Tuesday Special: Blinked by Zari Reede

Zari Reede

http://zarireede.com/

It’s 1975 in the Big Easy where Mardi Gras floats and strangely dressed people are in abundance. Mindy Nichols, an agent of the Inner Space Monitoring Alliance Team “ISMAT,” is about to set the Crescent City on its ear. This special government team protects Earth from the Blink phenomena that connect our world to the Realm of Ortharos. An energy portal indiscriminately exchanges beings between both worlds, Blinking insane Other Realm Beings (ORBs) in as Earthlings Blink out, causing worry and angst over missing loved ones who sometimes never reappear. ISMAT’s longstanding protocol, to exterminate all ORBs for the safety of mankind, is challenged one fateful night when Mindy wakes up to find her husband, Jim, missing; a huge, naked Cyclops in her bed; an OCD brownie cleaning her kitchen; and six purple imps swinging from a chandelier. The last time ORBs roamed the Earth unchecked, a great war ensued, and Mindy knows things are about to get ugly…


I didn’t have time to play nursemaid to every ORB who Blinked onto the planet, especially a high- maintenance fire goddess who was bound to get me canned…

Miffed, ’Punzel glared at me.

“Oh, don’t take it so personally. I admit we all wish at one time or another we could blow up the world. Unlike most of us, you can.” I had started toward the door when I saw Max’s helmet and motorcycle keys on the entry table. Bingo! I had taken a tutorial from Max on his Triumph Bonneville in the Schwegmann’s parking lot one afternoon at lunch. One down, five up, I reminded myself. It wasn’t terribly hard. I just had to point it north out of town.

Leaving through the door this time, we made our way to Max’s parking space. Doubting my sanity as ’Punzel saddled up behind me, I instructed her to hold on tight. She was begrudging being led along like a puppy, but I could tell by the few smiles she couldn’t smother that she was really enjoying her vacation from Ortharos. Maybe she wasn’t aware of the DOA status of most ORBs when they returned to her world. They say ignorance is bliss, so let her be happy and hope we make it to Harry’s all in one piece.

’Punzel tapped the helmet I wore. “Where is my fancy hat?”

“Can’t your hair protect your head?” I tried to remember how to get started and realized I should probably wheel it out of the tight corner it was wedged in first. Apparently, Max shared his parking place. More likely, some hot chick shared her space with Max.

“I want a hat like yours.” ’Punzel’s pout trumped Sammy’s, but I was a pro at resisting pouts.

“Hop off for moment and let me wheel this out.”

“You made me get on and now I have to get off. And I don’t have a hat!”

Her bottom lip stuck out so far that the freaking helmet could have fit on it.



“Fine! You can wear the helmet!” I knew I shouldn’t yell, but not being a biker, I shuddered at the thought of riding the thing. I hopped off the Triumph and scowled.

She studied the handlebars and glanced over the motorcycle.

“Doesn’t look so hard.” Rapunzel eyed the bike with glowing interest. A spark shot out of the ignition switch, she revved the Triumph and sped out of the lot toward the street. As I ran after the motorcycle, I saw her hair curl and shrink around her head until it resembled a helmet with pink flowers.

Dammit all! Now I had to catch the ORB before ISMAT spotted her and she doomed us all.


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KIRKUS REVIEW

A 1970s wife—secretly in a government project to fight supernatural invaders—must find a solution when a magical creature from a dangerous fantasy realm switches places with her husband.

Pseudonymous author Reede (Daisy Dukes ’n’ Cowboy Boots, 2017) conjures a semicomical urban fantasy focusing on the antics of Mindy Nichols, a young New Orleans wife and mom. Mindy is really an agent for the Inner Space Monitoring Alliance Team, a covert U.S. government task force that battles magical intruders from other realms. Readers are told that letting such entities go uncontrolled led to the two world wars. It’s 1975, and ISMAT’s new headache is the “Blink” phenomenon, wherein hostile fairy-tale beings—imps, cyclops, etc.—are teleporting into the U.S. apparently at random from a magical world called Ortharos. For each appearance, an earthling has to teleport to Ortharos in exchange, and outcomes are not good. During Mardi Gras masquerade time, Mindy discovers that her husband, Jim, is missing, having Blinked away. But replacing him is a house-elf–style “brownie”—the first Ortharian to be communicative and friendly. Mindy, to figure out what’s happening and save her family, disobeys standing orders to terminate such beings. Multiple story strands in short, addictive chapters, each in first-person narration by a different quirky character, follow Jim to Ortharos, where he meets a green-skinned witch and her enticing, imprisoned Rapunzel look-alike sister (named Rapunzel, in fact) and the cyclops queen. Meanwhile, Mindy contends with myriad crises and phantasmic fallouts back home. The best conceit is that mythic characters defy expectations of who’s good or evil. But with two sets of protagonists teleporting or dodging peril via hidden passageways, there are considerable storyline snarls involving who is doing what, where, and in which world before things intersect at the Bacchus Krewe parade in the French Quarter. Paranormal romance followers who take the bouncy ride should delight in the playful tweaking of all the ingredients, including the Carnival king cake.

A frothy paranormal comedy-adventure that offers a respite from the usual brooding over messy werewolf/vampire love affairs.  

Writers extraordinaire, domestic goddesses, lovers of all furry things…

Zari Reede is a writing team consisting of Zoe Tasia and Minette Lauren. Both have an addiction to collaborative writing that rivals Oreo Double Stuffed cookies with fine champagne. Writing solo for years, they decided to engage in a writing exercise to strengthen their skills and enlighten their creative minds. It turned out to be a great venture and is still going strong today. Zoe lives in Houston, has two cats, two boys, and a priceless husband, who supports all her rebel dreams. Minette Lauren also enjoys living in Texas, has five dogs, two god-dogs, three turtles and a wonderful husband that thinks all things she writes are golden… even if it is horse hockey. They are lucky in life, enjoying every day they can write and dream.

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