Gina Rae Mitchell

Pixeldust by T.K. Arispe | Spotlight – Excerpt

Book Blog Tour from Rachel’s Random Resources

Thank you to the author & Rachel for providing me the information for this tour. 

Pixeldust Published by Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing on 07/20/2020
Genres: Fiction, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Format: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 209

Maria Elena thought she’d sworn off gaming forever. But she hates her new internship, so her brother Balt convinces her to play Heroes of Avonell, a cutting-edge virtual-reality video game with such complex programming that it’s like the non-player characters are self-aware.

Disappointed with the usual cliché job class offerings, Maria Elena’s character Quinny stumbles through a glitch in the game and ends up in Caed Dhraos, a strange city populated with friendly monsters. Quinny decides to work for the resident dark lord as part of his magic personnel, but she can’t tell anybody she’s playing in off-limits areas of the game—not even Balt. Soon Quinny finds herself getting to the bottom of a mystery surrounding an ancient demon and why Caed Dhraos is suffering from the Blight.

But the artificial intelligences in the game really are self-aware, and some of Avonell’s so-called “heroes” have decided they don’t like humanity very much. The game has gone out of control, and Maria Elena and her new friends have to find a way to set things right. Can she save Avonell – and Earth – while juggling her real job and trying to salvage her crumbling relationship with her brother?

Pixeldust is a dive into a fantastical, fun virtual world where the universe may be made of data, but the dangers, friendships, magic, and lessons learned are very real.

Buy on Amazon
Add to Goodreads

Source: Rachel's Random Resources

********************

PixeldustShop on Amazon Digital PixeldustShop on Amazon Paperback

********************

Pixeldust by T.K. Arispe

********************

Excerpt:

Maria Elena has started playing the hit video game Heroes of Avonell and created her player character, Quinny. Unfortunately, the plotline and non-player characters she encounters are painfully cliché and uninteresting. Quinny has begun to regret buying the game—and then she finds a glitch that takes her somewhere completely different.

Quinny found herself in the middle of a vast industrial cityscape, a land of eternal twilight where the sun was blocked by thick layers of polluted haze from smokestacks, and where every building bristled with gears and machinery. Far in the distance sat an immense fortress, just as large as Castle Greydoria but much more ominous-looking as it stretched into the smog. Quinny guessed that the glitch had accidentally connected this map to Castle Greydoria, and she figured it couldn’t hurt to look around a little.

So she stepped out of the alleyway into the street beyond, where there was nary an elf or a grimalkin to be seen. The creatures here looked much more monstrous, from wiry pug-nosed things the size of Quinny to hulking fanged ogres wearing robes made of furs and animal skins, and a myriad of other motley beings in between. Although, they acted anything but monstrous as they plied their wares to one another and chatted and laughed. Their children played among the cobblestones with wind-up toys. No one here had names above their heads, but Quinny guessed none of them were player characters since none of these races had been available during character generation.

As she walked down the street, the creatures paused and stared at her, and Quinny wondered why, although she tried her best to smile and wave disarmingly. She wondered if they knew what a dwarf was. She didn’t think she was supposed to have been here, but she didn’t think poking around a glitched area could make much difference to the overall game.

Quinny decided to keep exploring. The creatures whispered to each other as she passed, and Quinny wondered what they thought of her. This place seemed to have a completely different vibe from Castle Greydoria, like it was in another time period, and these characters’ speech was more modern than some of the dramatic ways of speaking of the NPC’s back at the castle. But Quinny had seen this sort of weird mashup of cultures plenty of times in other games, so it didn’t faze her too much. She was actually rather relieved to find that the whole game was not going to look like medieval Europe.

She took the first turn onto a quiet side street, where a fountain made of pipes splashed into a basin, along the backs of some shops. The sound of machinery throughout the city blended into an ambient symphony, and Quinny felt compelled to simply stop and enjoy the strangely peaceful scene for a moment.

“Look out!” a girl’s voice shouted from behind her.

Quinny turned around and ducked as a small flying toy buzzed toward her. It careened over her head and plopped into the fountain.

Pixeldust by T.K. Arispe

“Aww, rats!” said a child who was one of the short, pug-nosed creatures as she ran after it. “Dashin, you didn’t have to wind it so tight!” She rolled up her trousers and began to wade into the water to retrieve the toy.

“I wanted to see how far it would fly!” said a slightly older boy of the same race as he appeared around the corner. “I bet I could make it go even further—“ He stopped when he saw Quinny, his large pointed ears perking. “Whoa, what are you?” he asked her.

“I’m a dwarf,” Quinny said. “What are you?”

“A dwarf, huh?” Dashin said, rubbing his nose. “Never heard of it. I’m a goblin! So’s my sister Hylie.” He pointed to the girl and then did a double-take. “Hylie, look out!”

The alarm in his voice made Quinny spin around again. Hylie screamed as something long, black, and eel-like slithered out of the fountain drain. She stumbled to get out, but the thing wrapped itself around her ankle and pulled her to her hands and knees.

Quinny wasted no time in jumping into the fountain. She splashed over to Hylie and stepped down hard with her thick boot on the trailing end of the creature. It shrieked and let go of the goblin to thrash about—and then it coiled itself and leaped for the dwarf.

Quinny threw up her arms to defend herself, wishing she’d picked a job class so she’d at least have a weapon, but then a length of pipe swung out and knocked the eel-creature away. Hylie raised the pipe again, knees shaking, as the monster turned around for another strike.

“Get out of here!” Quinny said to the goblin children. “Let me handle this!” Although she had no idea how she would handle it without a weapon.

Dashin pulled his sister away and grabbed the pipe. “Here!” he said, tossing it to Quinny.

“Thanks!” Quinny said as the black creature hissed at her with a round gaping mouth full of teeth like a lamprey’s. With a yell, Quinny swung the pipe—and it connected. The vile thing smacked against the wall and dissolved into black vapor that wafted up into the sky.

Breathing hard, Quinny retrieved Hylie’s toy and brought it back to the goblins. “Are you two okay?” the dwarf asked.

They nodded. “Thanks—“ Hylie panted. “You saved us.”

“Happy to help,” Quinny said. “What was that?”

“A chaos beast,” Dashin said, staring at the fountain. “They’re not supposed to be able to get into Caed Dhraos. The Blight must be getting worse.”

********************

This Time by Azaaa Davis

********************

I also share many of my reviews on the following websites:

Lovely Audiobook’s Monthly Link-up (Not limited to audiobooks)

The Inspire Me Monday Link Party

Inspire Me Monday with Anita Ojeda

Grammy’s Grid Unlimited Monthly Link Party

Esme’s Salon Monthly Link-up