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The Protagonist Speaks

Interviews with the characters of your favourite books

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Dear readers, while we are taking a short break due to the holidays, I thought we’d include a recent full post done by our very first guest.

As part of Virtual FantasyCon (that awesome event where Felix and Murder In Absentia received an unprecedented five awards), we did a blog hunt. Readers jumped from blog to blog – and as an introduction to our corner of the blogosphere, Felix got a chance to speak for himself.

Of course, the bastard went ahead and started to curse me for making him work. Apparently he’s not big on doing self-promotions without immediate pay.

This post was originally published on Diane Riggins site. I’ll let you read Felix’s words for yourself.


Salve omnibus. My name is Spurius Vulpius Felix, sometimes known as Felix the Fox, but almost everybody calls me just Felix. It means Fortune’s Favourite in my language, though I’m afraid I am more like Furtuna’s favourite butt for practical jokes.

Actually, you may know my language as Latin. Years ago I visited your world, quite by accident. I came to a city named Rome, which was hauntingly similar to my own home in Egretia. Language, artists, philosophers all seemed familiar – yet there were some glaring differences. It was on a river, not on the seashore for one.

And everybody talked about gods and magic, but no one seemed to know how to properly practice it for another.

Anyway, I was approached by one of your world, one by the strange name of Assaph Mehr, and asked to collaborate on my memoirs. I would tell him my life’s stories, all the interesting mysteries I solved, and he promised to publish them to adoring fans in your world.

So far, the mentula hasn’t paid me a single denarius in royalties.

He says it’s a matter of time, that critical review has been exceptional, and that my memoirs are being sold all across your world. I would be paid, eventually, once he has finished repaying all the scribes and artists that have assisted him in the production of the scrolls. Or codices, as it appears your world prefers to bind sheets together, rather than stitch them in a scroll like civilised people.

So here I am, brought here to promote my own memoirs to increase my “fan base”, whatever that may be.

While I am here, I did check out what Assaph has been writing. Mostly true, just embellished a little. For example, there was this one case of a young woman who was haunted by the most dreadful dreams. It turns out that the cellars of her home were infested by lemurs. These are not, as Assaph says, cute and cuddly little creatures who “like to move it”, but rather than animus of unburied dead. They have the resemblance of what might have once been humans, but are now devoid of life and colour; grey shade of the dead.

As the story goes, I had to lure them away from the house and into the Mundus, the gates to the underworld. I distinctly remember that I told Assaph that I counted 44 of the evil spirits chasing me, but he insisted on making it fifty. He said that writing a story called Fifty Grey Shades would help him sell my memoirs, though I didn’t quite understand why.

So I will be here all week, always happy to answer questions and do everything to help Assaph increase our “fan base”. You can read the story about the Fifty Grey Shades on Assaph’s “website” (I won’t even pretend to understand what that is) here: https://egretia.com/short-stories/, together with a few more other short adventures. My first important case has been published as Murder In Absentia, and is available here: http://amzn.to/1XbfKN1. You can buy it for less than the price of a half-decent glass of wine (Assaph insists that that is the only way to go; you people do not seem to appreciate authors as a respectable profession). And lastly, Assaph has, apparently, been talking to other characters from fellow authors’ scrolls. You can find them on TheProtagonistSpeaks.com.


If you like to read more of Felix, you can read the (free) short stories he appears on at his home of egretia.com. You can also find him on the pages of Murder In Absentia, where his memoirs swept the amazing five awards at Virtual FanatsyCon.

We will resume our regular interviews next week, when we will be hosting a woman whose music moved heaven and earth. Please follow the site by email (bottom-right), via Twitter, or like our Facebook page to be notified when the next interview is posted.

#VirtualFantasyCon Blog Hunt – Auden Johnson

Hi, I’m Assaph Mehr, author of Murder In Absentia, and I’m your host for this stop in the Hunt.

If you would like to find out more about the Hunt, please click here – http://vfcscavengerhunt.weebly.com/
Somewhere on this page is a hidden number. Collect all the numbers from all the authors’ posts, and then add them up. Once you’ve added all the numbers, and if I am your last author, please head to the official website and click on the ENTER HERE page to find the entry form. Only entries will the correct number will qualify to win.

The author I’m pleased to be hosting for Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt today is fantasy Author, Auden Johnson.


Auden Johnson 1

Learn the relationships and trials of a new generation of powerful beings. In The Merging Worlds series you meet the Sciell. You’ll discover there’s energy in Darkness. The Sciell use this energy to protect what’s important to them. They age slower and have unusual features like white hair, silver eyes and dark brown skin. Throughout the series, you’re given pieces of the dark puzzle about the Sciell; their history and family relationships and the origin of the energy they wield.

In Jael, it all started with Mascenore Tahylur.

The Darkness was possessed by nine beings who escaped from their world, abandoning their bodies. The Darkness in Jael became their bodies. They, unwittingly, gave it the ability to create energy.

Auden Johnson 2

Humans found ways to access this energy, spells mostly. Getting the power wasn’t easy. Few could touch it without being killed. Though many knew about this energy, many more didn’t believe in it. Those who practiced using it were often killed. They hid in the thick forests of Middle Jael and in mountains to practice in peace.
Their spells ripped open Darkness to get the power. They cut open the nine beings who lived in Darkness. The beings were stuck, tortured for a hundred years. Soon, their minds were so far gone they forgot where they came from. They only wanted freedom.

The nine beings were siblings. The oldest was named Haylan Kahya. He attempted to place his mind in a new body, an adult human. Connecting with Darkness allows you to see other’s bad memories. You get near and those bad memories reach out for you. The new hosts couldn’t handle such horrifying images. They removed Haylan’s mind, killing themselves. After many unsuccessful attempts, Haylan decided to put part of his mind inside a child. He figured, as the child grew, the body would become better able to handle the memories.

He befriended an abandoned child, Mascenore Tahylur. The boy agreed to become a host. Mascenore wouldn’t lose control of his body. Haylan would live inside him, granting him long life and a companion forever. Haylan stayed with Mascenore for years, slowly transferring his mind into the new body, creating a space inside where he could live safely without being tortured. It worked. Mascenore learned to close his mind to other’s twisted memories. Haylan settled inside him. Mascenore became the first Sciell.

Auden Johnson 3

Haylan granted Mascenore the ability to open Darkness and use its energy, without hurting those still connected to it. Haylan was happy. Mascenore soon, was not. Humans knew he was different. They demanded he use his power to help them. Because of his presence, it became difficult for human to access the energy in Darkness. When Mascenore refused to help them, they treated him like he was a demon. His body overflowed with power. It did things, bad things to those around him. He spent years alone, unable to have a family. He became angry with Haylan.

One day, Mascenore found himself in a village that used abandoned children as slaves. He happened upon a little girl and boy in distress. He felt an instant bond with them for these two were already touched by the energy in Darkness. He saved them both. The children had four other friends. Mascenore took all six children with him.

Haylan decided they would be the hosts for his siblings. Unfortunately, too much time had passed. His remaining two siblings became lost in Darkness. They are partially the reason Darkness still has energy. The other part, the Kahya siblings left their ability to create energy inside Darkness. Giving their new hosts power wasn’t their main concern.
Eygress, Bley, Resnick, Orena, Sanher and Sexton became Mascenore’s children. They were the first Sciell family.

Auden Johnson 4

Excerpt from Book 1: The Sciell

“Maggot infested garbage must exist between those ears. I let it go once. You told me you would not walk around alone. I am really tired, Shade, of seeing you bleeding and beaten.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “And if you apologize, I’ll rip off your barren head. You’re apparently incapable of using whatever dim knowledge your moth-eaten brain possesses.”
His angered-fueled words had long since lost any ability to hurt her.
“On top of that, you took half of Wraith’s Lifeblood to launch a physical attack on a Del’Praeli in sceadu. Have I taught you nothing?”
She grinned. “Well, when you put it like that…”
He stopped pacing and faced her. Shade tried not to run screaming.
“This is not a joke, child.”
He raked his fingers through his hair, turning it as wild as his 21 eyes. Nothing Shade said would calm him down. She had to try, though.
“Five years in the human city made me forget how bad it was here. I know Del’Praeli were awful to me. In my memories, they didn’t seem that bad.” Shade unclenched the fist she didn’t know she had balled. Vayle calmed down. “I guess I don’t have…”
His glare cut off her sentence. Once again, she said too much.
“You, baby sister, keep trying to fit your body in a box it was never meant to be in.”
Vayle’s famous saying. His expression eased. She smiled weakly.

About the Author

Auden JohnsonAuden tells stories with words and images. As a kid, she created her own books by folding several construction papers in half and stapling them down the middle, adding her own illustrations. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get away from writing. She holds a B.A. in English, a M.S. in Library and Information Science and a M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print. She studied Creative Writing in England. She’s an Author/Marketing Consultant for Aubey LLC, a small press publisher. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her short stories and novellas are on Amazon. Her novels can be found on aubeyllc.com. She loves answering your publishing, writing, personal brand or marketing questions. Email her at audendjohnson@gmail.com.

To connect with Auden visit: Website | Blog | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Newsletter


Did you find the number? If you did, then click Auden Johnson’s link – http://audenstreasury.blogspot.com/ to continue Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt.

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