Featuring a Guest Post from Robyn Singer, author of scifi space opera The Order of the Banshee
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.
Excerpt from The Order of the Banshee
“Yael, you must get up and shower,” P’Ken declared, standing right over me, both hands on her stick.
“Seriously, you’re starting to stink pretty bad,” Aarif followed, standing right next to her.
“Waaaaaaaah!” I cried, curled up in a ball in my bed. “I miss my Moli!”
The past few days had been absolutely miserable. For security reasons, I couldn’t contact Molina while she was on Cykeb, and living in the school without her around was too weird. As much as I’d been staying in bed, I couldn’t even sleep in such a big one without her. My only comforts had come from my endless supply of beer, instant ramen, and gummies, the bottles, cups, and bags they’d come in all over my bed and floor.
“She’ll be back soon. And then you can make up for lost time.”
“For now, however, you promised Shun you’d spar with her today, and a thief of your distinction shouldn’t be gaining a reputation as a lying thief.”
“Come on, let’s get ready for the day.”
I groaned for an extended period, rubbing my temples. “You’re not my parents.”
“Obviously not,” P’Ken rolled her eyes. “My child will never be allowed to make their room a pigsty.”
Aarif plopped down next to me, shaking the mattress. “We may not be your parents, but we are your family. We want to help you.”
I shook my head. “You can’t.”
Guest Post: THE LIKES AND DON’T LIKES OF ROBYN SINGER
No story is written in a vacuum. Every story is informed by the time and place in which it was
written, and by the writer’s own experiences, biases, and worldview. While discussion of this can
lead to some pretty heavy topics, I’m sitting comfy under a warm, fluffy blanket right now, so I’m
more in the mood to talk a little about the little things that I really love and the little things things
that annoy me that inform my work.
Favorite food? It’s sushi (I could eat nothing but salmon sashimi and be happy), but that’s only
because my favorite childhood deli closed down. The matzah ball and kreplach soup served there
is still the best dish I’ve ever had. My least favorite food? Cottage cheese. Losing weight would
be so much easier if it didn’t make me sick.
Favorite fashion style? Preppy! Fashion is incredibly important to me (if you can find my real
name, you can learn about my failed fashion brand), and I am a preppy girl through and through.
Least favorite fashion style? I will never be caught dead in a t-shirt and jeans ever again.
Favorite movie? Koe No Katachi. Everything Everywhere All At Once came close to dethroning
this animated masterpiece for me, but it fell just short of doing so. A beautiful story about
bullying, redemption, adolescence, and disability. Least favorite movie? I don’t really hate any
movies, because I don’t tend to watch obviously bad movies unless the intended purpose is to
laugh at them, but, as a comic fan, no adaptation has upset me as much as Birds of Prey.
About Robyn Singer
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 publiscation by Band of Bards in 2022.
See her ramble about her passions on Twitter
Follow her Instagram
Giveaway
Robyn Singer will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I like the cover art! It sets the mood for the book!
Thank you so much for hosting today!
This sounds like a good story.
Have you ever read a book that changed the way you look at writing?