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The Protagonist Speaks

Interviews with the protagonists of your favourite books

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Dana McCarren (of The Hook, by Kathleen Doler)

Dear readers, tonight with me is a globe-trotting journalist making the journey back to her childhood town, a place she has been running away from all her life.

She is there to reconnect with her family, her drug-addicted brother, and the town’s tight-knit surfing community. In the process she runs into a gang war, a violent drug kingpin, the FBI, and a whole new family crisis.

She is here to tell us about facing her ruinous childhood, her inability to sustain relationships, and her struggle to move on with her life. 

Tell us a little about growing up in Half Moon Bay and learning to surf?

When he was a thirteen-year-old grommet, my older brother, Shane, started learning to surf with his buddy, Craig. I was always determined to do anything Shane did. So, I’d ride my bike out of the neighborhood and hunt them down — I had the makings of a journalist even as a tween. I’d pedal as fast as I could…away from that house, away to anywhere. Finally, Craig got tired of seeing me sitting alone on the foggy damp cliffs, watching. For my twelfth birthday, he gave me his old yellowed and dented surfboard, coated with dirt-encrusted surf wax. It was waterlogged, heavy and hideous, but it smelled like coconuts and it was mine. I started trying to ride it, getting drilled into the sand regularly. I was hooked. Surf rushes. It fills my ears and quiets my brain. It washes off the shame.

Do you have any cherished childhood memories?

Cherished? Not a word I’d ever use in the same sentence as “childhood.” I ran away from my fucked-up family (sorry, journalists always have potty mouths) as soon as I’d graduated from high school, when I was just seventeen. I rarely visit my hometown of Half Moon Bay. It can suffocate me worse than a collapsing wave. Craig helped me make my escape to college…at the time, Shane was already self-medicating, escaping in another way.

What do you do now?

Although I’m a business journalist with a well-respected newspaper I like to tell people I’m a professional gossip. Really, what do I do? I get people to tell me things they’re not supposed to say and I’m not supposed to know. If I ask the right question, the person I’m interviewing squirms. That tells me I’m on the right track. I’m a road warrior; I travel frequently for work. It’s a great way to avoid having a real life, one with relationships and commitments. I don’t have pets; hell, I have a hard time keeping house plants alive.

Continue reading “Dana McCarren (of The Hook, by Kathleen Doler)” →

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Aurelia Mitela (of Aurelia by Alison Morton)

Dear readers, tonight with me is a woman from Roma Nova, the sole remnant of the Roman Empire to survive into the 20th century.

A former Praetorian, she is sent to investigate who is smuggling silver – Roma Nova’s lifeblood. Mysterious smugglers, lethal traps, gang bosses, and back-stabbing countrymen are only the beginning.

She is here to tell us about her thrilling adventures.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

Roma Nova? It’s in my blood and bones. Mountains, a big river, alpine pastures, vines, olives and grain fields, the smell of pines, the blue skies and the snowfields to the north, towards New Austria and west to the Italian Confederation. Then there’s Roma Nova city, the ‘urbs’. Gods, it’s beautiful; marble forum, statues, temples – our new Rome. Well, (grins) new since AD 395! Oh, and for my first adventure, it’s the late 1960s.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

I loved my first gladius. Our estate carpenter out at Castra Lucilla made it for me. She polished and polished the oak until it almost shone like metal. Maybe that’s why I was so keen to become a soldier. I spent a lot of time at the farm as a youngster as my mother was busy as senator and the imperatrix’s advisor as well as running her businesses. I swam in the lake, rode, helped with the lambing and grape picking as long as I finished my schoolwork, and sometimes not. Continue reading “Aurelia Mitela (of Aurelia by Alison Morton)” →

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Dydre Rowyn (of War Merchant by Patrick Parker)

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Dear readers, tonight with me on the interview couch is a woman trying to escape from the black-market arms trade.

Her risky plan went wrong, and she found her – and her son’s – life in danger from her former boss, his mercenaries, a double-crossing businessman, terrorists, the FBI, and a man from the Defense Department.

She is here to tell us about her suspenseful adventures in a world of corrupt politics, a ruthless greedy opportunist, terrorists, and a pawn with deadly skills.

Tell us a little about where you’re from and growing up.

I lived in Hanau, Germany until I was about thirteen when my parents were killed in a car wreck. I was put in a foster home, and about a year later, I ran away. I couldn’t make the adjustment, too young I guess.

I met Johanna Zsigmond in a Frankfurt park not long after I ran away, and she hired me as a live-in domestic and assistant to her. We got along great. Sometimes we’d talk for hours. She convinced me to go back to school and on to Cambridge. She treated me as if I was her daughter and I loved her dearly. I still miss her to this day.

Johanna was such a wonderful person. She was more than a mother to me, she became my best friend. She got me interested in theatre and martial arts, focusing on jujitsu in high school. In my spare time, Johanna taught me the romance languages.

After I moved in with Johanna, I kept quite busy with school and, of course, she kept me busy with language lessons. I liked Frankfurt better than Hanau. There was so much to do in Frankfurt and I loved the markets and festivals. Johanna stressed the arts and we were always going to plays, concerts, and museums.

Any cherished memories?

I miss Johanna. She didn’t have any children of her own and I filled that void. Johanna died of cancer during my junior year at Cambridge. I was devastated and took the rest of the year off. I returned to school the following year as that is what Johanna would have wanted.

I became pregnant during my senior year at Cambridge and was to be married just before graduation. Michael Barron, an army captain, was a very handsome man and a wonderful person. He would be any woman’s dream. Unfortunately, he was killed in Bosnia a week before the wedding.

David, my son, looks just like Michael. David is my world now. Continue reading “Dydre Rowyn (of War Merchant by Patrick Parker)” →

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Detective Lisa Paco (of Vital Spark by Leah Devlin)

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Dear readers, tonight with me is a young millennial homicide detective.

While it may seem that this small-town, hashtag-speaking, police offer is too young for it, she had the (mis-)fortune of dealing with some scary serial killers.

She is here to tell about what is now known as the Chesapeake Tugboat Murders.

 

 

Tell us little about where you grew up.  What was it like there?

The name’s Paco.  Sergeant Lisa Paco.  I’m a detective on the River Glen Police Department, the best PD in the best village in America.   Yeah, yeah, I know I look like a sixteen-year-old, but here, if you don’t believe me, check my police ID.  See, right there.  My DOB.  I’m almost thirty.  I was born and raised here in River Glen on the Chesapeake Bay … on the Maryland part of the bay, not the Virginia part.  So we don’t have those stinging sea nettles like the Virginians in the southern bay.  And if some joker tells you that Virginia blue crabs taste better than Maryland crabs, well, he’s just plain delusional.  Okay, back to River Glen.  We have a population 89.  We have a psychic, Cannabis farmers, burnouts from the 60s, moon-shiners, artists, crabbers, and fishermen … all the usual suspects.  Oh, we also have pyrates.  Yeah, yeah, you’re laughing like you don’t believe me.  But I promise, it’s true.  We have pyrates.  Really!  Real-life modern pyrates.  Yep, River Glen was founded by pyrates from the pyrate ship Raven.  Every summer we have the annual pyrate festival, Giles Blood-hand Day.  It commemorates Giles Hale’s slaughter of the deranged Whitby family who stole gold from the village treasury in 1694.  He’s a local hero for returning the treasure.  The festival’s wilder than a Jimmy Buffett- or Grateful Dead concert.  It’s crazier than Burning Man.

So here’s how we got pyrates.  In the late 1600s the Raven was hiding out in today’s Tampa Bay to avoid a hurricane.  After the storm, a Spanish treasure galleon appeared off the coast.  While the crippled galleon was mending her masts, the Raven attacked.  Guns blazing, the Raven’s crew killed the Spaniards, stole the treasure, and made a runner up the eastern seaboard, but not before abducting women prisoners working on a Virginia tobacco plantation.  The Raven slipped behind colonial defenses at the mouth of the Chesapeake and found a remote river to make repairs.  Her hull was rotten with shipworms; the planks crumbled to the touch.  The pyrates and their ladies were stranded on the upper Chesapeake.  So that’s the origins of the tiny village of River Glen.  But what … I ask you … happened to the Raven’s fathomless treasure? Continue reading “Detective Lisa Paco (of Vital Spark by Leah Devlin)” →

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Artorius (of Between Worlds by P.J. Roscoe)

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Dear readers, tonight with us is Artorius – the commander of Roman Britannia at the close of the 6th century CE.

Although the circumstances of how we learned about him, and how we came to know his story, are tied to a gruesome modern day murder and missing persons case, there is no doubt in our minds about the veracity of his story.

He is here to tell us about life in 6th century Britannia, and of his adventures.

 

 

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

My early years were spent in Rome, though I have very little memory of it, except the heat and the smells of unwashed bodies and dirt intermingled with the scent of jasmine and Rose oil. My father was a commander in a faraway place called ‘Britannia’ and my mother missed him so badly; she made the journey to be near him.

The differences were immense. The weather being one of them. Within two years, mother died and I suffered badly, but survive. The other was the people. They hated us, but kept their mouths shut in a Roman’s company, but I learned that their eyes could not hide the truth. Even after all these centuries, the native people regarded anyone of Roman descent to be truly evil. We were warned never to venture far alone and when my father was granted lands further north near an old Roman command known as ‘Hadrian’s Wall’ I went with him. Here the hatred was palpable and I feared those who painted themselves blue and cursed us from their hills. But I also learned to live with them and slowly, over time, many came to accept us and I found myself surrounded by friends from all walks of life.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

My favourite toy was my pony, named ‘Celsus’ which means ‘tall’ in Latin. She had slightly longer legs which seemed a little out of proportion to the rest of her, but I loved her from the moment my father gave her to me as a foal. I helped train her, fed and watered her, cleaned up her mess and groomed her and when it was time to ride her, I fell off countless times as she bucked and danced around to free herself of this unusual burden. However, I persevered and eventually, Celsus became obedient and trust grew.

My most treasured memory is of our first ride together. Her long legs flew across the vast fields of Britain, faster than any other pony. She was sadly missed when old age took her from me eleven years ago. I had become too big to ride her, after four years together, but she remained within my father’s stables, where I continued to love and care for her. Continue reading “Artorius (of Between Worlds by P.J. Roscoe)” →

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Adam Carpenter (of Eden’s Serum by Angelique S. Anderson)

eden-serumDear readers, tonight with me on the interview couch is the Founder and CEO of one of America’s hottest technology start-ups. His development of the Identicoin, revolutionized the identification process, and now makes it so that all of our personal, medical, banking and criminal history is on one easy little disk.

Recently, however, he came across something unheard of, that enticed him beyond words. Immortality. But is the secret of Eden’s Serum all that it’s advertised to be?

He is here to tell us about his adventures and his life.

 

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

Nothing too spectacular, not like the apartment I had before I moved to Bakersfield. My father was a hardworking man, we lived menially and he did try to give us everything. I just never felt like I connected with him on a personal level. He wasn’t happy when I told him that I wanted to major in Nanotechnology, which was made further evident when I told him about my promotion at Identitech. Actually, I hadn’t talked to him for quite a while. Not until this whole thing happened with Identitech.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

Hmmm, well I guess as a kid my favorite toys were my hot wheels. I like to race them, it felt like the only thing that made sense. I didn’t really like being outside. When I was gifted an older tablet for my birthday, the first thing I did was take it apart to look at the inside… ha, ha. I forgot all about my cars, I must have had over a hundred of them. They were inexpensive, so my father didn’t mind getting them for me for Christmas’s and birthdays.

Boy was he mad when he discovered I had taken apart the first tablet I ever got. That is essentially what really sparked my love for all things technical. When I saw what it could do with the swipe of a finger, I had to know more. I still keep that torn apart tablet, in a lock box at home. It holds tremendous sentimental value for me. Probably the only thing I have ever been sentimental over, until Evelyn. Continue reading “Adam Carpenter (of Eden’s Serum by Angelique S. Anderson)” →

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Wenn Twyner (of Escape from Neverland by Nils Visser)

wyrde-woods-1-escape-from-neverlandDear readers, remember all the times your mother told you not to stray into the woods? Well, tonight with me is a young girl who didn’t quite listen, and went strolling into the Wyrde Woods. Only a few miles away from the dilapidated council estate where she lives, but worlds apart.

She is here to tell us about what she saw, and how her perceptions were challenged. 

 

 

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I’ve been mangled in the care system for most of my life. Care homes, institutions, clinics and, erm, sometimes juvenile detention. It wasn’t….it wasn’t safe, that’s all I have to say about it. Some places were worse than others, but none offered any sense of security.

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

My cup of tea was reading. I’ve always been a voracious reader. So I suppose my favourite ‘toy’ was Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, especially Greenwitch. I literally devoured those books. Reading was an escape from whatever dump I’d been placed in. As for memories…..sometimes I have very vague memories of my mum and dad, a few images, but they’re like blurry photographs, the focus always just out of reach. Then again, I might just be projecting, my imagination playing tricks on me.

What can you tell us about your latest adventure?

I ended up at the OJCH in Odesby. At first things were alright, in a forlorn hope kind of way, but then…..things took a turn for the worse there. I went for a walk to vent off steam. A long walk which took me to the large woods north of town; the Wyrde Woods. Except they seem like more than just a woods. It’s difficult to explain but just about everything that happens there seems like an adventure to me. Continue reading “Wenn Twyner (of Escape from Neverland by Nils Visser)” →

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President Carlos Almanzor (of Revolution Day by T. E. Taylor)

Revolution Day

Dear readers, tonight we are honoured to host a busy man, who nonetheless found the time to be with us. Please welcome President Almanzor to the interview couch!

 

 

Tell us about your childhood. What events helped shaped you to be who you are today?

That time seems so distant now, almost unreal.  It was an ordinary childhood, I suppose.  I cannot claim I lived in hardship: my parents were middle class, comfortably off.  They were ambitious, and at first I was willing to follow the legal career they had mapped out for me.  But there were a lot of poorer people in our neighbourhood, and I realised I could use my skills to help them.  That was what set me on the long road that has brought me here, though I had no idea where it would lead at the time.

What first drew you to the revolution?

At first I was a campaigner rather than a revolutionary: I sought social change through protest and through the courts.  But every faltering step towards progress was met by reactionary counter-measures, every demonstration by violent repression.  I came to believe that peaceful means alone could not succeed.  So I talked to the communists, and we all recognised that what we agreed on was more important than what we disagreed on.  We became a broad church united in the goal of overthrowing the Velazco regime.  Thus the Partido Socialista was born. Continue reading “President Carlos Almanzor (of Revolution Day by T. E. Taylor)” →

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Jerry (of What One Leaves Behind by Regan O’Leary)

What One Leaves Behind - Regan O'LearyDear readers, in a bizarre and somewhat worrying turn of events, our little interview couch is now participating in a crime across international borders.

You may recall the interview about two weeks ago with Bane Shaw. It seems that his dark past is not yet done with him. Revenge killings never end, and now the son of the man Bane murdered to protect his family is after him. We tracked him down on his murderous path, and asked him some hard questions.

 

 

Tell us about growing up in Glasgow, about your involvement with the street gangs

Gangs in Glesgae – that’s just the way of life. Gang life’s been around for hundreds of years! Hell, Glesgae has mair gangs than London – I’ll bet you didnae ken that! But, the only street gang that matters are my boys! The Billy Boy from Bridgeton. They’ve goat my back – always have, always will. We’re family! My da and my uncle were members – it’s who we are. We stick together against them Shanley Boys in Bridgeton and those Peel Glen Boys in the Drum. *Curses* Fenian Tims! We will always threaten their shops, piss on their churches, and force their kids from our cinemas! It’s status! I’m feared and respected because of my gang.

How did you know Bane Shaw was back in Glasgow? Did it take you to track him down?

I knew that big-heided arse would come back to Glesgae eventually. He was easy enough to find, an’ aw! Those stupid PGB blabbed all over Glesgae that the Bane Shaw was coming home – like he was some bastard hero! Coming back to marry his yank hoor! He wisnae that hard to find!

I understand you threatened Bronagh?

Aye! That I did! Unlike my da and my uncle, I know how to hurt a man! And it isnae killing whit family he left behind in Glesgae, no! I’ll take his soul from him – I’ll take his woman! Continue reading “Jerry (of What One Leaves Behind by Regan O’Leary)” →

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