If I’d Never Heard of Me, Would I Read My Book? by Robyn Singer – Guest Post and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess fish Promotions. Robyn Singer will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

If I’d Never Heard of Me, Would I Read My Book?

A question like this is a tough one, especially as I don’t read nearly as many novels nowadays as I did when I was younger. I’m sure many of us in our 20s and 30s can recall speeding through a book in a day or two when we were kids, but now needing a week or month to finish one. Let’s say that I’m a passionate reader with no professional connection to my publisher, Cinnabar Moth, and The Order of the Banshee happened to come across my dash as a
recommendation.

Based on the gorgeous cover, my attention would immediately be drawn. I almost exclusively read books with female protagonists, the framing makes it seem like there’s a deep emotional connection between the two women on the cover, the shattered sword between them is a dynamic visual, and the women’s contrasting red and bluish-black hair, combined with their depressed facial expressions, would make me think of my favorite tv show in recent years,
Arcane. Looking at the description of the book, my attention would be further captured. The tagline hinting at this being a story set after “Happily Ever After” would sound right up my alley.

The first paragraph of the summary establishing that the women on the cover are married and that this is a space opera with found family, and a thief as the main protagonist would almost certainly seal the deal for me, but it would also make me question if this book was a sequel.

Sure enough, after a quick Google search and most likely a cup of coffee, I’d find that The Order of the Banshee is a sequel to last year’s, The Sunrisers. I might ask the person who put the book on my dash if The Order of the Banshee could be read on its own, but even when they said, “Yes”, I’d still probably want to read The Sunrisers first, so I could see how the series
leads, “professional thief and amateur noodle critic” Yael Pavnick and former military captain, Molina Langstone, first got together. Lesbian childhood friends to enemies to lovers would be impossible for me to pass up.

I wrote these books to be everything I want in stories, with the series protagonist, Yael, being specifically designed to be everything little me would have wanted in a hero. Yes, I would absolutely read both The Order of the Banshee and its predecessor, The Sunrisers, even if I’d never heard of me. I suppose it wasn’t such a difficult question after all.

It’s been five years since Yael and Molina reunited. Yael is one of the richest and most infamous thieves in the universe and a member of the Order of the Banshee. She is rising through the ranks of the elite organization with her wife and her ride-or-die best friends, Aarif and P’Ken, at her side, and she’s even running her own school for thieves. Molina, former captain in the universe’s premiere peacekeeping organization, the Sunrisers, is happily married to Yael and tells herself that’s enough.

Their seemingly perfect lives are interrupted when they receive news of the death of Molina’s father. When Molina returns home for his funeral, she reunites with her former friend and now enemy: Kaybell, the emperor of the Cykebian Empire. Kaybell, eager to mend the relationship, informs Molina that her father was murdered and offers to help Molina find those responsible and bring them to justice.

While Molina and Kaybell hunt the people responsible for her father’s death, Yael is hunted by an invincible assassin – one with a terrible secret. These two seemingly unrelated events are more connected than Yael or Molina could possibly imagine.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Yael was never peaceful in her sleep. Sometimes it was adorable, as she’d blurt out lines from her ridiculous dreams and punch and kick the air. Other times it was annoying as Hell, as she’d sleepwalk, go to the fridge, and stuff food in my mouth. And usually it was weird food she and Aarif liked that I wouldn’t normally touch. But sometimes, it wasn’t adorable or annoying. Sometimes it was scary.

“Ahh!” Yael shrieked, shaking her knees. “Ahhh!”

“Yael, baby, wake up,” I said, getting on top of her and resting my hands on her face. “Wake up!”

Yael’s eyes jolted open and she tried to throw me off her. That had happened a few times before, but I’d learned how to grab onto her so I stayed in place. As Yael panted, she wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed me like one of the stuffed animals she’d had as a kid.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s okay. You’re home. You aren’t back there.”

Yael’s warm breath continued to blow against my ear. “It hurts. It shouldn’t, but it does. Every other week…I’m on the Noriker. And every time I close my eyes, I see that bitch.” Yael roared, slamming her fists down on the bed, shaking the entire room. “I could have killed her. Instead, she’s the fucking emperor.”

About the Author: Robyn Singer is a lifelong New Yorker, and since she was a kid playing with her action figures, all she’s wanted to do is tell stories. She went to SUNY Purchase to get a degree in Playwriting & Screenwriting with a minor in Film and has produced several comic books, but she’s always had her eye on becoming a published novelist.

As an Autistic, bisexual trans woman, diversity and inclusion in stories are vitally important to her, and she seeks to represent as many groups as possible in her work. While she wants to show characters of marginalized groups experiencing joy, she also draws inspiration from real-world problems which bother her.

The Sunrisers (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, November 2022) is her debut novel. Order of the Banshee is book in the The Ricochet Trilogy. Robyn was the author in residence for quester 1 of 20222 for Cinnabar Moth Literary Collections. She writes novels and short stories of all genres and for all ages, and she continues to produce comic books. Her ongoing series, Final Gamble, began publication by Band of Bards in 2022.

Twitter | Instagram

Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Character Creation by Robyn Singer – Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Robyn Singer will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Character Creation

Characters are the most important part of any story. In my eyes, this is not up for debate. Two years after finishing your book, readers won’t remember the details of the plot or the intricacies of your world building, but they will remember a character they truly fell in love with, or even hated with a fiery passion. It’s because of this that I put more effort into my characters than anything else, and it’s where I feel my writing truly shines. How do I create my characters?

Well, let’s take a look at my process.

Generally, I come up with a premise first and then create the characters around it. I’ll come up with personalities and backstories which allow them to fill the roles I need them to, which fit the themes of the story, and which make them unique. From there, I write out a description of what they look like, how they dress, what their hobbies are, what their favorite food is, what their goal is, and what their lie vs truth, or, what they learn about themselves during the story, is. As minor as some of these aspects may seem, all of them serve to help understand and flesh out a character.

Of course, sometimes the characters come first. Often, I’ll recycle characters from a previous work of mine which didn’t work, and insert them into a new story. When I do this, there’s much fun to be had tinkering with them in all the ways I listed above to keep the core of who they are, while also making them fit properly. More than once, I’ve specifically come up with a pitch just because I thought of how certain characters I’d created in the past could fit into a specific setting.

Like any writer, there are certain tropes I love above all others and while I try not to repeat myself to a gross extent, there are certain types of characters I like to have appear in all my stories, just because I have fun writing them.

I’m not one to base characters off of real people, though that is a totally valid strategy.
What I will often do, however, is steal the names of real people and give them to my character.
Names for my characters either come from that, a list online, or my brain thinking of something that fits on its own based on the vibes of the character.

What I keep in mind when I’m going through this process are the key elements a
character needs to possess. They need to be interesting, they need to be empathetic, they need to be lovable or hateable, depending on what you’re going for, and they need to say something in relation to what the story is about. Keep these things in mind when you’re breaking down your characters, and you’ll have a winner every time.

After years of adventures, professional thief and amateur noodle critic Yael is invited to join The Order of the Banshee, a collection of the greatest female thieves in the universe, despite being decades younger than any of them.

Yael’s childhood best friend, Molina, has lived the opposite life: a stern and serious member of The Sunrisers, the universe’s premiere peacekeeping organization, she’s just been promoted to Captain, serving under her father. Her first assignment of her new command: Bring down The Order of the Banshee.

Yael and Molina now find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict neither of them will escape unscathed. The love they have for each other is the same as when they were young, but either their personal values or their love will break.

In this game of cat and mouse, both women must use all their wits and tricks to stay ahead of their new enemy. Will order triumph, or will chaos? No matter what, Yael and Molina will both lose.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Outside the cave, ground troops were being deployed, the sound of their combat boots stomping on the moon’s surface echoing. And inside the cave, eleven of the smartest and most dangerous women in the universe were staring daggers straight into my eyes.

“I knew we couldn’t trust a whippersnapper,” Athena York said.

“How very disappointing,” Beatriz Nunez snarled.

“I have a granddaughter in the Sunrisers,” Lilith hummed. “If you tipped her off, I’ll at least respect you for going for the heart.”

I shook my head and swung my arms around, sweating from every pore. “I swear I didn’t call them. This is all just a big misunderstanding. You have my complete loyalty.”

Madame N’gwa cocked her head to the side and grinned. “You wanted to be a Sunriser when you were even more of a baby than you are now. Perhaps you made a deal to make your dream finally come true.”

A shocking pain surrounded my heart. Those Sunriser bastards had stolen all the trust I’d earned from my idols through years of deceit. Whichever captain was in charge of this operation was going to pay.

Lioness stepped forward, crushing her glass in her hand and sending small shards flying all over the place. “Thank you for sharing your story with me. But I don’t think we’ll be hearing anymore of them. Rather, I don’t think you’ll be living any more of them.”

About the Author: Robyn Singer is a lifelong New Yorker, and since she was a kid playing with her action figures, all she’s wanted to do is tell stories. She went to SUNY Purchase to get a degree in Playwriting & Screenwriting with a minor in Film and has produced several comic books, but she’s always had her eye on becoming a published novelist.

As an Autistic, bisexual trans woman, diversity and inclusion in stories are vitally important to her, and she seeks to represent as many groups as possible in her work. While she wants to show characters of marginalized groups experiencing joy, she also draws inspiration from real-world problems which bother her.

The Sunrisers (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, November 2022) is her debut novel. She writes novels and short stories of all genres and for all ages, and she continues to produce comic books. Her ongoing series, Final Gamble, will begin publication by Band of Bards in 2022.

Twitter | Instagram

Buy the book at Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway