Guest Post: The Occasional Diamond Thief

YA Bound Book Tours is organizing a Blog Tour for: The Occasional Diamond Thief by J.A. McLachlan. This tour will run from May 18th to May 29th. Check out the full blog tour schedule below:




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.

Guest 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 Natalie for having me here on The Written Adventure 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


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




Excerpt:
(in this excerpt, Kia discovers what’s inside the little pouch her father gave her on his deathbed.)

I shift sideways and feel something hard pinching my hip. Half-rising, I dig down into my pocket. When I touch the soft leather of the pouch, I remember what it is.

I sit up and examine it. In the daylight it no longer looks so ominous. It’s just a commonplace little sack with a small, hard object inside it.

I have to use my teeth to untie the leather cords that hold it shut. The thin cords are dry and tough in my mouth, and when I finally work them loose they still hold the shape of the knot. Reaching inside with my thumb and forefinger, I feel a jagged stone the size of a marble. I pull it out and drop it onto my palm. The sun hits it, and I gasp in disbelief. It is stunningly, frighteningly beautiful.

The stone is clear and brilliant, like the diamond in my mother’s wedding band, except that this one is ten times the size of my mother’s. It has a brilliant circle of darkness at the core, as though I am staring straight into the sun. Light shimmers across this dark center like lightning in the night sky, and shoots out through the surrounding diamond in a rainbow of colors. I stare at it, mesmerized.

And quickly close my fingers tight around it. I stare down at my closed fist for a while, before I pick up the pouch and slip the stone back inside. How did my father come by such a thing? And why didn’t he tell anyone about it?

…Then I think: no one knows my father had it, or that he gave it to me. They’ll think I stole it.

My hand tightens around the pouch. Not if they don’t know.

Buy Links:



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





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.



Author Links:




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