Linnea Vulkane is looking forward to a long, lazy summer on Grandpa Heph's farm, watching newborn kittens grow up and helping out with chores. That all goes out the window the night Mars, god of war, demands her grandfather abandon her and return to Olympus for the brewing war. Now Old Vulcan is racing around the world and across higher planes with Sehkmet to gather allies, leaving Linn and an old immortal friend to protect the farm and the very special litter. But even the best wards won't last forever, and when the farm goes up in flames, she is on the run with a daypack, a strange horse, a sword, and an armful of kittens. Linn needs to grow up fast and master her powers, before the war finds the unlikely refugees... Snippet from inside the story: Linn could see a grimace pass over the man's face. In the firelight his skin was unusually red, as was his hair. She wondered why Grampa hadn't lit a lamp. "I cannot and will not leave here." The woman on the couch declared, sitting up suddenly. Linn startled as she realized that the woman was a cat... This was her grandfather's barn cat, talking and sitting on the couch. The big man stepped toward her, casting his face into shadow. Linn could still hear the sneer in his voice. "Bastet's Daughter, you are the least of our concerns. Vulcan may take on strays and broken... beings, but we do not." "I would not go with you, even without my obligations here." Grampa interjected. "Oh, the child." The man's dismissive tone made Linn's blood boil. "Not just a child. Blood of my blood." "Which I'm sure she knows nothing about. To her, you are just a broken down old smith." "Her mother has told her what we are, I am certain." "She could not even see me if she were able to wake from the spell I cast over her." Linn blinked in surprise. Not only was she wide awake, riveted to the conversation below, but she could see the red man, the cat woman, and the bulk of something else (she was no longer sure it was a man) near the door in the shadows. And as for 'what she was'... she was a human being. Wasn't she?
About the Author: Cedar Sanderson is a writer, librarian, and avid reader. She grew up in Alaska and Oregon, and now lives in Ohio. While writing Vulcan's Kittens she drew from her own unusual upbringing to create the locales and characters she brings to life in her first young adult novel. She started writing this story for her oldest daughter while she was at summer camp, and mailed it to her in sections. Her daughters all read it and enjoyed it so much, they challenged her to write it longer, into a novel, for NaNoWriMo 2011. She did what they wanted, and now the story inspired by her own children has come to life. Her second novel, Pixie Noir, will be released in Dec. 2013.