Guest Post & Giveaway with Between Author Kerry Schafer!!

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We are very excited to welcome today's guest
Author Kerry Schafer!!

Let's take a look at Kerry's Debut Release from
ACE Books...BETWEEN!!

Between
by
Kerry Schafer

The Books of the Between, Book 1

Urban Fantasy

January 29, 2013

”Vivian’s life is finally on track. She has a job she loves as an ER doctor and has just met – literally – the man of her dreams. But when her eccentric grandfather is murdered and designates her as his next of kin, she discovers that she is the last of a race of beings known as dreamshifters. It is her task to guard the doorways between waking and dreaming, which have already begun to unravel, spilling dangerous creatures from dream into the waking world. When she sets out to close the open doors and protect her town and the people she loves, Vivian confronts dragons, intrigue, and the dark secrets of her own family history. In the end, she comes face to face with a sorceress seeking eternal life and ultimate power. Vivian must find a way to stop her, or reality will be forever altered.”

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Grab your copy of BETWEEN here...
Amazon / Barnes & Noble

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Magic by Kerry Schafer

Magic is, for me, the transformative capacity. In the Walt Disney version, this means that you point at a teapot and it becomes a carriage. I mean it in terms of transforming the psyche, in making our bland and mundane vision of the world into something wonderful and insightful. The magical process is, at least in part, a re-sensitising of the adult, returning the adult to the condition of wonder of the child, who sees things as fresh and clean and new. ~Clive Barker

My first thought when I read this quote was I wish I'd written that. Seriously – Mr. Barker has neatly summed up the reason why I so love fantasy.

Most of my favorite books contain this element of transformative magic – Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, The Fionovar Tapestry. All have the capacity to make me see the world over again in a whole new way.

When we were children, my brother and I had a game we played with hand mirrors. We would take a mirror and hold it parallel to the ceiling, mirror side up and just below eye level. A whole new world appeared like magic. What used to be a staircase became a plummeting chasm. Light fixtures stood upright out of a spackled white floor on unbending chains. Wooden beams became obstacles to step over. It was, of course, a little dangerous, since the world we were walking in was different than the one we were looking at. No furniture in the mirror world, for example. No sharp Lego pieces. No unsuspecting cats. And yet they were there all the same, undeniably real and capable of causing bodily harm. But danger seems to be a necessary part of magic. Every fairytale has its dark side; the Fae and the gods are beautiful but capricious.

Do you remember that sense of wonder? An openness to the possibility of fairyland? Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy and monsters under your bed? Sure, the monsters were scary but they were also wonderful because they were denizens of The Other – that magical place that you might just get to if you walk through a mirror like Alice, or into a Wardrobe like Lucy.

The hunger for magic is hardwired into our psyches, I think, and even if we don't know what it is we are looking for, we seek it. In the past we created myths about gods and demons. We sat around campfires listening to bards sing the old magical tales. But Wonder is harder to come by in this age of Science and technology. We are cynical. The myths are fairytales for children and we are above all of that.

Still, I've spent much of my adult life trying to recapture that sense of magic, and I think this is why I'm drawn to writing contemporary fantasy. The ability to play with the world, to turn it upside down and make it over, is intoxicating. A simple thing like a door can be transformed into a portal. A dragon can show up on a beach in a small town. Dreams can spill over into the waking world. Some of us seek the wonderland in mind-altering substances. Some of us turn to movies and computer games. A lot of us still read books. I recover my magic in writing them.

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About the Author

Kerry Schafer was born and raised in Canada*, moved back and forth across the border several times, and finally settled on a compromise. She now lives in Washington state, but within an hour’s drive of her home and native land. Her childhood book collection traveled with her through all of those moves, and although she now owns a Kindle she continues to acquire books and bookshelves. During her lifetime, Kerry has worked as a lumber piler, an OB nurse, a secretary, and a substitute teacher, among other things. No matter where she lives or what she is doing, she finds a way to create writing time. Currently she balances writing and family with her work as a mental health counselor.

*And yes, she does sometimes say ‘eh?’ but never, ever ‘aboot.’

Learn more about Kerry here...
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest / Newsletter

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Thank you Kerry for joining us today! I for one cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of BETWEEN!! It sounds so great!!

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ACE Books is giving one lucky reader a Print copy of Kerry Schafer's BETWEEN!!
Comment below to enter and be sure to come back here next Sunday to see if you won.
Contest open in the US and Canada only.
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