THE MORRIGAN'S CURSE Guest post from Dianne Salerni!

The Morrigan's Curse: The Eighth Day Book 3 by Dianne K. Salerni (January 26, 2016, HarperCollins, 400 pages, for ages 9 to 13)

Synopsis: The battle between Kin and Transitioners that's been brewing for centuries has finally come to a head. The sinister Kin have captured Evangeline's younger sister, Addie, a descendant of Merlin whose presence will allow them to reverse the Eighth Day Spell and free themselves. Addie has been helping the Kin because they value the strength of her magic, something Evangeline never did. 

Meanwhile, Riley, Evangeline, and Jax craft a plan to rescue Addie from her captors. But the Kin's unstoppable magic, and a rebellious Addie, force Riley to reconsider whether saving Addie is worth sacrificing everyone who lives in the seven-day week. Jax won't let Evangeline's sister be used as a pawn, so he risks it all in a secret mission of his own. With the Morrigan pushing both sides of the war toward annihilation, Addie must decide where her loyalties lie, while Jax, Riley, and Evangeline confront the possibility of losing Addie to save the world.

Readers, I'm honored to once again welcome Dianne Salerni to my blog. Take it away, Dianne!

It’s very fitting that Joanne asked me to write a post on Leap Day, a day that doesn’t exist most of the time. My Eighth Day series is about a day of the week that doesn’t exist for most people.

Last month I was thrilled to launch The Morrigan’s Curse – my fifth published book, the third in my series, and the most challenging book I’ve ever written. This book possessed a unique requirement: It needed to serve as either the final installment of a trilogy OR the midpoint in a series of five. Even now, a month after its release, I still don’t know which one it will be. (The publisher will make that decision later this year.)

Because it was so difficult to write, The Morrigan’s Curse has a special place in my heart. In particular, I’m excited about:

Addie Emrys

In this book, readers finally meet Evangeline’s little sister. They already know she’s going to be trouble. In Book 1, Evangeline predicts that wherever her spitfire sister is, she’s driving her guardians crazy. In Book 2, Addie doesn’t win any points by leaving her elderly foster parents a petulant list of complaints. We also learn that she bit Finn Ambrose when he forcibly took blood samples from her. (Really, though, he had that coming.) And at the end of the book, she willingly runs off with the evil Llyr family.

So, heading into The Morrigan’s Curse, I was working with a resentful, prickly protagonist who’d aligned herself with the bad guys. Nevertheless, I needed Addie to be sympathetic. I wanted readers to like her and root for her.

Evangeline describes Addie as “difficult,” and she certainly was difficult to write. I rewrote her POV chapters many, many times, and I didn’t know whether I’d done her justice until I got my revision letter from my editor. What she said about Addie made me cry (in a good way). I hope everyone else will love Addie, prickliness and all.

Stink

In The Inquisitor’s Mark we learn that Jax’s dad had a pet brownie named Stink. In fact, we met Stink in that book, although he was never directly identified. (Lots of readers guessed, though.) I don’t want to post any spoilers here, but let’s just say that Stink is my favorite new character after Addie. Smartest. Pet. Ever.

The Morrigan

Again, no spoilers, but weaving this 3-in-one deity from Celtic mythology into my story was a lot of fun. She’s a force of nature, embodying destruction and chaos. She manifests as an old crone, a middle-aged woman – or a young girl often referred to as the Girl of Crows.

Jax

I love Jax. He’s like the son I never had. Jax has grown up a little over the course of three books, but he’s still only 13 years old and some things about him haven’t changed at all. What’s more, he knows it:

“How’d you end up with the Sword of Nuadu?” Evangeline whispered.

“Same as usual,” Jax replied in an undertone. “I did something stupid while Riley wasn’t looking.”

Joanne, thank so much for inviting me here today to celebrate the release of The Morrigan’s Curse!

My pleasure, Dianne! Thanks so much for your guest post. And that's a great quote at the end of your post.

Learn more about Dianne at her website.

Readers, have you read the first two books in The Eighth Day series? The Eighth Day and The Inquisitor's Mark?  If so, you definitely need to read this book. And if you haven't read the first two, what are you waiting for?