The Fine Lines Between Good and Evil

My name is J.K. Coi and I’m a paranormal/fantasy/horror addict. I don’t think it’s a big surprise or anything, but since this is my first post here on the HBM blog, I thought I should make it clear where I’m coming from.

I started writing way back when. It was something I’d always loved to do for fun, and I'm not even sure I remember how it became more than that, but now I’ve written paranormal romance for almost four years. My first heroes were human (at least at one time) turned immortal warriors who took on big bad demons to keep all hell from breaking loose—literally...but in some of my next books, the demons weren’t necessarily the bad guys anymore. After a while, the “good” and “evil” ceased to be so cut and dried.

The more I write the more complicated my characters become. Which is great, it means I continue to grow as a writer, and I love that. I think it's important for every writer.

It can also create problems for my plots.

When a character has a choice, that choice is much easier to make if one’s conscience is clear, if there aren’t opposing forces pulling him or her in different directions. But when those lines are blurred, when good and evil mix and no one’s sure which one will be stronger...things get murky.

That’s the dichotomy faced by the hero of my upcoming Carina Press release, FALLING HARD. Gabriel is a hard-core rocker who’s led a life of drugs and booze and bad choices. When he finally gets himself cleaned up, he’s determined to make up for all the damage he’s caused…only to discover that he shares his soul with Lucifer, the devil, who is slowly but surely claiming more and more of that soul. Now it seems that any attempt to do good would only be a waste of whatever time Gabriel has left, and normally he wouldn’t even have bothered, but you see, there’s this girl...

Of course, there’s more to it than that, and over the next few months leading up to FALLING HARD’S release date this July, I’ll be sure to give you a few more peeks into the world of my warring angels, including an introduction to Amelia, the glowing white angel warrior who is determined to prevent Lucifer from claiming Gabriel’s soul and bringing war to her people once again.

What draws you to the paranormal end of the reading (or writing) spectrum? Is it the characters, the settings, the twist and tug between good and evil? All of the above?

J.K. Coi