Did You Know…About Phea and James?

Tags

Altantean, Broken World, Chronos, murder, Primordial God, reincarnation, shifters, tragic, underworld, vampires

I know, this isn’t my normal DYK post, but I’ve been in a sharing mood.

I’m a fan of context and connections and deeper meanings, so this is from the author’s mouth…urm, fingers? You know what I mean.

Two of the oldest characters featured in my Broken World series, Phea and James have pasts locked together with violence, manipulation, and the struggle for power.

If you’ve read “Maiden of the Underworld,” you know about Phea’s beginning. But if you haven’t, let me give you a recap: Phea is the daughter of Chronos, the Primordial god of time and an Atlantean woman. She’s set against the twin gods of the Atlantean pantheon: Markandeya, the god of the underworld; and Jydios, the god of war. Without too many spoilers, she dies, becomes the first vampire, finds some romance, and makes some heart-breaking sacrifices. Hers is a tragic story.

There’s much more I haven’t written about her past yet, like how she started the war between vampires and shifters because she was jealous of her son’s wife and family. Or how she’s the grandmother of all shifters. Unfortunately for the lot, blood ties don’t seem to curb her cruelty. She’s merciless.

How does James fit into this? Well, mini-spoiler: James is the reincarnated Jydios—the war god that tricked and murdered Phea to steal her power by using her love for him against her. Does that give her some more sympathy? Kinda, yeah. Does it undo the six-thousand-year-old torture she lays down on James? No, not really. It’s complicated.

Jydios tortured and killed any demi-god who had the balls to visit his real godly temple. That’s more than two dozen sacrificed to feed his well of power. James knows this, the knowledge beaten into him by Phea, and he understands that he suffers for the dharma branded on his soul.

The two of them have been allies and adversaries at once. She was given a child that abandoned her, so Phea made James abandon his wife and child, taking their second from them before his birth. She claimed and refuses to release him, although she invites others to her bed to test his faith and force him to fight for her. He fights to survive and does her bidding because he has no other choice.

He really doesn’t. Because Phea’s powers were bestowed on her from the higher pantheons, she can control him just enough to disable his uprising, but he doesn’t make it easy on her.

Especially now, he’s played his trump card, and they both have limited time to put their warring plans in motion to see who really controls their kingdom.

So there it is, some Broken World history. Want to read their story? Got some unanswered questions? Let me know!

In the meantime, I’ve got four full novels and three short stories in the world. Take a look and catch up in time for the upcoming stories featuring Ria’s father, Aderyn Tanguy, and Boden’s trip home to see his family for the first time in better part of a millennia.

Polyamorous Relationships & Urban Fantasy

Tags

blood phoenix, Laurell K. Hamilton, LGBT, love-triangle, polyamory, satire, stereotypes, third wheel, tropes, vampires

Ria has three men in her life, and I know a lot of readers are over the love triangle—or square in this case. I know people are going to react to this. In fact, a reviewer already has: How can Ria love more than one man at the same time? Here’s a disclaimer, the Blood Phoenix mini-series is not a romance. It’s more of a sexy horror/urban fantasy.

Well, let me try to explain this fictional set up and why it reflects a bit of my life and beliefs.

One of my major influences, Laurell K. Hamilton, talks about polyamory in several blog posts and interviews. In fact, here’s a quote from her in a 2015 interview:

“Even in the LGBT community, polyamory and bisexuality are not totally accepted. They are both seen as a way of not committing to one sexuality, or one person, even among those who you would think would be the most accepting. Most people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are very invested in the ideal of finding the love of their life and living happily ever after. It works for some people, but happily ever after is from fairy tales, which are bedtime stories for kids. Why does everyone try to fit real world love into a model from children’s stories? Shouldn’t true love be able to grow up, at last?”

Over the last year, I’ve written, read, edited, and presented over fairy tales and gender roles and societal influences, etc. Her quote fits for my recent state of mind. I highly believe we can love more than one person at a time, and most of us do. We love our significant others, our parents, our siblings, our children, and our friends. Each love is different, even if they’re the same “type” of love.

I feel as though I try to get into the intricacies that comes with polyamorous relationships—as with every relationship, the variables apply to the people involved—that I’ll just say that having multiple partners—sexual or not—can be done in a healthy and respectable way. So long as honesty and open communication exists, more love can only lead to positive outcomes. The same is true with couples.

I’m in favor of combating pre-designated ideas about human behavior. Love who you love and fuck everyone else. It’s none of their business, anyways.

Okay, with that in mind, let me elaborate on Ria’s men and her need for all three. I’ve been told that they could be combined into one or two at most.

They can’t. Maybe this is an author pout, the characters are real to me, and I cannot eliminate one out of the selfish attachment to them. Maybe.

Or they represent the three versions of my husband. Without spilling too much personal information about him, Jason, I will say that the combination of his high intellect, his enormous vault of experiences, and the effects of twenty-six months of extremely active combat in Afghanistan, I don’t always know which version of him I will get on any given day: the surly sergeant determined to fix the corruption of his government—aka James; the needy, silly, goofball that spends a lot of time entertaining himself and causing mischief—aka Boden; or the lonely, sullen man in need of affection and fighting a mouthy, combative female he’s meant to take care of—aka Gene.

The three have a bit of overlap, but they’re distinct enough to make them different people. Besides, Ria needs all the help she can get, and each supports her in different ways as she adapts for each of them.

In any case, my novels are meant to be satirical, poking fun at the tropes of my genre(s), like the ever-popular and overly-used love triangle.

Got a trope you wish more authors used, eliminated, or adapted? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Interview with Tahe Love: The Battle Buddy.

Tags

biker bar, blood phoenix, Broken World, Cadillac Roadster, card tricks, magician, Nikola Tesla, vampires

Welcome, Tahe Love, full of sass, crass, and class.

That’s me, chica.

 

I hear you once met Nikola Tesla, can you tell us about that?

It was brief. He shook my hand and looked me in the eyes. The intellect and general good in him astonished me. I’d probably have bent over for him there if he’d asked me to, even though I wasn’t into the mustache.
Oh my.

Sorry, sista. I tell it how it is.

 

I heard you dabbled in magic. Can you tell me about your time as a magician’s assistant?

I loved magic and sleight of hand. There was this young bloke, charming as shit, good at misdirection, and good with his hands. I saw him perform on the street one night and took him to an alley for a little nibble. Impressed him when I stole the cash he’d made from the show right out of his pocket. So we did a lot of disappearing assistant acts. Didn’t get anywhere, and his obsession got dark, confinement and danger, and I ain’t gonna watch a good man descend like that. Watch him kill himself. No thanks.

 

Which trick was your favorite?

He taught me how to fling cards, which he’d cut with his double-sided dagger. We got some speed on that trick. Got noticed for it, too. That’s when shit went wrong.

 

I also heard that you’re a bit of a car nut.

I love what industry has done to them, well before all of the electronic controls. The ignition system though in the early 1900s, those were brilliant because the hand cranks were monsters. But people don’t know their cars now, all those automatic regulators get in the way. I enjoyed getting to know my car, its quirks, its parts, its language.

 

What was the first car you stole?

A Cadillac Roadster Type 61 in 1922.

 

Can you tell me about how you and Julia met?

I was hanging out at a biker bar, cheating a few big guys at pool and hitting on their ladies. I felt her watching me, and when she challenged me to a game, I let her take the first shot, and she swept the game. Cost me five hundred dollars and a round of beers. Worth every penny.

 

What can you tell us about Julia?

She was a rare kind of human. Ain’t a lot of them out there that have such open minds, that don’t judge or react out of fear. That made her a hell of a lot of fun to pull shit with. Besides, she had an imagination, especially in bed. I’m a dog without a bone, if you catch me.

 

I do.

Figured you would.

 

What was it like to have a man as a mentor?

I think that’s a story for another time, sweet cakes.

 

Thanks for spending some time with me, Tahe.

You got it. Anytime.

 

Interested in learning more about her story? Click here!

The Past Life Paradigm

Tags

atlantis, Broken World, Ever After, goddess, past lives, Pride and Prejudice, reincarnation, Sale, thirteen

Hello, lovelies.

I wanted to talk about Ria. Oh, Ria. That poor girl had no chance at a normal life. Between her abnormal birth, sharing a soul with her mother, and being the reincarnation of the Atlantean goddess, Meleia, it’s no wonder Ria’s got a shit storm to work through.

With that in mind, I wanted to give y’all a peek at Ria’s past lives as they are a major part of her story. So here is the quick list:

Meleia—goddess of chaos (8100 BCE)

Isura—Mesopotamia (5512 BCE)

Bianca—Italy (4027 BCE)

Niabi—Japan (1377BCE)

Colista—Greece (184 CE)

Sura—Germany (481 CE)

Benny—Spanish (714 CE)

Valarie—French (933 CE)

Zyanya—China (1212 CE)

Sophia—Ireland (1416 CE)

Layla—Scotland (1632 CE)

Dashay—Jamaica (1799 CE)

Tatiana—America (1969 CE)

It’s a long list. Thirteen past lives in all, which is linked to the chaos from her original form, or maybe because thirteen is an unlucky number. Either way, it’s my favorite. (I’m a serious lover of Friday the thirteenth—the day, not the movies. Although…)

Now, the author honesty. I don’t know much more about these women than I’ve created them in the books. Well, with a few exceptions. Ria’s mother, Tatiana, is forming herself in my fire story, featuring Ria’s father. I know a bit more about Bianca and Colista and Layla than I’ve let y’all in on.

I feel as though Layla is my most interesting of the women—the most independent and vulnerable. Maybe it’s because she reminds me a bit of Cinderella—of Drew Barrymore’s version in Ever After—and of Lizzie from Pride & Prejudice. She takes on her role as the eldest-daughter-turned-mother when her parents died in the Great Plague of Edinburgh along with two of her siblings.

At thirteen, she had to navigate a devastated city to feed her three remaining brothers and sisters. And for the next four years, she struggles to do so every day, until she meets a man who eventually takes care of her…but he vanishes a decade later.

If you haven’t guessed it, and maybe you haven’t because you don’t know Ria’s story, but that man was Gene (whom I like to think of as my Mr. Darcy), and Layla is the spitfire that pops up when the two of them are fighting.

This is because of the fire in Layla from the life she was dealt and her ability to adapt. Ria has a lot of the same characteristics but could learn a lot from Layla still.

Before I turn this into some twisted circle of babbling, let me wrap this up.

Want to know more about these past life connections? Feel free to ask me questions!

And check out the first novel in my series, it’s on sale for 99 cents to celebrate my upcoming installment in the series on May 9^th.

Did You Know…About Imprinting?

Tags

blood phoenix: imprinted, book trailer, Freud, Honan and Delsa, Laurell K. Hamilton, mormon, necromancer, paranormal romance, Stephenie Meyer, vampires

Imprints seem to span further than the notable reference to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga. First, they imply a biological connection between the sex of a parent and the gene passed down, which results in learning and development.  If you want to know more of the science, check this out, but I’m no expert. I merely gleam some reference to Ria and her past, especially her connections with her mother.

Second, we have the psychological imprint. The two types of psychological imprints refer to bonding with one’s parents or parent-like figures. The sexual imprinting suggests the stage of our development commented on by Freud, that we favor our opposite-sex parent and often create a template for future partners based off of them. Whereas, bonding imprints take place in new born creatures that bond to the types of animals they’re surrounded by at birth, thus they pattern their behaviors in a similar fashion.

I once again find connections between Ria and Boden’s relationship and what the term imprint implies. When her powers were budding, Boden used his influential magick on her—beginning their imprint. A few hours later, he drank his blood, deepening their connection, and shit got crazy from there.

Third, the newly famous theories from the paranormal romance world focuses on shifters, or werewolves, and their strong bonds with humans. Stephenie Meyer’s books popularized this involuntary lifetime attachment with her werewolves. Their imprints mean the werewolves protect and please their mates for the remainder of their lives. But she wasn’t the first to use this type of connection. Laurell K. Hamilton used this in her Anita Blake series between both the shifter characters and the main human female, and a link between this woman, a necromancer, and newly risen vampires. Sherrilyn Kenyon also creates a bond between her shifter characters in her Dark Hunter and Were Hunter series, where shifters mate for life, literally marking them for their mate and their mate only. The men cannot cheat, and the women cannot reproduce without their mate. Their bond is ultimate and complete.  Even further back, the story of Honan and Delsa created this type of bond as the characters transverse the before, the life, and the afterlife together, fated to find each other again and again. In fact, this is theorized to be Meyer’s inspiration as a Mormon story. This guy writes about it more in depth. Interesting stuff.

Fourth, paranormal investigators theorize that because we are made of energy and leave almost undetectable traces everywhere we go, we thusly leave an energy stamp, like a fingerprint, in places we spend a great deal of time or energy.

This is the final nail, so to speak, is their transfer of powers—when both the imprint and her newly acquired glamour explode in a coffee shop. It takes an elemental to sort it out, but traces are left. Too much of their energy swapped.

Ultimately, I called it an imprint for a lack of a better word. Boden and Ria formed this bond without my intent and not really with theirs either. Unless you take Boden’s cackling as any sort of sign.

In book three of Ria’s story, Blood Phoenix: Imprinted, we explore their bond more deeply, but the name refers not only—just majoritively—to Ria and Boden. It also refers to her past selves, and thus, her connections to her parents, her soul, James, and Gene.

 

Want a free look into the Broken World and access to more super secret book stuff? Download “Maiden of the Underworld” here.

 

BONUS CONTENT: The Official Blood Phoenix: Imprinted book trailer is live. ❤

What do you think I am, a machine?

Tags

alisha costanzo, Ari, blood phoenix, Broken World, character development, connections, Imprinted, inferno, Mark, Nani, nude, Ria, simultaneous, sprite, The Rainbow Sprite, to-do list, Underwater, Untamed, Vincent, water

I write a lot of stories simultaneously. Many writers that I know say that this is crazy. Some others do the same. But with the number of books and stories on my to-do list, this seems to be the only way.

Don’t get me wrong, I tend to focus on one LONG work at a time because, otherwise, I’d never finish anything, but currently, my plots overlap quite a bit, which leans me toward shorter works, splitting up long stories, so that characters’ arcs don’t get jumbled or left out.

And that’s what “The Rainbow Sprite” does. Just as “Untamed,” (Mark and Ari’s first story) I felt it necessary to introduce hidden tensions within my major series. You know, the one that features Ria and her on-going struggles as a vampire/phoenix mix.

It seems that I’ve taken a liking to the serial nature of stories so that every one influences another…like in real life. And I like how it’s worked out for me so far.

So here’s what I’ve discovered. After writing about Vincent and his water sprite, he’s evolved as a character in BLOOD PHOENIX: IMPRINTED (which is also 4,000 words away from being finished. I’m behind. Yeah, I don’t know why either. I’ll get my ass in gear. Promise).

In fact, there’s one scene where Ria pulls a memory of her from him. It freaks him out to put it mildly.

It would me, too, if I had their queen breathing up all my free air. (One of my BIG pet peeves by the way. Don’t breathe my air).

Is the influence gigantic? Not really. Not yet at least, but it will be in book four (BLOOD PHOENIX: INFERNO—not started yet. What do you think I am, a machine?)

Any-what’s-it. There you have it. My world is way too complicated to fit it all in one character’s perspective. Serials will be the way I remedy that until I can find the place where their full stories sit.

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks from UNDERWATER, a video of me reading from “The Rainbow Sprite,” some teasers, and an uber inappropriate release day post.

Meet Vincent and Nani:

They’re my lovely main characters for “The Rainbow Sprite.” (Don’t mind Vincent, he has a tendency to go nude).

 

The Release of LOVING RED & the first Broken World Recipe!

Tags

alisha costanzo, author, Broken World, fantasy, folklore, giveaway, horror, humor, Loving Red, magick, myth, novel, paranormal, paranormal romance, Recipe, release day, romance, Shapeshifter, Transmundane Press, urban fantasy, vampire, vampires, werebears, weres, writing

LOVING RED is finally here! I’ve got some great reviews so far, and they keep trickling in. Thank you to everyone who’s supported and reviewed and promoted me. I appreciate you.

And now for a bit of a release day twist. In the novel, Severins shows his skills in the kitchen and pulls together a meal in the backwoods of Alabama while visiting his wild cousins. And here’s his recipe so that you can try it at home. I know I love it.

Severins’ Hodge-podge Pasta with Creamy Garlic Sauce

Ingredients

½ stick of butter, divided

2 lb boneless and skinless chicken breast, halved

½ sweet onion, diced

1 8 ounce package of mushrooms (portabella or button), chopped

1 eggplant, diced

6-8 ounces pasta of your choice, cooked (I used shells)

¼ cup chicken broth

2/3 cup heavy cream

garlic salt & parmesan cheese to taste

Directions

Heat skillet on medium-high heat.

Trim chicken into four pieces, sprinkle with garlic salt on each side.

Spread butter over the hot skillet and cook chicken until a golden brown crust forms (about 4 minutes). Flip and repeat.

Once chicken forms a crust on both sides, reduce heat and cover until fully cooked (about 5 minutes).

Set chicken to the side to rest.

Increase heat back to medium-high and add an additional tablespoon of butter.

Add onions, stir to soak up the bits and flavor left over from the chicken.

After the onions are coated, toss in the eggplant and mushrooms.

Stirring occasionally, add cook until eggplant grows soft (about 8-10 minutes, which makes this a good time to cook your pasta).

Add chicken broth and cover immediately so that the moisture doesn’t evaporate. Leave covered for 2-3 minutes.

Chop or shred the chicken.

Once eggplant is cooked all the way through, add the chicken, remaining butter, cream, and drained pasta.

Stir to coat each piece.

Here you can add more garlic salt to taste or salt and pepper if you prefer.

Plate and garnish with parmesan cheese.

And enjoy your pasta as you read the book!

The Scarlet Queen interviewed by Kaia Skarin

Tags

alisha costanzo, Assetato, blood, book, Broken World, Celampresians, character sketch, Death, eilon, evil, faeries, fantasy, fear, folklore, horror, humor, interview, Loving Red, magick, monster, myth, novel, paranormal, phea, power, romance, russian, scarlet queen, Transmundane Press, Travelers, urban fantasy, vampire, victims, writing

Kaia sits patiently at an interview table, a recorder prepped and ready. She twists the Cat’s Eye ring around her pinky. Anxiety hotwires her pulse when Scarlet enters, hair pinned in a sleek bun atop of her head, adorned with a small tiara. Pearls decorate her throat, giving more class to her simple, black dress. White gloves cinch her arms mid-bicep. She truly channeled Audrey Hepburn, only with a darker, more exotic face.

Kaia presses record as Scarlet sits across from her.

Scarlet: I see your lovers put too much faith in either your courage or my restraint, leaving you alone here to question me. Maybe that is because you are a human, and I have little interest in them.

Kaia: They’re around. And I’m not scared of you.

Scarlet: You should be, but good for you.

Kaia: Can you state your full name for the record?

Scarlet: Marusya Negreev. It means bitter.

Kaia: And you’re commonly called the Scarlet Queen?

S: Among other names, yes. You are correct.

K: What was your childhood like?

S: What boring questions you have for me. My parents were ignorant and inattentive, so I sat idle too often in my room and with my servants’ children like some improper babe. I had an education like any normal child, and I came into my abilities late. Scarlet tugs on her white gloves, adjusting the fingertips before smoothing her skirt against her tan legs.

Kaia remembers Eilon telling her how this fae ceremoniously slaughtered her own parents with those abilities.

K: Would you unleash sparkly death ponies on the world?

S: Amusement brightens her dark eyes. No. Even if such creatures did exist. I would rather keep and cherish them. Although I admit, I would use them on my subjects if need be.

K: What do you require of your subjects?

S: Loyalty, of the unwavering variety.

K: What makes you angry?

S: Idleness. Everyone should have a purpose for himself or herself. Always.

K: Who is your greatest hero?

S: Hero? I have no heroes. I do admire the vampire queen; however, I would not call her my hero. An ally perhaps.

K: Not knowing much about the vampire queen, Sev tells her that his agency, the Assetato, fight against her. How did you meet your lover?

S: Her sigh is hard to decipher—frustration or longing. I met him on my first trip to the Americas back in the twenties. Daniel was a relatively young vampire, but he had an amazing ability that I hoped to exploit. She shook her head, showing a fracture in her decorum. He could project stories into others’ minds, replace their memories, and make them believe whatever he liked.

The first time he showed me, he escorted me as an agent for the vampire queen, and I watched as Daniel convinced a woman her baby had died while it sat sleeping in her arms. Stirred into hysteria, she shook what she believed to be her dead baby in attempts to wake it, only killing it in the process, snapping its poor neck.

He showed me a fantastic time, and I let him kiss me when he dropped me home.

K: Kaia covers her mouth to keep from retching. Surely, the story means to frighten or disgust her. Scarlet accomplished her goal. What a fairy tale romance.

S: The best a girl can ask for. Her sweet smile might be convincing if not for the evil twinkle.

K: Taking a deep breath, she pushes forward. What is a ritual you engage in daily?

S: Smile slanting, she nods. I bathe in the blood of virgins.

K: Now, Scarlet is messing with her. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

S: I would develop a more prolific sense of humor. Obviously.

K: Tea or coffee?

S: Tea with milk and one sugar. One must always have sweets and cakes at tea time.

K: Odd that they have that in common. She doesn’t like it. What’s your favorite sweet?

S: Пряники or spice cakes with honey. But I will take Орешки or dough balls filled with condensed milk and jam.

K: Great. I’ll have to try those.

S: Is that all?

K: Yup. You can have an escort if you want.

S: How sweet. She stands, smoothing her dress and gloves before she leaves. 

Kaia relaxes, shuts off the recorder, and looks around. Anxiety taps into her chest. Waiting until her breath calms, she leaves the room to rejoin her new lover and wolf, Sev.

Interview with Phea Celampresian: the Queen of Darkness

Tags

alisha costanzo, atlantean, bitch, blood, blood phoenix, blood phoenix: claimed, blood phoenix: rebirth, book, Broken World, character sketch, creation, Death, distorted, fangs, fantasy, folklore, god, goddess, horror, interview, intimidating, James, jydios, love, maiden of the underworld, mercy, monster, mother, myth, mythology, paranormal, phea, power, queen, regret, reincarnation, renegade, Ria, ruler, underworld, urban fantasy, vampires, warrior

<I sit with Phea opposite me, doing my best to sit straight. For such a small woman, she exudes an intimidating breadth of power. I can’t bring myself to speak as she waits for us to begin.>

It wouldn’t do for you to cower from me if you are meant to interview me, now would it?

True enough. I certainly appreciate it. With the recent revelation about your past, readers still want to know why after all of these years, you’re still such a bitch?

<She laughs.> It is always the woman who is a bitch, isn’t it? A forceful man is merely a warrior, a ruler, or a god. Well, I am all of those things. I merely have ovaries.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Temperance is overrated in all of its forms, but most directly—mercy. If someone must ask for mercy, they do not deserve it.

Which talent would you most like to have?

Compassion.

I don’t think compassion is considered a talent.

Oh, believe me, it’s almost an art form. And I have no natural talent for it.

What is your most treasured possession?

My son.

What is your greatest regret?

Acting on love.

Do you have anything to say to those who view you as a home wrecker?

Yes. Xander’s soul was first mine, as I believed when he was Jydios. Physical forms have no meaning to me, and I merely claimed what was mine.

So you believe James is the reincarnated Jydios?

I despise the use of that name formed from the mouth of an insolent renegade. But belief has nothing to do with it.

Interesting. I hadn’t known that. It sure would explain some things.

I would say that I’m happy to oblige, but I am not.

Okay. Moving on then. What do you consider risky behavior?

Allowing my offspring to grow to uncontrollable levels.

Have they? Grown uncontrollable?

When the queen must fight to gain knowledge about those born from her blood, I would say so.

Where do you most feel at home?

I don’t.

Okay, well, let’s wrap this up, shall we? I’m sure you’ve got places to be and people to kill. Thanks, Phea, from taking some time out to answer my questions.

To learn more about Phea, check out her new story, “Maiden of the Underworld,” here. And of course, her unruly introduction in Blood Phoenix: Rebirth and Blood Phoenix: Claimed. Also, check out her Facebook page!

A Villain’s Story and Black Friday Sale

Tags

alisha costanzo, anthology, atlantis, author, Black Friday, blood, blood phoenix, book, Broken World, character development, claimed, Death, distorted, editing, fangs, fantasy, folklore, gods, hunger, Legend, magick, monster, myth, mythology, paranormal, publishing, rebirth, Sale, self-publish, Transmundane Press, urban fantasy, vampire, vampyr, writing

Something about a villain’s creation story appeals to most readers. Knowing someone means loving them, as many great authors have demonstrated, so as we know these villains, we can’t help but love them, too. The more complex an antagonist becomes, the more they feel like real people, and it grows harder to hate them, which conflicts with our rooting for the good guy. We story tellers have good reasons to give them purpose.

Because characters drive plot, they generate reason behind what happens to the protagonist. Knowing what makes them do what they do creates more tension for future conflicts via reader awareness. We feel the tension looming as we watch characters opposing each other. Opposition creates disharmony, more so when a tiny part of us understands them, and their viewpoints, too. Empathy is a powerful tool.

As Chuck Wendig says, “Antagonists think they’re the protagonists. The antagonist is the hero in his own story…the antagonist thinks he’s right. And doing the right thing. Even when it’s awful.” They must have realistic motivations. Besides, evil just because is boring. In fact, antagonists, even villains, should fall short of being black and white. They need depth because bad guys don’t genuinely exist in real life, although we like to paint people this way, especially in our history books.

Writing from the antagonist’s perspective, and reading it, gives us time with them and their minds. Again, knowing them in this intimate way means that they fully bloom in our minds. Besides, they must create a real challenge. And since a protagonist needs something to do, making them believable with some advantage, we worry for the characters more. All of them.

Phea is my ultimate villain. She runs the show either directly or behind the scenes for all of my stories, present and future (I’ve got about forty in the bleachers waiting as patiently as they can. Give them credit, those seats aren’t soft). But she’s not completely evil. Beyond being treated poorly, wronged by others, regret, and the internal struggle with knowingly transforming into a monster, she has another nasty little secret that secures her dementia and cruelty. And I’m not telling you what that is (because spoilers). Essentially, the downpour of shit that threatens to bury her in “Maiden of the Underworld” makes me feel sorry for her—at times. Does she have good reason for being the villain? You may just decide that she does.

Check out her creation story here.

And don’t miss out on my Black Friday sale, lasting until Tuesday morning!

Get Rebirth Here and Claimed Here!