Character Profile: Chloe

It’s finally time to discuss the character who has made me want to eat donuts the whole time I was writing this series: Chloe! Important: character profile posts do contain spoilers! If you haven’t read the Gate of Myth and Power trilogy, I suggest you wait to read all character profiles until you finish!

Chloe

Chloe was a fun Magiford heroine to write because her basic instinct is to avoid conflict and fade into the background. Hazel, Leila, and Pip have much more brash personalities, where as Chloe is cautious and is the most in tune with the general well being of supernaturals in Magiford.

Chloe also provides our first look at what life is like for someone who doesn’t have power or connections. Hazel begins her journey powerless, but she still has her House and wizard family which makes her valuable. Leila is a queen, and Pip is a hunter raised by wolves. All of them are able to have some measure of independence and a base amount of confidence that makes them willing to attempt dangerous things.

Chloe, being entirely alone with only her human family—who she’s terrified of harming—fighting for her, is in a very different spot. She spends most of her life in Magiford afraid and running—from everyone.

She has safe spots, and knows where she can turn into a cat and blend in. She has the entire city scoped out, not because she’s paranoid, but because she’s had to make escaping fae and other supernaturals a part of her life.

Chloe is eternally stressed out, and instead being proactive—like most of my heroines—she’s very reactive in that she’s constantly being forced to react to those who would harm her out of sheer pettiness and spite.

And yet, because Chloe is powerless, she has more compassion and more understanding of how her actions can affect others. She’s more thoughtful, and so when she realizes that her presence is endangering the elves, who—news flash—are elves and would be wholly capable of dealing with the tracker if he had succeeded in breaking in, she still chooses to run in an attempt to save them, because she never wants her mess to harm another.

Chloe’s entire character arc can easily be summed up in a sentence: Bravery in spite of fear. But what was extra fun about her arc is that it effected her entire life, including her relationship with her human family, and the way she handles Destruction at the end of the series.

Noctus is right, Destruction (Aka: Truck) absolutely favors Chloe and is having a blast. However, he was only able to reach her once Chloe had the necessary confidence. Once the relationship was forged, Chloe’s kind temperament took over, and thus began a new era for Destruction, one in which he’s treated more like an eccentric friend than a weapon capable of destroying buildings.

Chloe’s relationship with Truck is something that will continue to grow in future series, but for now we can rest in the hilarious puzzle that Chloe is now the strongest supernatural in the Magiford world thanks to her powers and Truck, and yet no one will ever need to fear her because she’ll never leverage her powers the way she could. Her compassion and sensitive nature go far too deep for that, which is–perhaps–why Destruction loves her so much. Because to her, he’ll always be Truck, and never Destruction.

In conclusion, Chloe was a fun change of pace, a different kind of Persephone, and a unique kind of warrior Magiford didn’t know it needed! Thanks for reading, Champions, enjoy your day!

Audio Books: Pack of Dawn and Destiny

Do you like audio books? Then I have an announcement you are sure to love! The Pack of Dawn and Destiny series is now available as audio books on Amazon and Audible. The narrators for this series were Kira Fixx and Adam Verner. Both of them did a great job on all three books but let me just say that the accents Kira used for Tom and Dale in book #3 are SO perfect. I burst out laughing when I heard them because I couldn’t believe how accurate they are for the Northern Wisconsin/UP Michigan/Minnesota. (And if you listen to the book let me assure you that, YES we do talk like that!)

Book 1: Hunted

Book 2: United

Book 3: Fated

There will be more audio books coming in the future! In fact, to make it easier for you to track what is available in audio I created a new Audiobooks Archives section in the Books menu where I will add each book once it is available on Audible. If you want to know what audio book is in production right now, check out the coming soon page!

Audio books require a lot of time and money for me to produce so we’re only working on one project at a time, but my awesome audiobook team is continuing to work hard to make audiobooks possible!

Unfortunately, I can’t commit to a release date for the current audiobook project because with so many people working on it and  schedules involved, it can lead to unexpected delays. Plus, it takes Audible anywhere from a few days to 3 or 4 weeks to publish it once I submit it. And they don’t warn me it’s approved and going live, they just send me an email once it is already live. So if it seems like my audiobook announcements are very much: “Surprise! It’s here!” it’s because usually is a surprise to me as well!

That’s it for today, Champions! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new Audiobooks!

Magiford Universe: Calor Villa Elves

Today we’re going to talk about elves, and specifically their magic since it’s the very heart of this proud and powerful race.

To begin with, when I started thinking of the various magic systems I would need for the Magiford world, I wanted to make magic feel vastly different between the various species. Holy hills, did I sweat over the elves.

Firstly, I knew I needed my elves to be powerful, but I also knew from the get-go that I wanted them to believe that wizards were magic’s favorite, so I had to shape two distinctly different magics that both had huge possibilities while making it seem like human magic isn’t as flashy/cool as even fae magic.

Additionally, I knew I needed elf magic to have what they would view as a great weakness—which would explain why they coveted human magic so much.

I settled on making elven magic song/sound based instead of sensation based like it is for all our wizard/human heroines, and having their strength be greatly affected by their personal emotions. Sadness would put magic out of their reach, making it impossible to use, while anger would make magic almost uncontrollable and dangerous to the wielder.

This would be plenty to make the arrogant elves upset. First of all, because it meant they weren’t infallible and even the most powerful of elves could fall, and second of all because—as arrogant as they were—they would never like admitting they had feelings.

I also decided that elves would also be the only race that would have different types of magic, specifically the elven royal family specialties, like the Auron family’s tattoos/summoning, and the Mors’ ability to use super-powered artifacts like Destruction.

Believe it or not, the hardest part about the magical weapons was keeping them amazing and cool. I had to work desperately hard to keep any weapon transformations from being something closer to a Japanese anime magic girl transformation—a Japanese trope in which a high school aged girl has an object of some sort that makes her transform from her regular street clothes to a fantastical outfit that is basically her superhero identity. (I don’t know if time freezes or what during these transformations, or why no one recognizes the magic girl when she finishes the transformation even though 90% of the time she looks the same and is just wearing different clothes, that’s just part of the trope.)

We’re going to explore elven magic in future Magiford trilogies, but Noctus is a model example as he’s one of the very few powerful elves who isn’t also a raging ego-maniac, which means he’s an example of the best they can be. (Well…when he’s not wearing the silly magic restraints the Paragon insists he wear, that is.)

Noctus’s story also hints at the vast difference between the modern elves living in Calor Villa, and the historical elves that the rest of the supernatural community declared war against. While elves in history had highly specialized magic and considered themselves the rulers of Earth, Noctus’s elves are much more interested in living peacefully with the humans and avoiding supernaturals as much as possible.

Most of them don’t have the prejudices against Chloe being a shadow that the elves of yore would have, and while they’re inherently awed of their stoic ruler, they do care for him on a very personal basis. (Mostly because they’re very aware that without him to power the barriers of the city they’d be toast, but in general they’re aware of everything Noctus has done for the sake of magic.)

Noctus’s elves—as we will see in the future—are very different from their remaining brethren. But that’s because they rallied around Noctus, who chose to fight his family because he knew their plans were arrogant, greedy, and would cause destruction on a massive scale. Any of the elves who are more ruthless–like the elf who sent a spy to watch Noctus in book 1–didn’t choose to follow Noctus.

Even among the elves of Calor Villa, however, you can still see shadows of what they were–particularly in elves like Oleander, who has adapted to living with humans but is able to snap back to her training as a Mors soldier in an instant.

So far we’ve seen the best of elves, but in future trilogies we’re going to see the tragedy of their hubris and arrogance and how it has affected those who haven’t sided with Noctus. Which, wow, that sounds like a real downer, doesn’t it? But it is me, so I’ll tackle their issues with the same kind of humor and antics I face everything with! Besides, everyone now knows that Shiloh is the elf princess the Paragon is searching for, so we all also know it’s no accident that Noctus lives across the street from her…which might make you wonder how “accidental” it is that the uncles hang out on their porch and chat with her all the time live there, too…

Thanks for reading, Champions! Until next time, have a delightful day!