Max and the Spice Thieves
John Peragine
(Secrets of the Twilight Djinn #1)
Publication date: April 20th 2021
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
When his mother goes missing, Max Daybreaker’s world is turned upside down. Luckily, a crew of Spice Pirates, led by the mysterious Captain Cinn, help Max on his dangerous mission across the three seas.
Along the way, an unlikely alliance aids in his search—a teenage warrior queen, a three-eyed seer, and an assassin spy.
Their journey takes them through treacherous lands while facing shapeshifting bears, an ancient witch, harpies, and the nightmarish Djinn, who will stop at nothing to enslave the world.
With every new challenge, Max unlocks the secrets of his unsettling past. Powers awaken within, forcing him to question everything he knows.
Is Max who he thinks he is? Only time and destiny will tell…
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Author Bio:
John Peragine is an author of over fourteen books. The Secrets of the Twilight Djinn series was written as a bedtime story for his son Max to cope with medical issues he was facing as a little boy. John is a full-time ghostwriter who lives with his son, wife, and a menagerie of animals on his vineyard overlooking the Mississippi River.
I had the pleasure of asking John "What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?" His response follows:
I wrote Max and the Spice Thieves for my son Max. He has a disorder called Cold Urticaria. Changes in the temperature of his skin make it react as if he had touched something like poison ivy. He gets itchy, burning hives all over his body. Sometimes it is annoying, but when he was younger, it was life-threatening because of the risk of his throat swelling.
It is hard to know what another person is feeling unless you have the same disorder. Although unintentionally, I got a little taste of what burning itching skin might feel like, especially when there is nothing you can do to relieve it.
I grew a yummy, spicy batch of habanero peppers in my garden one year. There were so many that I decided I needed to make salsa and can the rest. Not having dealt with fresh peppers from the garden, I really had no idea that I needed to wear gloves. I diced a couple pounds of them quickly before the pain started. My hands swelled and were red and painful.
I did what most people in my situation would do. Call the doctor. Nope! I looked on the Internet for a solution. The pain and swelling lasted over an hour, and I began trying all sorts of remedies. Cold water. Alcohol. Soap and water. Oil. Nothing worked, and then I found out another painful lesson. Never touch your face or any other part of your body. I felt like my body had been set on fire.
Only one thing worked- a giant bowl of cold milk. It took about two more hours before I could bear the pain and could take them out of the bowl. Max, my son, has that feeling whenever cold air hits him. He can even be getting out of a pool in the middle of summer, and his wet skin will cause welts to form.
As I wrote the feeling that Max has in the book, not only when he is affected by the cold air, but also when his magic builds up in his body, I remember that painful pepper lesson.
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