Maria V. Snyder changed from being a meteorologist to a novelist in 1995, when she began writing to keep her sanity while raising two children. Since then, she has published numerous freelance articles in magazines and newspapers, and teaches fiction-writing classes at the local college and area libraries. The classes give her the wonderful opportunity to encourage fellow writers, and to keep improving her craft.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maria always had a fascination with big storms. Dreaming of chasing tornados, Maria earned a bachelors of science degree in meteorology at Penn State University. But she discovered, much to her chagrin, that forecasting the weather wasn't one of her skills. In order to chase tornados you had to predict where they might form. Creating fantasy worlds where she has complete control of the weather was more agreeable to her.
Maria's research on food-tasting methods with an expert chocolate taster, her husband, turned out to be a delicious bonus while writing Poison Study.
Maria has a brown belt in Isshinryu Karate, and enjoys playing volleyball and the cello. Traveling in general and via cruise ship in particular are her biggest distractions from writing. Maria has traveled to Belize, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal.
Maria lives with her husband, son, daughter and yellow lab, Hazelnut, in Pennsylvania where she is at work on more LUNA novels. She is also pursuing a master's degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University.
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About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.
And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.
As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...
The mystery word for the Scavenger Hunt in the chapter below is bolded and colored RED. Simply find the word and then put that word in the rafflecopter as a giveaway entry. Make sure you check out the tour schedule below to check out the chapter samplers and enter into the giveaway! Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Locked in darkness that surrounded me like a coffin, there was nothing to distract me from my memories. Vivid recollections that waited to ambush me whenever my mind wandered.
Lying in the darkness I remembered white-hot flames stabbing at my face. Though my hands had been tied to a post that dug sharply into my back, I had recoiled from the onslaught. The fire had pulled away just before blistering my skin, but my eyebrows and eyelashes had long since been singed off.
“Put the flames out!” a man’s rough voice had ordered. I blew at the blaze through cracked lips. Dried by fire and fear, the moisture in my mouth had gone and my teeth radiated heat as if they had been baked in an oven.
“Idiot,” he cursed. “Not with your mouth. Use your mind. Put the flames out with your mind.”
Closing my eyes, I attempted to focus my thoughts on making the inferno disappear. I was willing to do anything, no matter how irrational, to persuade the man to stop.
“Try harder.” Once again the heat swung near my face, the bright light blinding me in spite of my closed eyelids.
“Set her hair on fire,” a different voice instructed. He sounded younger and more eager than the other man. “That should encourage her. Here, Father, let me.”
My body jerked with intense fear as I recognized the voice. Twisting to loosen the bonds that held me, my thoughts scattered into a mindless buzzing. A droning noise had echoed from my throat and grew louder until it had pervaded the room and quenched the flames.
The loud metallic clank of the lock startled me from my nightmarish memory. A wedge of pale yellow light sliced the darkness, then traveled along the stone wall as the heavy cell door opened. Caught in the lantern’s glow, the brightness seared my eyes. I squeezed my eyes shut as I cowered in the corner.
“Move it, rat, or we’ll get the whip!” Two dungeon guards attached a chain to the metal collar on my neck, and hauled me to my feet. I stumbled forward, pain blazing around my throat. As I stood on trembling legs, the guards efficiently chained my hands behind me and manacled my feet.
I averted my eyes from the flickering light as they led me down the main corridor of the dungeon. Thick rancid air puffed in my face. My bare feet shuffled through puddles of unidentifiable muck.
Ignoring the calls and moans of the other prisoners, the guards never missed a step, but my heart lurched with every word.
“Ho, ho, ho...Someone’s gonna swing.”
“Snap! Crack! Then your last meal slides down your legs!”
“One less rat to feed.”
“Take me! Take me! I wanna die too!”
This is a publisher hosted giveaway!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
10 winners to match 10 years!
Grand Prize is a signed hardcover first edition of Poison Study and Magic Study (both books).
First Place a signed hardcover first edition of Poison Study
5 winners will get a signed cover flat of the original cover of Poison Study
3 winners will get a signed original bookmark for Poison Study
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Week One:
9/28/2015- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads- Scavenger Hunt
9/29/2015- a GREAT read- Scavenger Hunt
9/30/2015- Seeing Double In Neverland- Scavenger Hunt
10/1/2015- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
10/2/2015- Alice Marvels- Scavenger Hunt
Week Two:
10/5/2015- Fiktshun- Scavenger Hunt
10/6/2015- Read Now Sleep Later- Scavenger Hunt
10/7/2015- Mundie Moms- Guest Post
10/8/2015- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Scavenger Hunt
10/9/2015- Parajunkee- Scavenger Hunt
