My characters kill people so I don't have to.
Very excited to say I’m part of a Story Bundle collection! For a limited time you can get Soulless by me and a bunch of other amazing books about psychopomps and crossing the veil–pay what you want and decide how much of your payment goes to the authors, StoryBundle, and charity. A minimum of $5 will get you the first four featured books, while a minimum of $15 will get you ALL of them.
The offer expires in another three weeks!
Well…today is certainly a thing that is happening.
I did set my release date for June 2 back in January, and while I’m adept at thinking of every worst case scenario, none of this was on my mind. So! You’re probably busy with a lot of mental trauma right now, but in case you need some escapism, here is a book!
Since Demons of Oblivion readers might want to speculate/discuss things after reading, I’ll start a spoiler thread at Alchemy Red this week.
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Elis O’Connor kills people.
“Garbage men”, to be exact—the predators, the abusers…and the occasional mansplainer. It scratches an itch and, since the death of her mother sent her spiraling, it hardly seems like the worst way to pass her time in a post-apocalyptic city crawling with demons and dimensional tears.
One thing she doesn’t do is save men.
But when a woman comes to her door for help finding her missing cousin, she realizes she might have to do just that. Because while Elis would love to send her packing, this cousin isn’t just anyone: he’s Elis’s estranged older half-brother Dev, and he’s gotten himself into trouble even the considerable magic ability they both share can’t get him out of.
Elis’s first book has been touched on here and here but here’s the official full playlist.
Bishop Briggs – “Dark Side“
As previously said, this is pretty much Elis’s theme song.
Acting like I’m heartless, I do it all the time//That don’t mean I’m scarless, that don’t mean I’m fine//But you’ll see//When someone else makes you this way//Oh, I drain your life//’Til there’s nothing left but your blood shot eyes//Oh, I take my time//’Til I show you how I feel inside//Welcome to my dark side
E.S. Posthumus – “Moonlight Sonata“
Also the title of the first chapter as I always saw Elis creeping through the moonlight about to kill to it, blue lightning crackling down her arm.
Apocalyptica – “The Path Vol 1“
Another of Elis’s theme songs and I wrote a lot of action sequences to it.
I want to live in fire//With all the taste I desire//It’s all good if you let me dive//With some sharks on the ground
J2 feat Blu Holliday – “Born To Be Wild“
I listened to a lot of different (and often epic) covers of well-known songs for this–I think because it’s sort of post-apocalyptic, and because this is Demons of Oblivion: The Next Generation, it fit the feel of the book in my head.
Gin Wigmore – “Kill of the Night“
I mean…Elis is a serial killer.
Now you’re mine//But what do I do with you, boy//I’ll take your heart//To kick around as a toy//The danger is I’m dangerous//And I might just tear you apart//Oh I’m gonna catch ya//I’m gonna get ya, get ya//Oh, ah, oh I wanna taste the way that you bleed, oh
Rainne – “Maneater” (Hall & Oats cover)
*stares directly at camera*
Lorde – “Everybody Wants to Rule the World“
Shawn James – “Burn the Witch“
I love Shawn James, but tbh I’d kill for a female vocalist to cover this (like actually would legit murder to have it be Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), but I adore this song and there’s a chapter titled after it in the book.
But I won’t scream, won’t give them that satisfaction//No I won’t confess my false interaction//As I breathe deep and prepare for my passing//I hear them chant, burn the witch
Ex Makina- “Wonderwall“
I did a whole other post on that–I was surprised at Elis and Melinoe connecting, and this was their song (along with other versions of it) that will probably carry through the series.
Because maybe you’re gonna be the one that saves me.
Lana Del Rey – “Season of the Witch“
When Elis is having fun tormenting men, this is what I hear.
Hidden Citizens – “Don’t Speak“
The title of the penultimate chapter, though I played it a bit through the climax.
Don’t speak//I know just what you’re saying//So please stop explaining//Don’t tell me ’cause it hurts//Don’t speak//I know what you’re thinking//I don’t need your reasons//Don’t tell me ’cause it hurts
Les Friction – “Your World Will Fail“
(One of) Ashur’s themes. (Yes, he’ll be back.) You can kind of see the moment his wings expand bodies turn to ash at 2:50.
Your world will fail my love//It’s far beyond repair//Your world will fail//If you are alive you must run for you life//It’s calm before the rage//Hostage in a cage//Your world will fail now//What will it take just to wake up this place//Bring you all to life
Sam Tinnesz – “Far From Home (The Raven)“
Melinoe’s song.
The air is cold//The night is long//I feel like I might fade into the dawn//Fade until I’m gone
Madonna – “Promise to Try“
Elis is very shaped by the death of her mother.
Will she see me cry when I stumble and fall//Does she hear my voice in the night when I call
Think Up Anger feat. Malia J “Shout“
This played a lot while they were creeping through the other dimension.
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn & Akira Yamaoka – “Tender Sugar“
The final chapter.
Blood Ties is available everywhere on Tuesday–preorder now! Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords | Payhip
Since the last post, I’ve swung back around to “Yeah, I probably fractured something”. If I had to guess, I’d say metatarsal. This has led to two weeks in bed where I cannot get comfortable and have struggled to work on a laptop that is literally falling apart.
So that’s what’s new here.
Blood Ties releases in just over a week, so next Sunday I’ll do the full soundtrack for that book. For today, we’ll visit the one thing I both started and finished during the pandemic…that no one gets to read.
I did a little thread on Twitter at the time but, to explain: although there are no official dates on the events of Livi’s books to keep things a little more fluid depending on when you pick them up, I did keep the dates in Tiger’s Memory so you can deduce that Solomon’s Seal takes place September 2016. Odin’s Spear is October 2016, Emperor’s Tomb February 2017, Shiva’s Bow August 2017. This means that, eventually in the timeline, I will have to contend with how COVID-19 would change the story of a globe-trotting adventurer who flies here and there without worrying about anything beyond the cost of the plane ticket.
I do know where the series is going, and there is a time jump coming up a few books from now around 2018 in the ‘verse, then pick up again in 2021. This means they can carry on as-is until that point, and when I pick up there’ll be a change in how the frequent travel is approached.
So I wrote something that takes place during that gap. For the longest time it was called WEST DURING THE PANDEMIC, though I settled on My Heart With You, which is the song I had on repeat during a few scenes including the last one.
Waited a hundred years to see your face, And I would wait a hundred more
There is no book cover I can post, due to the dearth of stock photos of hot twentysomething Korean men in suits, so I’ll just sprinkle the post with Daniel Henney gifs (who I see as West).
YOU’RE WELCOME.
Because it’s set so far down the road, I can’t share the story with anyone, which is probably why it was so easy to write. It’s 12K words, beginning with West flying back to New Bristol from Montreal during the start of the pandemic, and ending fifteen months later when he gets a very unexpected phone call. He’s in a very different place from where he has been in the rest of the series, even though so much stays the same, so it’s been very interesting to spend that time with him.
What makes him my favourite character is how, although all of us are who we are to survive, he is that concept to the logical extreme. He survived things as a child very few people live through by becoming the only person who COULD survive that, and now he has to navigate the world as an adult where those survival skills don’t always serve him–and often even inhibit him. Which I get. And that Livi is very much a survivor in her own right–an emotionally distant father, sexual assault as a teen and an abusive boyfriend as an adult, abandoned by her mother–is something that originally attracted him to her, even if he didn’t fully grasp it at the time.
Admittedly, these are the lines that popped this one onto the series originally playlist, as it can be applied to many characters and many circumstances, even though this particular story is West’s:
I sailed a thousand ships in search of you. Traveled to distant land. I dove for sunken gold. I took what I could hold, But you're still the greatest treasure I've held in my hands.
At one point in the story, he says, “How Olivia felt about me never changed how I felt about her.” Which I think, sort of sadly, sums up so much of them.
The end of the story, over a year after the pandemic’s start, brings him to an old safehouse in a rural area of Yanbian prefecture, where the last thing he ever expected to find is waiting for him. It’s very hard to surprise someone like West, but that is the moment that undoes him completely–as the chorus music swells and a door opens.
My love, the reason I survive, Trust we'll be together soon. Should our fire turn to dark, Take my heart with you.
So anyway, that’s a little something about a thing you don’t get to read (yet!), and my way of checking in to say hi, I’m still here, just a little broken yet, slowly getting better, here’s an earworm.
I am so extraordinarily coordinated and spry, I fell on Monday on a completely flat surface without stumbling on anything.
I blame it on a. my ancient overly worn carpet that is practically slippery at this point, and b. my toes being cold.
We had a polar vortex and random bits of snow, and in the middle of the day my bare toes were cold and getting kind of numb, so I went to my room to get slipper socks. I did not put them on then, as I should have, but carted them back to the living room and… *gestures wildly* I’m sure it was a very comical fall.
Initially I thought I broke my foot. I break a lot of characters’ bones for a living, though, so I did an assessment and was pretty sure nothing is actually fractured–not 100% sure, mind you, but sure enough that I’m not going to go to the ER during a global pandemic. Best guess is that I’ve torn something soft tissue related, as there is much(!) pain and cannot put weight on it. And I can’t take any decent OTC anti-inflammatories due to my auto-immune disease.
So. I have a kitchen chair I’m using as a walker and I’m stuck in bed (for a couple of weeks…?). I have to ask for help with groceries. With putting the garbage out. I can’t do laundry (it involves stairs), I can’t do any chores that require standing, I can’t pick up some pre-mixed cocktails for tomorrow’s D&D night, and I am really fucking irritated. Because this is possibly the stupidest way I’ve ever hurt myself–and I once broke a toe running into a cat scratcher–at quite possibly the worst time.
Trying to work from bed is…a thing. I’ve done it before–since I don’t get sick days–and in one case for several months at a time. But having to do it with a throbbing foot, unable to get comfortable, with a laptop being held together with duct tape is…not ideal. I’ve looked at lap desks/trays for bed that could potentially hold the laptop at the right angle but…again, global pandemic! Not putting my mother at risk to run to the post office repeatedly (I don’t have mail delivery to my door) and at the rate things are shipping, nothing will be here to help me now.
To top it all off, I think the apartment is trying to kill me.
Last night loading the dishwasher I almost stabbed myself four times. With the same knife. Today I have tripped twice. I am this close to just dragging myself outside because I feel better equipped to handle the virus than surviving in my own home.
I feel like this might be a Final Destination situation and the fate is trying to correct the timeline by trying to kill me in increasingly improbable, comical ways.
Anyway, Blood Ties is not being delayed after all and will release on June 2–up for preorder everywhere and the paperback is shipping. So there’s that. At this rate it might be the only thing I get done this year.
Writer of horror, mysteries/thrillers, and urban fantasy.
Fifth-generation crazy cat lady. Bitchy feminist.
So tired all the goddamn time.
My characters kill people so I don’t have to.