Guest Author C S Boyack #newrelease

Published on by Joan Hall

Hey, everyone. Today it’s a pleasure to welcome back fellow-author, friend, and Story Empire collaborator C. S. Boyack. Here’s here to talk about his latest release Good Liniment, a part of the The Hat Series. Craig, take it away!

Thanks for the invitation to promote my wares to your fans. Good Liniment is the newest entry in The Hat Series. While this is a series, I’ve worked to keep them all readable as stand-alone titles. If someone were to start here, I don’t think they’d feel lost at all.

Good Liniment came with a few issues for me to sort out. Because it circles back to witchcraft, I couldn’t ignore what I’d previously introduced. There are fans who’ve read every book in this series, and I want to respect them. I also decided I needed a split narrative for part of this story.

I solved the split narrative by using two different herald characters. The first one is Joe Yoder. Readers of Lunar Boogie might remember him as an aging cop who carries on conversations with his ghostly wife. What they might not remember, is that Joe’s father is a witch. I made sure to go over that again for those who start with Good Liniment.

Growing up in that environment gave Joe knowledge about the supernatural world, even though he isn’t part of it.

Joe arrests a young man named Dash Goodman and recognizes him as a witch. Rather than taking him to the station, he delivers Dash to his father, Cyrus.

This gave me a way to introduce witchcraft to the readers through the eyes of Dash. Joe was the herald that made it all happen.

It was important to me to not have a special school for witches. I think that one’s been grossly overused, so I went with more of a Jedi Council approach. Dash has some special skills and he’s picked up by the local coven.

This leaves my main characters, Lizzie and the hat, needing a way to get involved in the action here. I used one of my legacy characters named Patty Hall to bring them on board. Long-term fans will remember a story from Patty’s teenage years called Will O’ the Wisp. She is an associate member of the coven because she’s not a natural-born witch. She’s what they call an adapter. In doing this, I added a bit of closure to her story. She never did get to be an astronaut, but has a pretty high-ranking status at NASA in Houston.

Patty isn’t just a herald for this story, she’s also what’s known as an Easter Egg. This is something I love for this series. Long-term fans get to have a bit of fun, but new readers won’t miss a beat the way I introduced her.

In both narratives, they learn that someone is murdering members of the coven. The witches decide to hire Lizzie and the hat to deal with the killer. It seems they have more faith in the hat than even Lizzie does.

If you like a little blood with your humor, add a sampling of pop culture, some rock and roll, and you might be a fan of this series. I’d appreciate everyone checking out Good Liniment. It’s short enough to read in an afternoon, and I hope you’ll get a laugh or two along the way.

Blurb

Someone is murdering members of the local witches coven. They turn to Lizzie and the hat for their unique skills that might help eliminate the killers.

A religious zealot might be a monster, but is still a human being. This task isn’t the same as staking vampires or shooting zombies. It isn’t the usual project Lizzie takes on for her night work.

This all takes place during a recovery period for Lizzie. She needs to keep her cover band together and find a new way of getting them gigs. More bands and less venues are making finances tight. The hat didn’t make things easier during her absence, by spreading rumors about why she took her sabbatical.

Someone killing others over a point of view insults Lizzie’s sensibilities. She has secrets to keep. Her employers have secrets, too. It doesn’t make for a comfortable working environment, but she agrees to do what she can.

Convincing her strong willed employers to stay indoors during all this poses another problem. Can she keep them alive long enough to finish her task?

Good Liniment is full of magic, magical creatures, and an entire underground community living amongst us.

The Hat Series consists of short novels that can be read in a single afternoon. They’re full of snarky dark humor and can be easily read out of order.

Purchase Link

Series Link

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68 thoughts on “Guest Author C S Boyack #newrelease”

  1. Many congrats to Craig on the latest in the Hat series. I really liked Joe from Lunar Boogie, and it’s nice to see him getting a story. I still have to read Ms. Mahoney, but will get to this one too. Great guest post, Joan. 😀

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  7. Witches, Jedi Council style teaching, and an Easter Egg. Sounds like a winner! Thank you, Joan, for sharing your site with Craig today! Congratulations on the new release, Craig!

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  8. I love how you can bring characters from previous books into a new story in a different way. I remember Joe quite well and will be happy to see him again. 🙂 Well, not literally, but you get it. Congrats on this new release, Craig and best wishes for tons of sales! Thank you, Joan, for hosting!

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    1. Because of the way this series works, I still have to reintroduce them. I just don’t spend as much time on that if they aren’t an important part of the current tale.

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  10. Wonderful showcase, Joan. Thank you. Congratulations, Craig! I’m fascinated by your story and I’m looking forward to the read. 😊

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  15. Reblogged this on Entertaining Stories and commented:

    I’m over at Joan Hall’s place today to talk about Good Liniment. Joan is one of my Story Empire partners, and a good friend. She writes incredible mystery stories with a small town feel to them. Make sure you check out her offerings while you’re over there.

    Liked by 2 people

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  21. Good Liniment is definitely a fun book and the mash-up of legacy characters with plenty of new and interesting (erm….highly colorful) characters works great.
    Nice to see Craig here today. Wishing him all the best. Thanks for hosting, Joan!

    Liked by 4 people

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