Urban Fantasy
Date Published: 08-31-2020
Inara Caan is an embittered vestal to The Order of the Avenging Hand. Her job, traveling worldwide with her demon partner, using magic to destroy monsters and mythological creatures wherever the Order finds them. Her next hunt takes her to Boston. She expects to find villainy beyond compare. Instead, she has been tasked with killing a happy family with a young daughter.
For reasons she doesn't understand, the Order betrays Inara and sends a winged assassin to kill her. She goes on the run, taking the family with her. She battles her way through the streets of Boston, finding help in the unlikeliest of places. As enemies close in from all sides, she stretches the limits of her power trying to save everyone. She may escape the Order but not the demon bound to her soul.
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
I wish I had an original way of saying this but I’ll
let the writer Glen Cook say it for me with a quote from his book The Black
Company. “Evil is relative…You can’t hang a sign on it.
You can’t touch it or taste it or cut it with a sword. Evil depends on where
you are standing, pointing your indicting finger.”
Good and evil are fluid. It can change with a
resonating sentence that shifts your thoughts. One can live their lives seeing
themselves as good or bad only to find out that others see them as the
opposite.
Beyond that, I’d like people
to consider the state of the world and how we treat each other. Not enough people
strive for the most simplistic of goals, simply to be good enough to treat ourselves
with the same kindness we’d show any stranger.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
For some reason, I
lean pretty hard into the darker aspects of my characters. There was a much darker
version of this book. One of my beta readers was kind enough and brave enough
to bring it up. It made me step back and reassess. The changes that followed
led to a story with a better balance.
Side note: If you’re a writer
that wants to be published someday, find some beta readers you can trust. You’ll
be happy you did.
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
I’ve written two
books so far and I’m currently working on a third. Currently, it has to be
the first. The second is pretty awesome, but “Donnybrook Good-Bye” is the start
of a long journey. That first step can be the hardest and the most important. But
without it, I wouldn’t be where I am now.
“The journey of a
thousand steps begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu.
If You had the chance to cast your main character from
This was a shockingly hard question. It took me a
while to mull over. I would say, Florence Pugh. She has a broad resume that
covers a bunch of different kinds of movies. I think this broad experience
would serve her well in playing Inara.
Also, she does a good job of bringing life to the
characters she plays. She is never just being Florence Pugh with some
alterations. She becomes the characters she plays.
When did you begin writing?
I tried writing a bit in college, mostly poems
and short stories. They were not good. I had an urge to do something creative and
music wasn’t working out. So, I started back in 1999 and wrote on and off for years.
How long did it take to complete your first book?
It
must have been ten years. It was a long process riddled with doubt that slowed
me considerably.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
Glen Cook.
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
My favorite part is creating the characters. From
the superficial outside to the deep depths of who they know they are to the dark
recesses of the subconscious to find who they don’t realize they are.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
Fast. Dark. Funny. Disturbed.
Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the
future for your writing?
Well, book 2,
The Hidden Road, is already out now. The next release, Rás na Dragain, begins the expansion of the world by
taking us through a portal in West Africa to the City of Wahe to follow Abasi’s
tale. This book has more of an epic fantasy feel yet has connections to the
first two books, which fall firmly into urban fantasy.
This book has
some political intrigue between various original fantasy races. A simmering rebellion.
The rumblings of war. Enslaved Dragons being raced for others to achieve glory.
Abasi navigates
it all as he struggles to figure out what happened to his son and granddaughter.
See the book jacket summary below.
The
century’s old peace in the City of Wahe is fragile. A storm of violence seethes
on the horizon. Alliances fracture. Rebellion festers. Dragons weep.
Yet, in an ethereal realm long forgotten, Abasi
sits quietly in his cabin reading stories, drinking tea, and taking walks with
his donkey. Content to leave his life of violence in the very distant past.
A
distress call from his estranged son shatters his fulfilled existence. Now he
must track down a granddaughter he didn’t know he had in a world he’d left so
long ago.
When Abasi passes from one dimension to the next,
the universe shakes to its bones. For Abasi is the last of the Grand Master
Battle Reavers. When he leaves his home, chaos follows.
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