Diane’s Book Blog: The Christmas Dragon/ Strings by Ruthanne Reid: Character Interview & Giveaway

*The Christmas Dragon*

All Katie Lin wants is to get away from her family: from the magic, from the mayhem, and from the never-ending war.

Unfortunately, someone has other ideas, and sends her a box. A box that jumps.

The tiny fire hazard inside may just force her back to Wales - and right into the path of a dragon war, the Crow King, and at least one reluctant elf prince. Sometimes, running away just doesn't work as planned.

*Strings*

Need help? You probably shouldn't ask Grey.

A runaway Unseelie prince, Grey feeds on love - a commodity he conjures via music and magic in late-night Manhattan. It's a sweet gig, if lonely, and Grey is almost sure the dire warnings he was given about New York in December won't come true.

Then a monster from his childhood attacks in the middle of the night, and everything changes.

He survived, but he's marked, and more monsters are coming for him and everyone who survived. Grey has no plans to be a hero but fate doesn't care what he wants. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you aren't the one pulling the strings.

Buy Links for The Christmas Dragon:

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Buy Links for Strings:

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Excerpt

Strings

My music made a lovely magic. It was tiny magic, sure, but effective: it thickened the air and deepened the candles’ warm light, caressed the listener like intimate fingertips and teased sleeping nerve-endings toward a gently quivering wakefulness.

Go, me. I made it all happen.

Generally speaking, humans suck at love. They go into it selfishly, thinking of themselves and not the needs of the other, already planning in their little heads what they’ll do when it doesn’t work out. Idiots. Does anything else work that way? Can you learn art or become a mechanic without devoting yourself to those crafts? Can you graduate from college without paying attention to a coursework’s needs, without being willing to spend time feeding it what it requires?

Well, yes, you can, but not well. And yes, colleges have needs, too. Every living thing does.

I could help the lovelorn attendees of tonight’s bar-hop, and I had every reason to. Helping them helped me. The more they loved, the more I fed—and while humans do suck at getting love started, once it takes root in them, it grows like Kudzu. (That Kudzu-thing was one of my cousin’s ideas, by the way. Don’t look at me. I’m not a plant-wizard.)

Author Bio

Indie author Ruthanne Reid writes about elves, aliens, vampires, and space-travel with equal abandon. She is the author of the series Among the Mythos, and believes good stories should be shared. Subscribe to her free email newsletter for free books and more at http://amongthemythos.com. You can connect with her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruthannereid), Facebook (http://facebook.com/mythos), or Tumblr (http://ruthannereid.tumblr.com), where she looks at too many kittens and Avengers blogs.

Ruthanne’s love of magic, urban environments, and deep space birthed a strange world with undercurrents of faith, magic, villainy, and heroism (along with swords and lasers, on occasion). Among the Mythos showcases aliens with all-too-human feelings, entire societies on the decline due to greed and fear, protagonists who might actually be the bad guys (or vice-versa), and endings every bit as messy as the world that creates them.

Ruthanne knows from experience that endings are messy. No matter how exotic the setting, how many limbs the characters have or what (if any) genders, the problems and questions addressed by a good story are very real, and that’s why they have power. If she has a theme, it is this: keep fighting, and keep pushing toward hope, because the struggle is worth the finish-line.

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Character Interview

Please welcome Grey from Ruthanne Reid’s Strings to Diane’s Book Blog.

What is your name? Do you have a nickname?

Call me Grey. It’s not my full name, but as far as you’re concerned, it’s the only one I’ll answer to.

What is your hair color? Eye color?

As you can plainly see, perfect. My hair is light gold, spun as if from sunlight itself, and my eyes are silver shot through with black. I’m Unseelie Fey, through and through.

How old are you?

Seventy-eight. Wait, let me think about that in human years… you all age so fast, it’s ridiculous. Call it twenty-three or four, give or take.

Where were you born? Where have you lived since then? Where do you currently call home?

Personal! Well, since you’re being so bold, I might as well reward you. I was born in the Silver Dawning, naturally, which is the land of the Fey People. My home was the palace – it’s a bizarre place, I tell you now, since no one can control the Throne, and she manipulates the place like puzzle-pieces. The Throne is mad. You can’t trust her within an inch of your life.

I left there a long time ago, and I’ve been living all over the human world ever since. I make anywhere I wish my home. For the last few months, it’s been Manhattan, but that’s about to change. And no, for your information, I don’t miss my place of birth. Humans are so much more interesting.

What is in your refrigerator right now? On your bedroom floor? On your nightstand? In your garbage can?

(a) Nothing. I’m not home often enough to make buying unprepared food worth it.

(b) Clothes. Never you mind whose.

(d) Candy wrappers, mostly. I’m rather fond of fruit gummy… things.

Who are the people you are closest to?

I’m not. Pass.

What is your most treasured possession?

My voice. I could make magic just fine without it, but the intimacy and subtle control of sung music simply cannot be matched by any instrument, even when played by me.

Which living person do you most admire?

You know, it’s funny you ask me that. I wouldn’t have had an answer for you a month ago, but now I do: I admire Katie Lin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with such pluck (and such dumb luck), and she’s not even Fey. How weird is that?

What is your motto?

“It’s not my problem.” There’s a standard that’ll keep you out of loads of trouble.