JenniferS: With the ambiguity of what Barrons is, and whatever Mac is becoming.... after all that unprotected sex, what the heck kind of baby would that be?
Karen Marie: Baby? Barrons have a baby?? Gah!
ang83: Do you know what the next set of books names will be?
Karen Marie: Yes, I do.
nmblake : Will Cruce (V’Lane) and Dani hookup when she is older? I think there is something there even if she thought he was V'Lane
Karen Marie: Too funny. Wait till you see what happens with C/V. I'm not nearly done with him but I warn you...it's not going to be comfortable...
BlueCoyote: Oh!! and What was the significant thing about Beast Barrons eating those bloody runes?
Karen Marie: Beast eating bloody runes was only to show that what everyone else feared Barrons relished.
afilesi: Did V'lane/Cruce know that the Queen/concubine was projecting herself to the Keltar to try to change the future outcome?
Karen Marie: No V'lane/Cruce did not know.
DoberDawn: Who spiked the orb with the shades?
Karen Marie: The Lord Master
Bones: Was the SD's illusion of Mac's father a representation of her real father?
Karen Marie: Fascinating question about Mac's father! Look for more in future books.
Formida42: Was the mother of Barrons’ son human?
Karen Marie: Why this fascination with Barrons' past? Don't you like who he is now?
Formida42: Will the elixir that Mac was given eventually snuff out her soul?
Karen Marie: Good question about the elixir, remember V/C said it was different than the king/queens...will come up in the future.
Darkcubette: Do you plan on making a series about Ry-o and that group?
Karen Marie: The next series will be about Dani, RyO, Christian and Dancer with the rest of the Fever world characters making appearances.
christa3: will barrons and mac be major players in new series, or background characters?
Karen Marie: I wish I could tell you exactly how much Barrons and Mac will show up but they have a way of dictating their own terms once I start writing. I can tell you that I finished Shadowfever with a creative surplus for a change, with a TON of stories that are demanding to be told. I also wonder if any of you realize that DF began with one SD loose. SF ends with TWO. Very. Loosely. Corked. ")
HopeChasez: Does that mean Lor won't get his own little side story?
Karen Marie: Lor. LOL! What a handful. He's definitely got things to say. Kasteo does too but he's not talking.
lilyfleur: Did Barrons ever love Fiona?
Karen Marie: No Barrons never loved Fiona.
Christen: At the end of SF Ryo finds Dani and says he has a job for her. Then Christian appears in the shadows. Is this how their connection starts for the new series?
Karen Marie: Dani's in a pretty bad position if RyO has a job for her and Christian thinks she might be his redemption. Can you imagine being stuck between those two men when you were only 14? What if they hung around for the next few years, watching over you with hawk eyes, making sure you became what they wanted you to become? And Dani doesn't take kindly to shaping.
JenniferS ->: I have a question about Cruce/V'lane. I would really like to know how much of his actions were motivated by feelings for Mac. Obviously he did some bad and possibly unforgivable things, but did he truly care about her or was she a means to an end?
Karen Marie: V’lane, an alternate viewpoint: V’lane had a lousy publicist. He’s the center-stage male character I gave a label: Seelie, shining death-by-sex Fae, erotic, brilliant, ballsy and no more sociopathic than Barrons. With V’lane, I can’t help but play the ‚”what if” game: What if the night Mac rushed through the dark zone seeking sanctuary, Mac had found V’lane instead of Barrons Books & Baubles? What if he’d taken her off to Faery and told her the truth, the full truth that very night? Would she have been swayed by his desire to save his trapped brothers? How different is he really from Barrons and his nine? V’lane may have rebelled against the Unseelie king’s wishes but he was only trying to set the rest of the Unseelie free. He was beautiful, powerful, he could have left the icy prison and abandoned them, pursued his own pleasure. But he wanted all the Unseelie to have a chance in the sunshine and beauty of the world. He was a freedom fighter, a renegade, a determined, cunning, patient, valiant crusader. Doesn’t the world need War? Isn’t he the only reason tyrannies topple, empires fall and humans change? War is the catalyst, the means by which wrongs are righted, scales are balanced, and the world transformed. Isn’t V’lane the real hero?
Buffy422: why did V'Lane call Mac Princess all of the time?
Karen Marie: Because V'lane would have made her his princess
Buffy422: what's the deal with BB&B having four floors and then five floors?
Karen Marie: BB&B is part of the new series, you'll have to wait to find out
simonet77: Why does Jericho say he wants to F*** Mac and not make love
Karen Marie: Can you hear Barrons saying Ooooh baby I wanna make sweet love to you?
Wicked 1: he made love to the other woman before he killed her
Karen Marie: He said he made love to irritate Mac.
Karen Marie: Barrons. F*cks. He does not make love.
Karen Marie: When every other novel I was picking up in the bookstore announced: Vampire/Werewolf/Demon hero on the cover, and was marketing it on the basis of that paranormal creature’s mythic resonance, I wanted to write a story with a male center-stage character that defied labels, and wouldn’t permit one. I wanted to make the reader choose to take him or leave him without the convenience of a pre-packaged tortured-hero caricature to slap over his outline, and no easy answers about whether he was good or bad. I wanted to write a paranormal creature and never tell the reader what he was, because I believed they would ultimately see him more clearly in his everyday behavior, than through the distorted lens of someone else’s legend.
Barrons says, “Judge me by my actions” and makes the reader do the same. At the end of the series, I wanted the reader to answer the question: Who/what is Barrons? the same way Mac does: Who cares? He’s Barrons.
In the vein of showing, not telling, I wanted my characters to love each other---but never tell each other that. I chose instead to show it in their actions, in the choices they made. Words are easy; lies as simple as parting your lips and breathing.
Buffy422: I thought the last scene with JZB grilling a bit off putting. It didn't seem like it was something he would really do.
Karen Marie: Think about the grilling scene as the closest Mac will ever get to hearing him say something tender. Barrons shows everything through his actions. Not domestication. Conscious, deliberate choice to show her something.
Karen Marie: As a final note, there's a part of me that is playing with picking up the story where I left off in SF. Two Sinsar Dubhs out there. What would happen if they both got loose?