Ultimate Fiction : Interview with author Alys B. Cohen

Me: Where did you get the idea for your book?

Alys: A couple years ago I had a conversation with a friend who was gushing about how ideal a character in a popular book was. She wasn’t able to see the abusive aspects of his behavior, and just parroted the popular lines about how he broke in to watch her sleep because he couldn’t bear to be away from her, and how sweet that was, and how he only tried controlling her because he loved her. Having been with someone like this, it alarmed me how many women are defending as romantic the very behavior that should never be accepted, and that indicates abuse. I don’t want young women and teens to only have books about abuse being painted as the ideal.

I think most of us have heard the line (and I’m paraphrasing since there’s no one official way to say it), “If you don’t like something, do it better, and if you can’t do it at all, then shut up about it.” Well, after getting off a chat with her, I thought of this. Without saying anything to my sweetheart, I grabbed the keys to my truck, went to the store, bought a bunch of index cards, notebooks, pens, and a binder, went home, sat on my bed, and started creating characters.

Me: Who are your favorite characters in your book and why?

Alys: I’m going to skip why I love the main characters. Too predictable.

Emma and Sunil were in the very first chapter of the very first draft. These two are married in every aspect but the legal, and have been for a long time. Their relationship has been tested over a very long period of time. Their relationship predates civil rights and the legality of interracial relationships, but that story is for the backstory miniseries I have in mind. Still, in the Sacred Blood trilogy itself you see their relationship is a very tender one, one full of love and support.

Sunil is the unofficial second-in-charge in the family, after Gabrielle (the oldest member of it), even though he was the fourth to join. In his mortal life, he was a practitioner of Vajrayana, and some elements of his faith are evident. He exudes calmness, never raises his voice, promotes peace, forgiveness, compromise, and acceptance, and doesn’t relish eating meat, though it is necessary for him, and cherishes the pursuit of new knowledge on a level that makes it as vital to him as breathing. He is the perfect support for Emma, who suffered a great injustice that nearly cost her her life.

Through her time, Emma hasn’t managed to move past what happened to her. You can read about some of that in Sacred Honor. She is a kind soul who is deeply dedicated to her husband, and tries to help whenever she can. But she panics at the thought of anyone outside their circle of trust knowing the truth about them.

Emma’s relationship with Sunil seems a bit old-fashioned by today’s standards. He is leader in it, though Emma actually has equal say, when she chooses to use it.

Me: What themes does your book present?

Alys: Learning to step outside of one’s established comfort zone is a big theme. Staying with what is comfortable, which is often simply when is known, isn’t always a good thing, especially that zone is harmful. Juliette had to do this to overcome the oppression she had lived with, and to escape abuse.

The desire and will to survive are driving themes, for not only Juliette, but all the protagonists, even when their ways of trying to do so don’t make sense when only the surface is viewed.

Me: How many books do you have in this series?

Alys: So far only Sacred Blood is complete and available. Sacred Honor and Sacred Heart are both in first draft-mode. I also have an 8-book novella miniseries planned, one each for Juliette, Tristan, and the other six in the family, for their stories before this trilogy and before meeting each other. I’m also tossing around the idea of a larger universe for them.

Me: What makes you choose to write fantasy?

Alys: I’ve got two reasons. The first is that, because I wrote this trilogy in response to abusing relationships being peddled to readers of supernatural books as the ideal, I needed an inlet into that reading demographic.

The second may give a bit of a spoiler. Let’s just say that I needed a lack of police involvement to be reasonable. Humans call the police if a human relative is missing without a trace for an extended period of time. Supernatural beings do not.

Me: What authors influence your writing?

Alys: I try to push against being influenced because I want my writing style to be my own, but am probably the most influenced by JK Rowling anyway. I like how she created a large world right under the noses of humans, though there isn’t a way to get to a version of Diagon Alley in my series!

If anything, I think that I’ve been anti-influenced more than anything, by writers whose books I strongly dislike, and by several in-depth critical reviews I’ve read that pick apart problems in some well-known books.

Me: Why do you think fantasy books are so popular?

Alys: A lot of people who like to read enjoy a chance to take a mental break from their daily lives. I’ve noticed, at least among people I’ve had chats with about this, that books that take place in the real world with non-supernatural characters can leave them feeling their own lives are lacking. Why do those characters have the luck that earned them comfort and riches, or got them perfect health and beauty and admiration of all? It’s difficult to compare your own life to a supernatural character’s and to feel like yours is lacking when those characters have many more years on their side, or abilities foresee the future, and it’s just plain accepted that most supernatural beings are beautiful and attractive. Fantasy books elevate us from subconsciously comparing our lives against those in a book, to not feeling that need to do so so strongly, and to just join in and enjoy it.

And to bring up a couple forbidden-by-society topics, the religion and politics that divide our real world’s societies can’t affect the characters in fantasy stories so much, if at all. Read Nora Roberts’ Dream trilogy, and you can feel how taxes come April are going to be a drag. Characters in fantasy books, even if they’re hidden in our world, just plain don’t have to deal with the aggravating things we have to deal with. Why would supernatural characters debate Democrat versus Republican policy if they have their own supernatural governments to deal with, with problems we don’t have to worry about?

Me: How many books have you written?

If we only count books since I’ve decided to seriously pursue writing, then I’ve completed one and have two others as first drafts. If we count over the course of my lifetime, then about 15 novels, one medical memoir, and about two dozen children’s books that I also illustrated. Some of those were when I was very young though, and probably wouldn’t count.

Me: Where do you see the fantasy book market 10 years from now?

Alys: I see it being the favored genre. Where once most fantasy books featured the same few beings, mostly vampires, zombies, and werewolves, readers and writers are starting to expand out into lesser-known creatures, and some that are known, but have been ignored, such as angels. Writers are also stretching accepted supernatural canon in new ways, further expanding what can happen.

I think the epic fantasy market will remain a bit of a niche market, as it has been for a long time. Tolkien is a bit of an anomaly with how his epic fantasies went mainstream.

Me: What makes your book different from other fantasy books?

Alys: Other fantasy books tend to give the feeling being in their world at all times, at least once that world is introduced. Harry Potter, aside from a couple chapters early on in the first book, was submerged in the wizarding world, and once back in the muggle world, was still in the wizarding world. Eowyn was in Middle Earth with absolutely no human world as we know it. Bella Swan was a human who, while she lived in Washington State with her human father and attended human high school, was so busy in the supernatural world with vampires and humans that it felt like she only occasionally visited our world.

However Juliette, Tristan, and the rest of his family, live firmly in the real world, despite only one of them being human. There is no magic or magical ability giving them the ability to drive “safely” at 200MPH or to fly over cities. They are subject to our laws. You can’t tell who is supernatural or not by touching them, poking them with sticks to see if they bleed, or seeing how many sets of chromosomes they have. The supernatural characters are very human.

Juliette and the rest visit the supernatural/fantasy world instead of occasionally stepping out of it. One experienced, that other world that is not seen as highly desirable. Unlike Bella and Harry, but similar to Elena (Vampire Diaries), Juliette does not want to join it, nor does she want to leave behind her human life, despite its struggles. In fact, she embraces the challenges ahead, even when given an option most people would be quick to accept. To her, being a plain ol’ human is revered. Humanity is good. Living and dying are part of life, and they are good. Our world, with all its flaws, is good.

Another huge difference is how this book ends, which not only takes this book firmly out of the realm of romance, but is unlike any other fantasy book I’ve come across. I’m not even going to hint at what I mean.

Excerpt from Sacred Blood

Seeking answers, Juliette grabbed the book still beside her and opened to a painting on canvas mounded to the page. The man appeared slightly younger than Tristan, wearing a white cravat and vest and a fine black frock coat. He sat in front of an elaborate oriental tapestry. The year written beneath had faded to a deep tobacco color: 1814. The detailing in the portrait indicated an artist’s skill, and must have cost a small fortune.
She turned the page to an ink drawing and a tin photograph, dated 1839 and 1850. The paint on his emerald tie and cream vest had discolored in spots, though the coat was still dark and even. The fabric flared from his hips down and matched his top hat. In the photographic portrait to its right, he sat on a plush chair in a studio, leaning against a table, his pinstriped suit fit close. In his hand he held a pocket watch Juliette recognized as the one he always carried with him. She studied his face, ignoring the large, fake sideburns he wore. His eyes stared at the photographer with a fierce intensity, almost as if staring through time directly at her.
Reluctant to leave the page, she flipped to the back pages of 20^th-century photographs. Most of them also had other members of Tristan's family. So many familiar faces at various points in history forced her to believe Emma had told some truth. Nothing in her world made sense anymore.