Jessie Mihalik

Capture the Sun ARC Giveaway!

May 18, 2023 / Capture the Sun, Events, Giveaway, Writing

I can hardly believe it, but we’re just about a month away from the release of Capture the Sun on June 20! It seemed like a few of you might be up for an event, so I’ll be doing a signing at BookPeople on June 25 at 7:00 PM. I’ll do a short talk about something—probably writing related, but who knows, it’s release week, after all—then there’ll be a Q&A, and I’ll sign/personalize books.

I might also read a scene or two, but with the way I get nervous about public speaking, it might sound like an audiobook set on 2x speed. 🙈

I hope I’ll see you there, but if you can’t make it, you can still order signed and personalized books from BookPeople!

As you probably know, Capture the Sun didn’t get printed ARCs this time due to costs. But my fabulous editor sent me four bound manuscripts to give away, so you know what that means: ARC GIVEAWAY TIME!

Want to read Capture the Sun before June 20? Enter to win one of four ARCs.

These aren’t the typical prerelease books because they were printed and bound in-house, but there are literally only five of them in the world (that I know about) and you get a chance to win one of four! They may not be quite as nice as a typical printed ARC, but they are super exclusive. Ooooh. :jazz hands:

Also, if you win, you’ll get to read the book early. :)

If you haven’t yet, now is an excellent time to get your preorders and library purchase requests in!

Capture the Sun Cover, featuring a man and woman in silhouette against a fiery orange sun with a futuristic city in the background.

Acclaimed author Jessie Mihalik returns with the thrilling conclusion to her Starlight’s Shadow trilogy. An intergalactic thief must join forces with the charming teleporter who stole her last job—and may now be her only hope for saving her former crew.

As a recovery specialist, Lexi Bowen’s jobs typically require more trickery and thievery than honest work. Her former captain might not approve of her flexible morals, but stealing artifacts for rich assholes pays the bills, and Lexi’s had enough of war and death. The FHP left her to die once; she doesn’t plan to give them a chance to finish the job.

Unfortunately, her latest contract takes her to Valovia itself—and right back into the orbit of Nilo Shoren, a Valovian teleporter who already cost her one payday and nearly stole her heart.

Armored against his clever charm, Lexi plans to get in, get the job done, and get out. But when her former crew goes missing in Valovian space, Lexi will have to work with Nilo to figure out what happened—and stop it—before the galaxy’s two superpowers can use the disappearance as an excuse to return to war.

And now for the giveaway!

~~To enter to win an ARC, please read and follow the rules below. Incomplete entries will be ignored/deleted.~~

Edit: Entries closed and winners announced!

The entry period starts now and ends on May 26, 2023 at noon Central Time. You must be eighteen or older. Open to US and international readers. Void were prohibited.
Leave ONE top-level comment (i.e., not a reply to another comment) below and tell me something you’re looking forward to in the next few months (e.g., a new book or movie, a vacation, or the end of school)! And while I hope you’re all looking forward to CTS, please try to pick something else. :)
1. Duplicate top-level comments will be deleted. You are welcome to reply to other comments, though, because those won’t count as entries.
2. In order to make a top-level comment, scroll to the bottom of the page for the comment box, don’t use “Reply” on another comment or your comment will be a reply.
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 May 26 and see if you’ve won! Four winners will be picked by random number and must actively claim their book. Instructions will be included in the winning post.

Edit: If you don’t see the comment box below, disable your ad/content blockers!

The Taming of the Tea Cabinet

May 5, 2023 / Life

For the past six months or so, I’ve been working my way through the various teas we already own and forcing myself not to buy replacements. I have favorites, and if I buy more of them, they’re all I’ll drink.

And the tea cabinet desperately needed to be cleaned out. There’s a photo in this ancient post, that was taken at our previous house, six years ago, and some of the tea in that picture was still in the current cabinet.

Drastic measures had to be taken.

And while I’m absolutely aware of the sunk cost fallacy, I can’t throw away perfectly good tea that I paid money for, even if I would rather drink something else. Logic has no place here, lol.

I’ve made great progress, emptying four tins, several boxes, and—as of today—a tea sampler that had been in the cabinet for far too long, taking up too much space. Most of the teas have ranged from okay to delicious, but the sampler was on the bottom end of that scale. One tea tasted like alfalfa, and today’s green is very, very grassy. Delicious for some, but not my favorite.

Earl Gray was one of the surprise winners for me. I wasn’t sure I liked Earl Gray tea, but it turns out, I do! Paris, by Harney & Sons, was another favorite, which I already knew, but I finished off the last of our sachets as a reward for working through some of the other teas.

Today the heat index is going to be close to 100°F (~38°C), so the time for hot tea is rapidly drawing to a close. Luckily, a few of the teas I have left will make nice iced tea, so the tea taming train will continue for a while longer.

Even if Harney & Sons sent me an email today about a 20% off sale. Must stay strong, must stay strong… 😂

Do you have something you have too much of and can’t seem to get rid of?

Capture the Sun Event Poll & Snippet

May 2, 2023 / Capture the Sun, Snippet, Writing

Hey all, happy May! We’re just a month and a half away from the release of Capture the Sun, which is exciting and terrifying. My publisher is talking to BookPeople about possibly doing an in-person signing and Q&A in Austin the weekend after the release (June 25), and I need to know how many people might come.

My initial guess of one person is probably low, but I really have no idea, so I’m running a short poll. You’ll notice this poll doesn’t have a “no” option—that’s on purpose. I know most of you won’t be able to make it, so please only answer if you really think you might be able to come.

And for those of you who are just curious, you should be able to see the results without voting. :)

Edit: Poll closed, thank you!

I have no idea if this poll will work in the email that goes out with blog posts, so you’ll probably need to visit the site directly in order to vote. If, for whatever reason, it still doesn’t work, you can drop me a comment!

And, as payment, here’s a tiny snippet. Seven weeks to go!! 🎉

Nilo fixed us a quick breakfast, which we both ate without comment, then we worked in comfortable silence for a couple of hours until the sun sank behind the trees. I stood and stretched with a groan. Digital research was a necessary evil, but I’d much rather scout targets in person. If Kee were here, I’d happily hand off the digital work to her while I went and poked my nose exactly where the empress didn’t want it.

Homesickness tugged on my heart. It wasn’t a feeling I got often, but when I did, it was always for my time on Starlight’s Shadow. Tavi, Kee, and Eli were family, and while I was usually happy just knowing that they were somewhere out there, doing well, occasionally I missed them with a fierceness that stole my breath.

“If I go outside, am I going to get eaten by a demon?” I asked.

“No, but take your comm. It’s easy to get turned around in the woods.”

I laughed. “Oh, I’m not going into the trees, thank you very much. I can get plenty of fresh air on the porch.”

“The forest is magical at night.”

I shook my head. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“Give me a few minutes, and I’ll go with you.”

“No, that’s okay,” I said a little too quickly. The last thing I needed was to spend time in the dark in a magical forest with Nilo Shoren. All of my good intentions to avoid temptation would disappear faster than our clothes.

Poppies, Ostriches, and Magic Castles

April 19, 2023 / Life, Travel

Southern California is in the middle of a wildflower superbloom, and because I was visiting my BFF last weekend, I got to see it!

California poppies were blooming in droves at the aptly named Poppy Preserve. The photos are great, and yet they still don’t do it justice. If you’re anywhere in the area, I suggest a visit!

A collage of three pictures featuring bright orange poppy flowers, along with smaller yellow flowers, blue skies, and wooden power poles

While we were exploring for the weekend, we found a tiny little roadside attraction called OstrichLand USA. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not driving past a place called OstrichLand without stopping to check it out.

For a mere $8, I was given bowl of food pellets and set loose to feed the resident ostriches and emus. This was far more fun than I expected, mostly because giant birds are hilarious all on their own. When they’re trying to use their ridiculous necks and beaks to steal your food bowl, it’s even better.

And they are ridiculous. They remind me more of velociraptors than chickens, because have you ever seen an ostrich’s foot? Nightmare fuel.

A male and female ostrich eating feed out of a bowl bolted to a dustpan

The fancy dinner I was talking about a while back also happened while we were in CA—a visit to the Magic Castle, the home of the Academy of Magical Arts. Yes, there’s a club for magicians, and I will always, always think of Gob on Arrested Development insisting he’s “an illusionist” not a magician.

To get in to the club, you have to be a member or know a member, but membership is expensive and, you know, for magicians, so that wasn’t an option for us. Instead, my BFF booked us into the on-site hotel and talked them into giving us tickets. Win!

The club is in a cool old house that was built in 1909, and the ambience is exactly what you would expect from a club for magicians—a little old school, a little glam, and a lot quirky. The strict dress code meant everyone was dressed up, so it was a fun vibe.

And the magicians at the Castle were incredible! We saw several short shows, including two close-up acts. For the second one, I was two feet from the magician, and I still have no idea how he did some of his sleight of hand, which is the best kind of magic.

It was hard to dress super fancy while traveling, since our bags were full of normal clothes, but Mr. M and I made a respectable showing. Honestly, he made a much better showing than I did, but such is life when your hair goes poof at the slightest drop of humidity or wind. 😂

Mr. M in a black suit, silver waistcoat, and maroon tie with me beside him in a shiny silver dress, with yellow walls behind us.

Now we’re home and I have to buckle down and make some words. The fantasy romance I’m working on crossed 53k while we were gone (it was a working vacation), and I have a slew of interviews and Q&As to do for Capture the Sun—which comes out two months from tomorrow. Ahhhhhh!

My publicist is talking to BookPeople about possibly doing an in-person event for the release, so if you’re local and you’d be interested in seeing my smiling face in person, drop me a comment and let me know! 💕

Rollercoaster Escape

April 7, 2023 / Life

Have you ever gotten stuck on a rollercoaster? I have, as of yesterday. It wasn’t particularly scary or dangerous, since we hadn’t even made it all the way out of the loading bay, but they still had to call maintenance to free us, which wasn’t particularly fun, either.

It was one of the coasters where your feet dangle, and something must’ve went wrong right after they released us, because we moved forward maybe twenty feet before they shut the thing down. Then they made announcements that we couldn’t hear while the shoulder harnesses gave us the hug of death—okay for less than a minute while riding, less okay for many minutes while waiting.

I don’t love being trapped, so my watch helpfully notified me that my heart rate had spiked even though I didn’t appear to be moving.

Thanks, watch.

Maybe ten or fifteen minutes later, a maintenance crew with a manual safety release gizmo and a stepladder showed up to help us escape one row at a time. It was interesting from a “how does this work?” perspective, but I could’ve lived without the knowledge, lol.

My bff wished we’d been farther along so we would’ve had to walk down the track, and as someone who is deathly afraid of heights, I might’ve tried to incinerate her with my Glare of Doom(tm). It didn’t work, which is good, because I love her when she’s not thinking about making me walk down a scary grating staircase in the sky.

The failure was a disappointing end to an otherwise super fun day, but at least I got a story out of it, I suppose. Now if someone is stuck in a rollercoaster in a future book, you know where the idea came from. :)