Please welcome Ofelia Grand here today, to talk about her new release, Soul Eater!
Thank you so much for having me here today, Ally. I wanted to drop by and talk a little about my book, Soul Eater, that was released on October 31st, so it’s brand new.
Soul Eater is an example of how stories don’t always turn out as planned. I had this idea at around this time last year. I have a sauna in the basement—yes, it’s a Scandinavian thing—and I was down there with a pen and a notepad. I do that when I don’t know what the heck it is I’m doing (or if I have to write a blurb). Sweating helps me think LOL.
Anyway, I was down there, and I was thinking I should write twelve short stories, at 10k tops, and release one a month. I drew a plan for them in my bullet journal, listed my ideas, and I called it A Year of Shadows. I wrote Scary Gary which is a 5k story about a guy who’s fighting his shadow (and it’s free everywhere but on Amazon *wink*) and then life happened, as it often does.
I tucked my ideas away, and back in June when the deadlines for the holiday stories were posted, I figured I’ll take one of my Year of Shadows ideas and turn it into a short Halloween story—you know, 10k or so as I’d planned.
Turns out a wizard summoning a werewolf ghost needed a little more than 10k
It’s close to All Hollow’s Eve, which is when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, but it doesn’t matter because Thaddeus Ezax, our wizard, can’t summon ghosts. He stole a skull from the black market, and the seller claimed there was a werewolf’s spirit trapped in it. It shouldn’t matter because Thad can’t call the dead.
Sandulf Hunter, our werewolf, doesn’t know he’s dead, but he knows he hates wizards. The man who got him out of the skull is a wizard, but he’s also Sandy’s mate. He can’t have a wizard for a mate.
Then we have the whole complication of Thad being a cop, working with Sandy’s brother Ric, and they’re in the middle of solving a serial killer case. So it needed a little more than 10k…51k, in fact!
Excerpt:
Had he called a spirit?
No, he couldn’t have. First, he was no sorcerer. Second, only powerful sorcerers could make a spirit sentient, and Thad wasn’t powerful. And third…he couldn’t come up with a third, but there had to be one because he couldn’t call spirits.
Perhaps it was a dream. He’d never steal from the black market. He’d never do something so incautious; he wasn’t stupid. His life might be depressingly dull, but he still liked living it.
“Do you remember how you ended up…” Thad gritted his teeth. “Eh… dead?”
Sandulf stopped, and for a few seconds, everything was quiet. His laugh started slow, like a huff, but it grew into a deep, rumbling belly laugh. Thad watched, stunned. He was magnificent, all tall and broad-shouldered, exactly like Ric except his laugh lit up his entire face, despite it being a bit translucent.
“For a wizard, you’re funny. I’m not dead.” Sandulf gestured at himself.
“So you don’t remember.” Thad nodded. It was for the better. It would’ve helped if Sandulf could point out his killer, but it was best for his sake he didn’t remember.
They didn’t speak as they walked through the city. Could people see Sandulf or did they only see a freaked-out man hugging something to his chest while trying to not draw attention to himself?
Thad took the last turn toward the station, ignoring that Sandulf had stopped to look at a pumpkin and spider web display in the shop window.
How the hell would he tell Ric? Unless this was a dream, he’d brought Ric’s brother back from the dead—or not back from, his spirit had been trapped in the skull this entire time. But how to explain? Saying he’d made a mistake wouldn’t be sufficient in Ric’s eyes.
Nine years. He shuddered and it wasn’t the October cold doing it.
They looked so alike, Sandulf and Ric. Sandulf’s hair was a little longer and he had a bit of a stubble whereas Ric was clean-shaven, but they could’ve been twins.
The skin on Thad’s body prickled, and he had a hard time breathing.
With a swoosh, Sandulf appeared by his side, and Thad sucked in a deep breath as the prickles ebbed out.
“What did you do?” Sandulf snarled at him, sharp canines growing longer as he spoke.
“Nothing.” He hadn’t.
“I was standing there minding my own business, and all of a sudden there is this pain, and I’m forced here.”
“Forced?”
“Yeah, forced. One second, I’m there, the next, I’m being dragged here.”
Thad grimaced. “Weird.” Or maybe it wasn’t. Growing up, Thad had been told a spirit was tied to its skull, and Thad was holding the skull. Spirits couldn’t walk around freely, at least he didn’t think they could.
“Weird? That’s all you have to say?”
Thad sighed. “I don’t know anything about this, Sandulf. I’m not a sorcerer, I know nothing about—” He swallowed his next word. How would Sandulf react to being called a spirit?
“You’re a wizard.”
“I am.” Thad nodded. “I’m a mage. It means I can cast a few spells, using the magic within me.” Though he’d never been powerful, and he’d never managed to connect with another living being which was what mages and wizards did.
Sandulf narrowed his eyes. “The magic within you?”
“Yeah.” Thad grimaced and threw a rain of blue sparks over him. He didn’t react, but his skin got a little rosier.
“You can do fireworks?”
Yeah, it was what it looked like, wasn’t it? Thad nodded and jogged up the small stair to the entrance of Rockshade’s police station. “Okay, we’re here. We have to talk to…the guys.”
“You live here?” Sandy studied the building.
“It’s a police station.”
“You’re handing me in?” He frowned at Thad.
“Is there something you’ve done I should know about?”
Sandulf shrugged and Thad grinned. “I work here.”
“You said you worked with Ric.”
“I do.” Thad rubbed his forehead. How long had Ric been a detective?
Blurb:
Detective Thaddeus Ezax is in over his head. He’s the only wizard in Rockshade’s Paranormal Investigations Department, and it was his name that got him the job. The Ezaxs are known as some of the most powerful wizards in the world, but Thaddeus isn’t your average Ezaxs. Is it any wonder his family shuns him?
When a kidnapping case is dropped into his lap, Thaddeus must act fast. While most five-year-olds can cast a location spell, Thaddeus can’t and is forced to get creative. When he finds himself in possession of a black market werewolf skull with a ghost trapped inside, accidentally releases the spirit, and somehow forms a connection with it, things get even crazier.
Sandulf Hunter doesn’t remember dying, but he remembers the last thing he saw before everything went black—a wizard. All wizards must die! The only problem is, the wizard standing next to him smells too damned good, so good Sandy thinks he might have to keep him.
And since wherever Thaddeus goes, Sandulf finds himself yanked along, he might not have a choice in the matter anyway.
About Ofelia Gränd
Ofelia Gränd is Swedish, which often shines through in her stories. She likes to write about everyday people ending up in not-so-everyday situations, and hopefully also getting out of them. She writes romance, contemporary, paranormal, Sci-Fi and whatever else catches her fancy.
Her books are written for readers who want to take a break from their everyday life for an hour or two.
When Ofelia manages to tear herself from the screen and sneak away from her husband and children, she likes to take walks in the woods…if she’s lucky she finds her way back home again.
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