Today, we’re very pleased to be the hosts of the Matchbox Girls blog tour, with a guest post by Chrysoula Tzavelas! Take it away, Chrysoula!

My publisher, may she reign from on high forever, says she publishes “fantastika.” But we all know what she really likes is qüirky stuff.

Let’s try this on for size: magical cyberpunk. No, no, not steampunk.  That’s set yesterday, and cyberpunk is set tomorrow. Stylistically, it’s about technology moving faster than people can adapt to, changing the world over and over again and forcing people to change alongside it. Change or die. But how much can you change and still be you? It’s grit and junkies and faceless corporations alongside wonder and beauty and alienation. Stylistically, thematically, it’s all that.

But practically speaking, it’s about modular magic. Oh, they call it technology, but cutting-edge technology is just a new method of getting things done. You put on your bulletproof vest and I’ll equip this bit of magic tech that makes bullets miss me. You’ve got your metal claws? Hey, mine are grown from bone. You can tap into and manipulate invisible forces using just what’s inside your body? So can I. By the way, are we still human? Do we want to be?

I don’t think my publisher knew exactly what she’d signed up for when she picked up Matchbox Girls, because Matchbox Girls is magical cyberpunk from the perspective of the girl next door. She’s oblivious to the titanic forces duking it out about how she’s allowed to live her life—about how everybody is allowed to live their lives. She’s never considered just how much her world can change with a single message. And frankly, she has no idea where those changes will go.

Fortunately, I do. Matchbox Girls tells its own story, but it’s also the beginning of another story, one that I hope will go all the places I imagine when I type “magical cyberpunk” (and hopefully some that haven’t occurred to me yet). I doubt it will ever get too far in the future, because we’re already in a world where so many old-school cyberpunk issues are being raised. All we’re really lacking is some modular magic.

Tune in for the next stop on the blog tour tomorrow at Books Make Me Happy, http://palmcoasttwilightbookclubreviews.wordpress.com! And don’t forget to get your entry in our Matchbox Girls giveaway!

Marley Claviger is just trying to get her life together. Stumbling into an ancient conflict between celestial forces is going to make that a whole lot harder…

 When Marley wakes up to a phone call from a pair of terrified children, she doesn’t expect to be pulled into a secret war. She rescues them from an empty house and promises to find their missing uncle. She even manages to feed them dinner. But she barely feels competent to manage her own life, let alone care for small children with strange, ominous powers…

 And when a mysterious angelic figure shows up and tries to claim the girls, it all falls apart…

Plagued by visions of disaster, Marley has no idea what she’s gotten herself into, but she knows one thing: magical or not, the kids need her.

Matchbox Girls by Chrysoula Tzavelas is now available in paperback and digital form. You can pick up a copy through the Candlemark & Gleam website (www.candlemarkandgleam.com), where all paperbacks come with a free digital edition, or through your favourite indie or mainstream book source.

Follow the author online at www.dreamfarmer.net or on Twitter @chrysouladreams