Author Introduction: Misty Massey

And here's the last of the Author Introductions for this week. This time, it's a new author, with a debut novel . . . about PIRATES! Everyone make Misty feel welcome, now, or she just might make you walk the plank!

"Hi, all Josh's readers! I'm Misty Massey (madkestrel), author of Mad Kestrel [Amazon; Mysterious Galaxy]. I hope you'll forgive me the occasional nervous grin – Mad Kestrel is my first novel, so I'm still a bit giddy about the whole thing.



Mad Kestrel is a tale of magic on the high seas. Kestrel, quartermaster of the pirate sloop Wolfshead, is spooked by a ghostly warship that suddenly runs up on her in the darkness. She worries that the ship might belong to the feared and hated Danisoba Magi, a sect of powerful wizards who murdered her parents years before. Kestrel is a Promise, someone with raw magical ability. If she makes any sort of rhythm, she will cause objects to move. She's special even among the wielders of magic; salt water weakens the Danisoba, but it doesn't affect her at all. If the Danisoba could get their hands on her, she'd never see the light of day again.

When royal soldiers take her captain, Binns, into custody, claiming that he stole a warship and is destined to hang, Kestrel is his only chance. Avoiding bounty hunters and soldiers, she discovers that Binns is not who she believed him to be, and only the mysterious warship's captain, Philip McAvery, can help her. McAvery, however, has disappeared, along with Binns' ship. Kestrel has to steal the warship in order to find McAvery and save Binns' life. And the only way to do that is to use the magic she has denied for so long.

For a long time, it didn't occur to me that I could create stories the way my favorite writers could. Writers seemed to me to be mysterious glowing figures who lived on mountaintops, creating marvelous tales of adventure just for me. It's still a little crazy to see my own name on the book's cover and realize I've joined the ranks of my idols! I can't think of anything I'd rather do. Well, okay, I wouldn't mind being the enigmatic woman standing at the shoulder of some third world dictator in all the satellite photos, wearing a big hat and dark glasses, the woman whose name no one seems to know, and who vanishes with the dictator's ill-gotten wealth the night before the bloody coup…but that's just silly.

Although I do have the perfect hat for it."



You can find Misty at www.mistymassey.com, as well as at www.magicalworlds.net.

[Aside: Is anyone seeing the second picture, of Misty as the enigmatic woman?]