Tag: paranormal fantasy

Posted on by — Leave a comment

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.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

a window into ourselves

Through Shade and Shadow is set in an America not very different than the one I live in.  Well, maybe a little closer to America circa 2015.  As the book opens in the spring, the political climate is already a little tense, with those who want to claim the Republican party nomination for president already relying heavily on morality rhetoric.

The are quick to point out that the problems that the country has are easy to blame on those “others” that they name, be they Muslims, immigrants, the poor who demand the government support them, etc.

But then, they get handed a new scapegoat when a serial killer is discovered. He is found drinking the blood of his victims which has people speculating that he’s a Shade.  When medical exams conclude that he is indeed a Shade, fear skyrockets and the politicians have a new group to villainize.

Up to the moment that a doctor declares this killer a Shade, Shades were considered to be mythological beings. Little of truth is actually known about them, and even what is has been distorted from the reality.  Speculation abounds and violence follows behind it.

And this is the start of a journey that will take Mason Jerah far, far from the safety of his ancestral home.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

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.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

where the edit starts

It is always a weird transition for me, going from the writing/self-editing phase into working through the edits suggested by someone other than me who has read the manuscript.  I genuinely love the notes that show confusion, because they give me a chance to see the story from a different perspective.

Obviously the passage made sense to me at the time…but now I get to re-read the scene from another point of view, and hopefully clarify whatever was unclear.

It also gives new life to characters that had become intimately familiar, making me step back and see them for not who they are to me, but who the words have created.  I learn something every time.

I should mention here too that I have an AWESOME editor who isn’t afraid to tell me when things just don’t work and who gives me tools to be a better writer.  I’m sure I wouldn’t be half as good at storytelling without her.

I am so very excited to share this story with readers.  In the coming days I will be posting short character introductions, and not just for the characters in this book, but I will include characters that join the cast in books 2 & 3.

First up will be Mason Jerah.  You’ll be meeting him this weekend. I hope to post an introduction on Saturday, between all of my last minute prep for the family holiday.