pandemic, so I’m proud that I wrote a book that I love this year! And 2021 brought us COVID-19 vaccines, so I’m very happy about that, too. :)

Oh, and I’m far too happy about this quick little quiz I made that tells you which Starlight’s Shadow crew member you’d be, so while you wait to see if you won, why don’t you mosey over there and check it out?

Happy holidays!