Curse of Stars
Donna Compositor
(Diamond Crier #1)
Publication date: February 19th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Sabi Perez is the last Diamond Crier, only she doesn’t know it. Not until a crazed ruler from another world comes to collect her priceless tears and won’t take no for an answer.
Living in New York, Sabi’s seen some nasty things, but the lengths to which her captor will go to keep his crown are things found only in the darkest nightmares. Afraid and alone, Sabi finds solace in her cellmate, Anya, and Cabal, a fellow Crier who also has powers, a rare combination that buys his favor from the ruler. Only it’s a favor he doesn’t want.
In a fit of rage, power erupts out of Sabi, the same power Cabal has, and a spark of hope ignites. Together they may have a chance at escape, something no other Crier has done. Except a ruler hellbent on draining them of every last diamond tear isn’t their only hurdle. If they escape they’ll be hunted to the ends of the earth, if they survive the trek to safety. If they stay the ruler will leech them dry. Sabi would rather die trying than lie down and die, even if that means running away into even more danger.
“. . . vividly imagined and deftly plotted dark fantasy . . .” BookLife Prize in Fiction

Top 10 Book-Writing Thoughts

1.) Do these names make any sense? (The names I use always make me blush. I don’t know why. Probably because they’re so raw coming out of my head.)

2.) How long does a black eye take to heal?

3.) How long can a filthy person actually survive? (Because cleanliness aides in survival, if the Criers are basically left to fester in the cells, how long before they develop dirty diseases and start dying?)

4.) At an average of twenty miles per day, how long should I make their trek from the castle to South Fair? (It’s details like this that help to fill out a story, even though the reader may skim right over them.)

5.) How effective are leeches?

6.) OMG this goes on forever. (Usually thinking this right before I cut a chunk of superfluous text. I did A LOT of that in one of the last edits.)

07.) Who’s going to survive book two? (Yeah, I’m always plotting like this. What deaths will affect the main character the most?)

08.) Blech. I can’t write endings.

09.) OMG I love this line. (Every once in a while I’ll come across a short piece of text that makes me wonder if I was under the influence of something because I can’t possibly have written something that incredible. It’s usually only a sentence.)

10.) How the hell does this magic work? (Creating rules for a magical system is hard and cumbersome and I’m still trying to keep everything straight about it.)