Jill Williamson | Morgan L. Busse

Welcome to the Lost At Sea Scavenger Hunt where we are helping the Kinsman people find a new home. If you’ve just found us, be sure to start the adventure at Stop #1, which is Jill Williamson’s blog.

Collect all the clue words in order so you can enter to win the Kindle. If you want to enter to win the second Kindle, you’ll have to take a quiz at the end, so take your time and read each post carefully. The main prizes in the hunt are open to international entries. Individual author contests, however, might have different rules, so please read the parameters on each site. You have until Sunday night, February 19, at midnight, Pacific time to finish.

If you need help, or get lost along the way, click here for assistance.

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Wilek felt good about the land in Adar-iyr, but Onika, his prophetess, had a long talk with Ela, the prophet of Parne from R. J. Larson’s novel Prophet. When the two women parted ways, Onika informed Wilek that the kinsman people could not stay in Adar-iyr, but she promised that they were close to their new home. They must trust the One God, Arman, to lead the way. So they followed the coast north until they reached the bustling metropolis of Stop #17, Word City, from Morgan Busse’s novel Tainted.

Welcome to my world! I’m a writer by day and a mother by night. I’m the author of the Follower of the Word series and the new steampunk series, The Soul Chronicles. My debut novel, Daughter of Light, was a Christy and Carol Award finalist. During my spare time I enjoy playing games, taking long walks, and dreaming about my next novel. Feel free to browse my blog while you’re here 🙂

Here’s a closer look at my novel Tainted.

Kat Bloodmayne is one of the first women chosen to attend the Tower Academy of Sciences. But she carries a secret: she can twist the natural laws of science. She has no idea where this ability came from, only that every time she loses control and unleashes this power, it kills a part of her soul. If she doesn’t find a cure soon, her soul will die and she will become something else entirely.

After a devastating personal loss, Stephen Grey leaves the World City Police Force to become a bounty hunter. He believes in justice and will stop at nothing to ensure criminals are caught and locked up. However, when Kat Bloodmayne shows up in his office seeking his help, his world is turned upside down.

Together they search World City and beyond for a doctor who can cure Kat. But what they discover on the way goes beyond science and into the dark sphere of magic.

The Monster Inside of Us

A long time ago on a forum I followed someone asked if necromancy could ever be used for good. The moment I read that, I saw this young woman who had been hurt by her father’s excursions into necromancy. As the story grew, it changed from a fantasy to steampunk . The young woman’s father became a scientist and through his unscrupulous experiments, he corrupted his daughter’s soul. (To read more about what steampunk is, click here)

Tainted is the story of Kat, a young woman who is curious, smart, and secretly believes she is a monster deep inside. That idea is reinforced when—in fits of emotion—she starts fires or throws furniture around with her mind. She is desperately afraid she is going to hurt someone some day or even worse, kill someone. She sees herself as a bad person because of that and so she hides who she is while secretly looking for a cure.

I believe many of us can relate to Kat and have wondered at one point if we are monsters ourselves. There is something wrong—even broken—inside of us, and if people found out, they would hate us or be afraid of us. And because of that, we try everything we can to either hide the “monster” or find our own cure.

If you resonate with Kat’s story, then check Tainted out. And be watching for Awakened, Book 2 of The Soul Chronicles, coming soon!

CLUE! Write down this clue: praise

The next stop on our map is Stop #18, the sailing ship Meredith, on Serena Chase’s blog.

Before you move on, I am giving away a signed copy of Tainted to one lucky winner. To enter, head on over to my rafflecopter giveaway and check any option or all of them to enter (giveaway will run from 2/17-2/20). Thanks for visiting my blog. Enjoy the rest of the scavenger hunt!

Rafflecopter giveaway

You can order Tainted on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD or at your local bookstore!

Captives by Jill Williamson This month I have the pleasure of joining the CSFF Blog tour (Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy). The book featured is Captives by Jill Williamson.

Captives is a dystopia novel that revolves around a futuristic world where most humans live inside a walled city known as the Safe Lands. These humans, however, are infected with disease that has made them sterile. So now they are searching outside their city for uninfected blood by which to reproduce the human population.

Outside the Safe Lands are pockets of uninfected humans who live in small, rural communities. The protagonists of Captives are three teen brothers who live in one such community. The youngest brother longs for something more than the bare life he has and a chance to please his harsh father. So when an opportunity comes up for him to leave the outside and join the Safe Lands, he takes it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize that by doing so, he has turned his entire community over to the Safe Lands to be breed for future human beings. The middle brother is captured by the Safe Lands and the oldest seeks a way inside to save both his people and his fiancée.

I really enjoyed Captives. The feel of the book reminded me of the Syfy show Defiance and The Hunger Games. The three different brothers and their story arcs were interesting to follow; each one presented a different picture of the Safe Lands and their own place in their family (the beloved oldest brother, the smart middle brother, the artsy youngest brother who doesn’t fit in).

I highly recommended Captives for teen readers and up who enjoy futuristic dystopia novels.

To find out more about Captives and what others on this tour had to say, click on the links below!

Julie Bihn

Thomas Fletcher Booher