Giveaway & Guest Post w/Joey W Hill!!

Ladies and gents of my Lair, I want you to put together a very warm and hussy welcome for an author that I love having at my place... She is just a sheer delight to have over... Please welcome...

Ms. Joey W Hill!!!

Humans vs Non-Humans : To-ma-to, to-mah-to…

So is there a difference, writing contemporary vs paranormal stories? Or, to get more specific, writing humans versus writing mermaids, angels, vampires, kelpies, garden gnomes, etc?

First off, an author is well, human, and no matter how she tries, 90% of her viewpoint is still going to be homo sapiens. Second, her audience is human, and if characters become too different, the reader is not going to be able to empathize or even have a frame of reference. It explains why George Burns as God probably won a lot more converts than Moses’s burning bush (if most of you went blank on that reference, I will feel very old!). But does that mean we can’t have a realistic paranormal hero or heroine? Of course not. The key is finding the balance between the differences and similarities.

Paranormal characters are different from us physically, yes. But for me, the vital aspect of finding the balance is in the mental side of things, the way the mind of a paranormal being would work. Of course, I probably get a little too fascinated by that side of things, to the point I sometimes neglect the physical differences. This week, I was writing a great scene between a vampire and the 1700s Scottish farmer he’s going to eventually make his servant. He rescues him from a battlefield, and there’s a whole complicated scene between them that is going just great…until I realized I set the whole thing in broad daylight. My vampire would be fried like goat cheese on that bloodsoaked field.

Anyhow, I digress. The great thing about us is the reach of our imaginations. When a paranormal author puts her brain on a yoga and cardio workout to push past that 90% homo sapiens viewpoint, she can get to the 10% “other”. The track to get there is realizing our own species is a template for writing about other species. We have tons of cultures and belief systems, and yes, in some cases they are VERY different. But certain things are the same – we fear, we love, we grieve, we wonder and we get mad. We also don’t know every damn thing, and we all have ways of coping with that, good and bad. Why would mermaids, vampires, angels, etc be any different?

So keeping in mind the mechanical differences (so your readers don’t laugh at you when your mermaid sighs underwater), and the soul-deep similarities, the interesting part is the middle ground. Exploring, within the context of a story, how human and paranormal minds differ around that similar emotional core – the cultural differences. And what happens when they clash or try to mesh.

As a reader, it bores me to tears when a paranormal creature is so physiologically different but exactly like humans in terms of his/her thinking. For instance, many of you know the angsty “oh woe is me, I’m a beautiful, immortal vampire and I can’t stand myself” vampire makes me want to go find a stake and put him out of his misery (Edward is an exception. I would never mar Rob Pattinson’s beautiful form that way.)

I write born vampires as well as made ones, neither of which beat their breasts about what they are. In fact, they consider themselves far superior to humans. Which leads to my next point. When I get into the heads of paranormal creatures, there’s always a basic rule set that differentiates them from humans in their thinking, and I stick to those rules as I write them.


In my Vampire Queen series, while vampires value humans as servants, they never see them as equals. Falling in love with one is illegal and, more importantly, considered as tasteless as deciding to handfast with one’s St. Bernard. So when I write my Vampire Queen series books and have vampire-servant interactions that cross those lines, I have to write the vampire’s reaction to it believably as they deal with that paradigm shift. As they are not sentimental types, they don’t adjust in a gushy/mushy way. If they determine they are in love with their servant, that’s likely going to be between the vampire and the vampire, and not shared easily with the human, even if he/she senses it.

Now, immortality causes some other differences in thinking. In my latest release, In the Company of Witches, my hero Mikhael is a 1300 year old Dark Guardian, an angel/sorcerer who serves Lucifer and the Underworld. He’s been around long enough to see history repeat itself—again and again—so he has a certain passive calm about life developments that we under-the-one-century-mark adolescents don’t. That’s reflected in his character. Because of that, sometimes he’ll share a little of his thought processes, not only to help readers empathize, but to give them an interesting twist in a mind we don’t entirely understand (again, here’s where the mental yoga helps, tapping into the cosmic mysteries of the universe, or—ahem— just making stuff up).

This is an argument Mikhael is having with a Light Guardian, Derek Stormwind (who was the hero of the first book in the series, Something About Witches).

“You even the scales for the Light, Derek. I do it for the Dark. It may be for the same goal, but it’s from different sides. I work from the shadows, you work in the light of the sun.”

Mikhael’s gaze shifted. Derek turned to see Ruby and Raina standing there. They knew them too well, apparently. Ruby’s face was tight with concern, but it was to Raina Mikhael’s attention went, knowing she’d heard his last statement. He couldn’t tell much from her expression, but she was listening. Waiting.

He came back to Derek. “When a civilization becomes so prosperous it gets lazy and falls into entitlement, decadence, apathy and inertia, my job is to push them into brutality and hardship to accelerate change, bring the scales back to rights. You may save a child to ward off evil; I will cause its death for the same purpose.”

He heard Ruby’s indrawn breath, but he wouldn’t look toward either woman, not now. “Without struggle, there is no character and strength. But some force has to provide that adversity. We work for the same goal, but on sides that can never be reconciled.”

“I would have taken the thirteenth straw.”

“Yes, you would have. And it would have been the wrong thing to do. I was the right person for the job.”

But then, after we introduce this hard-to-understand side of Mikhael, we also have Raina reflecting on getting closer to him, something we understand a little better:

He’d been quiet since his one-on-one with Derek. They drove back to Sweet Dreams, but when they reached the driveway entrance, she wanted to walk, so they left the car. As Raina glanced over her shoulder, she saw it shimmer and disappear. Back to the Underworld garage. Thinking about the train set, she wondered what other things Mikhael had in that cache deep in the Earth. An old toy from his youth, a picture of his mother, all indications of what he was, other than a Dark Guardian.

She knew the dangers of this kind of thinking. People were many layers, yes, but there was always one main layer to them, and she’d seen plenty of women engage in disastrous relationships by rationalizing away that one layer, giving too much weight to the less important ones. Mikhael had made it clear. He’d decided centuries ago to be a Dark Guardian, and he had no regrets or doubts in that choice. Perhaps he’d struggled with ostracism from friends like Derek, or the terrible things he’d had to do, but his one overriding layer was Dark Guardian.
Except for the unexpected bomb drop in the alley, she’d noticed he rarely talked about the specifics of what he did, as if he knew no one wanted to know. It must be odd not to talk about the thing that dominated his waking hours. And he’d said he had a lot of waking hours.

While she wasn’t sure of his motives toward her, she was pretty sure he wanted to continue their . . . whatever their relationship was, after his business with Isaac was concluded. So if she wanted him to be a part of her life, stopping by for croissants or to share her bed, she had to be willing to understand more about that main layer.
You may save a child to ward off evil; I will cause its death . . . Did she want to know more?
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So this is an example of what I noted earlier – we may react to things differently, but the primitive emotions that drive us all—humans as well as otherworldly beings—rarely change. So writing a paranormal being is alabout keeping the differences interesting, but pinpointing the similar needs, creating a believable mix. That’s the challenge and adventure, and what keeps us coming back to paranormals.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I’ve never been romanced, Mikhael.” She allowed herself a tight smile. She’d played plenty of sensual games, understood the lines and boundaries of them.  “But I’m certainly not romance material, and neither are you. I want to know what you think this is.”

“No male has ever romanced you?”

The truth stung a little, but she lifted her chin. “I’ve had a lot of sex, Mikhael. No relationships.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” He gave her a direct look. “No woman has ever inspired me to walk with her in the rain, or crush peanuts for her sundae. Whether or not we’re romance material—your words, not mine—why shouldn’t we be allowed, if only for a few days, what so many others have? Life is short, whether you live one year or a thousand.”
Thanks for letting me be here today!  

***Leave a comment or question and your email address, and we’ll choose one person to win the book-of-their-choice in print or digital from my available titles.***

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We will leave this one to be easy....
No hoops, no rings of fire to jump through...

Just comment/question and email address!!!

Now, I will run this giveaway till...

Saturday, May 19th
Winner will be posted on Sunday, May 20th
(My time of choosing... and I will email winner as well)

Website: www.storywitch.com
Fan forum: www.jwhconnection.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JoeyWHillAuthor
Twitter: JoeyWHill

And remember... Always keep it Dirty, Smutty & Hussy!