QSFer Erik Schubach has a new FF fantasy book out:
Adelaide Oliver, raised in the bayou in New Orleans, flees the Big Easy to Seattle when she believes she is seeing things and losing her mind.
What she doesn’t realize is that she is a Raven Maid, a secret of the Voodoo, Vodoun faith.
She walks the path between this world and the next, guiding lost souls to their final destination, whether that be the wayward spirit’s idea of heaven or hell.
But what happens when a soul doesn’t wish to leave the mortal realm?
This story is set in the same world as Djinn: Cursed
Excerpt
I suddenly felt like a muskrat staring down a gator’s maw as I whispered to myself, “Soc Au’ Lait.”
I was drowning in yuppies. A New Orleans girl like me was out of place here in Seattle. I wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for the medical scholarship I was awarded at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and the fact that I just had to get as far away from the Crescent City.
I still don’t remember applying for the Risner Scholarship, but I had filled out countless scholarship applications in my need to get out of New Orleans after I completed my pre-med at UNO. Odd things had started happening there.
From what I could find, I was the first person to have been awarded this particular scholarship. I looked around the coffee shop, one of the seemingly thousand Starbucks that pretty much ringed the campus, keeping us students in a cage of caffeine and wifi. I chuckled since that was why I was there too, the free wifi.
I had just finished my student orientation and wanted to go through all of the copious amounts of material they had heaped upon me before classes started on Monday. I stared at the scone I hadn’t taken more than a bite from, wondering what self-respecting establishment didn’t serve beignets. How I already missed those hot fried pastries.
I closed my eyes and imagined the powdered sugar confections I practically mainlined back home. Here, it seemed, everyone mainlined something that vaguely tasted like coffee under all the fancy preparations. Black was the only way to drink it and properly appreciate it. Get with the program Adelaide, this is gonna be your home the next four years or more.
I exhaled and looked at my iPad. I needed to get a cell phone, my stipend for living expenses included in the scholarship had looked extremely generous until I learned the realities of the astronomical cost of living in Seattle. I don’t know how the other students do it. I wouldn’t be able to get a side job if actual med school was any more hectic than pre-med was.
I was just happy I had my own place, sort of, or I’d have to share a place with a couple roommates at the very least, just to afford rent. I typed up a quick email to MawMaw to let her know I survived the preliminaries and was fixin’ to settle in at the place I found to stay.
I looked up to a familiar face when a shadow crossed my table. It was the woman the University had given me a tour of campus, Shannon Kingston. She smiled at me, holding one of those paper cups which likely held some over-sweetened, frothed milk concoction that smelled passingly like coffee. The honey haired twenty something gave me that same welcoming smile she had when they called her into the admissions office to show me around. It was striking then, and it hadn’t lost any of its genuine charm this time around.
“Hi Adelaide, I see you’ve already found a fueling stop. You’ll be seeing the coffee houses as your second home once classes begin. You’ll have to have more coffee than blood in your veins, just to keep up.”
Author Bio
I got my start writing novels by accident. I have always been drawn to strong female characters in books, like Honor Harrington. And I also believe that there is a lack of LGBT characters in media. So one day I came up with a story idea that combines the two… two days later I completed the manuscript for Music of the Soul.
My writing style may not be the most professional nor grammatically correct, but I never profess to be an English major, just a person that wants to share a story. I maintain that my primary language is sarcasm.
Each of my books features strong likeable female characters that are flawed. I think that flaws and emotional or physical scars make us human and give us more character than simply conforming to some “social norm”.
I have also written many SciFi series, such as the Valkyrie Chronicles which features a Valkyrie, Kara, who was left behind on Earth five thousand years ago to help the Asgard race escape the onslaught of the Ragnarok horde. With the aid of a human, Kate, she holds the line in battle to herald the return of the Asgard!
I also have multiple paranormal series such as The Bridge series and the Urban Fairytales series if mythical characters pique your curiosity.
My most ambitions undertaking is the Techromancy Scrolls series that is an epic adventure in the world three thousand years after a mass extinction event. Mankind is rebuilding in a world where magic and technology collide.
You can follow me online via Twitter @ErikSchubach or on Blogger http://erikschubachauthor.blogspot.com/ and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Erik-Schubach-Author/438534946240951 for more information and to discuss my upcoming books.