L. j. Writes

An Interview with McKenna Fin

2012-01-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

Lifethread has been nominated for the Reviewer's Choice Award!

To vote, click on the above badge. Thanks!

Note: To vote you actually have to send them an email with your choices listed in the email.

To celebrate this occasion, I'm republishing an interview with McKenna Fin, the heroine of Lifethread. Aimee Laine, author of Little White Lies, interviewed McKenna and here are the results.

McKenna Fin (the main character in Lifethread by L.j. Charles) offered to meet me for an interview anywhere I chose. I’ve picked a crowded bookstore so that I have some sort of assurance of being able to walk out of it … alive. Yes, I value my lifethread just that much.

She’s come today dressed in her favorite outfit: blue jeans, a long-sleeved black t-shirt, and her Doc Martens, and is sitting across from me, poised on the edge of the couch, a book titled Knife Skills, Illustrated in her hand. I’m already starting to wonder if I should hold this interview at all! Think young and dangerous. What if I ask the wrong question?

Well … here goes.

Aimee: So—coughs into hand—MacKenna Fin. Fifty years in high school. That must hurt. I kind of liked high school, but 50 years is a bit much. Or do you just love it?

MacKenna: The thing is, Ms. Laine, I’m not allowed to talk about my life, or you know, I’ll never actually have one. She points the edge of the book at me and eyes the distance between us. It’s odd that you know about my 50-year history in high school. No one knows that except…oh, no. Who’ve you been talking to?

Aimee: I hear … stuff … wherever. Rumor has it, you’re kinda in love with this Nathan Quinn guy. Don’t you think that’s a little—taps temple— stupid?

McKenna: She jumps off the couch, towering over me. You know, not a smart thing to refer to a Fated priestess as stupid. Just sayin’.

Aimee: Okay, you’re right. My apologies. Let’s get back to Nathan. No, let’s talk about Fate. The Fates, in particular … your ‘Fate’. You work for one of them. Do you have to get her coffee? Take notes for her? How does that work for you?

McKenna: It’s nothing like that. She shrugs before settling back on the edge of the couch. You’re really not supposed to know about us priestess types. The Fates, yes. Everyone knows about them, and, well, I shouldn’t say anything, but since you’re not asking about Nathan…no coffee, no notes. It’s more like a save the world kind of job. Coffee would be good though. Smells like hazelnut cream in here.

Aimee: I sniff the room. I’d say it smells more like burnt coffee. Too bad we didn’t pick a Starbucks—Insert self-conscious laugh—So, what can you tell me about the Fates? If I’m not supposed to know about you, nor ask about you, let’s go up a level in the mythological hierarchy of life. Give me one good thing about the fates. Yours in particular.

McKenna: My Fate is Atropos. She’s responsible for cutting lifethreads—ending human life. Scary, but not really. Atropos is all about balance and keeping things orderly. Thing is, she’s the most…ah, intimidating of the Fates. Probably has to do with the scissors, but she’s almost always the spokes-fate when us priestess types are called before the tribunal. Huh. Shouldn’t have mentioned that. She takes out her blade and caresses the flat, glowing surface.

Aimee: See why we’re in this coffee shop? Luckily people are milling about so I’m hoping if this chick across from me gets any fiestier, I can run. Uh, okay. No more mention of … your role. C’mon though, you gotta tell me why after all this time you’d fall in love with a human. I mean, aren’t there thousands of other fish in the sea? Or does that show my age?

McKenna: She twirls hair around finger. Yeah. Your age is definitely showing, but seriously, Nathan is…different. And humanity is priceless. There just isn’t anything more special than humanity, well, other than my sisters and Nathan, and stuff. She curls back corner of the couch. Nathan is awesome. He gets me. Enough said.

Aimee: I lean forward all serious like. If humanity is the most special thing around, why do you let anyone snip lifethreads at all?

McKenna: Balance. You’re a grown up. You should know this. Life is a circle and the severing of lifethreads allows the circle to flow. Really, if you don’t get it by now, you may never understand. Even the energy from demon lifethreads is necessary to maintain the balance. I just learned that, though, so I don’t expect you to know about it. Oh, and another thing. She scoots to edge of couch. No one let’s Atropos do anything. Not even Zeus is crazy enough to challenge…oops. Probably it’s time for me to go.

Aimee: I wave my hands in the air. Fine, fine. Mums the word on the whole Atropos, priestess, Zeus, life snipper gig you got goin’ on. I personally think Zeus is a bit of a jokster myself. Why else would he create so many contradictions? But I digress …

McKenna: Hmmm. She leans forward to whisper. You’re right, but I wouldn’t say that where people can hear you. You never know who’s listening.

Aimee: So … leave us with one piece of advice on cross-species relationships. Give us something good we can chew on.

McKenna: She’s got a big grin now. I’m going to earn my humanity, so Nathan and I will have a normal, human relationship. Sort of. There will always be the…odd twists, but you asked for something to chew on. Respect. For the whole cross species thing to work, you really need to respect each other. Like with me and my sisters. We all have different, um, gifts, but we love each other so we’re tolerant of the stuff we don’t understand. Mostly. I really gotta go.

Aimee: She stands and leaves before I can get another word in. I watch her saunter out and think, oh to be that young again … then again, she’s technically older than me. Ha! I’d stick out my tongue at her, but … well … she’s probably see it and I’d be doomed.

Reader's Choice Award VOTE

The Book Lover's Buffet - A Holiday Delight

2011-12-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

http://bookloversbuffet.com/

Here we are between Thanksgiving and Christmas when every moment of our lives is filled with to-do lists, hustle, and bustle. By the end of this year I will have released six books. Well, five for sure. I'm working on the sixth right now. It's been a whirlwind and I have so much to be thankful for.

I'd like to share some of the goodness of my year with you. One of the independent writing groups I belong to has put together a fantastic website that features many of our books -- and all are for sale at 99 cents.

If you have an eReader, smartphone, or computer, you can take advantage of this event with books from every genre. Please stop by and visit.

HAPPY SHOPPING

I'll be back around Christmas with some pictures of the winter wonderland that is North Dakota. And just in case you're wondering--yes, it is snowing right now!

L. j.

Creation Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Smashwords

2011-11-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

Finally.

Yes, I know it's several months late, but the story had to be just right. And my editor had to play with it. And then there were revisions, *sigh*. And since excuses are totally useless...here's a Six Sentence Snippet:

Not how I wanted my sisters to find out. Why did I have to be such a ninnyhammer and not tell them as soon as the Fates sent us to North Carolina? Stupid. My stomach hollowed out with guilt. “I…yeah, I did. Gabriel is mine.”

And a Seven Sentence Snippet (because I couldn't decide which one to share):

I splashed my face with cold water a few times and finally got my voice back. “What did she mean about a gift for Clotho? We don’t give the Fates stuff.”

“Oh, no. Did I hear that right? This is about the were-cat?” McKenna had frozen part way through the bathroom door, her questions flapping in the breeze with chilling precision.

Creation is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

North Dakota: The Bakken Oil Fields

2011-10-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

Last week The Hubby and I took a drive out to the Bakken fields, and I thought I'd share a little of North Dakota with you...since most of you won't be coming to visit me!

This is a functioning oil well--for those of you who haven't seen one.

And this is what it looks like when they're digging an oil well.

The Hubby tells me this is natural gas they're burning off, and he read recently that they're trying to find a way to use the energy instead of simply burning it. That would be good.

And then there are the people, the many, many people who have flocked to ND to work in fields. There are no places to live, so they've created temporary housing affectionately called Man Camps. Not a pleasant way to live, but surely there's a book or two lurking in a Man Camp. *Grin*

But North Dakota isn't JUST about oil. No, we grow wheat here, too. And other stuff.

And there are wild flowers.

Notice I'm not commenting on the snow. The ice. Or the bitter wind.

Hope you enjoyed this brief look at my home. Does it look anything like where you live? And about those Man Camps...any good story lines come to mind?

Iceland

2011-10-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Starkly Beautiful - Icy Cold

Reykjavik, Iceland

In Reykjavik we skipped the city and went for a delightful and long walk in one of their national parks.

Rock formations...

And waterfalls...

There was lunch with homemade leek soup and several things I didn’t recognize, and then a walk through another park. This one with hot springs and geysers.

and on to djupivogur

Again we skipped the city in favor of an adventure. This time in 4-wheel drive vans with huge tires - a good thing considering we drove through a few streams, um, rivers actually, and I was in the very back seat. It was a bit of a bumpy ride.

And that was Iceland...

A Sneak Peek ~ Lifethread: Creation

2011-10-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

I ran through several possibilities for this blog post and finally decided to break all the rules and allow my heroine, Shea Ang, from Lifethread: Creation to have a short chat with a green-eyed demon.

The deal is that Shea is apprenticed to the Fate Clotho and Clotho (who’s responsible for creating all life forms) has given Shea the unfortunate and impossible task of creating a green-eyed demon. These demons are a mutation and not only turn teens into demons, but are starting to turn adults as well. No one is safe.

“So, Shea, what do you think? Are you interested in chatting with one of the “greens?”

She stuffs her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and glares at me. “Demons can’t talk.”

“They can if I say so. I’m the author.”

“Huh. Arrogant, much?” She runs the tip of her tongue along her top lip. “But, yeah, sure if it’ll help get me out of this mess you’ve created. I mean, seriously, having Clotho give me an impossible task. What were you thinking?”

“Never mind about that. Here’s the demon now.”

A large cat-like creature prances into the room, hunkers down sphinx-like on the floor between us, and growls.

Shea takes a step back, squinting at it. “I could just un-create it. That’d be a whole lot more fun than listening to it growl.”

The demon’s ears twitch in Shea’s direction and a freaky, rough purr rumbles from deep in its throat. “No, you can’t. Not unless you travel to the Time Before Time and undo the pattern of our original creation.”

“Geezo freak-ing Pete, it talks.”

I nod and quickly write out some notes on her reaction so I can add them to the manuscript.

She circles the demon, creeping around it, her violet eyes shadowing to gray. “You are an abomination. Even demonkind doesn’t recognize you as one of their own, and—listen up ‘cause this is the biggie—I’m going to un-create you. And ‘cause this is my story, I get to win.”

The demon arches its back, levers up to sitting, and slaps its tail against the tile floor. Hard. “Silly girl. Without me you wouldn’t have a story. I am the villain. A much more important role than—”

“Spiffle. Just tell me the quickest way to un-create you and I’ll get on with it. I have a bunch of kids to protect. It’s simple really, your basic save-the-world deal. And I get to hang with Gabe as soon as I eliminate your kind.”

“Gabriel. Yes, we know of him.” The demon’s tongue does an exact imitation of Shea’s earlier move. “Tasty. I’d like to sink my teeth into that one and finish turning him into who he’s supposed to be.”

“Gabriel.” Shea bunches her fists oh her hips. “Is. Mine.”

The demon growls from the bottom of its chest and the room shakes. “No. He was born to become one of us.”

The small part of Shea that is demon leaps to the surface and her eyes flash red.

I grab my eraser and scrub the words from the tablet I’d been writing on. Never again will I forget the cardinal rule that Demons. Don’t. Talk.