A flash of lightning sent shadows looming, blocky figures in dark raincoats, as they hefted my steamer trunk from the hold and onto the deck of the airship. Rain pummelled them, driven sideways by the wind. Crew scrambled to tie ropes after several corroded brass moorings tore free of the old dock. The deck swayed beneath me, so I widened my stance. I shifted into a fighting pose and pulled the serrated sword from its bone sheath. My Ashur was the weapon of choice for Solhan ladies, but I was no lady.
“Where do you think you’re taking that?” I asked, my ominous tone punctuated with thunder.
The thugs in raincoats froze, surprised to see me. Someone had drugged my meal and barred my cabin door from the outside. Fortunately, I had invisible Bogle companions following me everywhere, always the first to eat my meals, not because they were official food testers but because they were eternally hungry. They also removed the metal bar from the outside, so I escaped without needing to cut through the cabin wall, which I would have done. I would do anything to protect that trunk.
“No pithy comeback or plausible excuse?” I said, disappointed. “You two really are thick. Who do you work for?”
The deckhands saw my drawn blade and froze too. This old dock was not Highcrowne, likely a pirate mooring off the usual air routes. Either they were trying to find refuge in the storm, or they were in on it too. I didn’t think they were pirates, else they would all be armed and coming at me with swords, but something was off about them. That’s what I got for eschewing the premier airship liners with their security protection, courtesy of Rose Industries. I’d been trying to lay low, but it looked like I would need to be laying low a few bad guys instead.
“We don’t want any trouble,” one of the crew said, raising his hands.
“Untie us and get us back underway and there won’t be any,” I said. I didn’t know how to fly this thing, and so I couldn’t kill them, as tempting as it was. The two holding my trunk, however…. “I told you both to set that down. Gently.”
They obeyed. Never trust anyone who complies so quickly. Not in this line of work. I ignored the crew, their hands full of ropes, their bedraggled clothing too threadbare to hide any weapons, and I went for the raincoats.
One whipped out a flintlock pistol. Fool. It was too wet to fire. The other was slightly smarter, revealing a bullwhip. He was fast too. He struck, wrapping it around the tip of my sword before I got to him.
The one weakness of a serrated blade was how easily it could be caught, but that usually worked both ways. It was fantastic for disarming an opponent, and if it was sharp enough—as mine was—it sliced right through anything, including leather. His whip lost a third of its length, and a heartbeat later I had the tip of my sword pointed at his eye. The one with the useless pistol donned brass knuckles and came for me, but I wasn’t only a good swordswoman, I was a necromancer. Big mistake.
Still reading? Want to know more?
Lorel has a PhD in molecular biology and Once Upon a Time did cancer research before turning to the dark side (aka marketing), but she uses her powers for good, helping raise funds for charity. She loves books, movies and animals, and would gladly spend all day with a cat on her lap and the wind in her hair (Conan reference there), while tapping out a story on her keyboard. Or maybe a movie script. With coffee of course. And lots of chocolate!
Clayton is a classically trained painter turned digital artist who now glares at the AI generated images currently obliterating the slim chance artists once had of earning a living. Clayton is severely dyslexic but loves books and storytelling. He adds vast imagination and a discerning ear for effective prose to their creative collaboration, not to mention the book cover art.
Born and raised in the western United States, they traveled to Sydney, Australia in 1997 and never left, finding the sunshine and beaches of “Oz” too irresistible.
Look
them up if ever you’re Down Under.
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with . . . Lorel Clayton . . .
How would you describe your style of writing to someone that has never read your work?
I can vary my writing style based on the project. Eva Thorne is fun, clever and flirty, while the dark fantasy I have coming out in October is ominous, sad, and powerful. What always comes through is sharp clarity. I struggle to get overly flowery and poetic. I aim for hypnotic and compelling, genuine and real. I think the power of words shines through when they are simple, well chosen, and elegant. It’s no surprise my favorite poet is Emily Dickenson, because she embodies this style.
Do you feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows naturally for you?
Writing has always flowed for me, but it also requires work, practice and skill. There is an 80% ingrained love of writing that keeps me going and 20% slog through the hard parts, challenging myself to grow and get better and learn, always.
Do you take your character prep to heart? Do you nurture the growth of each character all the way through to the page?
Character development is key, because they are your story. Plot is fine, but if the reader loves a character, they’ll go anywhere with them. This means test writing the character in many different ‘voices’ to find the right one. Also, I find I need to be clear on what they believe in, what their flaws are, and what they need to learn (their character arc). Their backstory, moments from childhood, fears and desires also need to be sketched out, but usually you know if they work if it all comes to life on the page.
My Eva Thorne character took a bit of development because she is so different from me in many ways. She grew up surrounded by wealth and power in the largest city in her world (while I grew up on a small farm in the least densely populated state in the US, and I never saw a big city until I was eighteen). Eva tends to act before she thinks, while I do the opposite. Those differences make her so fun to write!
I learned ages ago that the secondary characters are also important. There’s this scene from Wayne’s World where an actor has a short line, and Mike Myers breaks the fourth wall saying, “That’s awful, can we get a good actor in here please?” And they shoo away this poor old guy and bring in Charlton Heston who delivers the same exact line in such a compelling way you are in tears. That’s the difference between a good and bad secondary character.
Have you found yourself bonding with any particular character(s)? If so, which one(s)?
I tend to bond with my funny sidekicks. In the Eva Thorne series, the goblin professor introduced in Book 2 is one of my all time favorites. I hear his voice in my head and am smiling constantly as I hurry to write down everything he says.
I also bond with my male romantic leads. I kind of fall in love with every one of them, just like my main character does. There’s a saying I heard once, not sure where, that I believe: ‘You have to love all men if you are to truly love any man.’ I’ve been married to the same man for 35 years, so I know how to love, but at the same time I get how guys think (good and bad) and I know which elements I find attractive. When I create my leading men, I bring together different elements that I find attractive in different proportions to create different compelling love interests. There’s the older, ambitious and mysterious stranger; the golden hero in shining armor struggling against an unjust world; the boyhood friend who rises from poverty to power based on his own hard work, including dark deeds he regrets, but who is lonely and romantic at heart; and there is the Shadow archetype, the whispering, seductive temptation to embrace the darkness. I’m sure if you read the Eva Thorne series you will fall in love, maybe even a few times!
What are some of your writing/publishing goals for this year?
I’m working on Eva Thorne Book 6, which is one I’ve wanted to write for a while. I just need more time to write! Hoping to have it ready by the end of the year. I work full-time and I’m a mother to a beautiful son with autism, so writing happens when it happens. In October, I’m also releasing the first book in a dark fantasy series I wrote years ago. Follow me on Amazon or Bookbub to get an alert, or subscribe to my newsletter at lorelclayton.com/subscribe
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