Books – Page 9 – Jessie Mihalik

Eclipse the Moon Cover Reveal & Snippet!

December 13, 2021 / Author News, Eclipse the Moon, Snippet, Writing

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!!)

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.”

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!

December 3, 2021 / Giveaway, Hunt the Stars, Writing

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. :)

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!

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!

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.
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.
Comments must be on the giveaway blog post on my site (www.jessiemihalik.com). Comments on Facebook, Goodreads, etc. won’t count.
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!

Preorder Signed Copies of Hunt the Stars!

November 15, 2021 / Author News, Hunt the Stars, Writing

We’re less than three months from the release date for Hunt the Stars! Woohoo! If you’d like to get your hands on a signed copy, I have good news for you!

Preorder Hunt the Stars signed books / bookplates from BookPeople, Copper Dog Books, or Mysterious Galaxy, while supplies last.

Three independent bookstores have been kind enough to work with me to get signed books/bookplates into your hands with your preorder! Each one is a little different, so I’m going to go through them one by one.

Important: Please pay careful attention to the ordering instructions on each bookstore’s page! Some of them require you to add notes to your order to get a signed copy, so read carefully. :)

We’ve got stores on both coasts as well as here in TX, so hopefully you’ll find something close to you!

BookPeople is my local indie, which means I can physically go to the store and sign the books. So if you order from BookPeople, you’ll get my signature on the page, no fancy bookplate. I will also personalize the books, so I’ll sign them to you, your cat, your best friend, etc.

Next up, I will sign and personalize up to 100 bookplates for people who order from Copper Dog Books in Beverly, MA. If you’re nearby, go check them out because their bookstore looks so cosy and their selection of SF/F and Romance looks awesome!

And finally, I will sign up to 50 bookplates for Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, CA. They are a specialty SF/F bookstore, and I’ve wanted to visit them forever, but thanks to covid, that is still something for the future. Maybe by the time book three comes out. 😭😭😭

I don’t have a picture of the bookplates yet because I haven’t designed them, but they’ll be pretty, promise. :) And no matter which store you order from, I’m hoping to include some additional swag, like a bookmark and stickers, but those haven’t been ordered yet, either. I should probably get on that because with the way time is flying, it’ll be February before I know it.

And all preorders, including ebooks and library requests, will have the opportunity to get an exclusive, free bonus scene/short story at release. My publisher is still getting the form set up, but I’ll let you know once it’s live!

Finally, the last big news on the signed books front: Hunt the Stars is the March adult pick for The Bookish Box! If you don’t know, The Bookish Box is a subscription service that sends out a book (and other related swag, depending on your subscription level) every month.

Hunt the Stars is the March pick for The Bookish Box

They also do exclusive, custom editions of the books. The Bookish Box version of Hunt the Stars will be a limited edition hardcover, with a custom cover on a two-sided dust jacket and sprayed edges! I will be signing several thousand tip-in pages that will be bound into the book, so they’ll be signed, too!

Please send me many happy thoughts for signing hand strength. I’ve never signed thousands of things before, so it’ll be an adventure, one I hope doesn’t turn out too painful.

You can find more info on The Bookish Box website or on the announcement on Instagram. Unfortunately, because it’s a subscription service, it’s not quite as easy as preordering a book at one of the bookstores above.

The Bookish Box Adult Book subscriptions are currently sold out, but they’re supposed to be adding more later this month for books in January. If you just want a spot for March, you’ll have to pay attention to the site or sign up for their newsletter. Also, be aware they are facing the same shipping / supply chain challenges as everyone else, so you may not end up getting the book until April or later.

If I get more information, I’ll be sure to share it!

Friday Fun: Hunt the Stars Character Quiz

November 12, 2021 / Fun, Hunt the Stars

Want to join the crew? Take the automated personality assessment and find out which Starlight's Shadow Bounty Hunter you are! Preorder HUNT THE STARS, out Feb 1, 2022!

Have you always wanted to explore the stars as part of a close-knit crew of badass bounty hunters? Well, then, I have the quiz for you! Head over the the quiz page and find out which crew member of Starlight’s Shadow you’d be!

Let me know your results in the comments, and feel free to share on social media. :) I spent waaaay too long putting this together, but I enjoyed setting up all the questions and answers for the characters, so I hope it makes your Friday afternoon a little more fun!

Hunt the Stars Snippet, Take Two

November 2, 2021 / Hunt the Stars, Snippet, Writing

Let’s try this again! Turns out, I’d shared yesterday’s snippet before (thanks to LucyQ for the catch!), which is what I get for trying to blog while the A/C people were in and out of the house, asking questions and taking over the office.

But now all of our duct work is now done, and hopefully our office will no longer be a sauna in the summer. Of course, it’ll probably be next summer before we find out if it worked, but if nothing else, we have a new, highly efficient air conditioner with a fancy allergen filter. Maybe cedar season won’t be so miserable this year.

Enjoy the new snippet, and if you’d like to preorder, I’ve left some handy links below. :)

The door to the garden slid open, and Torran made a soft sound of surprise. “This is the garden,” I said. “Keep an eye out for Luna. She likes to hang out in the corner.” I waved to the back corner with the little green arbor.

When Torran didn’t say anything, I turned around. His face was alight with something like longing before he caught me looking and wiped the expression away. “This reminds me of home,” he said simply.

I wavered, torn, then my damn traitorous heart made the decision for me. I knew longing. “Come on, it gets better.”

I led him to the arbor and gently swept aside the hanging vines. Luna was on her perch, curled into a ball with her nose tucked under her tail. Apparently she thought a nap in the greenery was better than a tour with Kee. The burbu opened one sleepy eye and chirped at me. “Go back to sleep,” I said softly. “We’re just going to be here for a minute.”

Torran stood frozen behind me, so I pointed at one of the chairs. “Sit there and relax while I gather some herbs. It helps.”

He folded his long frame into the low chair and for the first time, I saw some of the tension drain out of him. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes. When he wasn’t busy glaring at everything, he really was beautifully built. I let the vine curtain fall closed before my wayward thoughts got me in trouble.

Normally, gathering basil was super quick, but I puttered around the garden for ten minutes before harvesting what I needed. I returned to the arbor and peeked inside. Torran had slouched down in the chair and Luna was curled up on his chest, purring, while he gently stroked her with one hand.

A riot of emotions clamored through my system.

Sprawled in the chair like an indolent king with his distinctive Valovian eyes closed, he looked like a heartbreakingly handsome man who had been conjured from the ether specifically for me. And the illusion didn’t shatter as much as I thought it would when he cracked one eye, his expression as open as I’d ever seen it. “Finished?”

…

Hunt the Stars Snippet, Take TwoRead More »