Gena Showalter, author of sexy paranormal romance novels such as Playing With Fire and The Stone Prince, tells us about creating the prequel to her Lords of the Underworld series…
By Gena Showalter, author of The Darkest Fire, prequel to The Lords of the Underworld trilogy
How do you write a romantic story with a happily-ever-after, knowing one of the main characters has to die?
That’s the question I asked myself when I sat down to write The Darkest Fire. It’s an eBook prequel to my upcoming Lords of the Underworld series, which features warriors who opened Pandora’s box, unleashing a horde of demons from inside, and who each are now cursed to host one of those demons inside themselves.
See, the heroine of The Darkest Fire is the goddess of oppression. In The Darkest Night, the first book in the series, which I wrote before The Darkest Fire, her backstory, her life – and death — were already established. I could not deviate from that. But I wanted to see this courageous, misunderstood woman achieve what we all dream of: happiness.
As you can guess, there were several mountains to climb. How could I do that? What kind of hero could handle a woman whose very nature could inadvertently crush a person’s spirit? And how could I show exactly what the Lords of the Underworld were up against, demon-wise?
In the end, I did what I always do when faced with a challenge: I sat down and started writing. The words started flowing, and the story began to take shape. I was amazed by what sprang from me. And by the time I finished, I was sighing dreamily and my characters were indeed happy.
I hope you’ll check out The Darkest Fire (starring the guardian of hell and, as mentioned, the goddess of oppression), as well as The Darkest Night (starring the demon of Violence) available in May, The Darkest Kiss (the demon of Death) in June, and The Darkest Pleasure (the demon of Pain) in July. I’ve never stretched my imagination so far or been more excited about a book’s release.
I hope you love these books and characters as much as I do!
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