trueromance

Setting: November in Chicago, which—if you’ve ever experienced the beginning of winter in Chicago—means the end of light, warmth and hope. In other words, an excellent start to the end of the world.

Subgenre: Urban fantasy romance where repentant demons—the teshuva—possess alpha male warriors—the talyan—to fight against the aforementioned end of the world ushered in by demons of the decidedly less repentant kind.

Hero: Ferris Archer, former spoiled Southern gentleman, current garbage man of the damned

Heroine: Sera Littlejohn, thanatologist (she’s always been compelled to peer into the abyss) and first female talya

One sentence summary: In a world where evil has broken free of the shadows, only a hero cut from a darker shade of wicked stands a chance…if he finds the courage to hold the woman who is the other half of his demon-shattered soul.

Scene you like most and would never cut: I’d cut anything. I have no mercy. Let that be a lesson to recalcitrant scenes that think they can run amok. (I’m in hot first draft mode on Book 3 of The Marked Souls as I write this, so I can’t afford to show those scenes any weakness.)

However, I do like the scene where Archer explains Sera’s possession to her. It was an interesting scene to write because it was so necessary; I had to explain the intricacies of the storyworld to Sera, the reader and to myself, all at the same time. So to me, in a way, it felt like I was there, in the scene with Sera. My favorite line is from Archer:
“You’ve been possessed by an other-realm emanation, latent at the moment, that matched itself to susceptible receptors in your idiopathic, perpetual etheric force.” When she blinked at him, he added, “More commonly called your soul.”
“Did I catch a demon or a cold?”
I know, I know. “Idiopathic, perpetual etheric force”? My dirty little secret as a writer is that I love words. Sometimes I imagine myself as a olde-tyme lion tamer—whip and keyboard in hand, chair under butt—forcing the words to dance. Until they turn viciously upon me and—not doubt deservedly—rend me to bloody bits. But that’s another story.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: Playing the harp. As a thanatologist—a counselor who helps ease the transition into death—she briefly carted around a harp because it seemed… well, de rigeur. But when a patient informed her that dying would be sweet relief from her strumming, she gave it up. Anyway, she always thought the harp sounded sort of morbid.

Your hero, is he a boxer or brief kind of guy: Boxers. Black, of course, to match his jeans, his hair and his soul. Although from the cover, you’d probably guess commando. A man who doesn’t wear even a t-shirt under his leather jacket during November in Chicago would not bother himself to don underwear beneath his leather pants. I’m guessing. Presumably no shirt reduces his laundry loads when you consider the nasty tarnish left by slaughtered demon gore.

Ancillary character you had the most fun with: I liked working with Corvus, the villain. One of the first things you learn when you start writing bad guys is that the villain is the hero of his own story. And I think that’s very true for Corvus. He honestly believes ushering in the end of days is a good idea. He has justifications, rationales, excuses, probably flowcharts if we checked his briefcase and REM’s “End of The World” playing on his iPod. If he had a briefcase and iPod. He’d swear he only wants to help humanity. But we all know where the road of good intentions leads.

Your heroine’s favorite hobby: Searching for answers. Sera has never been content with platitudes and mysteries. If anyone could figure out the meaning of good and evil, life and death, salvation and damnation, it’s Sera. As for love… Well, she’s finding love is a little trickier.

Your hero’s favorite hobby: Staining the city with the psychic screams of drained demons. In his off hours, Archer putters with lilies in his secret greenhouse. Not a pastime he shares with his demon-slaying, uber-alpha compatriots.

What do you think readers will like best about this book: Oh wow, tough question. I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that. But I know my favorite stories are ones with deep shadows and flashes of humor; some explosions and a few lyrical passages; and definitely a happy ending (until the next book, at least). Since those are the kinds of stories I like to read, that’s what I wrote. I hope readers will like those aspects too.

The person who readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: Since this is the first book in the series, I haven’t heard from many readers yet (shameless cry for help) but a couple have already mentioned Ecco. Ecco is a big, hulking brute of a man who reads women’s magazines for the quizzes and might be harboring secret depths. Not that he’d ever let on. I don’t know if he could be a hero. He’s so gleefully rough around the edges, I’m not sure any self-respecting heroine would have him. I mean, he blames his inner demon for leaving the toilet seat up. Can such a man be redeemed?

What’s next: Book 2 of The Marked Souls, FORGED OF SHADOWS, coming out in June 2010, follows Liam Niall, the leader of the Chicago league of possessed warriors. Liam already despaired of the world going to hell in a hand basket on his watch, and the appearance of the newly possessed Jilly Chan just pushed the minute hand farther along. Yeah, he’s doomed.

Discussion question: In SEDUCED BY SHADOWS, Sera learns that the battle between good and evil isn’t just metaphorical and has been going on beneath humanity’s collective nose for millennia. Have you ever learned something that shook your world to the core? Did you handle it like a plucky romance heroine, or a reluctant hero? How many pages would it take you to believe the world as you knew it had changed irrevocably?

Chapter 1 of SEDUCED BY SHADOWS is available at http://jessaslade.com and a free short story, “Boys’ Night Out,” introducing the world of the Marked Souls is online exclusively at the Borders Romance Reading Room http://www.tinyurl.com/MarkedSoulsPrequel.

Leave a comment for a chance to win one of three giveaways, which include a signed copy of SEDUCED BY SHADOWS, a custom temporary tattoo based on an inside joke from the story, and a pair of Possession In Pearl earrings, pearl sticks with these weird, borderline creepy freeform shapes inside that, to me anyway, look vaguely demonic. Repentant demons, I’m sure.