Guest Post over at Suzanne's blog

Last week, I interviewed a villain. (Excuse me, antagonist).  This week, my heroine's foil visits Suzanne's blog.  It's all new material written simply for this post, so go take a look at a verbal snapshot of Queen Polyoxo over at Suzanne's Thought For the Day.

Interviewing a Villian

The hard part of writing a book after you've written it, is getting people to know about it, and making the story fresh for new audiences.

 My friend Suzanne de Montigny hit upon doing interviews with characters, specifically, the antagonists of our respective books. 

Antagonists are necessary otherwise the story goes like this: 

Once upon a time, there was a princess.
She grew up, got married, and everyone was happy.
The End. 

Pretty dull.  Stories are driven by the poor choices and the bad acts of shallow characters, weak people, stubborn people, greedy creatures darker or sharper than we'd hope to know in our own circle of friends.   Thus, the villain becomes critical to the story, driving the action.  So who are these difficult people that make everything follow?  We decided to do a villain (excuse me) antagonist exchange.

With this as a prelude, I give you an interview from my encounter with The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy.

Today I’m interviewing a most curious man. He’s dressed in long, hand-woven gowns, has a long beard and hair. What did you say your name was?

It’s Ishmael. What’s happened? Where am I?

Well, I opened up Suzanne de Montigny’s The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy and out you popped.

But where’s the town? Where are the people? I have to prove to them the unicorns are real flesh.

Pardon?

Okay, okay, let me start from the beginning. My wife, Adiva, and our little girl, Ali, were happy living in another land when a giant fireball swept through the sky one night changing our world into a barren desert. We gathered up what we could salvage and journeyed to a beautiful valley that was lush and green, and there, with the help of the other survivors, began building a new life.

Then what happened?

There were these creatures there – most beautiful creatures. Unicorns. They’re like horses only more delicate and they have this horn.

Yes, I’ve heard they existed long ago.

Well I’m a merchant, and I saw potential to become rich if only I could train them. But they were so stupid I couldn’t even lead them around on a halter.

You beat them?

Of course. They’re just  animals. They don’t know any better. I nearly gave up except that the plague hit our town. My own daughter Ali was dying and I was worried I’d catch the disease. Then Adiva carried her to the holding pen where one of the mares touched her with her horn. And that’s when I realized the unicorns had healing powers in their horns.

Did you say you were worried you’d catch the disease?

Of course. Who wouldn’t be?

But she was your daughter.

Doesn’t matter. She survived. And so did a lot of other people because of that mare. I figured out the reason I couldn’t train the unicorns was because whenever I beat them, they’d heal each other just as soon as I’d turn around. So I separated her and beat her into submission.

After she saved your daughter’s life?

Hey, it’s just a dumb animal. Gotta show them who’s boss, right? Then I led her into town where I cured dozens of people. The town was so happy they made a statue of me.

And what happened to the mare?

She died. But it was okay because I had lots more to choose from.

And what happened to them?

They all died too. After a while I realized it would just be a lot easier to saw off their horns.

Like what they do in Africa to rhinos and elephants?

Umm,  where? It doesn’t matter. Like I say, they’re just animals.

But they’re not just animals. They were unique and so far as I know, there aren’t any left in the world?

There aren’t?

No. It’s the same with rhinos and elephants. They’re nearly extinct because, like you, all poachers care about money.

Money? What’s that?

Gold?

But…

No buts. I’m closing the book and hoping you’ll meet your fate.

No, wait…

The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy, top ratings and the Kindle Book of the Week. It’s also a finalist in the Orangeberry Hall of Fame Awards. Leave a comment for a chance to win an e-book copy. Here are the links:

http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Unicorn-Legacy-ebook/dp/B00AIVD5EE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376411789&sr=1-1&keywords=the+shadow+of+the+unicorn+the+legacy

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Should I Be Concerned?

My four year old daughter is precocious and smart and often elects to be silent.

So yesterday when she produced a menagerie of animals and dolls at the table and began imaginary play by herself, I eavesdropped.

There's a reason that one should not poke one's nose into the musings of another's thoughts unwelcomed. 

It can unnerve. 

She began singing.  I tried to catch the lyrics but the meaning caught me up.  She was play acting all of the villains from the Little Mermaid, Pokemon, My Little Pony, Phineas and Ferb, Dora and Thundercats merged into one.  I waited for the hero to save the day, the barbie to be rescued, the pony Rainbow Dash to fly in at the nick of time, even a Thundercats HO! call to arms.

Nothing.

Not a peep.

Ursula won. Team Rocket Won.  Nightmare Moon and Doofensmurtz, Swiper and Mum-rah won!
She let out a triumphant cackle, the kind that usually ends the first half of a two parter episode where the bad guy seems to have the upper hand.  I made her lunch and mine.   I didn't want to interrupt.  I was waiting for the second act.

"You think you will win but you will not!" She was gloating. "For I am the greatest in the WORLD...." She let her voice float along dramatically holding that last word.

I waited, "Lunch?" 
"Yes! That would ...please me." she said in deep tones. We were now channeling Darth Vader I think, from the old version that is on VCR tapes.

A butter sandwich, yogurt, goldfish crackers and a banana later, she was back in her world. 

The heroes never showed up or they were beaten but she seemed to be having a splendid time.  Now I don't ever recall having the self possession to roll play outside of the parameters of the good guy as a kid; shoot I wouldn't even allow myself to be a villain in Dungeons and Dragons when I was a teen, much less find myself sorted in Slytherin as an adult so I wondered that a little girl barely old enough for pre-school would find the forces of chaos so compelling as versus those of sweetness and light. 

Part of it was the rump roast effect of getting the assigned roll by older sisters in games, she'd come to know these second tier characters first because she had to wait her turn for the prime spots that others who were older had jump claimed in any play that took place.   Part of it was personality; the villains were much less transparent in their actions and motivations and my daughter liked keeping her cards close to the vest.   I decided that rather than fret, I'd be direct.

"Why do you like the villains?" I asked, trying to seem very casual.
"Mom..." she gave me a look of amusement, one that made her seem at least eight years older than she is, "It's only pretend."

Perhaps I need to get out a bit more.