Hi, everyone! We’d like to thank the Bayou Book Junkies for having us on the blog today. I’m Ari of the writing duo known as Ari McKay, and I’m here to talk a little bit about our new release, Forged in Fire, which is book two in the Asheville Arcana series.
McKay and I LOVE writing series, especially when it comes to paranormal stories. So much time is spent constructing a world for a paranormal story that it seems wasteful to make all that effort only to use it once and throw it away. And we really do spend time on our paranormals, more than on any other type of book. McKay and I both played Dungeons and Dragons for many years, and so we have definite rules to our worlds, and we have to stick to them!
For instance, in the Asheville Arcana universe, we have mages (who specialize in a dedicated branch of magic), witches (who are more about charms, enchantments, and potions), elves, wee folk, vampires, shapeshifters of all different types, as well as demons and angels. In Forged in Fire, we introduce a different creature, a cursed one who was bitten by a possessed wolf shifter and has been turned into something akin to a standard horror genre werewolf. He doesn’t have the advantage of the shifters, because he can’t do it at will, only on the full moon or when driven by rage.
We spent a lot of time setting up the rules for how magic works, what magical creatures can and can’t do, and the reasons why they don’t interact much with regular humans. It was only after when spent quite a long time discussing the structure of our magical world that we were able to get down to plotting. And what a plot it is! It was almost too big for us to tell it in only three books, but we recently submitted the third, which should be out sometime before the end of the year!
As far as Forged in Fire… this is the story of Whimsy Hickes, a mage we introduced in the first book, Out of the Ashes. Whimsy is an easy going guy, and while he’s enjoyed being friends with benefits with Arden and Julian over the years, he really yearns for more. He’s ready to stop playing the field and settle down with a man he can love and care for, someone who wants a long term commitment. When he meets Harlan Edgewood, a lycanthrope, he’s immediately attracted, but Harlan… well, he has some issues related to his condition, and he doesn’t think Whimsy should get involved with someone like him. Then things get dicey when the possessed shifters return to the Asheville area, and Harlan’s very soul is in jeopardy. Whimsy will have to put everything on the line, and use all his magic to save Harlan -- because if he can’t, he might not only lose Harlan, but everyone he’s ever loved.
