One aspect of Kept Tears highlights the
very real issues facing injured veterans, but at my core, I am a fan of
fantasy, urban fantasy, and science fiction. Both Aaron and Rhys share aspects
of that, Aaron more so than Rhys. Aaron shares my geekiness, loving steampunk,
comics, and the like. While Rhys writes fantasy young adult novels as his
cover, most of it could be actually non-fiction from his own realm.
It is Rhys's true nature that made writing Kept
Tears so much fun. He's a prince of the Seelie Court, a Tylwyth Teg.
I chose the Teg, since at least here in America, readers haven't heard too much
about Welsh Faeries. It's a familiar theme with a little bit of a Welsh twist.
Rhys makes an excellent counterpoint to Aaron, who is facing
life, learning to deal with his disabilities. Rhys, actually Prince Myrddin, is
accustomed to a world filled with magic, even though he has been on Earth for
centuries as a guard to ensure his people don't take advantage of the
non-magical humans. While he has lost people he loved in war, magic usually
eased any non-lethal wound without so much as a scar. Aaron's injuries make
Rhys feel something he rarely has: powerless.
The urban fantasy parts of the novel were a lot of fun to play with, especially
taking established folklore and expanding upon it. The concepts of the Seelie
and Unseelie Courts are very old indeed, but I got to reimagine them in modern
times. Rhys brings with him all sorts of magic, old rivalries, and a host of
bizarre entities.
Baudelaire said
Strangeness is a necessary
ingredient in beauty. I couldn’t agree more. I like things to be a
little bit strange, and that’s why I think I’m more drawn to urban fantasy and
the like over contemporary fiction. I crave the unusual, and I have been
reading folklore since my earliest memory. My mother was asked to please buy me
a book of Bulfinch’s mythology when I was in second or third grade because I
kept constantly checking it out of the school library, and no one else had a
chance at it.
In Kept Tears, I was able to merge that strangeness and my
love of folklore in with the more serious and real issues facing veterans
returning from war. It was a joy to write and I hope you enjoy it.
Excerpt - His
portal home dropped him on the castle green. In some ways, the building
resembled the Gothic style castles on Earth, built for much the same reason.
However, instead of sand or limestone, his family’s castle—well, palace might
be a better term—was made of rock not found on earth. Hard, dense, and
opalescent, it was blinding in the midday sun: beautiful in a cold, glimmering
way. Around the castle, detectable by only certain high-level magicks, stood
ensorcelled barriers adding to the protection of the royals.
Myrddin went inside and found his mother in the royal
chambers. Like most fae, his father had many lovers, but only one was queen.
Seren looked surprised to see her son. “Myrddin, isn’t it a
little early for a visit? Is something wrong?” Seren glided over, her fiery
hair brushing against her hips. Opening her arms, she hugged him tightly.
“Possibly.” He returned the embrace. His mother smelled of
wyrhas flowers, reminding him of lilacs, only much stronger.
Seren gestured toward the soft leather couch set in front of
a huge window. One of the many palace gardens lay beyond the glass, a wild riot
of color. Myrddin settled on the couch, his mother sitting next to him.
“Do you remember Morcant?”
“It’s hard to forget those who betray us,” she replied, her
voice hard with disappointment.
“He’s back with veiled threats.” Myrddin slapped a hand
against the arm of the couch. “Damn it, this is the last thing I need right
now. I’m starting over somewhere new, watching the Pittsburgh area like you and
Father asked me to. It should be exciting. I’m making new friends. I don’t need
to have my attention divided, worrying about my family when I should be
worrying about keeping the city safe from any interference by our kind.”
“Do you think that could be it? Morcant is there merely to
distract you while the Unseelie Court sets something into action in that area?”
Seren tapped a finger to her lips. “They know how thin our ranks are. The human
world is so much larger now than it was. Ideas fly about like magic with the
Internet and world news. It would be easy for them to sneak in agents and tap
into the human potential while you’re running back and forth making sure your
family is safe. It’s what I would do if I were them.”
“Damn, that is a good idea. I should have thought of it.”
―
Thanks Kim for having me over. I appreciate it.
Blurb - Having left
most of his arm and his self-confidence behind in the Afghanistan desert, young
veteran Aaron Santori has enough on his plate learning to use his prosthetic
arm. Attending graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh makes life both
interesting and challenging. Mentally, he's ill prepared for meeting Rhys
Edwards, a young-adult novelist from Wales and everything Aaron could want in a
man. Between the scars from the explosion and his PTSD, he’s reluctant to date.
Ready or not, though, Aaron finds himself jumping into the deep end of the
relationship waters.
What Aaron couldn’t possibly know is that Rhys isn’t human at all. As a prince
of the Tylwyth Teg, Rhys is fae, with a list of enemies he’s accumulated over
the past few centuries—among them a former lover, Morcant, who is back to make
Rhys’s life miserable. An unwitting pawn in their Machiavellian fae politics,
Aaron only knows he’s falling in love, never suspecting love might be his death
sentence.
Jana Denardo's career choices and
wanderlust take her all over the United States and beyond. Much of her travels
make their way into her stories. Fantasy, science fiction, and mystery have
been her favorite genres since she started reading, and they often flavor her
works. In her secret identity, she works with the science of life and gives
college students nightmares. When she’s not chained to her computer writing,
she functions as stray cat magnet.
Jana is Queen of the Geeks (her
students voted her in) and her home and office are shrines to any number of
comic book and manga heroes along with SF shows and movies too numerous to
count. There is no coincidence the love of all things geeky has made its way
into many of her stories. To this day, she’s still disappointed she hasn’t
found a wardrobe to another realm, a superhero to take her flying among the
clouds or a roguish star ship captain to run off to the stars with her.
http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/
www.facebook.com/jana.denardo
janadenardo@yahoo.com
