WARNING: SPOILERS

WARNING: If you haven’t read THE SOURCE yet, the following contains a spoiler. Step away from the screen.

There. Give them a sec.

Okay, are those folk gone? Yes?

Good. I want to share a bit about Mercy and Jilo’s relationship—and my relationship with Jilo—and why Jilo had to die at the end of THE SOURCE.

A lot of what you see in the series was planned. A lot—including Jilo herself —wasn’t. When I started writing THE LINE, I knew where Mercy’s story would begin and where it would end. Or so I thought. I knew it would kick off with Ginny’s murder, and I knew it would end up very much near the place where THE VOID does end.  Still, everything in between those points? Phew. Not the same story at all.

Mercy started off with a different boyfriend, Daniel Trujillo, a soldier who had returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with a djinn on his back. This boyfriend hung around for four drafts before it hit me that he just didn’t want to be in the story, and that he was much more interested in Oliver than in Mercy anyway. (Cue sound of record needle scraping across a vinyl album.)

Martell was supposed to play a much greater role in THE LINE, serving as the northern, urban, African-American foil to Mercy’s entitled white southern belle. I didn’t meet Jilo until my fourth or fifth (maybe sixth) stab at writing THE LINE. I kept getting up to around page 150, and then the story would fall apart.

Jilo Wills was intended to be a toss out character, serving only to send frissons through the Taylors when her name got mentioned as they sat around the kitchen table discussing Martell and his possible involvement in Ginny’s murder. And then once again, I hit page 150. I knew there was a story in all this, I just didn’t know how to tease it out. I sat staring at the screen, not having a clue which way to write. Then I heard Jilo talking to me. Really. Full on auditory hallucination. “Jilo, she knows what happen here. You listen to her, boy. She tell you the story.” I knew I either needed to see a doctor or start typing fast. I let myself run with it.

As the story progressed, I could feel an emotional connection forming between Jilo and Mercy. They wanted to be friends. They wanted to look out for and protect each other. Now, here’s a little scoop on Miss Mercy: Mercy can be a difficult character to write, in the sense that if she doesn’t like what I’m doing, she will not participate. She will dig in her heels, with her arms crossed over her chest, and stare at me until I come up with something she likes. (And yes, I am completely aware how imbalanced that statement makes me sound, even if you are willing to overlook Jilo’s talking to me.) For example, THE VOID was supposed to begin with the Taylors having a little fun, time traveling to the last party at the Greenwich Plantation, a Savannah mansion that once rivalled the Biltmore Estate, until a short in a sewing machine sparked a fire that leveled it. The party got scrapped when I couldn't find a nice enough 1921 maternity dress for Mercy to wear to it. Seriously. Like it’s my fault that in the early 1920’s not enough pregnant women attended balls to have inspired designers to do maternity wear for such events.

Still, all I had to do to get Mercy to show up for a scene and deliver was to write Jilo into it.

After a while, I realized Mercy and I had both grown too dependent on the old woman of the crossroads. By the time I began writing THE SOURCE, every time Mercy encountered a difficulty, her first response was to turn to Jilo. (And every time I started to get bogged down in plot, my go-to idea was to bring Jilo in.) Jilo got very good at solving Mercy’s problems, and even better at solving mine.

The story was supposed to be Mercy’s hero’s journey, but Jilo grew into such a large character, even though I hated it, I knew I had to move her offstage. Otherwise, Mercy would never grow as a person, as it was too easy for her to run to Jilo. (And I would never grow as a writer, as…well, it was way too easy for me to run to Jilo, too.)

As I drew near the end of THE SOURCE, and I knew the death scene was coming, I started slacking off. Not getting it finished. Watching television or playing computer solitaire. Finally, I grabbed a box of tissues and set down to finish the story. Lordy, was this boy a mess by the end of the chapter! But I completed the book and sent it off to my publisher. Then, much to my horror, I realized I had committed to writing THE VOID without Jilo’s voice to guide me. Believe you me, it wasn’t easy finding that groove without Jilo’s voice to guide me.

WARNING: Spoiler for THE VOID follows.

Now, here’s the point where if you don’t want a spoiler for THE VOID, you should click away. (*Hums the Jeopardy theme.*)

Okay, so maybe it isn’t that much of a spoiler, but as I have told a few people who hate the idea of not seeing Jilo and Mercy together again, a little thing like dying is not gonna keep Mother Jilo down. I, too, wanted to give them one last chance to save the world together. So, you may not see Jilo show up when you expect to see her, or how you expect to see her, but in the end, when our girl Mercy really needs a shot of Jilo, Mother doesn’t let her down. And if you don’t like spoilers, but couldn’t resist reading this anyway, don’t worry, there are so many twists in THE VOID, this one little tidbit is just a drop in the bucket.

It's been a month already?

Wow! It's been a month since I've been out to visit my own blog. It's been a wild few weeks in the old personal life, but I'll spare you those details. Outside of the mostly amazing things happening in my private life--Yes, I am now legally married!--a big part of the reason I haven't been blogging is that I have been writing.

SHIVAREE

After more than a year of trying to turn out SHIVAREE as a novella, I have finally given into the fact that it doesn't want to be a novella. So, with trepidation, I am letting it grow. You won't see it this year, as I had hoped, but fingers crossed there will be a much richer version of the story coming in 2015.

WITCHING SAVANNAH

I am thrilled that my proposal for a 4th Witching Savannah book has been accepted. Mercy's story comes to a (hopefully satisfying) end in THE VOID, coming out on November 18th. The 4th book is scheduled to be released in in late 2015. Its working title, JILO (A WITCHING SAVANNAH PREQUEL), pretty much sums up what the story is about. JILO will be different from the other Witching Savannah books, though, in many ways, including a shift from 1st to 3rd person. We're going back in time, as it's set for the most part in the 1950's and early 1960's. While Savannah will still play an integral role in the book, the setting will include other parts of the Lowcountry (which gives me an excuse to make another visit under the guise of research). Will we see any of the Taylors? One or two, but no one whose played a major role in the series so far.

PRETTY ENOUGH TO CATCH HER

My short story, "Pretty Enough to Catch Her" is coming out as part of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SOUTHERN GOTHIC ROMANCE  in the United Kingdom in November and in the United States in January. 

COVER REVEAL

I'm thrilled to reveal Patrick Arrasmith's latest wonder, the cover of the third Witching Savannah novel, THE VOID.

FROM THE BACK COVER:

Book Three in the darkly magical Witching Savannah series.

An otherworldly energy runs through the city of Savannah, betraying its sleepy, moss-cradled charm. The old, beguiling streets look welcoming to most…but certain families know what lurks under their genteel surfaces. Families like Mercy Taylor’s, which has the most powerful lineage of witches in the South, know this all too well.

Mercy and her husband, Peter, are happily preparing to welcome baby Colin into their lives. But their excitement quickly becomes overshadowed by a gruesome discovery: someone has scattered severed limbs throughout the city. After a troubling visit from an old foe, Mercy learns dark magic is at play, and someone—or something—wants her and her unborn child out of the picture. To uncover the shocking reason why, the amateur witch must face a force beyond her power…or risk losing everything.

The third book in J.D. Horn’s Witching Savannah series, The Void is a gripping adventure about the enchantment—and evil—that can lie just beyond sight.

The Dedication in THE SOURCE

For those of you asking about the "in loving memory of" dedication in THE SOURCE, this is the little man, Quentin Comfort Horn, to whom the book was dedicated.

Quentin was a rescue dog (although in truth, he was the one who rescued me), so I never knew his true age. I had the joy of knowing him for over twelve years. He was my little buddy, my travel companion--as you can tell from the number of Savannah photos I share featuring him--and my co-author. He sat on my lap for hours as we worked together on the Witching Savannah books.

Somewhat ironically, I lost him when I was about halfway through the first draft of the third and final book of the series (THE VOID), and wow, what a void his passing left in my life. Sometime after his yahrzheit, which I will observe and not care what anyone thinks,  I plan to honor his memory by going to a shelter and finding my next little Chihuahua monster.

Don't Steal My Work - Piracy is Theft

Yes, this posting is not my usual type of post. It is a rant. And a wake up call.

All you honest people out there, people who would never think of stealing someone's work by downloading it from an illegal  pirate site, please forgive my rant. 

For those of you who are choosing to download my work in audio or written formats from these bit torrent sites, YOU ARE STEALING. And you aren't stealing from a nameless, faceless corporation. YOU ARE STEALING FROM ME PERSONALLY. 

I spent a year of my life researching and writing THE SOURCE. So,  yeah, it makes me really angry to find people downloading it illegally.

I just stumbled across one of these pirate sites where one of the people who stole my work said how excited they were, as they had been waiting for THE SOURCE.  That positively boggles my mind. To think someone has been waiting with baited breath to rob me.

If you want to read or listen to THE SOURCE for free, GO TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY.

You need to realize that what you are doing is the same thing as walking into a store and shoplifting a book or a CD. No, wait. Actually what you are doing is worse, as it encourages theft on a scale no single shoplifter could ever achieve. 

So whatever rationalization you are using, realize you are not a good person. You are a thief. Plain and simple. 

Now you know, so cut it out.

Cover Reveal: SHIVAREE

So happy to share the cover of my upcoming novella, SHIVAREE. If all goes well, it should be available for your Kindle around mid-August.

About SHIVAREE (A Novella):

At the close of the Korean War, sturdy army nurse Corinne Ford turns her back on a troubled past to travel to rural Georgia and marry her battlefield sweetheart. Corinne soon learns she was not the first woman in her fiancé's life. The once exquisite Ruby, failed actress and dabbler in dark magic, had been brought back from Hollywood to her father's house, sick, broken, changed. Her death cleared the way for many who had wished that she had never returned. Soon, Corinne is confronted with evidence that her fiancé's first love is neither forgotten nor truly gone. Backlit by the Klan's burning crosses and scored by the cacophony of shivaree, a twist on the traditional wedding night abduction of the groom, SHIVAREE (A Novella) looks into a world where the monsters of folklore confront the monsters of history. SHIVAREE (A Novella) is a work of Southern Gothic Horror. 

Peter

Image via Shutterstock, copyright bikeriderlondon

In celebration of the countdown till THE VOID's June 3rd release, here's another insight into the creation of the Witching Savannah series.

Peter was the third major character who didn’t appear in the (multiple) early drafts of THE LINE. The original story kicked off with the arrival of a certain Texan named Daniel Trujillo. Daniel, a veteran of the Iraq War came home with an unwanted and extremely nasty hitchhiker. When his local bruja realizes she is in over her head, she sends Daniel to Taylors Ferry, GA—see earlier post—to consult with Ginny Taylor. The only problem was Daniel did not want to be in THE LINE. At one point I wrote that he went to his room to rest. Five chapters later, he still wasn’t ready to come out and play, and the book was moving on without him.

While Daniel was napping, Wren insinuated himself into the story, and quickly made Daniel’s little demon problem superfluous. I struggled to entice Daniel into playing his intended role. It would have been a great part. Battling demons and winning Mercy’s heart. Still, no matter how hard I try to sell him on it, he wasn’t buying it. He started to make it clear that

               A)  He would prefer more scenes with Oliver.

                         (So much for the romance with Mercy.)

               B) He really did not want to be in the story. Period.

So it was farewell Daniel, so long Pazuzu. The story got stripped back to the bare bones. I had found my villain, so there was no grief there, but Mercy didn’t have her guy. After the dark intense stranger expressed more interest in Mercy’s uncle than in Mercy herself, I started toying with the idea of a childhood friend who was desperately in love with Mercy, but who hadn’t quite convinced her to make the leap from friend to lover. Peter, the quintessential boy next door, was born and quickly took root. He charmed me, and I realized he was indeed the type of guy Mercy could love—not just feel passion for, but really love.  Peter’s only problem was that he was too perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I had no idea what to do with him. I honestly thought about striking the character from the book, and trying again. Then he shared his secret with me. He wasn’t so perfect. He had gone to Jilo for a spell before Mercy ever considered it. I breathed a sigh of relief and committed to Peter. I think you will see how happy I am now that Peter made the cut. His story takes what is (hopefully) an unexpected and entertaining twist in THE SOURCE.