Welcome again, Shiloh!

Through the Veil, your newest release, has a crossover appeal—romance and a mix of science fiction/urban fantasy/paranormal flavor. You have said that you have a hard time labeling this novel, and that it was very difficult for you to write it. If you had to describe, in ten words or less, the ideal reader/target audience for this book, what would those words be?

(You gave me a word count-that’s cheating… and words in parenthesis don’t count) Probably paranormal romance readers and maybe urban fantasy readers.

You’ve said that your husband inspired this story, could you share what you mean by this?

He did. 😀

Okay, so I bruise easy. Always have. There is no medical reason for it… I just bruise easy. And I’m a klutz, so I pick up new bruises all the time.

One morning, I woke up and my husband noticed this huge bruise on my hip. He sighs, shakes his head and says, “People are going to think I beat you.”

A little while later, he comes up and tells me, “You need to write a book about this woman who wakes up with all these bruises and she can’t figure out why. Turns out she’s being sucked into another world while she’s sleeping and she’s fighting a war there.”

I think… hmmmm… I can do that. And I did. It just took a few years. 😀

Why was this novel so hard to write for you? Was it the world building, i.e. keeping the internal consistency of this universe’s rules while allowing for plot twists, etc.?

It’s more complex. I don’t know if it was so much the world building, although that takes time. I think since I have to do some world building my paranormals, I work that it almost automatically, but this book had layers, shades of gray, shades of right and wrong. And a couple of extra stubborn characters.

Being as I am spoiler-phobic, I find it quite difficult to ask questions about the plot and the characters that, from my perspective, wouldn’t reveal too much too early, so the following questions are perhaps a bit too general—please do feel free to be more specific if and when it suits you.

Your world building in Through the Veil is really good and very complex—which is for me is as essential as good characterization, for me, when reading any alternative universe/fantasy story. Did you have to keep some sort of chart or such like for tracking different beings, their abilities, habitats, etc.?

When I first started the book, no. But I started it originally maybe three years ago and then set it aside. Just wasn’t ready to work on it yet.

At that point, the ‘main’ bad guy in the story wasn’t people, but the demon races.

When I got back to it, I decided it would be a good idea to make notes of the demon races just to keep them straight in my head, physical descriptions, their strengths, weaknesses, etc. Once the story got rolling, I didn’t need the notes much, but I left them in there in case my editor thought it would be useful. Ended up being the glossary found at the beginning of the book.

Charts are too organized for me… even the word makes me break out in hives. Got any Benadryl? 😉 (A: I’m not the only one! *happy dancing*)

The history and the changing politics in Anqar have major influence on the events in Through the Veil. Did you keep a timeline for both Ishtan and Anqar?

No. That I kept straight in my head.

Kalen is both reluctant to lead and very effective at it—how do you feel about this dichotomy in his personality? (more…)