Supernatural Central Short and Quick Interview
1. Tell me a little bit about your main character of this book.
Dela is a strong young woman struggling to balance her need to protect those she loves with her need to protect herself. She is cursed with the ability to see spirit-like beings that seem to live in symbiosis with everyone she knows, but which are explicitly forbidden to believe in by her peoples’ religion. On top of that, a Jackal—a mysterious animal that is believed to serve Bale, the evil god of the setting—has taken an interest in her. Could it be related to her cursed sight? Over the course of the story, she goes from being naive to being immensely capable, but at every turn she finds herself choosing between her own safety and the safety of others.
2. Do you believe in the paranormal and if so, do you have an experience you can share?
I don’t have any direct experience with the unexplained, but I do have one rather unique superstition. For context, I believe in the multiverse and that, generally, every decision anyone makes splits reality into more and more branches (since other versions of you would make a different decision). So my superstition is that every time I have an unexplained shiver (I’m not cold or scared, etc), I suspect that another me in another reality has died. This sometimes happens at innocuous moments (I’m sitting at my desk) and sometimes at more obvious moments (a car passes me driving the opposite direction) as far as what this other-me’s cause of death might have been. I’m not sure if I entirely believe it, but it’s something that comes to mind ever few weeks when one of these shivers happens.
3. What titles are you working on now that you can tell us about?
I’m the sort of person who likes to keep busy, so I’ve always got a few projects going at a time. My goal right now is to keep the ball rolling with a new book release each year. At the moment I’m in the final phases of preparing a sci-fi novel entitled The Damned Earth for publication. If all goes according to plan, that should drop Q4 of this year. Besides that, I have a finished draft of the first book of my steampunk series finished, which I will be beginning revision on later this year with plans to publish it in late 2024.
If you’re interested in following my writing and publishing journey, I release a monthly update and occasional other blog posts on my Substack. Subscribe at lamortonyates.substack.com! You can of course also find me on Facebook (@authorlamortonyates), Twitter (@lamortonyates), and Instagram (@lamortonyates).
Excerpt:
Something moved at the edge of the horizon. It was like a shadow, black as a cloud but moving fast across the snow plain. Time seemed to stop, but Dela could feel herself sliding forward as if she were standing on a lake of ice. Freja was still yelling, but she couldn’t hear her. Her arms were flailing, but Dela hardly noticed.
A wave of lights moved in front of the thing, jumping and turning, quick as sparks. It was like a field of quails fleeing into the sky before a coming wolf, but the wolf—the shadow—followed them. The closer it got, the more the shiver racked her spine. She knew exactly what it was, though she’d never seen one. No one in the congregation had. There were no stories. No whisperings. Only a name.
“Shade.”
Freja stared at her, bewildered into silence. Perhaps she was going to speak, but then—
“Shade!” Dela reached for her friend, snatching her by the sleeve and pulling her toward her. They ran, berries forgotten even as the bags bounced in Dela’s grip. They were a dozen strides from the bush before she thought to secure them to one of her belt hooks. How could she even think of them at a time like this? They had to get to the camp. People had to know.
They skidded to a stop at the edge of the overhang they’d climbed. The tents were only a dozen feet below, and a handful of people had gathered at the commotion. They stared up at the two girls with confusion intermingled with irritation. They weren’t used to their evening being disturbed by shouting, and the long journey had people’s nerves worn thin.
None of that mattered. All that mattered was what they would do. What were they supposed to do?
“Shade coming from the east!” Dela yelled. “Get the Ministers!”
Chaos possessed the camp. People scrambled, yelling. Others just stood with disbelieving frowns. Some started running in no particular direction. As if that would save them.
Would it?
Dela knew nothing about Shades. She hadn’t put much thought into what they might be or do or want. All she knew was that whatever that thing was, it was one of them. And the lights? The things it was chasing? What were they?
Freja was trembling as she crouched and threw her legs out over the edge of the rocks. It was a maneuver she’d done a hundred times, and in colder weather than this. But for fear or anger or nerves, her grip failed. Dela lurched downward, chest striking hard against the rocks as her hand snapped out into the air—and caught her friend’s arm. She grunted as she swung the girl toward the rock wall, which Freja caught in an instant. They exchanged an important glance, but there was time for little else.
Dela stood again, scanning the snowfield for signs of the shadow. It was still gliding forth on nothing but empty air, like a nightmare in a dead sprint toward an innocent dreamer. But, she realized, it was not heading straight for them. It had deviated, aiming toward the empty field north of them, and if it kept going that way, it might miss them entirely.
Could it see? It didn’t seem to have eyes. Nor any other body part, per se. Did it smell, then? Or feel? How could it expect to find anything out here in the cold, white abyss of the Bitters?
Whatever rules it followed couldn’t be the same as what humans or animals followed. It didn’t make any sense.
Then she saw the reason. One of the congregation, maddened by fear, had made a break for it, out into the open Basin. The Shade wasn’t just going to miss the camp. It was going after him.
He’d made it a hundred feet from the camp, and showed no signs of looking back or slowing. From the angle of approach, the man couldn’t see the shadow coming. Couldn’t see it bearing down on him. Couldn’t see the impossibility of his flight.
The Shade engulfed him as though it was little more than a localized fog. He vanished entirely from view, and for one bizarre moment, the beast of a cloud seemed to stop.
Then they heard the scream.
This sounds like a good book to read
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt.
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