Babel Clash

While my first love will always be vampires, I have to admit that when it comes to playing in the urban fantasy genre, I am enamored of the fact that I have the chance to work with a broad spectrum of creatures that titillate the mind and soul. The urban fantasy genre not only allows me the freedom to play with characters from all different types of mythologies, but it also opens the door to creating my own creatures.

When I started working on the Dark Days Series, I found that I needed a villain or villains worthy of taking on my power and frightening nightwalkers. I needed something that was fierce and powerful and maybe even a little mad. I needed something with a zealot-like determination toward a single cause. That is how I first came up with the notion of the naturi. The naturi are a nature-based race that were born to protect the earth. Their own strength and powers are derived from the powers of the earth. As a result, they narrowly see humans as destroyers of the earth. So the goal of the naturi is naturally to destroy mankind in their effort to protect the earth. From a nightwalker’s perspective, this simply won’t do, as they are dependent upon humans for both entertainment and sustenance. Hence, nightwalkers and the naturi are natural enemies.

Another desperate love of mine when creating is that I always seek a sense of balance in all things. After I created the naturi, I found that I needed to create a polar opposite to that race so that they have a dark, evil enemy. As a result, the bori sprang into existence. The bori are a soul-based race, that were born to protect the souls of humans. Their own strength and powers come from the souls of humans. So, when the naturi start killing off humans, the bori begin to lose power, and they certainly don’t like that. It’s completely understandable then that the naturi and bori are forever locked in a power struggle for dominance.

Finally, to give both races a sense of history and deep age, I stated that the naturi are responsible for all the old mythology surrounding elves, fairies, hinky-pinks, and the like. When a creature slipped mysteriously out of the woods and attacked a human, it was a naturi. On the other hand, the bori were responsible for the mythology surrounding angels and demons, as these creatures were most likely around to tempt the souls of the humans.

Dane asked me what I’m looking forward to, and I’ve got a couple beyond the usual suspects.  I don’t have a lot of time to read, so I tend to read for cover quotes within the urban fantasy genre.  My favorte authors here are Jocelynn Drake (bad vampires, no sparkles here) and Vicki Pettersson (bad-ass superheros in Vegas) but I had the chance to read Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.  (anti-hero from hell)  It’s due out late July, and I can’t wait.  –Kim