Mary Buckham

Enhance Your Fiction with the Power of an Active Setting! Setting is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood elements of the writing craft. And when writers do focus on setting, they often pull readers out of the narrative and jolt their attention from the action on the page. A Writer's Guide to Active Setting will show you how to create vivid, detailed settings that bring your story to life. You'll learn how to deepen character development, anchor readers to a specific time and place, reveal backstory without slowing things down, elevate action sequences, and more. Drawing upon examples from authors writing across a variety of genres, Mary Buckham will illustrate exactly how the proper use of setting can dramatically improve your story. You'll learn what's effective about each passage and how you can use those techniques to make your story shine." Takes an all too often overlooked technique, and elevates it to a next-level game changer for powerful fiction." --Cathy Yardley, author of Rock Your Plot"A powerful combination of fresh insights, practical examples, and how-to advice on the often overlooked but critical element of setting...written in a quick-to-read and easy-to-understand style, and packed with useful application exercises." --Kelly L. Stone, author of Thinking Write: The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind"If you're a writer, then Mary Buckham's book is a must-have tool for your writer's toolkit. Creating settings that are rich and believable is not an easy task, but with this book, I found that each chapter gave me great tips that I could immediately implement in my manuscript." --Laurie G. Adams, author of Finding Atticus

Modern female covert operatives battle the supernatural in this new urban fantasy series from USA Today best selling author Mary Buckham He's a preternatural fighting for the humans. She's a human fighting for the preternaturals. Kelly McAllister's Invisible Recruit mission in Sierra Leone is to locate and secure a threat to humans and preternaturals. Wolf shifter Van Noziak, brother to witch/shaman Alex Noziak, is also there, with his own secret mission, one that's on a collision course with Kelly's. In deepest Africa the race against a deadly foe reveals secrets, exposes fears, and forces unlikely alliances. Fast-paced, filled with twists and turns, the fight between mortals and immortals escalates. Hunters become the hunted and dark forces draw close. Fighting supernatural threats, magic users, demons and devils is never easy. Kelly McAllister must face her deepest fears to survive." A wry sense of humor, deep character connections, and a lot of fun drive these stories. If you haven't read this series, do it now " Liz Schulte, author of the Guardian Trilogy, The Easy Bake Coven series and the Jinn TrilogyBuy Invisible Fears today to continue the darkly intriguing Alex Noziak series Interview with the AuthorQ: What makes the Alex Noziak series special? A: The series is a combination of things. It features a modern female covert team acting as a secret combat squad for the Invisible Recruit Agency, protecting mankind from supernatural threats and enemies. It is part urban fantasy series, part paranormal mystery series, and part supernatural or occult crime series. Think Buffy the Vampire slayer meets Supernatural with a star-crossed romance thrown in and you've got it in one Q: Is there a particular order that the books should be read in? A: While each book or novella can stand alone, I think readers will get more enjoyment out of them if they follow this sequence: Invisible Prison (eNovella) Invisible Magic Invisible Duty (eNovella) Invisible PowerInvisible FateInvisible Fears (Kelly McAllister Book 1) Invisible Allies (eNovella)Invisible Secrets (Kelly McAllister Book 2)Invisible Journey What makes the series different from other urban fantasy series? A: First, the events of the story occur on a world scale vs. the single location of many of the other popular UF series. The Alex Noziak stories occur in locations such as Paris, the Maldives, Washington, D. C., and Africa. Secondly, while all of the storylines in the Alex Noziak series include action-oriented fight sequences which readers of this genre love, they also contain a lot of what isn't typical for most urban fantasy--emotional growth and development of the main characters. Alex must deal with the dynamics of a strong female team as well as interference from her shaman father, her shapeshifting brothers and her Celtic witch mother. Relationships are messy, but they also add a fun, deeper dimension to Alex. Third, unlike many other paranormal romance series on the market today, there isn't a primary focus on a happy ever after relationship that's resolved in one book; if you want your heroine hooking up with a hot warlock, you've definitely come to the right place, but expect cliff hanging endings as the relationship is not tied up with a pretty bow after book one. To help readers know what the Alex Noziak books are like, what would you compare them to? A: I think the series is well-suited for readers of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series, Kat Richardson's Greywalker series, and Illona Andrews Kate Daniels series. Fans of television shows like Supernatural, Angel, True Blood (without all the graphic sex scenes), and Witchblade should also find something of interest here.

Novel three in the paranormal romantic Suspense series, featuring Alex Noziak and the team members of the Invisible Recruits Agency Forced to choose, will dark magic be the only path. Hidden from a world unaware of magic, a recently and only partially trained group of operatives known as the Invisible Recruits are the only ones willing to stand between mankind and those powerful preternatural factions seeking to change the balance of power and gain world domination. Alex Noziak, part/witch, part/shaman, is imprisoned by a powerful Druid bent on changing her into a black-magic portal to release a three thousand year-old demon on the world. By trying to shield a juvenile witch from the Druid, Alex places the lives of her IR teammates in jeopardy. Her relationship with Bran is in turmoil, making him the last man she'll turn to . . . but the only one who can help her. Alex is placed between watching Bran die or saving the world. Choices. Choices. USA Today Bestselling author, Mary Buckham throws her readers into a world of danger, explosive conflict and dark magic as the team learns to fight the dark paranormal forces out to overthrow the world of humans.