Interviewing A.B. from Cursebusters & a giveaway!

Please not “Your Highness”, that is for royalty. I am certainly not royalty, though some might call me a trifle imperious. Do not be offended. When you have lived several centuries, it’s unseemly to converse in street slang. But your question. My name is my description: The Alpha Beast. Though perhaps that means nothing to Your Humanness. Let’s try this: Your Worst Nightmare. ( But only if you do something evil to another being or the planet itself, of course.) Because I am A Planet Guardian. (If you haven’t heard.) Also: A Killing Machine.

Nonetheless I still remain Reeno’s Best Friend. (Though she’d be the last to acknowledge it.)

Which Reeno? The Novice has all the awareness of a goldfish, as I’m sure you yourself will agree. The Student has the merest glimmer of potential. The Soldier is actually putting some effort into her work, which, when she’s teamed with me, is about as serious as you can get. The very Planet depends on The Alpha Beast and his handmaiden of the moment! Total focus is completely necessary to our…sorry, perhaps I got carried away. To continue: Reeno The Traveler is more evolved. She is on the very edge of what you humans describe as kicking Gluteus Maximus.

In short, though the Alpha Beast will take you out if you repeat this anywhere at all, Reeno is not completely hopeless. She has a lot of heart. And compassion. (Or so I gather—this is not my area of expertise.) And I have eyes, extremely good ones. I can see that the pink hair and snake tattoos are quite the fashion statement.

So many, so often! Where shall I begin? Perhaps your grandmother, or even great-grandmother could tell you tales of the ‘50s, when UFO’s freely plied the skies and alien abductions were as common as summer vacations. You don’t see that any more, do you? Just a garden variety example of The Alpha Beast at work. But let’s go back a bit farther, to Greek and Roman times. You have heard, perhaps, of the Cyclops, the Minotaur, Cerberus, the three-headed dog—really no end of monsters! Tell me, do you actually think Percy Jackson is the one who took them out? Excuse me, but those are just stories. When the Alpha Beast rips a foe to shreds, the foe stays shredded.

However, regarding the current adventure, (as told in the semi-accurate account CURSEBUSTERS!) I believe my proudest moment was observing Reeno’s use of Magical Combat when we time-travelled to Cozumel. She lacerated that pompous ass, Hernan Cortes the explorer. Which she could never have done without my tutelage.

Oh, please, Your Humanness! Your species is so predictable, You expect me to say the impossibility of herding cats, of course. But I assure that is no problem for The Alpha Beast. My troops behave like the perfectly synced army they are. Why don’t you ask me my favorite part? That would be this: A cat on the pillow is the next best spy to a fly on the wall. My troops are everywhere. And they have you at their service.

Sleeping? I really don’t recall that. Reeno may have thought I was sleeping, but the Alpha Beast, as she so aptly noted, even while appearing innocently curled up, is actually and always a Fur Grenade. I am often seen in that book instructing Reeno, though that may possibly come under the category of, as you put it, “kicking behind.” I prefer to think of it as necessary pedagogy. The art of Magical Combat has been hideously neglected over the centuries.

But “free” time, if there is such a thing. Reeno would tell you I’m a bit of a ham, and it is true that I am highly skilled in the thespian arts and justly proud of my accomplishments. But it is a scurrilous untruth that all I do all day is watch YouTube videos of what Reeno calls “my exalted self”.

The very kind first reviewer on the blog tour (Rex Robot Reviews, I believe) used these words: “Action-packed and gripping to the very end.” Naturellement, JessicaGirl! This is my life she’s talking about. But she also mentioned the word “fun”. What is that? Reeno’s friends, the Ozone Rangers, assure me that the book is actually quite “funny” as well, but these are not concepts to which I relate. I think they might be important to potential readers, however. And the more potential readers, the more Alpha Beast YouTube videos. Although I never watch. 

Budding-psychic Reeno is the most accomplished teenage burglar in California, but one tiny screw-up and poof!—she’s sentenced to Bad Girl School. And that isn’t even her worst problem. Her sister Haley’s dying of an illness no one can diagnose, and now she can’t even help.

But wait, maybe she can! The school psychics have found each other and formed their own club. With the help of her gay friend Carlos and the other Ozone Rangers, Reeno finds out Haley’s disease is the result of an ancient Mayan curse. And A.B., the group’s sinister non-faculty adviser, claims he knows how to break it.

All Reeno has to do is time-travel to an ancient Mayan city and steal a little item A.B. needs to save the world. Since she’s an ace thief, he has complete confidence she can execute the task before the outraged Mayans can execute her.

But can she trust A.B.? Despite his cuddly appearance, she knows he’s a merciless predator and ruthless assassin.