My Take on the Myth

I’ve mentioned before, Gate of Myth and Power is my loose interpretation of the Hades and Persephone myth. (If you want to hear my sarcasm infused summary of the myth, check out this blog post!) So today I thought we could go over some similarities!

To start it out, we have some characters who were inspired by Greek mythology figures frequently associated with Hades and Persephone. Ker is short for Kerberos, the three headed hound of Hades. (As I stated in her character profile, I thought I was sooooooo funny when I decided to make a werewolf Kerberos.) Charon is the name of the ferryman of Hades, which is why he is the group’s designated driver and uses the alias of “Mr. Ferryman”. And then across the street you’ve got the three uncles who were my wink-and-you’ll-miss-it tip of the hat to the three fates.

On Chloe’s side, Ms. Booker was my take on the Greek goddess Hecate, who served as Persephone’s companion once her time-share lifestyle between Demeter and Hades was figured out. Hecate also knew that Persephone had been kidnapped, which was perfect because I wanted Chloe to get support from someone outside of Noctus’s inner circle.

Pat and Joy are my answer to Demeter. I decided to split the familial role into two people and make them siblings instead of her parents because I haven’t had a chance to show a good sibling relationship yet in the Magiford world, and I felt like Leila’s books already covered great parental relationships. I also decided siblings would be better because they could be pushy and bossy, but they’d more easily back down when Chloe grew as a person, whereas a parent as domineering as Demeter was, wouldn’t have. I already knew I had plenty of other tension in the book, so I didn’t want to launch a war between Chloe and her adopted family, so Pat and Joy were the perfect solution.

Chloe and Noctus’s roles are a little more self explanatory. Noctus kidnaps an unwilling Chloe just like Hades snatched Persephone, however, because Noctus believes Chloe is a cat, the relationship starts with a healthier foundation, even though Chloe is still horrified with her unintentional captive-hood like Persephone was, and Noctus is absolutely chuffed much the same way Hades was. (Yes, Noctus was happy about his new pet, not his captive wife, but, hey, same feelings, less toxic relationship!)

Noctus, of course, is a king, and I made him a king over a domain, much the same way Hades was. There are other elven royal families as we now know–CoughSHILOHcough–but Noctus rules over Calor Villa, and his family used their powers in a way that made other elves consider their magic to be a sort of death magic. Moreover, the required secrecy for Calor Villa’s survival was able to give my story the same “trapped” feel as Hades’ underworld kingdom, since it had a strict “no return” policy.

Instead of using food to cement Chloe to Noctus’s side–something that would have been a bit harder considering Chloe, unlike Persephone, HAD to eat–I decided to use the cat collar. Chloe’s collar with its three pomegranate red jewels is my ode to the pomegranate seeds Persephone ate. But making the tie be a physical thing that could be removed had the added bonus of making Chloe’s and Noctus’s relationship truly mutual–something that I think Persephone and Hades also had as the chance that Persephone didn’t know what consuming the pomegranates would do was really, really low.

Jumping ahead in the story, King’s Shadow is also where you really see Pat and Joy’s roles as “Demeter” move front and center. They are the reason why Chloe has to leave, just as Demeter is why Persephone leaves. Though I swapped it from “Demeter refuses to let things grow and people are dying unless Persephone comes back” to “Pat and Joy are in mortal peril, and Chloe cares too much about them to wait any longer.” This was admittedly done just for my personal satisfaction. I like good family relationships, so I didn’t want this issue to fracture Chloe’s relationship with her siblings.

So if King’s Captive follows the story arc of Persephone’s kidnapping, and King’s Shadow represents the part of the myth where Persephone’s feelings for Hades change before she is forced to leave because of Demeter,  then that leaves us with King’s Queen representing Persephone’s return to Hades and his kingdom as his queen, which is mostly played out through Noctus’s arc with his people where he learns they want him to be happy, and they’re willing to go public for his sake.

Chloe’s arc is the frosting on the cake where she comes to trust in her own abilities, and learns to act despite her fear. She is rewarded for this growth with Destruction, who doesn’t have a tie to the original myth, but I did want to note that I decided to go with a scythe for Destruction as homage to the western idea of the grim reaper, since the Mors elves are considered to be the elves of death.

Whew, that was a lot to cover! What are your favorite parts about the Hades and Persephone myth that you like to see in retellings? Share in the comments down below! Until next time, thanks for reading!

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!