About Tessa Miyata Is So Unlucky: In this thrilling new adventure, Tessa Miyata and her best friend Jin must battle the gods… and win. With magic abound and stakes higher than ever, this is a perfect pick for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers!

Hi! Julie Abe, author of Tessa Miyata Is No Hero and my latest release, Tessa Miyata Is So Unlucky, here with something special: an interview with the main character, Tessa Miyata!

JULIE ABE: Hello, Tessa! Can you introduce yourself?

TESSA MIYATA: Oh. Wow. I’ve never done an interview before. Well, I’m Tessa Miyata. Twelve years old. Um, you’re probably talking about that thing that happened over the summer… Yikes. I mean… I understand why. I went to visit my grandparents in Japan for summer break, and, okay, I did release an evil samurai god in Tokyo and all of that.

JULIE: That was definitely a fiery summer. What can we expect in the second book, Tessa Miyata Is So Unlucky, that comes out August 2024?

TESSA: First—who came up with that title, anyway?

JULIE: To be honest, my editor and publisher. They put their brains together to come up with that awesome title.

TESSA: I know I’m unlucky, but did you really have to shout it out? Print it in ink? Make it show up everywhere, when I Google my name? *Sigh* Well, it’s the truth. So, toward the end of my let-an-evil-god-loose-summer, I got this magical invite to the Academy of Gods. In fact, if you look at the cover of the book, I’m sitting on the invite (because it turned into an origami tiger!), and on my way to the Academy of Gods. It’s this place that’s supposed to train us, but because there was a special event going on, called “The Cycle”, it really became more of like a battleground. Almost like my favorite anime, My Hero Academia.

JULIE: Whoa. I love watching anime, too! My recent favorite anime is SPY x FAMILY. What’s your favorite part of the Academy?

TESSA: The food, for sure. And, my friends, of course. The dining hall is the coolest thing ever. The Seven Lucky Gods get to choose where the dining hall door leads to during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So, like, most of them want to dine at fancy restaurants and all that. But it can lead to anywhere in Japan. So, my friend Jin and I would sneak out at night, and ask the dining hall to take us to a convenience store, and we’d eat instant yakisoba and ice cream—food of the gods, for sure!

JULIE: Ooh, I love the convenience stores in Japan. I want to live at the Academy—

TESSA: Wait, am I supposed to be telling you this? You’re a mortal. I gotta keep the immortals’ secrets hidden.

JULIE: Oops, true. I guess everyone will have to read the Tessa Miyata series to find out more.

TESSA: That’s right! Tessa Miyata Is No Hero and Tessa Miyata Is So Unlucky are now available EVERYWHERE! Read (or listen, if you like audiobooks) the story of how I (hopefully) conquer the Academy of Gods! That’s cool, I’ve always wanted to say that! Have a happy summer, and stay away from evil gods, all of you mortals!

EXCERPT

LAST TIME IN TESSA

MIYATA IS NO HERO . . .

Foreword provided by Hachi, a minor spirit (with a few interruptions by Kit)

You’re— you’re a mortal? Oh, wow! There are so many of you these days. First, Tessa and Jin, and now you, too. Um, well, that’s three, but I used to know zero mortals before all of this. I’m Hachi— don’t call me Hachiman, please, that’s my grandpa— and . . . I think we need your help.

So, since you’re a mortal, whether or not you’ve read Tessa Miyata Is No Hero recently, I’ll give you a quick refresher. I’ve heard mortal minds are forgetful. I don’t really know a ton of mortals, though, but this can’t hurt, right?

So, first, Tessa Miyata. She’s a god-​blessed mortal (which means she’s a human who can see gods) who releases an evil samurai god into Tokyo. Absolute, complete

troublemaker! Because of her, I— Okay, okay, I’ll wait for you to read further. Anywho, fortunately, she’s got two allies: Kit— an epic, gorgeous, magnificent ninetailed magical fox (he told me to write that all in) with no memory of his past, and Jin Uehara, her neighbor who’s an ace at karate.

Together, the three of them appealed to the Seven Lucky Gods to Do. Something. But their motto kinda was “Do Nothing, Just Watch Haikyuu!!” Which is a good enough motto, but definitely not if the world is falling apart.

So, because of that, Tessa, Jin, and Kit went to the Dojo of Many Doors. Tessa and Jin had to make their way through the two magical torii gates to learn how to use ku— spirit energy— and create hinoki weapons powerful enough to beat the evil samurai god. But if they didn’t get out in time, they’d become a part of the last magical city forever.

Did they get out? Did they beat the evil samurai god? Who is he, really? Yikes— if you don’t remember that, go back to book one.

Or, does that jog your memory enough? Okay. Now, fast forward through two months of Jin and Tessa hanging out, going to summer festivals, and basically having an awesome summer vacation (without me, so it clearly couldn’t have been absolutely perfect). Now, let’s get started on book two, Tessa Miyata Is So Unlucky (which, according to Kit, should really be named The Legends of

Kit, the Best God in the Universe).

I just gotta tell you . . . this story . . . it didn’t end up the way I expected. Intense. Epic. Adventures. Loads of ice cream, sure. Still, my heart kind of hurts thinking of everything that’s happened. And that’s what I want your mortal help with. I want to know . . . will it end the way you expected? That’s for you to find out…

The post Author Julie Abe Interviews Her Main Character, Tessa Miyata appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Julie Abe’s Our Cursed Love, which is out December 12th.

Six days to remember.
Love or lose him forever.

Remy Kobata has always wished she was destined to be with her best friend, Cam Yasuda. All the way from being neighbors from birth to mixing up magical prank potions together to their “just friends” homecoming date during their senior year in high school, nothing’s a secret between Remy and Cam―except for how much she is in love with him.

Remy is trying to work up the courage to confess her feelings during their winter break trip to Japan, when she gets selected for a mystical tea leaves reading and it reveals that they’re not meant to be together. After they stumble upon a secret magical apothecary in the back alleys of Tokyo, Remy and Cam are offered an ancient soulmate elixir, created before all love potions were banned by the magical government. They each have their reasons for wanting to take it, but what could go wrong with finding your soulmate a little earlier?

Except, after they drink up, their senior year trip flips into the worst vacation Cam has forgotten who Remy is. If she can’t help Cam remember her by midnight New Year’s Eve, they’ll both be cursed to forget each other. To unravel their past and rewrite the future, Remy and Cam must travel through Tokyo to rediscover Cam’s memories and make new ones―and maybe even fall in love all over again.

Through the train window, Tokyo’s lights glimmer like birthday candles in the fading afternoon sun, and Remy feels like she’s so, so close to having her wishes come true.

With a yawn, she rubs her eyes, shifting on her pillow for a better angle.

There are only two things she wishes for; one in particular that she’s wished for every year, for as long as she can remember. Both might very well come true this winter break. If—if—she has more luck than she’s ever had before. Knowing how things have been recently, though, this trip might be her last chance to make them come true.

The loudspeaker crackles overhead as the train conductor announces in Japanese, “We will arrive momentarily at Shibuya.”

Remy freezes. She’s not lying in her bedroom back in California, scrolling through travel blogs—the rocking train had lulled her into a jet-lagged daze on the ride from the airport to Shibuya Station. That’s right. She’s just arrived for a busy week, with an interview at her dream university, the potential answer to her first wish—and a full week with …

Her pillow. Who is definitely not a pillow.

Remy’s eyes swing up and to the left and her breath hitches, in that involuntary way it does whenever she sees Cameron Yasuda these days. Her best friend is lanky and nearly a foot taller than her, his chest rising and falling gently as he sleeps—he can snooze through anything, even the train’s loud conductor.

She knows almost all of Cam, her best friend throughout her entire life, even his soft, sleepy, quiet breaths. Dark eyes and light brown hair that’s softer than clouds, and tanned skin from their days spent sitting in the park near home. He’s a cinnamon roll, from outside to in; his kindness has melted even the coldest of hearts at their high school. And everything about him—all the little things, like his sweet smiles, his obsession with elixirs—feels like it’s become a part of Remy, too.

Remy sits up, trying not to jostle him, but he rouses himself.

“Are we there yet?” Cam yawns. “A potion for your thoughts?” The city lights make his face glow.

“You’ll whip one up here?” she murmurs back. “That’s pretty smooth, even for you.”

That’s the second-biggest secret Remy keeps, but at least this one she happily shares with her best friend: magic. There’s a whole enchanted side to the world, but it’s kept hidden from “the general public.” If he hadn’t also come from a family sworn into magical society, Cam wouldn’t be allowed to find out about magic because of past disasters where it’s gotten into the wrong hands. By international magical society’s laws, she would’ve had to marry him to share the world of magic … and she’s not anywhere close to making that happen. After all, she hasn’t even been able to confess her feelings yet.

He laughs. “I’ll try to create whatever you want.”

And he totally would, too, because Cam is Cam. He’s always been a rock for Remy, whether she’s bawling from a K-drama, burning yet another batch of cookies, or frantically studying for her finals. Cam always knows to bring tissues and a box of Goldsticks (their favorite magical snack) for their Netflix marathons, and he always knows just how to tutor her in chemistry so she can ace her tests.

But Remy can’t ask him for one now, because the only potion she could ever imagine helping her would be a love potion—not that they exist, anymore. And this year, she made a different promise on her birthday candles, in late January. Her biggest secret, the one that she holds close to her heart, thrumming and beating with every breath, every wish: This year, I’ll tell Cam how I really feel about him.

Except now it’s December 23, and she only has this week before the year’s up.

She stares out the window as the train slows. Somewhere, out in Tokyo, she has to find the perfect spot for her confession. The Spot where they’ll potentially become a couple.

The doors purr open, and she hurriedly stands. Her arm shoots out right when Cam is also reaching out for her aqua-blue suitcase, and their hands collide.

Instantly, she turns into the mess she always becomes these days when Cam touches her, even accidentally. “Oh—I’m sorry—”

He withdraws his hand like her touch burns, and all her words dissolve into ash, dry in her throat.

“Um, no worries,” Cam says, his eyes glued to the suitcase. “I’m just clumsy when I’m sleepy.”

He’s sweet as ever, trying to say anything to not make Remy feel bad, but the way he jerked back is enough of a sign.

If I tell him, Cam will be so sweet and nice, even as he rejects me. The lump in her throat grows, the lump that’s been there for almost four full years. She’s tried and tried to fall in love with someone else; she’s kissed a lot of (human) frogs that definitely didn’t end up sparking a feeling even close to the way she feels with Cam.

Remy grabs her suitcase and follows him out of the train and into Shibuya Station, wishing on birthday candles and this once-in-a-lifetime trip and shooting stars that Cam might be in love with her, too.

“We’re meeting Ellie and Jack near that dog statue, right? Hachiko?” Cam asks.

She nods, squinting as she reads a sign, looking for the right exit among the five million possible exits.

Cam and Remy have been learning how to speak Japanese at their Saturday classes for years, but it’s bewildering that they’re actually here.

“This way—I think.” Remy points to their left. The train station is full of shiny white tiles, so pristine that they glimmer under the fluorescent lights. Before she knows it, they’re exiting out of a ticket gate, and a winter breeze blasts them in the face.

“Oh,” Cam breathes out with relief.

“That feels so good,” Remy echoes. After a twelve-hour flight from San Jose Airport to Tokyo followed by the half-hour train ride, it’s nice to feel something real.

Speaking of real …

Tokyo is truly unreal.

A flood of business workers in black suits push them out like a tide; they’re swept up and out of the station and deposited onto an expansive plaza, lined with buildings so tall that Remy is sure she’ll fall over if she looks all the way up. Billboards flash with lights, and there are store names everywhere. She wants to drink in everything all at once: the chatter of people meeting friends, the blinking lights of advertisements from nearby stores, the sound of buses and cars whirring by on the road and filling the air with noise.

Remy and Cam gape at the edge of an intersection—the Shibuya Scramble, the most famous crossing in Japan, or maybe even in the world. The pedestrian light flashes green, and the floodgates open as people stride every which way, cozily dressed in thick coats.

Out here on the street, even without wearing rose-tinted charmed spectacles to check, Remy is sure that thick puffs of raw magical dust swirl from the passersby, shimmering with their joy and ready to be turned into a charm. The world can seem completely ordinary, but she knows: there is magic in it. She would bet a hundred yen that the coffee shop overlooking the crosswalk sells French press coffee tinged with enchantments for awe and excitement, and that Shibuya 109 is likely stuffed with cute, trendy clothes woven with spells for confidence.

From Our Cursed Love by Julie Abe. Copyright © 2023 by the author and reprinted by permission of Wednesday Books.

The post Read An Excerpt From ‘Our Cursed Love’ by Julie Abe appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Julie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi, The Nerd Daily readers! I’m Julie Abe, and I write lots of magical, whimsical books for young & teen readers. Here’s my official bio:

Julie Abe has spent many humid summers in Japan, and currently basks in the sunshine of Southern California with never enough books or tea, where she creates stories about magical adventures. Her debut novel EVA EVERGREEN, SEMI-MAGICAL WITCH received a starred review from Kirkus: “Bewitching…a must-read for fantasy lovers,” and was also listed as a Best Middle Grade Book by Kirkus, New York Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, and Book Riot. Julie is also the author of EVA EVERGREEN AND THE CURSED WITCH; ALLIANA, GIRL OF DRAGONS; and TESSA MIYATA IS NO HERO, as well as the young adult novels THE CHARMED LIST and OUR CURSED LOVE.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I was a lifetime reader—I devoured all the books I could get my hands on. “Summer Reading Programs” were like magic to my ears. But, honestly, I never thought that I could write, that someone like me could become published, so it was never even a dream that I had…

…Until I started my first job after college, and thought to myself… There has to be more to my life than this. I can’t only be stuck in a cubicle for the rest of my life!

So, with that, I began to dream… and dream…

And I wrote. I wrote a ton. I wrote at night, in the early morning, during my lunch break… I practiced and practiced and got rejected a TON. Eventually, after a dozen failed books and attempts to find representation from an agent, I wrote Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch—which is the story about a girl with just a pinch of magic, who’s sure she’s not good enough to become a witch. It was emotionally driven by my publishing journey, and I felt her emotions deep in my soul.

To my surprise, I received multiple offers of agent representation for Eva Evergreen, and then multiple offers for publication from major publishing houses. From there, I kept writing and writing, which takes us to where we are today: at the release of my sixth book, Tessa Miyata Is No Hero.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

The first book I remember is one I came across recently—it was a Disney picture book, and what made it so special was that it was a gift from my lovely kindergarten teacher, Kelly King! (If she’s out there, I’d love to say thank you to her—she was such a wonderful teacher.)

The one that made me want to become an author—ALL of the books. All the stories that kept me up reading until late at night. A particularly special book I love is The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. So beautifully written, and with gorgeous worldbuilding.

The one that I can’t stop thinking about—check out my recommendations at the end!

Your latest novel, Tessa Miyata Is No Hero, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Tessa Miyata is No Hero is… your cheapest “vacation” to Tokyo!

What can readers expect?

Adventures, friendship, and food! Tessa Miyata Is No Hero is a thrilling and charming middle grade fantasy steeped in Japanese lore and mythology. When 12-year-old Tessa Miyata accidentally unleashes an evil god, she (only a very ordinary mortal) must stop him in his tracks or Tokyo—and her family, who she loves more than anything—will be lost forever.

I often think of books as my “vacation” without having to go anywhere, and I hope Tessa will feel like that to readers. I try to write immersive locations that make readers feel like they’re there—even if they’ve never traveled to Rivelle Realm from the Eva Evergreen/Alliana books (which unfortunately doesn’t exist), or to Tokyo, Japan like in Tessa Miyata. When I open a book, I want to be sucked into the story and the world as if it’s real and surrounding me, even if I were to close the pages, so I love to write in sights, sounds, and tastes for readers to enjoy. And, for me, I wrote it in a time when I couldn’t go back to Japan (my birth land), so I wrote it thinking of my grandpa and wishing I could be there with him again.

Where did the inspiration for Tessa Miyata Is No Hero come from?

I got a spark of inspiration from a legend that was so fascinating, it took root in my mind and wouldn’t let go. Years and years ago, I was researching a few Japanese legends for a previously released book (Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch), when I learned about Taira Masakado. He was a renegade samurai who was about to overthrow the government—until he was assassinated. However, that’s not where his story ended.

There are so many wild rumors about him, with most revolving around consequences for anyone who puts him in an ill light. For example, he has a burial ground dedicated to him in Tokyo’s financial district, which is an incredibly expensive plot of land. Plans were drawn up to build something there, but workers started getting sick, then the lead minister on the project died. After that, construction was halted and the grounds purified to placate Taira’s ghost.

Reading about this—and the other legends about Taira Masakado—made me so fascinated with him, and though I couldn’t find a spot to put him into my first book (other than naming a special character after him), I kept thinking of his legends and dreaming of writing him into another book.

Then, one day, a story began to unfurl in my mind of a girl who wasn’t very legendary, and definitely wasn’t a hero… and the consequences of what might happen when she bumped into a very legendary character who could send her life into complete doom… And that spark developed into what is now Tessa Miyata Is No Hero.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

One of the very first scenes explores Tessa’s character and her family dynamics as she pauses in front of her grandparents’ gate. That moment—filled with possibilities and questions of what life in Japan might bring—were drawn from my summers in Japan, visiting my grandparents, and standing in front of that very gate.

I also absolutely loved writing Kit—he’s a legendary kitsune, a Japanese fox. He’s a bit snarky but has a sweeter side to him, and it was particularly fun seeing him come to life on the cover of Tessa Miyata—I like to think he’s (of course) leaping towards whatever trouble he can get into.

What a stunning cover! Can you tell us a bit about the process at all?

I’m incredibly lucky that the amazing Karmen Loh agreed to illustrate the Tessa Miyata covers. For this cover, I thought a lot about how to convey what Tessa Miyata is No Hero is all about, in just one image. I asked my husband for input, and he was kind enough to draw a basic concept for me, which I sent to my editor, and she passes on my thoughts to the art director. From there, I got back an initial concept sketch by the art director, which turned into a sketch by the artist, and then colored and refined. It’s truly an amazing process—covers are one of my favorite parts of having my books published!

What’s next for you?

I’ve been completely immersed in writing Tessa Miyata is So Unlucky, the sequel to Tessa Miyata is No Hero! There are two new side characters that I absolutely adore and I can’t wait for readers to meet them.

I also write books for teen readers, and have Our Cursed Love, the companion novel to my young adult debut, which releases in December—so it’s been a very busy few years!

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

I’m a huge fan of Nura and the Immortal Palace by M. T. Khan! It’s set in a dazzling world with a dark underside (and the author’s note made me tear up). Another favorite pick is anything by Adrianna Cuevas, who writes fun, heartfelt stories like The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, which features a boy who just might be able to talk to animals—but there’s a local witch who is hunting them down…

Will you be picking up Tessa Miyata Is No Hero? Tell us in the comments below!

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