Mundie Moms

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

ENDSINGER by Jay Kristoff; Blog Tour


Hello & welcome to the next stop in the ENDSINGER blog tour!
Today I'm thrilled to share the PROLOGUE with you. First, here's a little bit about the book.... I seriously LOVE this cover! All of Jay's covers and the series are awesome.
Okay, now about the book:


By: Jay Kristoff
Published by: Thomas Dunne Books
To Be Released on: 11.25.14
Series: The Lotus War #3
Pre-Order from: Amazon | B&N
Add it to Goodreads 

A TREMBLING EARTH

The flames of civil war sweep across the Shima Imperium. With their plans to renew the Kazumitsu dynasty foiled, the Lotus Guild unleash their deadliest creation—a mechanical goliath known as the Earthcrusher, intended to unite the shattered Empire under a yoke of fear. With the Tiger Clan and their puppet Daimyo Hiro in tow, the Guild marches toward a battle for absolute dominion over the Isles.

A BROKEN REBELLION

Yukiko and Buruu are forced to take leadership of the Kagé rebellion, gathering new allies and old friends in an effort to unite the country against the chi-mongers. But the ghosts of Buruu’s past stand between them and the army they need, and Kin’s betrayal has destroyed all trust among their allies. When a new foe joins the war tearing the Imperium apart, it will be all the pair can do to muster the strength to fight, let alone win.

A FINAL BATTLE

The traitor Kin walks the halls of Guild power, his destiny only a bloody knife-stroke away. Hana and Yoshi struggle to find their place in a world now looking to them as heroes. Secret cabals within the Lotus Guild claw and struggle; one toward darkness, the other toward light. And as the earth splits asunder, as armies destroy each other for rule over an empire of lifeless ash and the final secret about blood lotus is revealed, the people of Shima will learn one last, horrifying truth.

There is nothing a mother won’t do to keep her children by her side.

Nothing.


PROLOGUE

The thing inside their mother wanted out.
Swollen and heavy as stone, Lady Sun fell westward into the waiting oceans.

A chill followed her descent, coiled in the mountain shadows, creeping toward the dusty little farm and its withered fields. The wind brought the brittle bite of approaching winter, the vapor from the deadlands stirring like a lover at its touch, rippling with the sound of their mother’s screams.
Tetsuo and Hikita crouched together in the dirt, all grubby faces and thread- bare rags. The children had fled the house when the noise became too much. Their mother’s agonized cries had reduced little Tetsuo to tears, and Hikita took his younger brother’s hand and led him out into the dark and quiet. Hikita knew he must be strong. He was the man now. Thin shoulders only ten summers old, carrying the weight of his family and the weight of the world.
Their neighbor had arrived with the midwife, and now the women clustered about the bed as Mother wailed, stepping outside only to dash buckets of red wa- ter onto cracked earth, or wring bloody rags between their fingers. Hikita would watch them then, his eyes hidden behind soot-smeared glass, black and empty as the dusk above their heads.
He knew what another mouth meant for his family. Knew their pitiful stead wouldn’t have enough good earth left next season to feed three, let alone four. But the baby was coming, whether he willed it or not. There was nowhere else for it to go, after all.
Tetsuo stabbed at the ashen earth with a stick. The blood lotus crop around them swayed and rolled, voices whispering in the husk-dry leaves.
“Do you think it will be another boy?” “Only the Maker knows,” Hikita replied.
4

“I would like a sister.”
“I would like the cur who put that baby in her to be at her side. I would like Father to still be alive.” Hikita scowled, climbing to his feet. “Like has nothing to do with life.”
He stared at the Tōnan mountains to the west; jagged fists raised against the setting sun. Between Hikita’s feet and those stone roots, miles of deadlands stretched into the dark—cracks in the earth running twenty feet deep, wreathed in choking fog. Through the fumes, he could see a broken wagon here, a col- lapsed barn there. Farmsteads run to ruin, swallowed by the blackness spreading from the Stain. He knew somewhere in those mountains loomed First House, the heart of Guild power in Shima. The ones who fed the lotus with the blood of round-eyes, or so the radio sometimes said. The ones who were bleeding this land dry for the sake of fuel and flowers.
Sometimes, when the sky-ships flew overhead, the windows would rattle and little Tetsuo would wake from his sleep, thinking demons were rising from the hells. But Hikita knew the oni had better things to do than trouble the sleep of foolish boys. The Endsinger’s children dwelled below the earth, deep in the Yomi underworld. It was men who stained the clouds in their roaring machines. Men who turned the sky to red, the land to ashes, the rain to black. Not demons. Not gods. Just men.
A trembling wail split the dusk, Mother shrieking, throat raw. Hikita scowled again, lifted his kerchief and spat. Brother or sister, it didn’t matter. He’d hate that child. Hate it as he hated its father, with his smooth talk and smoother smile. A dog who took advantage of a widow’s loneliness, left her in dishonor, a bastard in her belly. He’d kill him if he saw him again. Show him that though they lived on the Stain’s edge, in the poorest lands in all the seven islands of Shima, they were still Ryu clan. The blood of Dragons still flowed in their veins.
The windows began rattling and Hikita looked up, expecting to see a Guild sky-ship lumbering out of the dusk. But the sky was an empty, fading red, scabbed with storm clouds. The rattling intensified, the earth trembling so violently he fell to his knees. Tetsuo crawled across the bucking soil, a great belly-sore rumble beneath them. The brothers held each other as the island shook, Tetsuo crying out in fear.
“Another earthquake?”
The fifth in as many weeks. The rumbling stilled, choking slowly, until the skitter of rotten earth into the deadlands’ fissures was the only noise. A thin cry began: a newborn’s first bewildered plea as it was dragged from bloody warmth into this world of men. Kicking and screaming.
“It’s here!” Tetsuo cried, the tremors forgotten. He slipped from Hikita’s em- brace and dashed into the house, dirty heels beating the verandah like drums.
Hikita stood slowly, listening to the hungry wails from their newest mouth.


He could hear his mother crying, the joy in her voice as she called for him to come meet his new sister. And the boy shook his head and licked the ashes from his lips, looking across the tall stalks of blood lotus to the desolation around the mountain’s feet.
He blinked. Squinted in the gloom.
Tiny lights. Blood-red. A pair, shining between the lotus fronds. The crunch of little feet in dead leaves and deader earth. Hikita peered into the dark, the wails of his new sibling filling his ears. The deadlands’ fumes were an oil-thick shadow, rippling like black water. The lotus stalks bent gently—something mov- ing through the crop—and the tiny lights flickered out, once, twice, winking like the long-lost stars in the skies overhead.
No, not winking, he realized.
Blinking.
A figure shuffled from the stalks, covered in black earth and ashes. It stood
two feet high, but its arms hung long and low, back bent as it shuffled forward and snuffled at the air. Its eyes were scarlet, casting a bloody light over heavy brows, hairless skull, swollen lips. It saw the boy, lips splitting into an idiot grin like a toddler who’d just found a new playmate. But its teeth were yellowed fangs, tusks protruding from its lower jaw, and Hikita realized beneath the mask of dirt and ash, its skin was midnight blue.
Uh-uuhhhhhhhh,” it said, holding out its arms.
Hikita’s eyes were fixed on the talons set in those grasping fingers, sharp as katana.
Gn-uhhhhh . . .
“Oni,” he breathed. “Lord Izanagi save me.”
The demon flinched at the Maker God’s name, eyes growing bright and wide.

It loped forward, knuckles dragging in the earth, a shriek of rage spilling from crooked fangs.
Hikita screamed. Screamed with his sister, here on her birthing day in the shadow of those broken peaks, amidst the rot creeping like a cancer across the island’s skin. Screamed as if it were his final breath. As if it were all he was, and all he ever would be.
As if the world itself was ending. 

About The Author


Jay Kristoff grew up in the most isolated capital city on earth and fled at his earliest convenience, although he’s been known to trek back for weddings of the particularly nice and funerals of the particularly wealthy. He spent most of his formative years locked in his bedroom with piles of books, or gathered around dimly-lit tables rolling polyhedral dice. Being the holder of an Arts degree, he has no education to speak of.

Jay’s debut novel, STORMDANCER, a Japanese-inspired steampunk fantasy, will be published by Thomas Dunne/St Martin’s Press, Tor UK & PanMacMillan in September 2012 as the first installment of THE LOTUS WAR trilogy. Jay is 6’7 and has approximately 13870 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell. He does not believe in happy endings.

Find Jay via:  Website | Twitter |Facebook | Goodreads

The Storytellers: New Voices of the Twilight Saga, Contest & Phase One Announced!


I am so thrilled to share some exciting news with you. Recently there was an exciting announcement made about THE TWILIGHT SAGA (MTV revealed the news here), and it's The Storytellers- New Voices of The Twilight Saga, a campaign from the creators of The Twilight film series, Lionsgate, Women in Film, Facebook, Volvo Cars and Tongal, to highlight up and coming female filmmakers. The aspiring filmmakers will create short movies based on Stephenie Meyer's Twilight world. 

That's right! Not only will the Twilight world return, but it's bringing a ton of WOMEN POWER with it! The all female panelists who will be voting on the short films, which will premiere on Facebook. Each of these women are amazing in their own right: Twilight saga author Stephanie Meyer, actress Kristen Stewart, writer & co-director of Disney's FROZEN Jennifer Lee, Academy award winners Kate Winslet & Octavia Spencer, Emmy award winner Julie Bowen, and Cathy Schulman, President of Women in Film. 

Yesterday MTV  broke news of the Official Launch of The 'Twilight' Movie contest and revealed the exclusive video featuring some of the film makers and actresses who will be participating in the contest. Check it out below:



Want to find out more about The Storytellers, New Voices of the Twilight Saga? Head over to their official site to read more about their mission, the opportunity, the goal, and the reward. There you can find out more about Phase 1 of the contest and vote on which 'Twilight' character's story origin you'd like to see turned into a short film. I know, it's a hard choice, but I'd love to see one of the wolves or Emmett or Jasper's story brought to life. Cast your vote HERE.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2014: Best YA Fantasy & Science Fiction Semifinal Nominees!

Congratulations to the following Goodreads Choice Awards 2014: Best YA Fantasy & Science Fiction Semifinal Nominees! 


The competition is fierce!
There are way too many favorites to choose from. There are many books in this category that I've read and loved.  It's hard picking one favorite from this category. Can I pick five? haha
Pick your favorite & CAST YOUR VOTE!
Tomorrow I'll feature the SemiFinal nominees for Best YA Fiction. 

COHF & The Iron Trial Make It To The Goodreads Choice Awards 2014: Semifinal Round


Congratulations to Cassandra Clare, both City of Heavenly Fire & The Iron Trial made it to the Semifinal Rounds in the Goodreads Choice Awards! 
City of Heavenly Fire is up for best YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi.
The Iron Trial is up for best Middle Grade & Children's book. 
Cast your votes here for City of Heavenly Fire, and here for The Iron Trail. 

Congratulations to Cassie and all of her fellow nominees in both categories! 

Labels