Thanks to Read 2 Review for spotlighting my new novel The Flower Bowl Spell. I wrote this novel, about a Chinese American Wiccan in San Francisco, because I thought it would be fun. I myself am mixed race, half Chinese and half Caucasian, and I’m always looking for novels with characters that have a similar background to mine. I just don’t find them that often. Not that race really matters in my book. But living in San Francisco where I was born and raised, I wanted to feature the community in which I grew up. No, I’m not a Wiccan. I didn’t even learn about Wicca until I was in my late 20s. But I’m a feminist, and I love that Wicca is a movement/religion centered on the feminine and the natural world, and that Wiccans can practice solo or in groups.

I got into writing at an early age. My parents were teachers and my dad was always writing stories and novels. He even wrote a children’s book series (which he hopes to publish now that he’s in his 80s!) that he read to my sisters and me. I think he inspired me to write. I pursued writing at the graduate level, earning an MA in Creative Writing from UC Davis. A small press published my first novel Year of the Smoke Girl in 2000, and it’s a coming-of-age story. It’s not available yet as an eBook, but hopefully soon. Currently, I’m working on a sequel and YA prequel to The Flower Bowl Spell, as well as an upmarket novel about two sisters who own a tearoom, a collection of short stories, and a children’s chapter book.

Apart from writing, I don’t have much time for hobbies beyond reading and occasionally creating cards a la Tim Holz. I have two young children, and I spend a lot of time volunteering at their schools (go, PTA!). I’m also a freelance writer, mainly writing marketing content, book reviews, and some news/feature articles. To find out more about what’s going on with that, go to my website, www.oliviaboler.com. And thanks for reading!

The Flower Bowl Spell by Olivia Boler

Blurb:

Journalist Memphis Zhang isn’t ashamed of her Wiccan upbringing—in fact, she’s proud to be one of a few Chinese American witches in San Francisco, and maybe the world. Unlike the well-meaning but basically powerless Wiccans in her disbanded coven, Memphis can see fairies, read auras, and cast spells that actually work—even though she concocts them with ingredients like Nutella and antiperspirant. Yet after a friend she tries to protect is brutally killed, Memphis, full of guilt, abandons magick to lead a “normal” life.

The appearance, however, of her dead friend’s attractive rock star brother—as well as a fairy in a subway tunnel—suggest that magick is not done with her. Reluctantly, Memphis finds herself dragged back into the world of urban magick, trying to stop a power-hungry witch from using the dangerous Flower Bowl Spell and killing the people Memphis loves—and maybe even Memphis herself.

Praise for The Flower Bowl Spell:

“Olivia Boler’s The Flower Bowl Spell is a genre-bending ride with sexy rock stars, Californian witches, children with potentially otherworldly gifts, and the occasional fairy. But it is also a story of identity, of the sometimes warring facets that make and shape a human being. Beautifully written, witty, and brimming with both ordinary and fantastical life, The Flower Bowl Spell will charm readers everywhere.” – Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men Are Gone

To get your copy of The Flower Bowl Spell please check out the following Amazon links:

UK: The Flower Bowl Spell

USA: The Flower Bowl Spell