Jessie Mihalik

Interview with Shelf Addiction

October 7, 2019 / Author News, Books, Writing

Thank you so much for making Aurora Blazing’s release week awesome! I loved hearing from everyone and I’m so glad you’re enjoying the book! It’s always a bit stressful putting a book out into the world for others to judge, but you’ve all been extremely kind. :)

To answer a frequent question: yes, Chaos Reigning will be the final book in The Consortium Rebellion trilogy. Harper Voyager bought three books and my contract is complete at book three. They are indicating they would like to continue working with me (yay!), but on a new series.

For them, it’s a business decision, because unless you are a superstar author, readership falls off for every book in a series, and some readers won’t read a series at all unless it is complete. (Spoiler: I am not a superstar.)

So, while I do have more stories to tell in the Consortium universe, I will very likely work on a new series next, then come back afterwards and add another Consortium arc, probably another trilogy. These may end up being self-published unless the series unexpectedly takes off. But for now, book three will be the final book, and it nicely ties up the series (if I do say so myself 😉), so you won’t be dangling from a cliff waiting for the next arc.

And now that I wrote a novel when I meant to write a paragraph, on to the main topic: my interview with Shelf Addiction! Tamara was kind enough to invite me to be a guest on her podcast to talk about Polaris Rising, Aurora Blazing, and writing in general.

Shelf Addiction Podcast presents Book Chat interview with author Jessie Mihalik. Episode 289.

We recorded it a few weeks ago, so sometimes I get my timeline mixed up, but I had such a nice time! And it was my first podcast interview ever!

Hopefully I don’t sound as nervous as I was. 😅

Thank you so much to Tamara and Shelf Addiction for having me on! You can download it in a podcast app, listen on their site, or listen below. Maybe. If I can get it working. :)

Aurora Blazing is Here!!

October 1, 2019 / Aurora Blazing, Author News, Writing

Celebrate the first day of October with a new book! Aurora Blazing is out in the world today! Happy reading!

Thank you so much to everyone who made this book possible, including everyone who read the first book, the incredible team at Harper Voyager, and my lovely agent. I still can’t believe that I get to make up stories for a living. :)

I hope you all enjoy Bianca and Ian’s story! And book three comes out in May, so not too long to wait. :)

To save her brother and protect her family’s future, a powerful princess must join forces with a dashing man from her past in this thrilling space adventure, the second novel in the Consortium Rebellion trilogy.

As the dutiful daughter of High House von Hasenberg, Bianca set aside her personal feelings and agreed to a political match arranged by her family, only to end up trapped in a loveless, miserable marriage. When her husband unexpectedly dies, Bianca vows never to wed again. Newly independent, she secretly uses her wealth and influence to save other women stuck in dire circumstances. Information is power and Bianca has a network of allies and spies that would be the envy of the ’verse—if anyone knew about it.

When her family’s House is mysteriously attacked, Bianca’s oldest brother, the heir to House von Hasenberg, disappears. Fearful for her brother’s life, the headstrong Bianca defies her father and leaves Earth to save him. Ian Bishop, the director of House von Hasenberg security—and Bianca’s first love—is ordered to find and retrieve the rebellious woman.

Ian is the last man Bianca wants to see. To evade capture, she leads him on a merry chase across the universe. But when their paths finally collide, she knows she must persuade him to help her. Bianca will do anything to save her sibling, even if it means spending time alone on a small ship with the handsome, infuriating man who once broke her heart.

As the search takes them deep into rival House Rockhurst territory, Bianca must decide if she can trust Ian with the one piece of information that could destroy her completely . . .

First Night in Our New House and Other News

September 29, 2019 / Aurora Blazing, Life, Writing

Last night we stayed in our new house, even though we’re not even close to moved yet. We busted out our camping air mattress and folding camp chairs and had a sleepover. The old owners left us a TV, and we got the internet connected, so after we finished working, we kicked back and watched some game streaming while drinking wine. It was awesome. :)

The new backyard is so nice! This is our view from the kitchen:

A view of cedar trees and no houses because we back to a green space.

For reference, right now I’m sitting on the couch at our old house and I can see four houses out the back window, so the view above is a big improvement. :)

We got all of the locks changed, which always takes far longer than we expect. Next, we have to decide on flooring, which we’ve narrowed down to a couple of shades of hardwood. Picking an entire floor from a small sample is always difficult, because it’s hard to imagine what the whole area is going to look like once it’s done. Fingers crossed we choose wisely!

In bookish news, last Friday, Bree and Donna (the two halves of Kit Rocha), invited me to join them on their Twitch stream to talk about books and space princesses and romance. If you missed the live stream, you can still watch the video in the archive. I had such a nice time and I am absolutely delighted they had me on! Plus, we’re officially BFFs now, and I have video proof, so there’s that. ;) Follow their channel for more bookish chats, including last month’s chat with Alyssa Cole.

And finally, we’re just a couple days away from the release of Aurora Blazing! If you missed it, I posted the third chapter on Friday, so head over to the book page to get a preview. And now is your last chance to get your preorders and library requests in! Thank you so much to everyone who has already ordered or requested, you all are amazing and I appreciate it so, so much! ❤️

We’re Buying a House!

September 12, 2019 / Life

Things have been a bit quiet around here because last week, rather than taking the vacation we were sort of planning, we put an offer on a new house. We’ve been looking for a long time, but the neighborhoods we’ve been eyeing have relatively low turnover, so when something comes up, you have to jump on it.

We jumped.

And we succeeded! But that means paperwork and inspections and appraisals and packing and cleaning and …

You get the point.

And because I didn’t feel like we had quite enough going on this month and next, our closing is the week Aurora Blazing comes out. 😂😭

Needless to say, I’m going to try to get some of my promo stuff done and scheduled before October 1. We’ll see how successful I’m going to be, because right now I look around at everything that needs to be done, both personally and professionally, and just want to hide in a corner with a book.

Maybe a whole stack of books. And some tea. And a blankie. :)

As always, if you want to keep up with me, Twitter is where I’m most active. Just be prepared for lots of whining this month as I try to stay on top of everything. :)

Aurora Blazing ARC Winners and Chapter Two!

September 2, 2019 / Aurora Blazing, Books, Giveaway, Writing

Thank you so much to everyone who entered to win an ARC of Aurora Blazing! I read all of your comments and loved seeing how you spent your summer/winter. :)

I can’t believe we’re less than a month away from release! Just four weeks from tomorrow! Ahhh! I’ve updated the site’s main page with a countdown timer, so you can see exactly how long you have left to wait. :)

And because so many of you entered, I snagged a couple of extra ARCs from the shipment Voyager sent me for the signing (shhhh!), so I’m giving away five copies!

Without further ado, here are the five winners, chosen by random number. Please check the links to ensure you’re the right person, because some of you had the same name. :)

#7 – Johanna M Dobbs
#59 – Maria
#138 – Mel
#112 – Jeanette
#67 – Mary Sterling-Torretti

WINNERS: Send me an email at [MY_LAST_NAME]writes @ gmail.com with the subject ARC Winner. Replace [MY_LAST_NAME] with my actual last name. :) Or you can use the contact form.

If you didn’t win, take heart, I’ve got something for you, too: you can read Chapter Two right now over on the book page! And if you’re in the US, you have one more chance to win a copy on Goodreads, courtesy of my publisher.

Also, Polaris Rising, is on sale this month for $1.99, so if you don’t already own it, you can snag it for a deal!

And if you’re excited about AB, now is an excellent time to get your preorder in. :)