Eternal Kiss of Darkness Virtual Interview with Jeaniene!

[engarde]

Thank you Jeaniene for taking the time to answer our questions right on the heels of a book tour!

l. How was Mencheres able to see and take necessary actions about everyone else in his future visions that pertained to him, but could not see Kira as anything but encroaching darkness?

Mencheres said in EKOD that symbolism was often part of his visions. So seeing Kira as nothing more than encroaching darkness was a combination of Mencheres misinterpreting the symbolism (Kira meaning “dark”) combined with guilt making him believe he didn't have a future, let alone deserve one. Plus, Mencheres mentioned in AGE (pg 123) that he didn’t know why some of his visions about the future were clear, why some were murky, and why for some significant events he received no forewarning at all. So his visions were never perfect about every important future event, even when he was at “full” strength with them.

2. I liked that Rodney and Justina became an item in AGE, because she needed someone to love her, but will you ever do a short story, background flashback, or novella on how Rodney seduced Justina or leave their coming together a mystery? Will you do a story that is from Justina’s POV?

Doing a flashback on Rodney and Justina, no, I don’t see that happening. Doing a short story from Justina’s POV is a much more likely thing. It’s a bit frustrating for me because I know Justina’s backstory from before she got pregnant with Cat (and I think it would surprise a lot of readers) yet I haven’t found a way to show glimpses of it in the NH books. If I had a little more time, I’d probably write it and throw it up on my website for free so readers could know what *I* know about Justina. Not just what Cat knows about her, which isn’t nearly the whole story.

3. Will there be a future book with all major characters (new and old) coming together just for fun? Like a weekend house party with tension but no plots or killing, just hanging out?

I love the idea of that, but get a group of all of them together and there’s bound to be trouble . The holiday-themed anthology with Cat and Bones that I recently agreed to do will start off as just everyone coming together for fun, but again, things will inevitably go awry. Think of how many times you and your own family members might have tried to get together “just for fun” and yet something happens to throw a wrench into things. Now multiple that by being undead and having hundreds of years of personal baggage that could catch up with you – or your loved ones – at any time. *grin* See the problem with trying to write Cat & Co without a dead body ending up in the mix somewhere??

4. Is there something more to Kira and her abilities? She seemed to be special before being turned: her intuition, genetic mutation, and immunity to mind reading and mind control. What about now that Mencheres is her sire? How will these special abilities manifest now that she is a vampire and sired by a mega-master?

Re-Kira. Yes, she was naturally immune to vampire mind reading/control, but that was more of a fluke than anything else. You’ll remember Randy was immune, too. Some people in the books are just born that way for no reason aside from a lucky roll of the genetic dice. Kira wasn’t psychic, either, because her intuitions weren’t as extreme as Mencheres’s visions, but she had strong instincts that she learned to pay attention to. Now that she’s been turned and has received some of Mencheres’s awesome power, will those abilities grow? Or will they max out as-is? You’ll just have to wait and see ☺.

5. Was it hard coming up with a way for Mencheres to turn Kira and Kira not hate him for it? The way you accomplished that goal was brilliant. It works well with the rest of the plot bringing them together: Mencheres helping Kira with her new senses, strength, blood craze, human feeding, etc.

Was it hard coming up with a way for Mencheres to turn Kira and Kira not hate him for it? No, even though I tried to make her hate him at first. This goes back to how I say the characters tend to grab the wheel even though I pretend to be in control of the plots. I originally thought of Kira as a much angrier, more rebellious person. Kinda like Cat at the beginning of the series. But when I tried to write Kira that way, it didn’t work. Some of you may remember last year that I griped on my blog about the trouble I was having writing the early chapters of EKOD. But once I clued in to Kira’s true personality – her remarkable lack of bitterness considering prior events in her life, plus her determination to make a positive difference like her mentor, Mack, had – the trouble I was having writing those early scenes with Kira made sense. I was trying to force her into a personality mold that didn’t fit. When I wrote Kira the way she was (which turned out to be pretty much the opposite of how I first imagined her), her scenes and POV flowed instead of stagnated. By the time it came to write what happened with Mencheres, I knew exactly how Kira would respond. So while I’d love to take the credit for the compliment, I really can’t. I would’ve had Kira acting far bitchier for far longer if I’d had my way, but thankfully, Kira didn’t let me have my way.

6. Does Bones have visions now like Mencheres?
Come on, you didn’t really think I’d answer a spoiler like that, did you? Say it with me, now: EVIL AUTHOR! ☺

7. Is there any significance to Vlad's response to Kira, "Not this side of the grave" when asking about Vlad's sire and the name of the next Cat and Bones book? Was that just a coincidence?

Coincidence. I wrote that line and really liked it, but kind of forgot about it afterward. Then when my editor and I were trying to think up titles, she said, “What about that thing in EKOD where one character mentions ‘this side of the grave’? That struck me as a possible title.” We went back and forth between that and “The Other Side of the Grave” as potential titles, which is why that is in the back of Eternal Kiss of Darkness before the excerpt of the next Cat and Bones book. But in the end, my editor and I both just liked This Side of the Grave more, so that’s what we went with. Now that I’m done with the book, I think it really fits the theme better, too.

8. When did Mencheres give Kira some of his power? And will we ever see that see that as a deleted scene?

He gave her his power shortly after that conversation at the Grand Canyon. I didn’t write the scene out, so I don’t have it for it to appear as a deleted scene. Sometimes things just happen off page. In EKOD, there’s already the scene showing Mencheres changing Kira, then the scene showing Kira being overwhelmed with all her new senses, so detailing the power exchange between them seemed like too much of the same.

9. How do you go about writing the black magic scenes? What do you use for inspiration for those scenes?

I went back to the Egyptian death rituals of the time. I’ve been fascinated by Egyptology since the seventh grade, when I wanted nothing more than to become an Egyptologist and explore the pyramids, the Giza plateau, Valley of the Kings, and find an undiscovered tomb. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but because of my interest I’ve watched countless shows on ancient Egyptian life and also read a bunch of books and articles. This doesn’t make me nearly as knowledgeable as an Egyptologist, but it did provide ways for my imagination to hijack certain aspects from ancient Egyptian funerary texts and turn them into the black magic ritual Mencheres performs in EKOD.

For example, the twelve symbols Mencheres has to draw represents the twelve hours of the night that a soul must journey through in the book of the Amduat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amduat ). The sixth hour, which Mencheres quotes from – paraphrased – on pg 323, is considered the most crucial and dangerous hour. Aken is the lord of the underworld of Duat and the ferryman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aken_(god) ), so bringing him in the scene as someone who would have the power to locate Kira and be fearsome enough to demand a soul as payment worked with my intentions for the plot.
I could go on about more fascinating things relating to Egyptology, their different gods, rituals, etc., but I still have more questions to answer so I’ll move along.

10. It was implied in AGE that Vlad had been with Annette, but I always saw Vlad as not too interested in flings--kind of like Mencheres in that respect. Was he with Annette? And if he was could that maybe part of the issue Bones has with Vlad? (because he didn't like him even before Cat was in the picture). Also, does he go with women a lot?

Did Vlad ever have sex with Annette – yes. That didn’t mean he was “with” Annette, though. Vlad is more discriminating than Bones was (pre-Cat) when it comes to his liaisons, but Vlad’s still a several hundred year old man who didn’t tuck it away with the good china, so to speak *wink*.

No, however, that has nothing to do with Bones and Vlad’s issues with each other. Bones and Annette were never monogamous, so Bones didn’t care who she slept with, even if she slept with someone he didn’t personally like. Bones didn’t care who any of his other lovers slept with, in fact. As Spade mentioned in DFAEG, Bones had never experienced jealousy before Cat, which was part of the reason why Bones lost his cool in DFAEG.

11. In EKOD, we learn from Radje that “Menkaure has had other men, too.” Does Mencheres like men or was Radje just trying to hurt Kira?

People’s thoughts on homosexuality and/or bisexuality can get very heated, so I’m going to start my answer with a statement that this is not the place to air your personal views on the subject. I’m answering a question about a fictional character’s backstory, not opening the floor to a debate on homosexuality/bisexuality and different religions’ opinions on it. I love you guys, but I’m not even close to kidding about how I will have comments deleted if they disparage anyone’s sexual orientation or personal relationship choices.
That being said, Radje was both telling the truth and trying to hurt Kira by saying that. Yes, Mencheres had sex with men as well as women in his early years (bearing in mind those “early” years would’ve lasted around a millennia considering how long he’s lived). Mencheres alluded to that on pg 19 when he mentioned how it was considered an honor to share his bed and how “men and women” flocked to him. Considering the culture Mencheres grew up in (one of the earliest same-sex couples in recorded history came from the 5th Dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, plus two Egyptian gods, Horus and Seth, had a story containing very sexual elements with the two of them) it made sense to me that Mencheres wouldn’t have thought anything about sleeping with men as well as women during his time of promiscuity.

Also, Kira wasn’t kidding when she replied with “…there was this one time in college with me and my girlfriend after a few tequila shots…” That also fit with what I knew about her character. As vampires in a committed, monogamous relationship, however, I don’t see Mencheres or Kira straying with anyone else of either gender in the future.

12. Did Tenoch will all of his vast powers to Mencheres or only part of his powers?

Tenoch willed him all the “legacy” of his power, which wasn’t the same as “all” of his power or that would have left Tenoch weakened almost to death. What Mencheres gained the ability to manifest from that power, as he mentioned to Kira on pg 192, depended on the individual. Mencheres isn’t pyrokinetic, but Tenoch was, and that was a power Vlad later manifested even though he didn’t get the “legacy”. So just because Mencheres got all the legacy didn’t automatically mean he had every power Tenoch had.

13. Will Kira and Mencheres make appearances in any of the C&B books?
Both Kira and Mencheres are in This Side of the Grave as side characters, and I expect they’ll be in future books as well.

14. Will we ever find out what happened to Jennifer Jackson from the club, Around the World?

Well, you know she was rescued at the end of EKOD (pg 346), but what will likely happen to her off-page is that her memory will be wiped of vampires and she’ll be returned to her family with a new, false memory of the past couple years.

15. In EKOD, we learn that Mencheres hadn't slept with a woman since he and Patra grew apart 900 years ago, because according to vampire law, anyone he slept with, Patra would have the right to kill. I was under the impression after reading the regular Night Huntress books that this law only applied to vampires. Couldn't Mencheres sleep with a mortal instead? Or was his celibacy self-inflicted? Also, how would she know if he cheated?

That penalty of death applied to anyone Mencheres slept with, whether that person was human, vampire, or ghoul. If Mencheres or Patra hadn’t both been vampires, then they couldn’t have had a marriage that other vampires recognized, thus nullifying the “kill without retribution” aspect of that law. It’s mentioned at the end of FDOC that the blood-binding ceremony between Denise and Spade wouldn’t officially be recognized in the vampire world because Denise wasn’t a vampire, but they did it because Spade considered it binding even if other vampires wouldn’t.

16. In DFAEG, when Bones and Mencheres go to Vlad's to get Cat, it almost became a death match. Now that we know the connection of Vlad to Mencheres, if the fight had happened, would Mencheres have stepped in to save both (or either) of them?

I can see Mencheres freezing both of them in a “time out” before either could inflict lethal damage on the other, lol. Not to mention that Cat would have thrown herself into the mix if they’d started to fight, also interrupting things.

17. Also in DFAEG, we see via Cat's memories the marriage ceremony with Gregor. There were six vampires/guards present to witness the binding. We assume they are allies or property of Gregor. What happened to them? What purpose did they serve for the binding ceremony? Could they not present a challenge to Cat and Bones being husband and wife? Would their witness matter now with Gregor being toast?

Gregor told three of them – Etienne, Marcel, and Lucius – to “spread the word” of his marriage (pg 157 DFAEG). The others he had stand guard at the hotel. Yet Mencheres and Gorgon (yes, it was Gorgon with Mencheres in that scene) still burst into Gregor’s room shortly after that, so it was implied that they killed the other guards off-page – and yes, Mencheres would have been ruthless enough to kill them so there were less people to tell about Gregor’s marriage, and less people to tell who’d taken Gregor when he disappeared.
You know that Lucius died in the end of DFAEG, so that leaves only two other possible vampires to have witnessed Cat and Gregor’s ceremony, but maybe they were some of the same guards who died in Chapter 31. Or maybe not (Ha, EA strikes again!)

18. Did Gregor leave someone to look after his line? If they were to prove that Cat was married to Gregor, wouldn’t she be considered part of his property and handed off to whoever inherited it?

“Did Gregor leave someone to look after his line?” No, he was too arrogant to believe he’d actually be killed and thus didn’t plan ahead like that.

“If they were to prove that Cat was married to Gregor, wouldn’t she be considered part of his property and handed off to whoever inherited it?”
No one inherited it, as mentioned above, but even if someone had, Cat wouldn’t be considered property. Pg 333 in OFITG: “…lineage does have a higher claim than property. But you have no claim over her if she’s my wife.” As Gregor’s wife, Cat couldn’t be considered property. If Cat didn’t admit to being his wife, she still wouldn’t be anyone’s property because her marriage to Bones would nullify that.

19. In EKOD we meet Radje and learn of his never ending quest to obtain the power Mencheres received from his sire. Was Mencheres the only vampire who received power from Tenoch? As Vlad and Veritas shared the same sire, did Tenoch will any type of power to them? Also, why isn't Mencheres a Law Guardian?

Tenoch didn’t share his power legacy with anyone except Mencheres. Mencheres isn’t a Law Guardian because he never wanted to be one and thus didn’t go about the process of becoming one. It’s mentioned in EKOD that the process for becoming an Enforcer takes hundreds of years, and that’s a lesser position than a Guardian. So imagine how long it takes to get on the Guardian Council!

20. In DFAEG, Gregor changed Justina. Why did you choose to change her? Is there significance to her being of a different lineage than Mencheres’ line? Was this planned from the beginning?
I always knew Justina wouldn’t remain human and that it wouldn’t be her choice to be turned. For a while, I thought she might become a ghoul if she was mortally wounded and Cat was nearby enough to insist on bringing her back in that form. But when I was writing DFAEG, considering Gregor’s personality, it fit that he’d dream-snatch Justina and turn her into a vampire to torment Cat. So while I’d known all along that Justina would be changed into something, I didn’t know the specifics until I began to write DFAEG.

21. In EKOD, Mencheres and Kira have the following exchange:
“Do I feel too ancient to you now?” he murmured. “Too different from the person you loved before you knew this?”
Her eyes were already glowing green, and her full lips parted. “No, you don’t feel too ancient.” Her voice was husky. “Or too different. You feel like mine. Whoever you were, whoever you are…you’re mine.”
Mencheres smiled, his fangs stretching to their full length. “So you have spoken, so it shall be decreed. For all eternity.”

--Are they married?

This scene shows two people in love devoting themselves to each other, but without the blood-binding ceremony in front of witnesses, it has no legal significance in the undead world.

22. Cat’s clothing is a complete mystery to me. You describe it in such detail, yet I still have a hard time imagining what it looks like. Do you get your fashion inspiration from real life or from your imagination? If from real life, do you have links of what inspired you?

I get her clothes from both real life and imagination. Anytime you walk around in public, or flip channels on the TV, or see a movie, or notice a magazine cover on a stand, you see examples of clothing. Add that to my own twisted mind and there you get Cat’s wardrobe ☺.

23. Cat mentions more than once throughout the books that Bones always chooses more revealing clothing than she would. The dress for the showdown in OFITG was barely there. Her dress at the Christmas party in AGE was very thin and revealing. Both chosen by Bones. I can understand Bones being proud of his beautiful, sexy wife. But, with his intense jealousy, isn't that asking for trouble? In OFITG and AGE he chided Juan for staring at Cat's ass. What's up Bones choosing these revealing dresses?

There’s a big difference between Bones choosing the slutty clothes Cat wore when she was out hunting vampires and what he’s bought her in their personal lives. If you’re trolling for sharks, you cover yourself in chum, not cardboard. So all of Cat’s “work” clothes were picked for the very specific reasons of being best able to lure her targets and to offer her the greatest range of motion when fighting those targets – both of which were accomplished by barely-there outfits. The dress she wore to Ian’s that night was to be distracting – which worked, heh – to have complete range of motion, and to make Ian think that she couldn’t possibly be hiding weapons on herself. Bones was sly enough to know that if Ian was busy looking at Cat’s “assets”, he wouldn’t be giving close attention to her shoes .

The dresses Bones has bought for Cat in their personal lives might still be more revealing than Cat would choose, considering she’s a jeans-and-tee-shirt kinda girl, but they’re not nearly as skimpy as her “work” clothes. Bones loves Cat, thinks she’s beautiful, but he knows she still has a lot of leftover ugly duckling syndrome from how she grew up. So the outfits he’s gotten her are his way of trying to get her to see herself as he does – a beautiful and sexy woman.

As for his jealousy, there’s a difference between admiring someone and openly lusting after that person in full view of their significant other. Bones isn’t jealous of anyone admiring Cat; again, he knows she’s a beautiful woman and so he expects admiring glances. Hell, I can admire a man – or a woman - for being gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean I want to have sex with them, or that I follow around after them with my tongue hanging out . Looking at someone with appreciation for their beauty isn’t disrespectful. Leering at someone in an obvious manner can be. Juan has openly stared at Cat’s ass in revealing clothes and when she’s been in jeans, so Bones took him to task on both occasions. When it comes to leering when it’s obviously not reciprocated, the issue isn’t the clothes – it’s the person who’s staring in a disrespectful way.

24. In EKOD the video of Kira's death and rebirth into the vamp world was leaked and so exposing humans to the reality that they are not alone in the world and most definitely not at the top of the food chain. When Kira went to visit Tina, it seems the police were still searching for her and Mencheres. Though there may have been some resolution to the exposure on the vamp side, being that Mencheres was cleared of the charges, and even though some of the comments on You Tube disregarded the incident and was believed to be fake or role playing, is this something that's going to come back and bite the vampires in the butt? There is still the threat of those humans that do believe. Are Kira and Mencheres still fugitives in the human world? And how about the vials of Mencheres's blood that the police confiscated?

Don’s organization would have handled destroying the evidence of Mencheres’s blood as well as seeing that the charges against Kira were dropped. Remember, Don’s had a lot of experience doing that with all of the other jobs Cat handled for him in the past. As for the threat of some people who believed that video of Kira and Mencheres, well, you could go to YouTube now and see videos of all sorts of paranormal things that may or may not be real. Does that mean you’ll go chasing after those things? And if you do, what happens if you find them, and you’re right? *wink*

25. How do you plan to keep Kira safe now that Wont has to share?

Snort. I don’t worry about Kira. She can take care of herself ☺.


Thanks again Jeaniene for taking the time answer our interview questions. You are the best!

[China Doll]

Thanks so much Jeaniene for taking the time to answer our questions.

[kyatty2007]

Agrees w/China...THANKS Jeaniene for taking the time to answer all our questions!

[uapeople]

Hmmm I wonder is #24 has soemthing to do with poor Timmy coming to search for Cat????

[wonttorit]

Yes, Jeaniene it was wonderful, as always, to be allowed a peek into that.....mind.


Thank you again.

[drea268]

Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you Jeaniene for taking the time to answer all those questions!! You are the best!!

Also, thank you eng for putting them all together in this post to find easily!

We were having storms last night and I got kicked off the internet right after you asked for the first trivia questions and just could not get back online but I had a great time while I was able to be there!! Thanks to all!!!!

[kyatty2007]

Drea--that totally sucks! Hopefully you'll get some time and at least be able to read through the posts.

[Jeaniene_Frost]

Hey, you guys came up with great questions! And I scrolled through the release chat this morning - some hilarious comments!

[KrisM]

Thanks Jeaniene for answering the question and sharing more of the Night HuntressWorld with us!!

[tacobell]

I'm really glad that we now know what's behind Vlad's pyrokinesy. We'd all been wondering so hard about that, lol.