Guest Author: Krista D. Ball

Today, I am excited to welcome Krista Ball, the author of Harvest Moon.

Dancing Cat angers her Ancestor, whose harsh punishment teaches her that true strength comes from the spirit within.

Cursed, abused, and desperate to know her future, Dancing Cat sneaks a glimpse inside her tribe’s Sacred Bundle, a powerful source of spirit magic. Instead of the future, she sees her most powerful ancestor, Small Tree and incurs her wrath. Small Tree strips Dancing Cat of everything — her home, her identity, even her gender – and drops her in the middle of enemy lands.

Injured, and in a strange, new body, she is befriended by Bearclaw who is on a spirit quest. He offers her assistance and asks for nothing in return; a kindness Dancing Cat had forgotten existed. She struggles to weave a path around the obstacles of friendship, identity, and longing in order to survive her eventual return home to face even further punishment.

And she does it while wearing someone else’s skin.

Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away a copy of Harvest Moon to a lucky reader.
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Why do you read?

It’s an odd question, I know. But, as an author, I want to know why people read. I find it very interesting. Some people seem to choose whatever Oprah tells them to read. I have no problem with that; I generally steer clear of anything she recommends as I usually don’t enjoy the same things she does. More importantly, I think people don’t think about why they read or like certain things and, when they think about it, often folks discover that they should be reading something else.

As a reader, I want to be entertained. I don’t want any deep message, or commentary on existence. I want to put my feet up, ignore my life, and pretend that I am an uber rebel leader overthrowing the galactic government. I feel challenged enough day-to-day; I don’t want my fiction to challenge me, as well.

Some people want to read to learn. They want to have the world unfold for them. They want current or past cultures displayed for them to see. They want talking history books. Others, want explosions. Still others, want hot, raw passion and sex. And some people want to see the inner truths about humanity unveiled in their fiction.

So, I want to know why you read. What does reading do for you? What do you look for in your reading material? Perhaps we can even make a few suggestions of lesser known authors to each other. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m always on the look out for a new favourite author!

Bio: Krista D. Ball is a cold author from Canada. Through a series of events that aren’t her fault, she has acquired two dogs, seven cats, two children, and an engineer. But, really, it isn’t her fault. Her debut work, Harvest Moon, just debuted from Canada’s newest e-publisher, MuseItUp Publishing. When Krista isn’t cleaning litter boxes, she is a freelance writer, a fiction author, and a software tester. She enjoys being pretentious on her blog, www.kristadball.com/blog.

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Thank you Krista for visiting Literary Escapism.

Contest Time! Krista has graciously offered to give away a copy of Harvest Moon to a lucky reader.  All you have to do is answer this one question: Why do you read?

As always, there’s more ways of getting your name in the hat (remember, these aren’t mandatory to enter, just extra entries):

• +1 for each place you post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it, share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your answer.
• +1 to any review you comment on, however, comments must be meaningful. Just give me the title of the review and I’ll be able to figure it out from there.
• +1 If you are a follower of Literary Escapism on Facebook and/or Twitter
• +10 Purchase any novel through LE’s Amazon store or the Book Depository sometime during this contest and send a copy of the receipt VIA email for your purchase to: jackie AT literaryescapism DOT com. Each purchase is worth ten entries.

There is one thing I am adding to my contests now…the winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.

The contest will stay open until October 21st, at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the Research Randomizer and the List Randomizer.