Owl and the City of Angels Blog Tour: Top 4 Mythical Locations Owl Would Like to Find

 Owl and the City of Angels Blog Tour!

We're so excited to have Kristi Charish with us on the blog today with a special guest post about certain places our favorite antiquities thief, Owl, would like to find herself! The ladies of Goldilox and the Three Weres have been on the Owl bandwagon since Owl and the Japanese Circus came out earlier this year. As soon as we were able to request an ARC, we all jumped at the chance. We absolutely love Owl and her adventures!

We reviewed the latest book in the series, Owl and the City of Angels, yesterday. You can click here to see Rose Red's review! Now on to the guest post! :)

The Loot List:

Top 4 Mythical Locations Owl Would Like to Find

Owl is many things; ex-archaeology grad, World Quest junkie, vehicle to transport Captain between scenes…but as a thief, she often finds her mind wandering on to her next gig. Below are four spots Owl would love to…explore.

(Hint- there might be a few of these coming up in the next two novels ;-)
 
El Dorado
The legend of El Dorado has had a few incarnations. Spanish for "the golden one", El Dorado didn’t start off as a place. The original term was El Hombre Dorado, or “the golden man”, El Indio Dorado “the golden Indian”, or El Rey Dorado, “the golden king”. The point is, the Spanish didn’t start off describing a “City of Gold”. They were talking about a person. A tribal chief of the Muisca people of Columbia who covered himself with gold dust before diving into a sacred lake. Unfortunately, in an ancient game of telephone gone wrong, the “King” because a “Place” and doomed expeditions starting as early as the 1500’s through Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and northern Brazil followed, all in search of this imagined treasure hole.

Unfortunately, like the conquistadors and many other thieves throughout history, Owl is not immune to the magical allure of gold. Just maybe there is something to the legend…a city hidden away from the conquistadors and cursed by the Muisca…

Will she find treasure? Traps? Ancient vampires locked in the tomb, or just another mummy?
 
Valhalla
In Norse mythology, stories of Valhalla (Hall of the Slain) are told, a majestic hall in the magical land of Asgard promised to Norse warriors who fell in battle.

Like most myths out there, this is yet another example of fantastic ancient propaganda. Valhalla is essentially boils down to a really great beer hall for warriors, full of beer and women (or men- the Norse were pretty even handed with offering their heroes incentive after death) and shingled with golden shields...There’s a few lines about waiting to be called upon by Odin to for the foretold battle of Ragnarok…an a goat and deer who spend a lot of time standing on the golden roof trying to get at a tree, but the important parts are the magic beer and the thatched roof made of gold.

That many 2000 year old beer stories can’t be wrong…  

Avalon
The Welsh name Avalon brings to mind stories of King Arthur, Excalibur, and the round table…well that and Morgan le Fey, who by all accounts was a powerful sorcerous whose story has been so convoluted in the legends and history books, it’s hard to pin down exactly whose side she was on. Not sure it matters as the end result of her spat with her lover/brother/cousin – again, no one’s quite sure on that one – was her saying to hell with it and kicking Arthur and all his men off the magic island of healing apples and taking the damn sword back that caused all the problems in the first place. An ancient lesson of ‘ if you can’t play nice go home.’ Regardless of motives, one thing is for certain - she was either one hell of a sorcerous or a supernatural…

For once Owl’s hoping she doesn’t stumble into another powerful spell wielding mummy when she eventually finds the mystic Isles of Avalon... but stumbling over the sword would be awful nice.
 
Shangri- La  
Shangri-La, or Shambhala, is the legend of the utopia of a city built by Tibetan Buddhists and hidden for centuries in the Himalayan mountain range. Many an Eastern and Western explorer has squandered their life trying to find the place in pursuit of the immortality with which the people of Shangri-La are gifted. Though many treasure hunters seek Shangri-La, it is thought only those seeking sanctuary from unjust persecution can uncover it the route, yea treasure hunter be warned.

Why is Shangri-La on Owl’s list? Simple. Because of World Quest. Texas and Michigan are being assholes…and I can’t say more without spoiling Owl and the City of Angels (just be sure it’ll be coming up in book 3, the Electric Samurai;-).

New to this book? Here's the cover and blurb:

Owl and the City of Angels
(The Adventures of Owl #2)
Kristi Charish
Release: October 5, 2015
Goodreads Amazon

The wild second adventure for unforgettable antiquities thief Owl—a modern-day “Indiana Jane” who reluctantly navigates the hidden supernatural world—from the pen of rising urban fantasy star Kristi Charish. For fans of Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, Jennifer Estep, Jenn Bennett, and the like.

Alix Hiboux, better known as Owl, international antiquities thief for hire, is settling into her new contract job for Vegas mogul Mr. Kurosawa, a red dragon with a penchant for ancient, supernatural artifacts. And now he has his sights set on some treasures of the mysterious Syrian City of the Dead that are sitting in a recluse’s private collection.

There’s just one wrinkle. To stop the resurrection of an undead army that could wreak havoc on Los Angeles, Owl must break into a heavily guarded archaeological sight in one of the most volatile regions in the world. A detour through Libya and a run-in with Somali pirates sends the clock ticking hastily toward total paranormal disaster.

Meanwhile, Alexander and the Paris vampires have stopped stalking Owl’s apartment, but they have by no means forgotten their death grudge against her. To top everything off, Owl finds out the hard way that there is nothing heavenly about the City of Angels...

 About the Author

Kristi is the author of OWL AND THE JAPANESE CIRCUS (Simon and Schuster Canada/Pocket Books), an urban fantasy about a modern-day “Indiana Jane” who reluctantly navigates the hidden supernatural world. She writes what she loves; adventure heavy stories featuring strong, savvy female protagonists, pop culture, and the occasional RPG fantasy game thrown in the mix. The second installment in the Owl series, OWL AND THE CITY OF ANGELS, is out Oct 5^th 2015, and the third and fourth installments, OWL AND THE ELECTRIC SAMURAI and OWL AND THE TIGER THIEVES, will be released in 2016 and 2017. THE VOODOO KILLINGS, book 1 in her second urban fantasy series, KINCAID STRANGE (Random House Canada), about a voodoo practitioner living in Seattle, is out May 10^th, 2016.

Kristi is also the Canadian co-hosting half of the Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing Podcast and has a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia. She is represented by Carolyn Forde at Westwood Creative Artists.

Twitter: @kristicharish

FB: http://www.facebook.com/KristiCharishAuthor

Website: http://www.kristicharish.com

AISFP Podcast: http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com