Can you believe it is almost Halloween and with it the sad end to Something Wicked? I'm not ready for any of it to be over yet! Which is why I have another fun guest post and giveaway scheduled for you today with author Megan Haskell and her fun series, The Last Descendant.
She also has a fabulous giveaway so don't forget to enter it at the bottom of the post!
But first let's talk about Megan's book, Sanyare. As some of you may remember I recently read and reviewed this and loved it. I really hope you take the time to check it out and most importantly, read it as well. It really was well written and just a lot of fun!
To see my full review of this book, please click HERE.
Title: Sanyare
Author: Megan Haskell
Series: Book One in the Last Descendant Series
Published By: Trabuco Ridge Press (February 16, 2015)
Source: Copy Provided by the Author (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: Fantasy
Book Description:
When friends become enemies and enemies become friends, who’s left to trust?
Trained as an elite fighter and educated in the ways of the elves, Nuriel “Rie” Lhethannien has worked decades to be accepted into the High Court messenger service. It’s a simple enough occupation, but in a realm where humans are treated as little better than slaves, it’s a position she’ll do anything to protect.
On a routine delivery in the Human Realm, Rie is attacked by assassins from the enemy Shadow Realm and framed as a traitor. Facing execution at the hand of an unmerciful king, she evades capture and crosses the portal into enemy lands to prove her innocence.
Surprising allies arise from the shadows, assisting her search and uncovering secrets she didn’t know she kept. With the risk of discovery lurking at every turn, Rie must use every weapon in her arsenal — and some she didn’t know she possessed — to uncover the truth behind the attack. Along the way, she discovers she might not be as human as she was led to believe, and her heritage could be more dangerous than she ever imagined.
About the Author:
Legend has it, I was born with a book in my hands. When I was a kid, my mom would ground me from reading in order to get me to do my chores. To this day, I can readily ignore the real world in favor of the imaginary one lurking between the pages of my current addiction. My dad — also an avid reader — introduced me to Tolkien in my late elementary years, and I never looked back. I love escaping to worlds where magic and monsters are real, especially stories with kick-butt heroines and dangerously attractive heroes.
Despite my voracious book appetite, I didn’t start creative writing until I was working as a number cruncher in a big accounting firm. With an hour plus commute by train every day, and a demanding left-brain occupation, I needed a mobile creative outlet. A pen and paper are about as mobile as it gets! As the pages began to fill, I quickly moved onto a tiny laptop, and a writer was born. Now I get to create my own fantasies!
I currently live in Southern California with my wonderfully supportive husband, two daughters, and a ridiculously energetic dog.
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Despite my voracious book appetite, I didn’t start creative writing until I was working as a number cruncher in a big accounting firm. With an hour plus commute by train every day, and a demanding left-brain occupation, I needed a mobile creative outlet. A pen and paper are about as mobile as it gets! As the pages began to fill, I quickly moved onto a tiny laptop, and a writer was born. Now I get to create my own fantasies!
I currently live in Southern California with my wonderfully supportive husband, two daughters, and a ridiculously energetic dog.
Website
Tinker Bell? I think not!
These are the pixies in Sanyare: The Last Descendant
First off, I’d like to thank Ali for inviting me to guest blog on My Guilty Obsession today. I’m thrilled to be here! Because Ali “adored the pixies” in Sanyare: The Last Descendant, I’ve decided to give you all a little peek behind the curtain and a deeper look at who they are and where they come from.
The pixies in Sanyare are not your average Tinker Bell fairies. They don’t wear their hair in cute little buns, dress in sexy outfits made out of leaves, or put pompoms on their shoes. They don’t sprinkle pixie dust everywhere they go, or make things fly. My pixies have evolved to do two things really well: hunt and hide.
Did you ever see the movie Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen? Remember the cute little aliens on the barren desert planet that suddenly turn into vicious cannibals?
Yeah. That.
Now imagine that they’re two to three inches tall, can camouflage themselves like a chameleon, and fly faster than the human eye can follow and you have a pretty good idea of what the pixies in Sanyare are like.
The greater fae in Sanyare (the near-immortal elves and sidhe who hold the power in the nine realms) believe that, like sharks, carnivorous pixies will enter into a feeding frenzy when they smell blood and will mindlessly feed until satiated or dead. This is both true and false. Pixies are certainly attracted to blood, and a starving pixie will risk injury to get a bite, but they are not mindless predators. They are generally careful and observant of their surroundings, preferring the safe target over the tastier (but deadlier) greater fae. But, if they think they can get away with it, they will gleefully attack an elf or sidhe and eat until they’re so stuffed full of blood and meat they can barely move.
A swarm of six pixies can strip a small mammal of meat in minutes, leaving nothing but bone and sinew. If they stuff themselves too full, they get blood drunk and slow, often needing to sleep off the meal. That’s when they’re most vulnerable. If they can’t manage to hide in a safe place before passing out, they become an easy target for bigger predators or the greater fae who want to be rid of the threat to their livestock.
Most of the greater fae treat the pixies like pests. They can’t understand the pixie’s language, and assume that the tiny winged fae are basically insects who can and will decimate herds and endanger the weak or young. As a result, they generally exterminate these lesser fae on sight or drive away the swarms before they have a chance to build a nest near easy prey.
In Pixie Tamer, the free short story prequel to Sanyare, Rie learns that the pixies are not the creatures she’s been led to believe. She avoids killing them, instead taking a moment to listen and empathize with their predicament. It’s how she earns the loyalty of a small swarm of five pixies: Niinka, Hiinto, Tiik, Possn, and Gikl.
Niinka is the presumed leader of the swarm. She is outspoken and tough, often taking the initiative and developing the swarm’s hunting (or troublemaking) plans.
Hiinto is Niinka’s brother, and a bit slow on the uptake. Though they all love to make mischief, he’s the only one who ever gets caught.
Tiik is the swarm historian and knows everything there is to know about his species. He doesn’t often get involved in the banter between the other pixies, but once you get him talking about one of his areas of expertise, it’s hard to get him to shut up.
Possn is a meek little thing who rarely talks at all. She likes to follow the other pixies around, but remains on the outskirts of the swarm. She’s the last to join in the hunt and is typically happy taking the leftovers from the others.
Gikl is the warrior. Silent and deadly, he can appear out of nowhere, take his pound of flesh (literally), and be gone before the victim even has time to react.
As a species, the pixies are treasure hoarders, and the greatest treasure of all is information. They are gossips and natural spies, easily infiltrating secure locations and eavesdropping on conversations. Fortunately for the greater fae, they are also selfish creatures and have little interest in court politics, except as it relates to their own interests.
Though the swarm increases and decreases in size over time, these five pixies have been with Rie for decades. Without giving anything away, they know more about Rie at the start of Sanyare than she knows about herself, and because they’ve come to love and respect her, they feel obligated to assist and protect her however they can. (Besides, staying with Rie provides more opportunity for treasure and adventure than living with a persecuted swarm elsewhere in the nine realms.)
All five pixies don’t travel with Rie all the time, but at least one of them is with her on every delivery she makes as a messenger. This annoys Rie on occasion — she’s not a particularly social person and enjoys time alone — but they’ve proven helpful more than once, even saving her life, and she can’t really control where they go or what they do, so she puts up with their mayhem.
If you’d like to learn more about how the swarm met Rie, please read Pixie Tamer, a short story prequel to Sanyare. It’s free everywhere but Nook (where it’s $0.99 due to restrictions on their direct uploading platform) or you can contact me directly for a free digital copy.
I hope you enjoyed this quick look into the lives of the pixies.
