Why a Necromancer?
I
often ask myself that question because I never thought my first paranormal
story would involve zombies and demons. When I’m asked about my protagonist by
family or friends, I’m not always sure how to respond without sounding more
bizarre than they already think I am J
I
have a five year old son and two older step kids, and wonder, what would my
younger son think? He’s already discovered zombies, and they still scare,
somewhat fascinate him.
Ultimately,
my necromancer, Ruby, started speaking to me, and what really fascinated me was
this story about a supernatural individual who has this very dark power, and
the idea of exploring her journey intrigued me. She’s not a kick-ass vampire.
Her strengths lie elsewhere. She’s seen lots of tragedy, yet she perseveres and
values her independence, her own sense of identity beyond the supernatural
community. To that end, I wanted to ground her character, make her somewhat
relatable. She’s a professor. How does the necromancer power affect her professional
career? Her love life? Her approach up until the events of the book was to
basically disavow her supernatural side. But things change, as they always do,
and once she becomes embroiled in supernatural affairs, she faces some
difficult decisions.
I also
enjoyed writing about her necromancer power, and knew necromancers could
reanimate people, make zombies, but I hadn’t read a whole lot about them. I’d
encountered a couple of minor necromancer characters in a couple of urban
fantasy books. Neither went into much detail about the mythology for
necromancers, so once the idea struck, I became fascinated with researching
necromancers and developing my own mythology.
In
reviewing literature, Greek mythology, and even gaming, necromancers have the
ability to bring to dead back to life, but there are multiple classes of the
undead. This is an important distinction for my Necromancer Books. At times,
Ruby simply reanimates a corpse to get information, then puts it back down, or
she makes zombies or revenants. Both are fun to write. Revenants are
interesting in that they are basically zombies with their soul restored. They come alive with their minds and emotions
intact and can be powerful and, of course, struggle with an insatiable appetite
for flesh. The revenant that Ruby creates is Adam, a slain witch. The best part with Adam’s
character was exploring how he dealt with returning to life and realizing he
was now a nightmarish creature. He was pretty pissed at Ruby, and controlling
him proved to be quite a test of her power.
Some
other interesting necromancer abilities I’ve come across include: ability to
communicate with spirits, travel to the underworld, curse or hex the living,
extracting disease from the dead and inflicting them on the living, even remove
living souls. Necromancers have created undead armies, and at times, have
joined the ranks of the undead themselves, which leads me to my next point. In
much of the gaming world and movies, necromancers are bad, which I get.
Wielding the power of the dead probably warps a person.
The Hobbit includes the necromancer who
Gandalf battles and turns out to be Sauron. One of my favorite necromancers is
Evil Ash from the Army of Darkness movie. Evil Ash himself rises from the dead
and raises an army of “deadites”. And I can’t discuss necromancers in movies
without mentioning Re-Animator. I don’t plan on writing any scenes with
reanimated, decapitated heads, because you just can’t top Re-Animator! Their
take on reanimation was interesting in that Herbert West is a scientist who
invents a serum to bring the dead back to life. (Re-Animator was based on the
H.P. Lovecraft story titled simply, Herbert
West-Reanimator.)
All
of this leads to the best part of Ruby’s character and why she spoke to me so
strongly. How does she use her power for good without losing her humanity? Not
easily. Her power is almost a character unto itself. It sometimes urges her to
use it in ways she knows is wrong, and when she does use her power, it gives
her a rush similar to a drug induced high. In my mythology, many necromancers
turned evil, succumbed to the temptation to use their power in negative ways.
Ruby
is going to stumble quite a bit and be tempted by the “dark side”. But it’s
that struggle and how she transcends it, that makes for a stronger heroine and
more interesting character.
The Necromancer’s Seduction
The Necromancer Series, Book One
Mimi Sebastian
Mimi Sebastian
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: ImaJinn Books
Cover Artist: Patricia Lazarus
Book Description:
She has never feared the walking dead. It’s the power required to reanimate the dead that startles her, seduces her. The power that dwells inside her…and is growing.
For Professor Ruby Montagne, being a necromancer has brought her nothing but heartache, and she walked away from that part of her life long ago. However, her quiet existence in San Francisco is shattered when she stumbles upon the body of a slain witch, and the supernatural community insists she transform him into a revenant to track the killer. But his murder was just the beginning, and Ruby soon realizes that the stakes are higher than anyone can imagine—and that revenants have nasty minds of their own.
Now demonic creatures have escaped into the human world, and zombies once again walk the streets. For humanity’s sake, Ruby forms an unlikely alliance with a witch, a zombie, and Ewan March, a demon warrior who sets her senses on fire.
She’s always distrusted demons and Ewan is no exception, but circumstances push them closer together, and Ruby not only finds it harder to resist him, she isn’t sure she even wants to. But she suspects his job of patrolling the portal separating humans and demons conceals a dark and deadly past that may consume them both.
With events spiraling out of control, Ruby unravels a plot that not only threatens the human and demon realms, but puts Ruby’s very soul in jeopardy. Because when the dead walk, no one is safe. Especially Ruby.
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/sCnfq9Se7bU
About the Author:
Noemi Ghirghi writes as Mimi Sebastian and raised herself on books and the strange and unusual with an unhealthy dose of comics and Scooby Doo. Loving angst-filled romance thrown in the mix, she decided to blend all those elements in a steamy mix in her first Urban Fantasy series, the Necromancer Books. The first book, The Necromancer’s Seduction, debuts July 15, 2013, with ImaJinn Books.
Noemi spent two years in the Ivory Coast with the Peace Corps and loves to introduce tid-bits from her experiences in her writing. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA. A transplant from the beaches of Florida, Noemi now wanders the desert in Phoenix, AZ, and attempts to balance writing with a day career, fantastic family, and household diva: her Amazon parrot.
1 comment:
Hi Wenona,
Thanks for hosting me on your blog today!
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