The Complete Check Your Luck Agency
by K.S.
Augustin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Sometimes
life is stranger than fiction.
After
the tragic death of her parents, and with nothing left tying her to the United
Kingdom, Ursula Formosa returns to her homeland and a job with the
eccentrically-named Singapore firm, “The Check Your Luck Agency”.
What
begins as an attempt to stave off boredom turns into a new way of life as the
scales drop from Ursula’s eyes and she tentatively enters a realm that contains
vengeful ghosts, toyol, demons, pontianak and curses, not to mention
old-fashioned fraud and larceny. As she befriends bomohs, mediums and a young
woman already centuries old, Ursula’s ideas of friendship expand into a fresh
view of the world that surrounds her.
But
she isn’t going to be left to ease into things. A criminal mastermind, who is
also a powerful sorcerer, is gathering mythical creatures to help him possess
every living soul in Singapore, and he isn’t about to let the members of The
Check Your Luck Agency stand in his way!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt:
“So you can’t feel anything?” Shariff’s voice sounded very
faint even though I knew he wasn’t more than one wall away.
My second thought was that the ghost wasn’t bad looking. He
was slim but looked fit, with broad shoulders that filled out the thin v-necked
t-shirt he wore. His hair was short and sandy coloured. His fingers were long
and a little knobbly-looking. He had a pair of casual khaki trousers on. Pale
bare feet. He wore glasses.
“No,” I croaked, then tried again in a louder voice. “No, I
can’t feel anything.”
The spectre didn’t like that. I could tell by the way his
face tightened. Deny me, would you?
he seemed to be saying.
He made the slightest movement with his right index finger,
just a flick where it rested against his leg, and a cupboard door beside me
swung open then slammed shut.
Footsteps approached and the ghost of the previous occupant
faded as Shariff entered the room. There was a frown of concern on his face.
“Is everything okay?”
“I, er, I was just checking the cupboards,” I told him, my
voice trembling. I coughed a few times. “The shelves are a bit dusty and some
of the locks are sticking.”
He eyed me intently. “Should I tell Gerry that someone’s been
pulling his leg?”
There was a frozen moment between us. If I told Shariff even
a little of what I’d seen and felt so far, I knew it would start the process of
opening me up to a world I had denied for decades. For my own sanity, I
couldn’t do that to myself, not even for the sake of furthering a relationship
with a handsome young man.
“Sorry,” I told him, clearing my throat. “I couldn’t feel a
thing.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's Learn a Little about K.S. Augustin
What is your writing environment?
I have a few spots set up
around the house, each one equipped with a spare power cord, extra keyboard,
close-to-hand dictionary and thesaurus (yes, I have multiple copies of these!)
and table space to hold a glass of alcoholic lubrication. As I write on an
older, “rugged” laptop, it also means I can write in my swimming pool, while
sitting on one of the underwater benches! I have a floating table and
everything. Hey, it's warm one degree north of the Equator!
Who is your perfect hero and why?
I don't have heroes. World
War Two fighter ace, Gregory “Pappy”
Boyington, once famously said: “Show me a hero and I'll prove he's a bum.” I tend to agree.
What authors have caught your interest lately and why?
In addition to being a
writer, I'm also Chief Editor of the online magazine, Sci-Fi
Romance Quarterly. I love the job, a part of which is reaching
out to other communities of writers from around the world. At the moment, I'm
caught by the Finnish speculative writing community and am reading stories by
Tiina Raevaara and Jenny Kangasvuo. Their works are magical, fantastical and
very lyrical.
What type of book have you always wanted to write?
I've always wanted to write
a heart-pounding international thriller. The more conspiracy theories the
better!
Top 3 things on your bucket list?
What an interesting term. I
had to look up what it meant, which is “things you want to do before you die”. I hope I got that right! Okay, here are my three:
•
Spend a year living and
working at an Antarctic research station
•
Trek through Inca sites
along the western coast of South America
•
Live on a river barge
How did you get the idea for this particular novel?
From listening to stories
that people have told me. The entire atmosphere of south-east Asia is steeped
in magic and superstition and the locals believe very strongly in otherworldly
manifestations. In fact, only this morning, I was reading in the national
newspaper about “Bigfoot” tracks being found about a hundred miles from where I currently
live! It seemed natural to take some of these stories and weave them into a
larger tapestry of strange paranormal happenings.
What is your favorite scene in your new release?
The heroine of the book,
Ursula, is a fish out of water, coming back to a homeland that is not quite as
she envisaged it. It's no surprise, then, that she adopts a large stray cat
that she calls Pretzel. However, Pretzel is not what he seems and, in one
nocturnal supernatural encounter, he ends up saving her life. I really liked
writing that scene.
What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be
available?
I normally plan out my
writing for the next two or so years. At the moment, I have two space opera
series on the go. I'm finishing edits on Book 3 of one series and plotting out
Book 4 (PERDITION) and have just finished plotting out Book 2 of the second
series (QOLARI DIPLOMATIC CORPS). All three books should be out between July
this year and January 2015. I'll also be reworking several rights reversions,
which will be released over the next eighteen months. And I need to find time to sit down and plan
a new fantasy series. I'm expecting the first book of that series to be out in
the second half of 2015.
On the magazine front,
Issue 3 of Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly
will be out on 15 June, so the team and I are rushing around getting that ready
as well, in addition to planning Issues 4 and 5.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
Read.
What would you consider a perfect date?
That's a difficult one
because a perfect date is so dependent on other factors, and is often decided
upon in retrospect. You may find that sitting on a grassy slope sharing fish
and chips on a blustery autumn day overlooking a boat harbour was more perfect than
that evening eating foie gras at an
exclusive but noisy French restaurant. You never know till after the fact.
What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know?
I'm shorter than I sound.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
KS
"Kaz" Augustin loves writing human stories, whether set on Earth or
out among the stars. Malaysian-born, she has travelled a goodly portion of the
world and lived to tell the tale! Her urban fantasy release, The Complete Check
Your Luck Agency, consists of five books, exploring the myths and legends of
the melting-pot that is south-east Asia. Come for the food, stay for the monsters!
(Ghosts included at no extra charge.)
As
if all that's not enough, she's also Chief Editor of the free online quarterly
magazine, Sci-Fi Romance Quarterly. http://www.scifiromancequarterly.org/
Kaz's
website is at http://www.KSAugustin.com and a list of her books can also be
found at http://www.SandalPressOnline.com She occasionally tweets as
@SandalPress
The
Complete Check Your Luck Agency is available from:
Amazon
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IJZQ106
Barnes
& Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-complete-check-your-luck-agency-ks-augustin/1118612994?ean=9780987317483
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning! Follow the tour HERE
Thanks for having me here, Sue. There are so many other great books around. Wow!
ReplyDeleteYou are so welcome!
DeleteI love the idea of you writing in the pool. Fun interview thank you.
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed getting to know a little more about you! Always nice to read about the author!
ReplyDeleteamybowens34@yahoo.com
I really enjoyed your interview. I think this story sounds really exciting and fun.
ReplyDeleteInteresting places to write
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
Love the sound of this book! Sounds just like my type!
ReplyDelete