Today I am so pleased to welcome Kim Fielding to Joyfully Jay. Kim has come to talk to us about her latest release, Convicted. She has also brought along a great tour wide giveaway. Please join me in giving Kim a big welcome!

 

Hi! This is Kim Fielding, here to celebrate the release of Convicted. It’s Book 5 in the Bureau series, but as with the other books, you can read it as a standalone.

As you might guess from the title, one of the main characters is in prison. Seventeen years ago Desmond Hughes helped an evil wizard commit terrible crimes, and ever since then, Des has been locked up. Although the prison in my story is fictional—it’s reserved for paranormal creatures and those who do bad things with magic—it’s based firmly on several real prisons I’ve had the opportunity to visit.

I realize prison tourism doesn’t top most people’s vacation lists, but my day job is criminal justice professor, so it makes perfect sense for me. I’ve visited a few prisons that are still operational and several that are now primarily tourist attractions, such as Alcatraz in San Francisco.

I think one of the most interesting prisons I’ve been to was Wyoming’s former state pen, which operated between 1901 and 1981. Most of it’s in pretty rough shape nowadays, but you can walk around and get a feel of what it was like for people who were incarcerated there. You can step into a cell, wander the exercise yard, and even sit in the gas chamber. It’s a chilling reminder of some of the worst aspects of humanity.

Des’s prison is also influenced quite a bit by Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. First opened in 1827, it was one of this country’s first prisons. It didn’t shut down until 1971. During the earliest decades, inmates were kept in solitary confinement for the length of their sentences, allowed only short amounts of time (alone) in tiny outdoor exercise yards. Not surprisingly, this treatment severely damaged their mental health.

But we still keep prisoners in solitary confinement sometimes, and Des’s cell is modeled closely after the ones in modern supermax prisons. There’s ample evidence that inmates who are confined there also suffer by being kept apart from other people.

Convicted probably wouldn’t be a very interesting story if Des spent the entire time locked up by himself—and it certainly would lack a romantic aspect! So it’s not too spoilerish for me to say that he manages to get out. If you want to find out with whom and why and what happens to them, well, you’ll have to read the book!


Blurb

Vietnam veteran Kurt Powell’s addiction almost cost him everything, but a job as federal agent with the Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs helped him find sobriety and purpose. Now he tracks down dangerous paranormal creatures as well as humans who abuse their magical powers in illegal ways.

Sent from Belfast to the United States as a boy, Desmond Hughes later fell into a disastrous relationship that led to horrific murders. He’s spent seventeen years in a bleak prison with few comforts and no hope of release.

A new mission throws Kurt and Des together in a desperate attempt to prevent disaster. Sometimes what’s long been lost can still be found, but the road to redemption is never easy—and a mutual attraction may not ease the way.

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Bio

KIM FIELDING is very pleased every time someone calls her eclectic. A Lambda Award finalist and two-time Foreword INDIE finalist, she has migrated back and forth across the western two-thirds of the United States and currently lives in California, where she long ago ran out of bookshelf space. She’s a university professor who dreams of being able to travel and write full time. She also dreams of having two daughters who fully appreciate her, a husband who isn’t obsessed with football, and a house that cleans itself. Some dreams are more easily obtained than others.


Giveaway

Kim is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card AND an audiobook code for book one in the Bureau series – Corruption — with this tour. Enter via Rafflecopter for a chance to win

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