Guest Blogger: Karina Fabian, Author of Greater Treasures (Giveaway)

Being a private detective in the border town of the Faerie and Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When his partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure. However, this is no ordinary trinket—with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind. Can Vern find the artifact, and will he sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

Purchase at: CreateSpace or a Kindle version from Amazon.

Pages: 130
ISBN-13: 978-1484848296
ISBN-10: 1484848292
ASIN B00CEH934G

Why I Love Writing Vern and Why You’ll Love Reading Him

By Karina Fabian

Once again, I have a DragonEye story to share. For those that don’t know, DragonEye stories involve Vern, a dragon who lives in our world and works as a detective, solving mysteries and saving the world when magic and technology become more than anyone else can handle. He’s a character I created somewhere around 2006 and who first appeared in “DragonEye, PI” in Firestorm of Dragons (http://www.amazon.com/Firestorm-Dragons-Michele-Acker/dp/1896944809) in 2008. Since then, Vern has provided me with a steady line of stories, from flash to novel size. Greater Treasures is a novella/novelette, incidentally.

Vern is my favorite character to write. For one, he’s a dragon, which means he considers himself a superior species. So much of my life is spent with self-doubt that it’s refreshing to immerse myself in a character who is supremely confident in himself, even when events make him feel like he’s failing. He’s also got a snarky attitude. He can say things I’ll only think, make snide remarks, and give people insulting nicknames, and it comes completely natural to him. I’m not sure what that says about me, but I do enjoy it. Of course, that is part of his charm and his humor. Even in the most serious of situations, he can find something amusing, whether a pun or an ironic twist. He does slapstick pretty well, too. I laugh when I write his stories. Finally, he’s smart—genius smart. Of course, that’s easy to write when I can Google whatever would come to his mind naturally.

Vern is different from me. If I knew him in reality, I’m not sure how close of friends we’d be. (Although in my world, he does know me, as I am his biographer.) But that is the point of writing—and reading—fiction: to escape the world and even who you are for a time, to explore someone else’s personality and problems, and hopefully, to come away refreshed and a little better than when you started the book.

I hope you feel that way after reading Greater Treasures. I know I did after writing it.

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com.

Find Karina at:
Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net
Blog: http://fabianspace.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian
Google +: https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Visit the book's tour page at http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/2013/04/greater-treasures-book-tour.html

Giveaway Information:

E-book: Here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

Grab bag: Vern gripes about the junk in his warehouse in Greater Treasures, but he and Grace have started going through boxes, and they’ve agreed to send something to one of my readers. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

Please be sure to include your email address so Karina can contact you if you win.

Magic, Mensa, and Mayhem by Karina Fabian--Book Review

Humor, mystery, and fantasy combine to create an outstanding story in Magic, Mensa and Mayhem by Karina L. Fabian.

This was not going to be one of those STUC (Save-the-Universe Cases). Just an all-expense paid trip to Florida to chaperone a group of Magicals at a Mensa convention for Vern the dragon detective and his partner, the mage Sister Grace.

Well, someone forgot to tell the pixies. They start pulling their pranks. Then the Brownies start cleaning and organizing things they aren't supposed to, and a hyped-up elf who is behind the times might declare war on Florida. And as if that's not bad enough, there's a Native American Trickster who can change forms and a Valkyrie heroine of legend who has turned her attention to bodybuilding and fashion design, both of whom create a little chaos of their own.

So much for that cushy job!

If you are looking for a deep fantasy novel, this isn't it. Magic, Mensa and Mayhem is, however, one of the most uproariously funny books you'll ever read. Honestly, I laughed so hard that my husband thought I had found my decades-long missing sense of humor.

Fabian proves once again that she is a master storyteller. Who else could combine a dragon detective, a magical nun, a host of other bizarre characters, and Oprah, and make it work so well?

Now, keeping in mind that I am not a huge fan of the fantasy genre, this book hooked me from the very first sentence. Actually, the Acknowledgements section caught my eye first, and I rarely read those. Fabian shares how the book came about, the origin of Vern, how she entered into a relationship with publisher Dindy Robinson of Swimming Kangaroo Books, and talks about where you can find Vern online.

Included at the end are two appendices. The first is "Uncle Vern's Glossary of Faerie and Mundane Terms" and the second contains the "Pronunciation of Elvish Names" found in the book and includes brief comments about each elf. Both appendices are as funny as the rest of the book.

Magic, Mensa and Mayhem is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a funny, offbeat story.

I leave you with a Vern quote that is also included at the back of the book:

"...Wisdom of the Ages, Knowledge of Eternity, and I end up a babysitter at the Smart Humans' Convention."


Title: Magic, Mensa and Mayhem
Author: Karina L. Fabian
Publisher: Swimming Kangaroo Books
ISBN: 978-1-934041-78-9
SRP: $13.99