Life – Jessie Mihalik

April 29, 2019

Aurora Blazing Chapter One

TL;DR: The first chapter of Aurora Blazing. Happy reading! :)

This weekend was a busy one. We saw Endgame on Saturday and it was awesome. I highly recommend it. We’ll have to chat about it in a few weeks after everyone has a chance to see it, so DO NOT SPOILER IT.

If you drop spoilers in the comments, I’ll remove them and put you in moderation until you prove you can be trusted. I managed to see it spoiler-free and everyone should have that chance. If you want spoilers, I’m sure you can find them elsewhere. :)

I also made it through the first pass on my copyedits for Aurora Blazing this weekend. Yesterday was a marathon of over twenty chapters. My brain is mush.

If you mosey over to the book page, you’ll find the first chapter and preorder links. It comes out in October, and I would love for you to preorder it if you are able. Preorder numbers are super helpful!

It always surprises me just how many mistakes are in my manuscripts. I feel like I turn out fairly clean drafts, but there’s nothing like a copyeditor to take your ego down a peg or seventy.

Last night we watched Game of Thrones, and this season has decided to bring it. I can’t believe it’s going to be wrapped up in just three more episodes. I’m still waiting for the Red-Wedding-esque other shoe to drop. If anything, this show has taught me not to care for anyone too deeply, but I did cheer when [SPOILER] [SPOILERED]. :)

This week, I have edits for The Queen’s Advantage on deck. I also need to be adding words to book three at a high velocity. Once book three is done, I’m taking a month off to binge books, play video games, and lie on the sofa. Or so I tell myself. :)

April 5, 2019

The Spider and Other News

Every few months, a giant spider appears in our living room. Giant is a relative term, and in this case it’s about the size of a quarter, which isn’t exactly a tarantula, but it’s big enough compared to the teensy spiders we usually get.

This spider almost always appears in the same place, right in the middle of our wooden floor, and never, not once, have I ever caught it walking to or from that location. I have no idea where it comes from, how it gets in, or how it crosses five feet of open floor without me noticing.

I also have no idea why it always picks the same place to lie in wait.

I think I’m being hunted by a ninja spider and all of its descendants, bent on revenge.

And now I’ve typed spider enough times that it no longer looks like a real word, so enough of that. :)

In other news, I wrote a little blog post on science fiction romance for Fantasy Cafe’s Women in SF&F Month, so you can mosey over there if you want to read my ramble about why people should be reading cross-genre books.

I also did a back alley book trade with Kit Rocha, where I sent Bree Aurora Blazing and she sent me Deal With The Devil, their first Mercenary Librarians book.

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019

Happy New Year! (Plus Publisher Giveaway!)

I hope your 2019 is off to an excellent start today! My day involved sleeping in after ringing in the new year with friends last night, so I feel like I’m starting off on the right foot. :)

Last week we had an awesome Christmas with our family. My husband and I grew up in the same small town and our parents still live there, so the holidays are pretty easy for us because we can see both sets of parents at the same time.

My brother was in town, too, so I got to spend time with my nephews. At 3 and 5 they are utterly adorable (and inexhaustible). We spent a day at an amusement park and their tiny little legs held out for longer than mine. :)

Mr. Mihalik and Nephew 1
Nephew 2 and the Abominable Snowman

The week went by so fast, I can’t believe we’re already to New Year’s Day. And just a tiny bit over a month away from the release date of Polaris Rising. Cue panicked running and screaming.

I’m still planning to give away another set of ARCs in a week or two, but my publisher, Harper Voyager, is currently giving away 15 copies over on their Facebook page.

You don’t need a Facebook account (it links to a non-FB page), but it’s US only and ends 1/7 at noon EST. Head over to check it out and read the rest of the rules. If you do have a FB account, you might drop a like or follow on Harper Voyager’s page in thanks. :)

How was your holiday/new year?

December 17, 2018December 17, 2018

Dear Evan Hansen

This past weekend, my best friend and I took a flash trip to New York City. We did an afternoon of touristy stuff, including Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Rockefeller Christmas tree. We were not the only tourists in town, because holy moly there were a lot of people.

At one point we were in an unmoving mass of humanity stuck across the street from Saks. At least there were fun lights to look at while we were being slowly crushed to death by the mob.

Finally, one brave soul forged a path out and we followed like lemmings. Freedom!

November 22, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving today had a wonderful day filled with food and happiness. If today isn’t your Thanksgiving, then I hope you had an excellent Thursday. :)

I’m thankful for so many things this year: family, friends, health, prosperity, and so much more. I’m thankful for all of you who have read TQG or are waiting for PR to come out. I’m thankful that I get to do a job I love. I’m thankful that I have an awesome agent who always has my back. Really, I am very blessed, both personally and professionally.

I’m also fortunate to have a dear best friend who invites us to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family every year. We spent the day cooking and drinking mimosas, which, let’s be honest, is a fabulous way to spend a day. It was a small group this year, just five of us. But because we do Thanksgiving right, we had three pies—pecan, pumpkin, and apple.

I made my grandmother’s pecan pie and it turned out delicious if not beautiful (the story of my pie making).

We also had enough food that everyone took home leftovers for Thanksgiving 2 tomorrow. The menu consisted of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, bread, fruit salad, ambrosia salad, amaretto green beans, and cranberry salad.

Pretty much the entirety of my favorite Thanksgiving foods were represented here. I did miss my mom’s baked beans, but I think I’m the only person in the group who likes beans. And we already had enough food to feed an army.

Now we’re going to hunker down and hide from the Black Friday crowds. :)

How was your day?