No one ever successfully controls a familiar. Historically, familiars were said to be magical helpers of witches. They had the ability to shift shape, often appearing as cats, bats, or other creatures in their service to the witch. It was assumed by inquisitors that familiars, as a type of imp or evil spirit, served the witch willingly. At other times, they were summoned by a magician, then trapped in a stone or piece of jewelry. The familiar spirit was trapped, coerced into service, like genies in bottles. In the world of EMBERS and SPARKS, Anya has a familiar, Sparky. He’s a five-foot long speckled hellbender with eyes like marbles–a fire salamander elemental, a creature that’s the embodiment of fire. The German magician, Paracelsus, called fire spirits &mquot;salamanders&mquot;in the sixteenth century. Salamanders were long associated with fire, despite their amphibious nature, because they crawled out of forest logs cast on fires. The salamander was assumed to dwell in fire, and embodied the impetuosity, power, and destructive changeability of the flickering flame. Anya’s had Sparky since she was a child. He’s tied to a necklace her mother gave her, which suggests that, like the familiars trapped in jewelry, he was coerced into…

Fire #1 April 2010 On Sale: April 6, 2010 Featuring: Anya Kalinczyk 368 pages ISBN: 1439167656 EAN: 9781439167656 Mass Market Paperback $7.99 Add to Wish List Fantasy Urban Buy at Amazon.com Embers by Laura Bickle Detroit is burning…but it’s just the beginning. A sizzling debut depicts a Detroit where phantoms invade urban life and a supernatural arsonist seeks an ancient power to leave the city in cinders. Unemployment, despair, anger–visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit’s unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city. Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya–who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern–suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil’s Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya–with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team–can stop it. Anya’s accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she’s risking everything: her city, her soul,…