Reading (ATE48)

An excerpt from my book...

new release

is imminent

murder at the movies

You spilled your popcorn - I stated the obvious. Kell was standing up now and stretching over me to cuff Bless in the ear with the side of her hand, but Bless was fixed on the man, and taking it all in, while up on the screen was a lesser sin, in black and white, walking the halls, inspiring the fright, shadows in the night, and the boyfriend was on his way back with an RC Cola exchanging pleasantries with the cashier, it was calm and quiet in here, the safest place you thought you could be, at a movie, watching life from the outside in, the silver screen… a lesser sin. And I was in between the clash, trying to hold Kell off, we can’t do anything, it’s done! And I led her away, while Bless finished him off and his boyfriend came upon the body slumped down, and saw the woman who seemed to be holding him up from behind and he went and held his friend, down on his knees, looking between the seats into the eyes which were aglow, but it was colorful and he wouldn’t but remember later, what was so off about it, asking her what happened? and she said innocently I don’t know, he just, he just had a seizure or something, I tried to hold him but you know they say to let them free, and, well, I didn’t want any harm to come to him so I did, but it sure was a bad seizure - is he on some medication?    -- Book 3 (teaser). Ame and the Tangy Energetic

passage from Ame and the Tangy Energetic

"and together they brought the vines smashing across the windows and tearing apart the floorboards, and breaking apart the furniture, the shark fins cutting into Black’s skin and the vines wrapping around him like a snake, yes, she saw a snake in her mind, a silver snake, and the snake was like a secret gift from a friend an ally, like a ring on a finger, she thought, and god am I losing my fukkin marbles but it’s beautiful! and there was the light in Ame’s eyes, the savage blue like the deep waters through which the great white hunted the Atlantic, but the brutality that had so torn her up back then, the very night she met Ame’s boyfriend finally, Maze, and they had taken the subway under the earth and across the San Francisco Bay, for she remembered asking Maze for the window seat and steaming the window like she always did, and wiping it with her arm, and the funny look Maze gave her when she leaned her face up against the glass so she could watch the tracks with one eye and watch the passengers with the other, the look he gave her like why the hell are you doing that? and she didn’t care cause she was able to lean into a nod and look less foolish this way than that, and then Ame turned around from the seat in front, to face them, and was just the nice girl who befriended her back when she was living in that decrepit former nunnery on Lake Merritt and nowhere to go, but afterward, after that really cool show in the Mission, the coming back with a rumbling and rush of air and sound as the train picked up speed in the tunnel heading home to Oakland, this time she sat up and next to Ame who was going on about having been a rockstar for a minute when she got to draw a soup spoon like a bow across some DIY instrument was supposed to pass for a violin, and they were laughing and then when they stopped and the train came up for air, there was a strange tension reminiscent of some intangible tucked far away in her past, a bad energy; and her high was wearing thin but whatever it was was picking up the slack and she saw both Maze and Ame fixed upon someone in the train, and then she was hustled off the train by them at the Broadway station, wondering why the hell they didn’t go on to MacArthur seeing as she was hoping to hit the Imperial where she was staying with Bless and Freddy, and where her secret stash of Somas and Percs were gonna help her to sleep, but she followed them out and up into the street and the Paramount Marquee was all lit up towering over the orange of a Broadway night, and sure enough they were following somebody, and she got a real uncomfortable feeling like she was about to be an accessory to a crime, and sure enough she was"  

- drafted from 'Ame and the Tangy Energetic' (Daughter of Darkness #3) .voice of Kell. coming this summer to an ebook store near you

life i love you. good friday

"Quiet life on softened streets, all the bad news backed away. You lucky kid. I washed my hair with 100,000 molecules. Each one like the full moon tonight, lighting up life in all the right ways. I made it to the site. I could peacefully fold my legs up under me on the couch facing the east, the house where nobody's home, facing, pinching my slip as I picked it up and let it go hang around freely, pinching myself. You lucky kid you. All the pages were viewed, in a free sweep of eyes (not mine). To be sure they really existed, outside of myself. Not so easily destroyed by water, heat, air, time. Thumbs rubbing the ink to a fade I can no longer describe. Each curve of every letter like the full moon tonight, lighting up life in all the spectacular finishes. Flourishes. You lucky kid. Thinking of a friend, one I haven't even heard of in years, a keystroke away, a daydream, attacking a search engine with a heart on a saturday in America, one truffle at a time, pulling lightly on the ends of twisted plastic until the whole thing rolls over and out, examining the condition of my condition, remembering the ionic bond even if it hurts. Life I love you."   - KatYa, 2016. excerpt from Ame and the Tangy Energetic

k by k on a sunny day 2016

TEASER

From Ame and the Tangy Energetic (Darkness, #3)  --  "We sought our pleasure in the world, thinking this would bring a measure of happiness. Maybe did for a moment; up all night laughing, walking the streets at 3am, ghost trains passing by. We readied ourselves and jumped. The world went from absolute stillness to perpetual motion, we outlined the Pacific Ocean, the sea salt filled our lungs, we sought our shadows on a train and now comes the rain, I see you pacing the room up there with your paranoia and bad thoughts about me, your negative energy sticks to the walls and peels the paint and no mirror can survive your self-loathing, not even me, and it hurts when you break me down like you think you can, when all I am is over here loving you, your ferocity, your anti, your sweetness protected but starved inside you, the most delicate beauty I have ever held and why do you think I would hurt you, how come you don’t invite me to see and cherish you, desperate you, and all your hard life you’ve been through? Fighting shadows and running away from yourself, your mom and your past, all those demons locked inside, criss-crossing, and what of it? For you were with me."  --   KatYa

i finished my book!

On a dark and stormy morning (it really was!) I finished -- Maze. Around 6am, after another long night of editing, I had the puppy exactly how I wanted her. I went out for a drive in my Volkswagen in the rain, got on the highway,  listened to the radio and spaced out with my focus on the road. I didn't know where I would go. I decided to get off at El Camino Avenue. This road and I have some history. When I moved here to Sacramento less than 3 years ago with my head full of books but nothing yet published -- no job and no car and only one friend -- I used to ride my bicycle from the Extended Stay America (a decent hotel room with a kitchenette, at a fair price for a month) up north on El Camino several times a week. My friend lived about ten miles up the road. All I remember was the wonderful heat of the early summer, on the streets of Sacramento. I was real excited to be here and get my life going in a positive direction. Oakland tore me up and spit me out in twenty twelve. I had not much to my name. I was writing every day, and determined to start self-publishing my work. I thought for sure maybe someone would wanna read me. I had been writing all my life long. I stopped riding up El Camino at all. The friendship broke off, sadly, we went off in different directions. This morning in the rain and ready to press my third book in under 3 years, I was tired and overjoyed. All I had to do was go home, take a nap to rest my eyes, then get up and read through the puppy from beginning to end, one final time. And I did. And you know what? This book! I think this is easily the best work I have done in my life.

Passages 2:10

"They were always in debt no matter how long or hard their father worked in the factory, for he did not know how to manage money; he acquired several credit cards which he maxed out at high interest rates; the reps in the malls at the little tables with pamphlets and applications kept convincing him it was a good idea to sign up for cards. He (Maze’s father) felt like a man with all of the plastic he kept in his rawhide wallet, but soon the wallet became a reminder of all the money he owed and could not pay off, and he put it in the drawer of his bedside table and cursed Discover. In his prayers, he forgave American Express and Mastercard every night before passing out, for ruining his chance to buy the Mustang on the lot and forcing him to walk to work in the waterlogged boots he could not afford to replace, and every day American Express and Mastercard refused to forgive him back. And when his wife left him with his son, Maze, he prayed to the credit card gods she die a terrible death."

Excerpt from Maze 

Book 2, Chapter X

NOTE: This passage was clipped from a description of Maze's family of origin. His father is human and an alcoholic. His mother took him to LA and they got away from the abusive situation.

Maze - first reading

I recorded my first reading of an excerpt of my new book,
'Maze'. A literary fiction. Here is the video...

MAZE (an urban fantasy) Available Now for Pre-Orders!

"Her abduction to the underworld was foretold. Ame, a heroine of an unusual (and by all appearances human) kind, now roams the city streets and feeds off of human fear to survive. Conflicted by the violent practices of her people, she has become nevertheless intoxicated by their ways. In this the second book of Katya Mills' urban fantasy, Daughter of Darkness, Ame has fallen in love with a young man who shares the dark gift, while her best friend Bless vies for her attention. A death dealer of a different kind prowls around the apartment building where Ame and her boyfriend live. Hendrix, a bloodhound for tracking fear, inadvertently leads Ame to Kell, a kindred spirit in the grips of a terrible addiction. Just as Ame seems to be settling into her new life, a secret alliance is exposed which threatens to uproot her, once again." http://www.amazon.com/Maze-Darkness-2-Daughter-ebook/dp/B015CVIMXS

Cover Reveal! + 'avocado'

Cover Reveal

avocado
color of moss

you and me
may our paths
cross

red apple
high gloss

Latest Book Review and New Release info

Dear friends and readers,

I want to express my gratitude for all of you who take the time to follow my blog and website. From the silent partners who come by every so often to read a little, to those who leave comments, both critical and encouraging. And to those who read my books. And to those who review my books. Your interest and support help drive this train into the vast wilderness! Together we will explore and try to make sense of the damn thing.

Daughter of Darkness, Book Two, has a title now:  -- MAZE --
I also have a cover designed and ready to go, which I will share with you soon.
My intent is to focus on the love story between Ame and Maze.
I still have a long way to go with editing, but I expect to release by October 2015.

Here is the latest review of Grand Theft Life (DOD, Book 1) from a reader on Goodreads, Meredith  (4/5 stars) ...

"I wasn't sure how I felt about this book for the first ten pages or so. After the eleventh page though, I was hooked. The main character is a girl who was raised by an adopted family. She never fit in at school. She was faster than the boys and acted different than other girls her age. The other kids sensed that Ame wasn't like them. Ame also hears voices in her head telling her that she is special and unique and that one day she will understand who she is and why she is the way she is. The book then skips ahead ten years to Ame having been kidnapped, and driven to Oakland, California, by a man named Freddy who tells her that she is part of his 'people'. The voices have finally stopped talking to her in her head. They have stopped because she is now part of their community in Oakland. The thing that makes her 'people' different from humans is mostly through feelings. Ame fears nothing. She never has. She learns that her people feed off of this Fear that regular human beings feel. She is also connected telepathically to others of her kind. This book was only 75 pages long and can be read in a single sitting as I did. This is the first in a series and I cannot wait to read the second novel to find out what happens to Ame and her new family in Oakland."

Journal # 02.16.15

Monday. I almost had an anxiety attack after spending most of my night creating the first edition paperback for Daughter of Darkness. I had the surreal feeling that I was no longer on earth. The same feeling precedes vertigo. I went for a walk, to get away from the screen. I watched some comedy on adult swim, after the walk. Old episodes of Drinky Crow and Arrested Development. The walk and the laughter really helped.

9am. I completed the project. Immediate relief. I went and met a friend for coffee at Peet's. The barista there remembered my name and my order. A latte with almond milk on ice. I don't know how she does it, but she always makes my day. I think she was elected Northern California barista of the month last month. She wears a name tag, so I can address her by name, too. What a poor memory I have for names. Today my eyes were so screen-shot, I couldn't even catch her name. I asked if I could borrow her photographic memory for a day. She waitlisted me behind about forty others.

Here is how the description of my novella reads on the upcoming 'dust cover' (the back of the paperback)...

Ame always knew she was different. The voices in her head reminded her all the time. Anti-psychotics couldn't stop them. Her abduction from her home to the underworld was foretold. She enters the sordid heart of present day Oakland, California, a world misshapen by a culture of fear, and takes her place within a divergent tribe of people with extraordinary capabilities.

Her heart beats fast. Curiosity soon replaces suspicion and apprehension. Life has changed into something mysterious and wonderful. She no longer feels so alienated. She forms a bond with Freddy, the one tasked to kidnap her and bring her home. Through him she meets a tall and brazen American chick, and a sister, in Bless. Then finds companionship in a young blood with a skateboard and a serious ice cream sandwich habit.

Her new friends and associations nurture her, in fearless fashion, toward a purpose far greater than she could ever have imagined. Together they roam the streets, encountering humans and spirits, mercilessly exacting a toll only humans can pay. The alchemy is in her blood.


There is a free sample of my ebook offered here << GRAND THEFT LIFE... >>
(when you get to the page, click on the cover image and you can read the first two chapters).