Humbling Reviews & People's Fave Excerpts, Plus Summer Sale!

Fireseed cult dude up to no good!
image by Jay Montgomery
for Fireseed One

In celebration of June, the eBook version of my novel, Fireseed One is now on a summer sale! 
For a limited time, the eBook is only $0.99 at Amazon, iTunes, B&N for Nook and other estores.
The illustrated paperback is on sale at B&N, down to $9.99 (from $11.10).
I'm thrilled to announce that it's earned 21 5-star reviews and counting! For those of you who are new to Fireseed or who are curious, I am posting a few mini-excerpts. I also want to thank my readers and book reviewers, and post some of their blurbs, because they talk about Fireseed better than I can. Readers and book bloggers are literary angels! 

From Austine at the Magick Pen:

“I found myself caught up in a futuristic world with characters that made me laugh and cheer them on… Stine’s illustrations really helped put a picture to all the beautiful descriptions… the romance between Varik and Marisa was sweet… a fast-paced read, filled with action and adventure.” 

From Electrifying Reviews:

"An action-packed, emotional thrill ride that made me forget about the genre, and instead focus on the characters and their journey."

From Carolyn MacCullough, author of Once a Witch and Always a Witch

“Action, adventure, love, and loss, plus superb world building all adds up to an incredibly imaginative story – one that should not be missed.”

From a reader/reviewer whose flattery is totally humbling:

“Like those imaginative science fiction masters Heinlein, Asimov, and D'Engle, Ms. Stine provides a techno-cool descriptive language interlaced with darkly humorous satiric asides to present this ravaged world… There is always a sense of mystery. We can identify with Varik. What he doesn't know, we also don't know. And what he wants to find out, we want to find out. We also want to know who Marisa is… Is she working for the enemy, the terrorists who may have killed Varik's father? Is she in love with their leader? Is she falling for Varik? This combination of attention to the right kind of detail and letting the story drive itself is the inner strength of FIRESEED ONE.”

Favorite lines from reader/reviewers: 

"Take a long look at this future. You might want to take notes.”

"Stine's uncanny world building is both horrifying and hilarious."

"Enter Marisa Baron, a beguiling female intruder, and Varik's best friend, Auden Fleury, a fashion hound, who sells amphibious racing vehicles, and who's had "synaptic reorg" for ADD. I enjoyed the author's skillful interweaving of quirky conflicts, hot romance and scary events."

Favorite fan moment so far:

A mom wrote on the Fireseed One book page: "My son keeps looking up over the book and saying, " This is really good! Is there any more in the series?"

Most unusual interview:

By Mistress Kat, in Romanian-how cool is that?! Click here.

A few short excerpts from Fireseed One:

“The sun, through the filter of the trees, glints green off the cells of her suit, outlines her soft curves. I’m overcome with visions of my father poring over his books, and the wet, verdant forest floor, and newts pausing over toxic yellow candy, and leaves flying up from the impact of Bryan’s body hitting the ground. Another, confused part of me hears my father’s voice calling the refs scum, trash, slime. With flashes of fury at Marisa, mixed with a sad, all-consuming longing that feels dangerously like love, I pluck her hands from my face and push her away."

"We anchor at SnowAngel Island, trek toward the center of town, and pile into L’Ongitude. It used to be a whale-blubber processing plant. Now it’s a club full of striking, well-heeled young people gyrating to Nu-Arctic beats. We flash the fake IDs that Audun lent us. Good light show. Snowflake and icicle shapes in silvery colors whirl across the walls and across peoples’ bodies. Swallowing a lump of envy, I glance at the couples, lucky enough to already be in college, who will soon be unfolding the fronds of their dream careers.

As I watch them, I suddenly get this awful vision of the world, in, say, three or four years. A world where we never found those agar seed disks and the food bank has dried up. It’s a world where these healthy, lively party-hounds are haggard and hungry, and no longer dancing. Where they’re on their bony hands and knees in their backyards, scratching for mushrooms and sinewy worms. I grab anxiously at a pile of pink-and-yellow agar-pastries that a L’Ongitude waitress is carrying, and stuff one in.

Shaking off the vision as I chew, I glance over at Marisa. She’s arching her brows at a girl’s skimpy garb. The girl ignores Marisa but her dance partner gives Marisa an appreciative once-over. Even though Marisa’s hair is hastily pinned up with strands that blew out from the wind, she stands out in this crowd because of her unusual Land-style suit—its long pants hugging her legs. Most girls on SnowAngel dress in short frocks with hike shorts. 

Little does this guy ogling Marisa know that I hold her captive with an invisible fish-tracker; that without that she’d escape in a hot minute. The irony of it makes me cringe. I don’t need to fish with virtual line to snag a girl, and she’s certainly not my girlfriend. Marisa’s keeping step with me, and after that first bold stare at the dancers, she bows her head when someone looks her way. Anxiety is practically sweating off her. Why does she hate crowds so much? Is she in hiding? If so, why?"

"I order Restavik rye beer, Marisa, an Emporium ale. Freddie orders a highball. With his pinky out, showing off his diamond ring, he tips the drink into his mouth. Piece of work.

Marisa plunges in. "Why the all-points bulletin out on me?"

Freddie eases into a slick grin. "Can't Melvyn Baron be worried about his own daughter?""

“Marisa starts to snoop. I might as well too. It's not often that I get to visit a water pellet company in a freaky refugee nation."

Mascot Bird after a sandstorm.
Illustration by Catherine Stine

As I start to write the sequel, I am so thankful for all of those who have read and celebrated Fireseed so far, and thankful in advance of those who will read it and know what it's like to be carried on the crazy rollercoaster into Ocean Dominion. Land Dominion and the Hotzone. Into the future.

Let's hear, hear it for writers, for books, and for this amazing community!


Catherine