A Book Addict's Bookshelves (Old): Blog Tour + Giveaway - The Occasional Diamond Thief by J.A. McLachlan

Find the tour schedule here.

The Occasional Diamond Thief
by J.A. McLachlan
Release Date: 05/15/15
EDGE Publishing

Summary from Goodreads:

What if you learned your father was a thief? Would you follow in his footsteps, learn his "trade"? If you were the only one who knew, would you keep his secret?

When 16-yr-old Kia is training to be a universal translator, she is co-opted into traveling as a translator to Malem. This is the last place in the universe that Kia wants to be—it’s the planet where her father caught the terrible illness that killed him—but it’s also where he got the magnificent diamond that only she knows about. Kia is convinced he stole it, as it is illegal for any off-worlder to possess a Malemese diamond.

Using her skill in languages – and another skill she picked up, the skill of picking locks - Kia unravels the secret of the mysterious gem and learns what she must do to set things right: return the diamond to its original owner.

But how will she find out who that is when no one can know that she, an off-worlder, has a Malemese diamond? Can she trust the new friends she’s made on Malem, especially handsome but mysterious 17-year-old Jumal, to help her? And will she solve the puzzle in time to save Agatha, the last person she would have expected to become her closest friend?

Kia is quirky, with an ironic sense of humor, and a loner. Her sidekick, Agatha, is hopeless in languages and naive to the point of idiocy in Kia's opinion, but possesses the wisdom and compassion Kia needs.

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Buy Links:

Amazon

EDGE Publishing has a Thank you Gift for anyone who buys the print version of the book.
If they send an email to events@hadespublications.com with their Amazon receipt, they will receive a copy of a short story that features Kia.

Praise for The Occasional Diamond Thief by J. A. McLachlan

***

"J. A. McLachlan is a terrific writer -- wry and witty, with a keen eye for detail. I've been following her work with interest and delight since 2003. In a world where young-adult fiction is booming, The Occasional Diamond Thief propels McLachlan to the front of the pack." -- Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of FlashForward.

"The story is full of humor, danger, fun, and adventure. This is Science Fiction anyone would love." -- J. Jones, VINE VOICE

"Flawless--The Occasional Diamond Thief was one of those rare stories where I found myself hanging onto every word. McLachlan delivers a fast-paced, unpredictable story with perfectly-executed twists. Descriptions were succinct and epigrammatic with no room for boredom. It felt so real, it was almost like being in the theater with a surprise treat at the end. Much like the theater, once the credits have started to roll and the crowd starts to thin, there was a snippet at the end that you do not want to miss." -- BittenbyBooks.com

"Loved it! I haven't read a heroine I loved this much since Katniss
Everdeen. McLachlan's Kia is smart, tough and hilarious, and pairing her with serene, forgiving Agatha left me laughing long after I finished the story. The settings were vivid, the plot raced along, and the themes kept me turning pages. McLachlan combines her love of science fiction, ethics and good, old-fashioned storytelling in The Occasional Diamond Thief, and the results couldn't be better. I loved every page." -- Amanda Darling, Screenwriter

"J. A. McLachlan is a remarkable creator of worlds, a remarkable creator of character, a master of suspense. In short, a remarkable storyteller. You don’t have to be a young adult to love this book." -- Sheryl Loeffler, Writer, A Land in the Storytelling Sea

Promo Post:

Hello, I’m J. A. McLachlan, the author of The Occasional Diamond Thief. I’m so pleased to be meeting you, and I’d like to thank Jess at A Book Addict’s Bookshelves for having me here today. This blog tour is part of my online launch of The Occasional Diamond Thief, and I’ll have something different at each stop – book excerpts, author and character reveals, vlogs, reviews and blog posts – for you to enjoy. You can find The Occasional Diamond Thief at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NF9NYJM
And you can find me at: http://www.janeannmclachlan.com

Character interview with Kia, the female protagonist in The Occasional Diamond Thief:

JA: Kia, thanks for joining us.

Kia: Don’t thank me. I wasn’t going to.

JA: You weren’t?

Kia: I hate talking about myself. Besides, I thought: Why not let everyone think she just made me up? See how she likes people thinking she’s a liar. She called me a thief right on the cover of the book.

JA: I’m sorry about that, Kia. I was going to call it “The Malemese Diamond.” But my street team liked the title “The Diamond Thief” better.

Kia: Yeah well, you can let them know I’m not speaking to them. At least I was able to write in “Occasional” before it went to print. Best I could think of on short notice.

JA: Yes, I saw that you did that. It was a bit of a surprise, but I like it. I’ll try to warn my team if any of them come by. And I’m glad you came anyway.

Kia: I didn’t have a choice. I was all set to go see an actionvid instead, and Jaro cell’d me.

JA: He told you to come?

Kia: No, he didn’t tell me to come. He just gave me that look.

JA: That look?

Kia: Yeah, that ‘you-are-going-to-need-so-many-social-whatever-lessons-I’ll-never-have-to-pay-you-to-tutor-me-again’ look. And I need the money. I can’t afford that look.

JA: It wouldn’t be because you like Jaro, would it?

Kia: Nope.

JA: But you do like Jaro?

Kia: Everyone likes Jaro. He’s the most-liked guy in the universe. He’s 100% likable.

JA: So you do like him.

Kia: Will you get off this “like” kick? ‘Cause I can leave. It’s not too late to catch that vid.

JA: That’s another thing you like, isn’t it? Action vids?

Kia: I used to.

JA: You don’t anymore?

Kia: Well, after what happened to me in Malem, they just seem a little unreal. I mean, what normal 16-year-old goes around jumping from trains to roof-tops, or hunting animals with a bow-and-arrow, or fighting alongside a wolf-pack? Seriously? Did you do that when you were sixteen?

JA: Hey, I like movies like that!

Kia: Well, when you’ve got people chasing you, or locking you up, it’s not much help trying to think what those vid-heroes would do.

JA: I guess not.

Kia: That’s how they know you didn’t make me up. I don’t, like, jump over buildings or start a planet-wide revolution. They don’t even teach those things in the self-defence class I’m taking at the University.

JA: What would you do when bad things happen?

Kia: I’d get on the first ship outa there!

JA: That’s not what you did on Malem.

Kia: I didn’t get the chance to do that on Malem.

JA: You could have left Agatha to die.

JA: Kia? Are you still there?

Kia: I do not like talking about people dying. I do not like people dying. And I am not going to say anything more about that. Read the book.

Author Comment:

Three things about me that find their way into my main character, Kia:

1. Like Kia, I lost my father when I was young, so probably her loyalty for him even after he’s gone came from somewhere inside me.

2. I was not as cool, rebellious and reserved as Kia was, but I was also not part of the popular set as a teenager; I read all the time, liked to debate ideas, and was shy. So it was easy for me to write a character who isn’t good at relating to her peers.

3. Like Kia, I love languages. In high school I took French, German and Latin. The French and German I have kept up with; the Latin not so much.

Check here for the other places I’ll be from May 18^th until May 29th: http://yaboundbooktours.blogspot.ca/2015/03/blog-tour-sign-up-occasional-diamond.html

About the Author

J. A. McLachlan was born in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of a short story collection, CONNECTIONS, and two College textbooks on Professional Ethics. But speculative fiction is her first love, a genre she has been reading all her life, and The Occasional Diamond Thief is her second in that genre, a young adult science fiction novel, published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. After over a decade as a college teacher, she is happy to work from home as a full-time author now.