Character Blog Hop - Introducing Skyla (Book: Guardian Core)

I was tagged by the amazing Justine Manzano and you can find her post here: http://justinemanzano.com/2014/09/08/introducing-jacklyn-madison-character-bloghop-2014/

Bio:
Justine Manzano is a multi-genre writer living in Bronx, NY with her husband, son, and a cacophony of cats. Her short fiction has appeared in the anthology Things You Can Create, Sliver of Stone Magazine, and The Greenwich Village Literary Review. She maintains a semi-monthly blog at JustineManzano.com and a twitter account where she discusses her adventures in juggling aspects of her life such as motherhood, writing, and the very serious businesses of fangirling and multiple forms of geekery. She works as a fiction reader for Sucker Literary Magazine and is currently searching for a publishing home for her YA Urban Fantasy series, Keys and Guardians.

In her post Justine talks about her character, Jacklyn, from her YA Contemporary Fantasy novel, The Order of the Key. Read the blurb below.

Jacklyn Madison has a thing for heroes. She reads about them, watches them on TV, and would very much like to become one. When a monster makes an attempt on her life she discovers she is one - the long lost member of The Order of the Key, a group that protects humanity from creatures that come through interdimensional rifts. It's all fun and games until training for her duties reveals the Order's out of touch views - Keys, like Jacklyn, are protected while Guardians, like the rest of her family, are expendable. As she rails against their value system, she finds herself in the centre of a power struggle between the group's leader, Lavinia, and her idealistic son, Kyp - the boy Jacklyn likes. Worse, Kyp's attempts to protect her only entangle her in a mire of deceit. Viewed as a target on one side and a weapon on the other, Jacklyn must find a way to protect the people she loves and decide what kind of hero she's willing to become. Filled with action, romance, and paranoia, The Order of the Key is an edgy Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy novel that is currently searching for a home with an agent.

Thanks for tagging me Justine!

Please meet my character, Skyla, the protagonist from my Sky Stone series:

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What is your name? Are you fictional/historical? My name is Skyla Clarke, the people close to me call me Sky. Most people know me as the Phoenix. I am a fictional character that has plagued the mind of my author for at least six years!

When and where is your story set? My story is set in the magical lands of Branzia, a fictional land hidden from the rest of Earth due to its magical inhabitants. Being separated from the rest of Earth meant that Branzia didn't progress as quickly and, despite being the 21st century, it is stuck in the medieval era for the most part. Branzia is separated in to two nations, Prayell and Tryzon, which are at war during Sky Stone, book one of the Sky Stone series, and are still on edge post-war during Guardian Core, book two.

What should we know about you? I am a 17 year old Sky Guardian with the Gift to fight and wield fire among other powers. All Sky Guardians are brought to Branzia from the Outside world via their Sky Stones and are given different abilities in order to keep the balance and protect the magic of Branzia. I'm originally Australian but become a resident of the town of Tolla after my Sky Stone, Flicker, brings me to Branzia.

As a person I am stubborn and wilful. I will never run from a fight and have a slight temper. Before coming to Branzia I never had many friends and this made me very introspective. I am selfless, brave and loving but I wouldn't normally name myself as such since I have fairly low self-esteem.

What is screwing up your life? In Guardian Core the main thing making my life a nightmare is the loss of the one I love. I discover that the strength of my power lies in my passion to protect those I love, and hence by losing that I gradually become weaker. 

I discover that there once existed a previous Phoenix who met with a terrible fate, dying in the worst possible way. The prospect of having to face off against a monster without my power is very frightening.

I'm forced to hide my gradual demise from my friends and the Sky Guardians I now lead as the leader of the Guardian Core, a new order of Sky Guardians. I can't afford to lose their trust when the Guardian Core is still so new and as we approach one of the greatest threats to the Sky Guardians in history.

As an added frustration, the Tryzonians blame me for their loss of the Sky Stone War… which it was. Many of them treat me with open hostility even though I am now trying to aid them! They don't even want me to help their refugees or heal their wounded.

What is your goal? My goal is to help form the Guardian Core and to protect the Sky Guardians who reside there. I must live up to the name of the Phoenix, no longer just for myself, but for those that follow me. This means trying to stop my powers from disappearing. One of my long term goals is to start bringing peace between Tryzon and Prayell although it doesn't seem like the Tryzonians want to listen to me…

What is the title of your book? The title of the book is Guardian Core. Guardian Core is Book 2 of the Sky Stone series.

So, when will the book be published? You should be able to read Guardian Core, the second part of my story, next year (2015).

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Now for the lucky authors who get to continue this blog hop:

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Julianne Alcott

I live in South Africa, and have been writing stories ever since I learned how to write.

My favourite things are...
Writing (obviously), dancing, and spending time with the people I care about. Next in line are reading, movies, food and exploring.

I look awful in most photos, and my hair is the thing I would like to change about myself. Most of the time it goes "boiingg".

I have the perfect job for me... I work in a primary school library. I get to teach Media Studies and really open the world up for children. 

I write love stories that give me interesting things to learn about. My first sci-fi novel, The Ripmender, was published by Wordsmack Publishers on the 6th May as an E book.

Blog: http://juliannealcott.wordpress.com/

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Bob Kat
Bob Kat is actually a husband (Bob) and wife (Kathy – get it? Bob Kat) writing team who are fans of romance, time travel and mysteries and love reliving their teenage years through the adventures of Kelly, Scott, Austin and Zoey (of course, without the time travel). The series has won an amazing number of awards including Best Indie Book Young Adult of 2013 (OMG), Best Indie Book Young Adult of 2014 (BION), Reader’s Favorite YA of 2013 (BRB) and Reader’s Favorite YA of 2014 (BION).

Kathy has always been a storyteller. She published her first book when she was just four years old…okay, it was self-published (way ahead of the trend). The Little Black Horse That Ran Away was self-illustrated and completely sold out of its first printing (one copy to her mother).

Years later, Kathy’s first official book was published by Dell. Since then, she had a total of 23 novels published by Dell, Crown and Harlequin and 9 novels self-published on Amazon.com. She writes adult romantic suspense and new adult romances under the name Kathy Clark.

To be perfectly honest, Kathy and Bob would rather be riding horses or sitting on a white sand beach, reading a book than writing, but the characters in their heads insist that they tell their stories, just like that little black horse so long ago.

For a complete list of books, screenplays, awards and more, check out Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Clark_(American_author)