This post contains all the tour information for The Complete Check Your Luck Agency by K S Augustin, along with a Guest Post and Giveaway. I would like to start with the Guest Post. So, let’s meet and talk with K S Augustin.
GUEST POST
Two fishes, both out of water.
Well, the first thing I need to do is thank Sherry for her lovely invitation to blog here. And the second is to tell you why I asked to be here in the first place!
I have a book. (You’ve probably guessed that already.) And it’s an urban fantasy, located in south-east Asia and based on some south-east Asian beliefs. I say “some” because, really, there are just so many, you can spend an entire life writing them all down and still not cover everything. But, you know, it was all so interesting that I knew I had to make something out of all of it, and that’s how THE COMPLETE CHECK YOUR LUCK AGENCY was born.
When you have a different world to what your readers are used to, the first thing you must do is build a bridge between the two, a way of linking both worlds so that you, the reader, can understand what’s going on and what it all means. So my protagonist, Ursula Formosa, is essentially a fish out of water. Her parents emigrated to the United Kingdom when she was little and now, after their deaths, she’s back, trying to make sense of a homeland that is really much stranger than she anticipated.
That’s where Ursula and I coincide because, as far as Singapore and Malaysia are concerned, I’m a fish out of water as well. My own parents emigrated (to Australia) when I was little and, although it’s taken more time, I’m back. I think this made it easier to write the books because everything had a “new to me” sheen. I could relive the moments when unwrapping a banana-leaf packet of nasi lemak (literally, “fat rice”!) or catching a scent of an equatorial rainforest. Being Western-educated, like Ursula, I was able to identify facets that are uniquely Asian, and explain them to my mostly Western readers. Of course, how well I did that is up to you, the reader, to decide.
Have you seen any commercials/advertisements on south-east Asia recently? Chances are, if you have, food was prominently featured. Here’s where I think I’ve got it over Ursula. She likes food but she also watches her weight (as the restaurant scene with ghost, Simon Oakland, illustrates). Me, I’m waaay past that. LOL I love food. The bigger the variety, the better. And, because it’s an intrinsic part of south-east Asia, food made its way into the book, to the extent that a couple of reviewers have described it as “food porn”. Ah, that term still tickles me!
Although Ursula and I are two completely different people (sometimes I felt like yelling at her: “Get on with it, already!”), we have some important elements in common. And it’s nice to know that, whatever scrapes Ursula gets into in the future, there’ll always be a bit of me tagging along.
“Food porn” I love the Guest Post and I feel my readers will enjoy it too. Thanks, Kaz for stopping by to entertain us. ^_^
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!
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EXCERPTS
“Did you have any difficulty finding the house?” Evelyn Long asked as she led me up a short flight of concrete steps.
“Well, the taxi driver wasn’t too keen to drive down the lane.”
Evelyn nodded her head. “The ignorant fear what they don’t understand,” she said.
I made a noise that might have indicated I agreed with her sentiment, and left it at that.
“I’m afraid Alfred is still meditating,” she began.
“I’m sorry,” I cut in, a shade too quickly, “I knew I shouldn’t have come. Perhaps I could pay him another visit some other time?”
I turned as if to leave and Evelyn Long grabbed me by the arm. No, “grabbed” was too gentle a term for it. Although her movement was smooth and she appeared to hold me lightly, I knew I would not be able to wrench free of her grasp without breaking flesh or limbs, or both, all of them mine. I looked up at her, startled, but saw nothing beyond polite interest. There wasn’t an ounce of strain on her face, nothing to show that she had me manacled with her slim, delicate-looking fingers.
Who – or what – was Evelyn Long?
“He won’t be much longer,” she said, as if commenting on the weather. “He’s been waiting to see you for more than a month now. We’re both glad you visited.”
And I suddenly realised that nobody knew where I was. Long and his supernaturally strong wife could do whatever they wanted with me, dispose of my dead body no doubt in the acres of primeval jungle behind their house and nobody would be the wiser. A wave of energy suddenly thrummed beneath my feet, a surge so strong I was sure that Long’s wife was able to feel it pulse through my body and travel to hers at our menacing point of contact.
“Why don’t I get you something to drink? You can relax while I fetch Alfred.”
**Do you there is trouble ahead when you go alone on a supernatural call**
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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/
Website / SandPressOnline / Twitter @SandalPress
The Complete Check Your Luck Agency is available from:
Amazon / Amazon UK / Apple / Barnes & Noble / OmniLit / Tomely
Get your Amazon copy of The Complete Check Your Luck Agency by K S Augustin by clicking on the cover below.
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GIVEAWAY
The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Please comment on the cover or guest post.
Follow the tour and comment; the more YOU comment, the better YOUR chances of winning. The tour dates can be found by clicking on the image below:
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If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
Look on the right sidebar at Home and let’s talk.
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