I woke up one morning tired and cranky as usual. I stuck with my typical morning routine—getting changed, making myself some breakfast, and brewing some watered down mediocre iced coffee. After letting the dog out to do her business, I sat my butt down in front of my computer ready for a day of work when my phone buzzed.
The text message simply read: “They were close…”
I nearly spit out my coffee bursting in laughter. The picture of a Starbucks cup said “Zulli.” Zulli? How could they mistake “Julie” for “Zulli”?
I immediately responded with a series of messages:
“That sounds like the name of my next character.”
“She will be a spider shifter because I hate spiders.”
“And carry around a fly swatter that she uses as a magic wand.”
“Her last name will be Taracula. Tarantula and Dracula put together because her spider fangs can suck out magic.”
“Her best friend is a cat shifter named Catilda. Because that’s just hilarious.”
And so, Zulli Taracula and her friends were born.
The details didn’t quite hash out the way I initially planned. Zulli is now a half-cat/half-spider shifter because who the hell has ever seen that before? Sounds ridiculous, but insanely intriguing at the same time. Her magical fly swatter didn’t quite fit into the story, at least not initially, but for all my readers of the Black Sheep series, you might remember a certain all powerful magical spatula being carried around in How to Rescue a Stubborn Savage Princess. It reappears again in the NightFly series, too.
Why a spatula, you ask? Well, I like objects that are practical. Silicone spatulas are a pivotal tool when baking (which I love doing), so what would a magic spatula do? Kill spiders! Wait, no? Because I definitely tried to do that once when I saw a creepy crawly skittering along the kitchen counter while I was making dinner. I did actually manage to get the sucker, although my victory was short lived after I realized what I did and felt a sudden urgency to throw that spatula directly into the trash.
I suppose a more practical reason would be mixing the perfect magical spell. Sure, that could work. Although the perfect batch of red velvet cupcakes would be Adrian’s preference.
Here are some other fun facts about the story and characters.
Have you ever noticed how so many urban fantasy stories have that “all powerful female lead flaunting her voluptuous chest and long flowing hair at every guy she meets while being the only person with that special power who can save the world”?
Well, Zulli is none of that. She’s not the most powerful person around. She’s not hoarding some long lost power destined to be used to save the world. And she cares more about what’s for lunch than what people think of her. She doesn’t go around teasing guys with charming good looks, either. In fact, she chopped her hair off when some jerk yanked on her ponytail and nearly snapped her neck. (You can find out how that happened by reading the free prequel, Mixing Magic & Mayhem). Instead of drooling over some jerkwad hot guy, she’d rather head to a bar with her friends and enjoy a frothy beer in her ripped flannel shirt and baggy pants, usually taken from a pile of unwashed clothes on the floor. Since she’s only a half shifter, meaning she has limited powers from both sides of her shifter abilities, she also keeps a belt around her waist full of fake bullets filled with spelled powders and liquids. A totally different kind of badass, if you ask me.
Back to the jerkwad hot guy all the females drool over despite being, well, a jerk. Ryker Stone isn’t that either. He’s that super sweet kind of guy who you feel guilty to even ask for anything from because he’s just too damn nice. He’s not the most attractive guy in the world either with his cropped brown hair and rosy face, but his personality makes women flock to him. Don’t worry though, he’s not that kind of guy who would take advantage of the situation. In fact, he’s clueless about the effect his actions have on people! He just genuinely wants to be a nice guy and make people happy. So much so that it could be his undoing…
You might also be wondering where the plot came from. Mind control isn’t anything new in the fantasy genre, but mind control from a scientific perspective isn’t explored as much. As someone who has worked in the healthcare industry, I’m floored at how far technology has come and how treatments for some serious conditions have progressed over the past several years.
But what’s the one thing we still can’t really fix? The mind.
Lose a limb? Here, have a robot hand. Need a new liver? Let’s 3D print one. But what about those suffering from mental conditions like dementia, psychosis, and PTSD? There are certainly treatments that can help, and have done so successfully, but there’s really no way to “cure” these conditions. Enter: Magic mind drugs! How can you deal with your troubling past? Erase it completely from your memory. Or perhaps build a new one all together. Oh, the controversy and all the bad things that could happen from that!
And they certainly do. But you’ll have to read the whole story to find out what.
Dawn of a Demon is available now! It’s available on Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
