Here’s a dark horror fantasy for you, loaded with well developed characters, unique worldbuilding, LGBTQ+ representation and a gripping story of making enemies out of friends and allies out of enemies.
Let’s welcome author C. G. Jaquish to this week’s Feature Friday! Explore the inspiration behind her work and check out her first in series, The Nameless One.
Welcome! Introduce yourself and tell us a little about your writing.
My name is Caroline, but I’m a big time gamer, so most of my friends call me Arae, based on my gamer tag. I’m 28, married to the love of my life and currently loving in Washington state, though I’ll always view Alaska as home, and not just because I published my first book there.
What’s something unique about your book that will make readers immediately want to check it out?
To Be Nameless takes place in our universe, where I’ve broken the rules. The lore goes that when the Ancient, the goddess of our universe, created humans, she did so only to use them. They were raised and slaughtered like farm animals, their deaths powering the magic said Ancient and her people, the Solars, used. She and her twin brother kept balance and reigned over the universe together, until a new Solar rose to power, the mysterious Evolution. Evolution saw the potential in humanity and taught spirits how to bond with them, creating souls in the up till then soulless humans. Humanity grew and spread over planet Earth, creating an unspeakable terror that cause the Warden of Earth, the caretakers of the planet, to flood the entire surface, hoping to kill off the mutated humans and start over. Instead, Evolution created a new planet for its people and moved them there before the flood. Asylum, where my stories take place.
What inspired you to write The Nameless One?
I started writing To Be Nameless when I was 16, then all of my writing was confiscated due to its dark themes. So, I wrote it again, hiding the pages around the basement of my childhood home. When I finally decided to move toward publishing, I had to find all of them during a visit to my parent’s house. Then I typed it all up and split it into four books because it was far longer than I thought!
Tell us about your favorite character you’ve written about and why?
The first four books focus on Eclipse Monohue, whose father rules a country named Chrosia with an iron fist. He’s just as demanding as a parent and she goes through hell because of it, eventually rising to overthrow him. Books 5-8 tell Astrid’s story, a Monohue descendant who gets sent back in time to see how Eclipse’s story ended and returns to the future to ‘fix’ the world. Astrid’s books have been my favorite to write, though not because I particularly like her. It’s all of the magic and characters I get to delve into in her books as she discovers long lost secrets.
Without giving us any spoilers, what’s your favorite quote or scene from your book and tell us a bit about it?
As for a favorite scene or quote, I’m not sure. One in my current WIP is definitely top ten and I can’t wait to share it with my readers, but in the books that are already published? Hmmmm. I really like my sex scenes. I strive to describe the act so it’s tantalizing more than crude, but you definitely know what’s going on. When a certain faltering woman meets Rhys in Through the Eyes of a Necromancer is probably my favorite. I’m also a huge fan of my battle scenes and fight scenes. The duel with Lakshmi in Eclipsing the Flames comes to mind.
Where can readers find you?
Anyone interested in seeing more can find me on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. I post videos weekly, if not more often, with content from my books and snippets about the characters. I have a twitter as well but I’m bad at keeping up with it. C.G. Jaquish everywhere except Facebook, where the page name is To Be Nameless.
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