My Boyfriend is a Demigod--An exclusive interview with Belinda Loring

Interviewer: We here at True World Teen are delighted to welcome Belinda Loring. She’s here to fill us in on behind-the-scene gossip to recent shocking events and dish about her boyfriend the demigod. Welcome, Belinda!

 (polite applause. Belinda shifts in her chair as if uncomfortable)

Interviewer: How did you find out that your boyfriend was a demigod? Or did you always know?

Belinda: I’m embarrassed to say that although Demian and I have been friends for years, I only recently found out he is a demi-god. I knew he had the long-winded talent because we exchanged messages on the breeze, but I didn’t know about his other powers until a forest fire threatened us. Demian used his powers to reroute a stream and allowed us to hide safely in the water until the flames were past.

Interviewer: Wow! How did you feel about this revelation?

Belinda: I was absolutely stunned. I mean, my boyfriend is a demi-god. How cool is that?

Interviewer: There’s a rumour that you and Demian have Bonded. Is this true? And is this bond why your recent Bonding ceremony with Warren, the House Scott heir, failed so spectacularly?

Belinda: I’m glad you asked, because I’d like to set the record straight. Demian and I were Bonded together, illegally, as children by my grandmother’s enemy, Malachi. We were so young we didn’t know what it was about or remember the ceremony. When the Bonding ceremony to Warren failed, I was more surprised than anyone. I would never, never have embarrassed our Houses like that, if I’d known about the previous ceremony.

Interviewer: And how does your grandmother, former First Councillor Ellona Loring, feel about the match?

Belinda: At first, of course, she was very angry at Malachi for the illegal Bonding and afraid that Demian would be an inappropriate match for me. But now that’s she’s met Demian and knows that he doesn’t share Malachi’s radical views, she’s much more reconciled.

Interviewer: Very quickly, could you give us five cool things about having a demi-god for a boyfriend?

Belinda: Uh, well, we can send each other messages on the breeze, because being a demigod means that he has all four elemental talents. He`s an awesome sculptor—he can shape stone with his bare hands. (pause)

Interviewer, laughing: That`s only two things.

Belinda: When we had to jump in the stream to escape the forest fire, he heated up the water so that it wasn`t icy cold. Uh, he can bring statues to life.

Interviewer, leaning forward: To life? What do you mean?

Belinda: Not permanently. I mean, that would be kind of creepy. More like golems. When I was kidnapped, he sent golems to find me. He saved me.

Interviewer: Well, that is hard to beat! One last cool thing about having a demigod for a boyfriend?

Belinda, ducking head shyly: He created a new flower, just for me.

Audience: Oooooh!

Interviewer: Swoon! Okay that’s all we have time for tonight. Tune in next week when prominent scientist Edgar Killjoy explains how the tethers between the True World and the Mirror World function and why we should care.

What she can’t remember could ruin her life.

The Mirror Worlds are but dull reflections of the True World, where magic and technology blend together…

On the True World, Belinda Loring has known from childhood that she must Bond with the son of another noble First Family. Uniting the families ensures hers will hold onto its powerful position, and so she’s always pushed down the tender feelings she has for her best friend—gorgeous, steadfast Demian, who isn’t noble.

But when the ceremonial magic goes disastrously wrong, Belinda becomes a national disgrace. Scorned as Broken, she turns to Demian for help getting revenge on the man who ruined her: the radical Malachi.

But the seeds of Malachi’s murderous plans lie buried in Belinda’s past, in the dark days of her kidnapping—a period of which she has no memory. And Demian may hold the key to recovering all that she’s lost—and saving the worlds.

Click here to read an excerpt or buy.

The Dreaded Prologue--To Include One or Not

New writers are often warned to avoid prologues like the plague. They are told that agents hate them. In fact, prologues have such a bad reputation that some readers skip them entirely. I’m not a big fan of prologues myself—and yet my two latest books, Amid Wind & Stone, and In Truth & Ashes both start with prologues. Why would I do this?

Because the story required it.

Really this is the only reason to include one. But how do you know whether or not your story needs one? 

GOOD REASONS TO INCLUDE A PROLOGUE

1/ To orient a new reader, or one who has waited months between books, to what happened previously in a series. This kind should be as brief as possible. 

This is the kind that I used in my Otherselves series. The trilogy involves five different worlds and five different female protagonists, who are all mirror twins/otherselves of each other. However, Leah is the main character of the series. She has an over-arching plotline, and it is her desire to save Gideon’s otherselves that drives the plot. A prologue from her POV was necessary to orient new readers of the over-arching story (and remind old readers of what they had read in book one). Ditto for book three.

2/ To show (and not tell) an important bit of backstory that will be crucial to the plot later in the story. Often these happen to people other than the main character and occur sometime before the main plot starts.

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron has an excellent example of this type of prologue. In the case of epic fantasy, the prologue can be several hundred or even thousands of years before (I’m looking at you Brandon Sanderson.) Just be sure that it is crucial and this is the best way to reveal it.

BAD REASONS TO INCLUDE A PROLOGUE

1/ Because you’re worried that your beginning sucks, so you start with a prologue that is actually an excerpt from an exciting bit at the end. This is a cheat and I universally hate them. Do the work and create a compelling beginning, don’t try to fool me with a flashforward.  

2/ Because you want to show an event from the main character’s childhood. I dislike books that start with the main character as a child. (Why? Because children have little agency and are frustrating to read about.) A prologue from a child’s POV skirts the line. Most of them could be better handled by a flashback in the main story, but I will grudgingly admit that sometimes they work.

WARNING

If you do decide to commit prologue, be aware that you are essentially doubling your workload. Instead of one incredibly difficult, engaging hook, you now have to write two. Good luck!

SNIPPET FROM THE PROLOGUE OF AMID WIND & STONE

By the light of a red sun, on a dying world, in the tower of an evil sorceress, Leah stood alone before the Four Worlds mirror and tried to Call her otherself.

Tried and failed.

Tears of frustration burned in eyes already red-rimmed from fatigue and too little water to drink. A gust of wind blew through the long horizontal window in the Mirrorhall, swirling up more ash from the belching Volcano Lords and leaving a fine black coating on her skin and the mirror.

Does World Shape Character or Character Shape World?

Many years ago, I attended a panel at World Con on world-building and heard Carol Berg (whose fantasy novels I highly recommend) talk about designing one’s fantasy world to test and shape the main character. I thought it was a brilliant approach. Prior to that, I’d always treated character and world-building as two entirely separate things, but in truth they intertwine.

When I started writing In Truth & Ashes, book three of my Otherselves series, I knew three things. First, the True World was science fantasy—a world which used magic to do highly technological things. Second, that Belinda’s first scene was of a magic betrothal going horribly wrong, and, third, that her best friend/love interest was a demi-god.

Why science fantasy? In books one and two, I established that the True World lies at a magical crossroads for the Mirror Worlds. The True World has cherry-picked the best of all four worlds for itself. In particular it has stolen a lot of technology from Water World (our earth)—with one big exception. The ecological collapse of Stone World made the True Worlders decide to shun the internal combustion engine. Instead they power their world by using geothermal and tidal energy to infuse power gems, which then act as batteries.

One of the very important pieces of magic-tech is a neural implant called a genie that Belinda uses like a sophisticated smartphone. She depends on it and is distressed when she can’t access it. Her friend Demian (yes, the demi-god mentioned above) doesn’t have a genie and this technological handicap means that he relies more on his personal magic. This is where world influenced character.

Where character had a big effect on the True World was when I was designing its system of government. Since I wanted Belinda to be torn between love and duty to her family and to her world, I needed an atmosphere of privilege and noblesse oblige. Instead of a modern democracy, the True World has something more similar to the way Britain’s House of Lords and House of Commons operated in the 1800s, with one governing body elected by the people and the other a birth-given right of the nobility. Belinda’s grandmother is the First Councillor (i.e. prime minister) and she has raised Belinda on tales of how her father’s marriage to her commoner mother was a political disaster. Belinda believes she must marry well to secure her family’s power. Breaking free of this massive guilt trip, while still keeping the notion of service to the realm, makes up Belinda’s struggle for most of the book.

So, for me, one influences the other in an organic unplanned way. 

To read an excerpt of In Truth & Ashes click here.

To buy In Truth & Ashes click here.

New Year's Resolution--Done!

For years and years now I've had the same New Year's Resolution: to have one of my books published in the new year. Therefore I'm rather tickled to have a book releasing January 2nd (yesterday) in 2017. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll come up with some other writing-related resolutions too. But for now, here it is!

BOOK THREE OF OTHERSELVES
IN TRUTH & ASHES

What she can’t remember could ruin her life.
 
The Mirror Worlds are but dull reflections of the True World, where magic and technology blend together…

On the True World, Belinda Loring has known from childhood that she must Bond with the son of another noble First Family. Uniting the families ensures hers will hold onto its powerful position, and so she’s always pushed down the tender feelings she has for her best friend—gorgeous, steadfast Demian, who isn’t noble.

But when the ceremonial magic goes disastrously wrong, Belinda becomes a national disgrace. Scorned as Broken, she turns to Demian for help getting revenge on the man who ruined her: the radical Malachi.


But the seeds of Malachi’s murderous plans lie buried in Belinda’s past, in the dark days of her kidnapping—a period of which she has no memory. And Demian may hold the key to recovering all that she’s lost—and saving the worlds.

BUY LINKS




Haven't read book one of the series, Through Fire & Sea?  It's on sale for 99 cents at all retailers. BUY HERE


Here's an excerpt from In Truth & Ashes:

Belinda stood shivering at the back of the bowl-like amphitheater, waiting for sunrise to make her grand entrance. Ellona had already gone ahead to take her seat—leaving Belinda alone with her cold feet.

Literal cold feet as well as metaphorical. Actually—she shivered—she had cold fingers and arms and a cold nose, too, because her wonderful dress was a tad skimpy, and the outdoors in late spring was chilly.

Where was her dad? Belinda bit her lip. He had to be here. This wasn’t like missing a birthday.

He was supposed to escort her down the aisle.

But he didn’t come, and the sky turned pink behind her, and the processional music swelled.

She forced her slippered feet into action, pinned a smile to her face, and, as coached by Ellona, kept her shoulders back as she walked slowly down the center aisle, between the rings of benches. She pretended that all those eyes on her didn’t make her skin crawl.

All those strangers. Any one of whom could be Malachi.

She was supposed to look straight ahead, but she searched the crowd compulsively, trying to identify any threats.

Juliet stood up and waved, defiantly. Instead of being seated near the inner ring of witnesses, Ellona had placed her mother and her second husband, Hal, about ten rows up. Belinda waved back.

A murmur went through the crowd. “Juliet…”

“…remember when…”

“…scandal…”

“…not from a First Family…”

Was that why her father had stayed away? To prevent gossip?

The amphitheater was open to the sky, and a breeze swirled around Belinda’s ear, making her shiver. “Belinda?” the breeze asked.

Belinda relaxed. Only one person would contact her via an air spirit—Demian. Anyone else would have used a genie. But Demian had a rare condition that meant he couldn’t undergo the neural implants necessary for a genie. “Demian! Where are you?” she whispered, her stiff smile turning genuine.

Since she also had the long-winded talent, the breeze carried her words back to him. It was fortunate that her talent matched his. Having four otherselves didn’t mean having all of the four magical talents—long-winded, hot-blooded, silver-tongued, stone-hearted, one talent for each element and each Mirror World. In fact, she only had one, long-windedness, which allowed her to speak to air elementals.

The breeze carried his answer back after only a short lag: “On your left, seventh row.”

Belinda searched the sea of guests but couldn’t spot her friend’s face. The sheer number of people filling the large amphitheater gave her a jittery feeling in her stomach. There must be close to a thousand people here, most of them strangers. When two First Families joined, as they did today, everyone who was anyone attended.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she whispered.

“I don’t like this guy you’re being Bonded to. He looks about as intelligent as a block of marble. His neck is the size of my waist.”

Warren was waiting for her in the center of the circular arena. He looked handsome in a formal frock coat and knee breeches in his family colors, dark blue with gold piping. Belinda studied him critically. Demian was right: Warren’s neck was a bit thick.

Her steps became slower and slower as she went down the steps to join Warren.

A choking sense of dread blocked her throat. Malachi would make his move soon.