Category: Character Introductions

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introducing Mila and Maddie Hines

Like Raven, we first meet Mila and Maddie in Through Shade and Shadow, though they are largely relegated to the background.  When we first meet them, Alaric and his friends, following a vision, help them escape from the 8th Battalion along with Sahara.

Mila is nineteen. Maddie has just turned sixteen.  Through that first encounter we learn that Shifters go through a change with puberty, and before the start of puberty they can not shift into animal form.  During this period, the Shifter is not fully in control of their shifting, and strong emotion or pain can cause unexpected shifts.

It is this problematic effect that leads to the girls getting caught by the 8th Battalion.  We don’t know a lot about what they went through while they were prisoners, but we can be fairly certain that pain was involved.

In In Gathering Shade, the girls get a chance to come out of the background a little bit.  Unlike Sahara, who’s cat is a lioness, Mila and Maddie are black jaguars.  While living in the camp where Alaric brought them after their rescue, the girls help out by hunting large game to feed the growing population of their hideaway.

Mila is a leader, and she struggles under the rules of the camp and the impression that Sahara speaks for the sisters simply because she’s older.  Maddie is the more sensitive of the two, seeing herself as a freak who just wants to be normal.  This feeling is not surprising, considering that she is both a Shifter and a teenage girl.

Both girls were fairly sheltered growing up, and their understanding of the world is somewhat skewed by that, but they will have to find their feet fast if they are going to survive the war that is coming.

 

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introducing Raven Ivany

We met Raven briefly in Through Shade and Shadow, as one of the agents that Mason Jerah works with at the unnamed government agency, but in the next book, In Gathering Shade, Raven comes to the foreground.

We first meet her when she is helping an instructor teach hand to hand skills to a group of new recruits, before Adam Darvin pulls her aside with a job hunting down a killer that might be a Shade.

We learn a good amount about Raven in that short scene.  She’s a decent fighter, hand to hand.  She’s smart, worried about Mason, despite the fact that she doesn’t really know him and she is wary of working with others after being betrayed by her previous handler.

Raven is in her early thirties, and her family background is not entirely clear.  In the course of the story we learn about a sister who died, a father who is clearly no longer around and a grandfather who helped to raise her.  She learned what a Shade was capable of from a young age, unlike Mason, and is well trained in using those skills, both to heal and to harm.

Also, unlike Mason, Raven isn’t afraid of those darker skills when the occasion calls for it, and while it’s never stated outright, she has used those skills to kill at least once.  We get the sense that through Darvin’s influence, she is probably more educated on the other tribes than many others.

There is also some history hinted at between Raven and Darvin, a friendship that extends back before she came to work for him, which might be something interesting to explore some time.

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and that’s a wrap

I spent my evenings last week working through the edits sent to me by my amazing Editor and by Saturday morning it was time for a final read through to make sure I had carried some changes all the way through.

Sunday at around noon, I was done and all that was left was sending it to my publisher, Creativia.  It is now off in the capable hands of our team there where it will go through a final edit, cover design, formatting, etc….

Now that it’s come this far, I can start introducing you to some of the new characters and situations!  I’ll start this Wednesday with character introductions and I’ll bring you a new character every Wednesday until the book is out.  On Saturdays, I’ll be recapping some of the background story to help get you up to speed.

And don’t forget to leave a review for either Forever or Through Shade and Shadow and you might win a free copy of the new book, In Gathering Shade, when it comes out!

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gregarious green

There’s something about going green…I mean, it’s not like it’s strange these days to see people with wild colors in their hair.  On a daily basis I see blues and pinks and purples in a variety of shades and styles.  But green isn’t as common.

I’ve always loved the color, from a faded mint to a dusty sage to a deep emerald to a dark hunter…it reminds me of the earth, of things that grow, things that are natural.

I tried it out back in February, when I wore a green wig to a convention.  I got so many compliments that I determined that one day I’d just do it. Go green.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as just grabbing some green hair dye.  No, not when I’ve been dying my hair some shade of red for at least 6 years (since the last time I decided to go nuts, bleach it and do fun things with it).  I took me 3 bleachings and a color stripping to get to a blond enough blond that I could dye it green.

I had some moments of apprehension.  What if my work place wasn’t as progressive as I thought it was?  What if I hated it once it was done?  Didn’t stop me though.

Funny thing, this green hair.  I find my self-confidence bolstered,  I find myself happy when I look in the mirror, I find my anxiety levels a little less than they were.  And, people seem to like it.  Sure, I’ve had a few people look at me as if I’m nuts, but most of them smile and nod.  Some even tell me they like it.  People at work love it.

That too makes me smile.  Sure, I’ll be forty-nine in September, but numbers will never prevent me from seeking out what makes me happy.

I hope you can say the same.  Be yourself and put a little color in your life!

In the sequel to Through Shade and Shadow, we meet Zero, a teenage character who expresses herself through wigs that range from the mundane to the outlandish. None of them have been green yet.  I may have to fix that!

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let’s meet the women

The first book in the Shades & Shadows series, we only meet a few of the women who will become a big part of the series moving forward.  We met Emily Lambrecht, the mother to Alaric, and wife of the leader of their clan and Sahara Katan, a Shifter without a family who reluctantly takes on the responsibility of the two underage Shifters, Mila and Maddie.There are a few minor characters as well, Victoria, Cassandra, Raven and others.

In the second book, however, the women start to come to the fore. Raven Ivany steps up into a more prominent role, as a Shade who works for the same organization as Mason.  New to the story is Zero, who is a teenage Sage on the run from her father.  Keisha joins the cast, a Sage midwife and mother to two teenage boys.

I look forward to introducing all of you to these characters as we get closer to the book being finished.

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introducing Sahara Katan

Sahara is the first female character I’m introducing, she is also the first Shifter.  Sahara is a woman in her thirties, with mixed heritage that is Indian and Mexican. She is also a Shifter, and her animal form is a large lioness.

We meet Sahara when Alaric and his friends attempt to liberate her, and two younger women, from Omega Labs, an organization with close ties to the 8th Battalion.  While she accepts the hospitality offered, she is wary of the people extending it. Before her capture by the Lab group, she lived a solitary sort of existence for years after the deaths of her immediate family, her mother to cancer, her father to a heart attack.

Sahara is a strong woman, used to doing things her own way, used to letting the cat inside do what it wanted.  In fact, during the rescue, Sahara kills a guard, a fact that puts her at odds with at least one of Alaric’s men.

She becomes a reluctant guardian to the teenage sisters that were rescued with her.  But once accepting the role, she is a fierce and loyal protector, a role that eventually extends to the people around her, including Alaric and his family.

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The women really come to the fore in book 2, where we will learn more about Sahara, and meet Raven, Zero and others who will play important parts in what is to come.

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BUT, I also have news.  The paperback edition of Through Shade and Shadow is available now and the Kindle version is available for preorder.

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introducing Bryan Wagner

Bryan Wagner is a part of Alaric’s clan, a close friend of Alaric’s father.  He has been a part of Alaric’s life for a long time.  As the story opens, Bryan is in his late thirties and with Alaric serves as one of Anson Lambrecht’s Keepers.

Bryan was raised with more formal training than many in the clan and he has good control of his gifts.  He’s a strong reader, is good with projecting glamors to make things and people appear to different and he can project ideas/thoughts into unprotected minds.  These things come in handy when you’re running from someone.

Physically, Bryan is tall, with broad shoulders and big hands.  His skin is tan from hours in the sun, all but a long white scar that runs from his hair line, down over his left eye and onto his cheek.  That eye is blind and white.

Bryan sometimes comes across as a bit crass because he doesn’t waste time with niceties he doesn’t mean.  He’s bold and he is unafraid to voice the unpopular positions.  He is, however, fiercely loyal, first to his clan, then to the clan’s leader, even when he disagrees with a decision that leader has made.

He is not a fan of getting involved in the strife tearing the country apart and he holds very little love for the other tribes, Shades in particular. Bryan was an integral part of the work to bring the scattered clan back together and institute training regimens to strengthen the tribe, though he himself doesn’t really have the patience to be a teacher.

 

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Introducing Alaric Lambrecht

Alaric Lambrecht is the second main character in Through Shade and Shadow. As the story opens, Alaric is twenty four years old and he has had a pretty charmed life.  His parents are not wealthy, but they are upper middle class.  He’s never wanted for anything.

At seventeen, his father tapped him to be one of his Keepers, a trio of people from the tribe of psychics, empaths and other gifted folk who help the leader of the clan function, watching out for his mental, emotional and physical well being.

Alaric’s specific gift is empathy, the ability to feel what others feel.  He uses it in an attempt to help his father do his other job, that of city councilman.  Alaric is his aide, does research for him, helps field phone calls and the like.

When he isn’t busy with that, he is helping his mother with re-igniting the structured teaching methods of his tribe, which have largely been abandoned due to the persecutions of the past.

He’s pretty content with his life until people begin to react to the discovery of the Shade serial killer in ways that will threaten his people. As his idyllic life begins to unravel, Alaric must make choices, all of them driving him toward Mason Jerah and beyond him, war.

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Introducing Mason Jerah

When we first meet Mason Jerah, he is just turning eighteen and watching his grandmother die.  He has lived his entire life separate from modern society, but for what he can see on television.

His interaction with the outside world has mostly been with the people in the nearest town.  He has been alone with just his grandmother for many years.  As a result, he’s hesitant and comes across as shy upon first meeting.  It isn’t so much that he is shy, but he’s thinking through everything he says.

Mason belongs to a tribe of people called Shades, one of five tribes that once upon a time coexisted peacefully.  Shades are gifted healers who can use energy to help not only themselves, but others heal.  It takes a lifetime of learning and practice, which Mason hasn’t had because his grandmother was too afraid to teach him.

Shades require large quantities of fluid, usually water to be able to do their work and to keep their own bodies functioning.  They are also vulnerable to the affects of the sun, burning quickly and well beyond the average sunburn.  The sun can kill a Shade.

With his grandmother’s death, Mason decides to embark on a traditional journey that will take him down off his mountain and out into a world that has started to fall apart.