Nikki Richard Archives - Tena Stetler

Sep 26th Interview Nikki Z. Richard Author of Demon in the Whitelands

Give a warm welcome to Nikki Z Richard, author of Demon in the Whitelands.

Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Nikki and Demon in the Whitelands! Pssst… Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter at the end of this post!

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been writing creatively (in some form) since I was in middle school. I started out mostly writing sappy emo poetry and vampire stories, none of which will ever see the light out day. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I decided I wanted to be a novelist. I love books. I love stories. There’s nothing else I enjoy more than writing.

Do you see yourself in your characters?

It’s an old writer’s cliché, but I always see aspects of myself in every character I create. I’ve felt, thought, witnessed, and experienced a lot of great and awful things in my life. I also probably spend way too much time imagining what I would do in hypothetical situations, like living in a post-apocalyptic world. When I write, in some egotistical form or another, I am writing about myself.

Why do you write what you write? Contemporary, paranormal, suspense, etc

I am a dystopian literature fiend. From Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Game, I fell in love with any story set in a post-apocalyptic world. There are so many interesting things that can happen in an advanced society that has somehow regressed to primal acts of violence. I also love writing about teens and young people, maybe because I still think I am one. For Demon in the Whitelands, I wanted to write a dystopian series about a young person who struggles to find his identity (religious, sexual, moral) in a world where his father’s religion is used by the ruling class as a tool of oppression.

If writing is your first passion, what is your second?

Music! I’ve been in punk, metal, church, and emo bands since I was thirteen. At the moment, I play bass and sing in a pizza-punk band, Infinite Pizza. Music is one of my favorite things. I usually can’t write unless I have my headphones in blasting tunes. (Tunes…I’m so old.)

A little about Demon in the Whitelands, Book One

Sixteen-year-old Samuel, son of a devout cleric, has endured shame and prejudice his entire life. Though he is destined to follow in his father’s footsteps, he longs for an ordinary life in the whitelands away from talk of demons and holy roots.

When the mayor claims to have captured a mute demon-girl, Samuel is forced to become her caretaker. But as Samuel gets to know the prisoner, he finds her not to be very demonlike. Instead, she is intelligent, meek, and an exceptional artist. Despite her seeming goodness, some more concerning things cannot be ignored. Samuel is hard-pressed to reconcile her uncanny strength and speed, one missing arm, ambiguous gender, and the mysterious scars covering most of her body.

Samuel forms a deep attachment to the girl with predator eyes and violent outbursts, against his father’s advice. As their friendship threatens to become something more, Samuel discovers the mayor’s dark intentions. Now, he must decide whether to risk his own execution by setting her free, or watch as the girl is used as a pawn in a dangerous game of oppression, fear, and murder.

Amazon

Excerpt:

After a while,
the buck quieted its struggle. It panted wildly, its dark tongue hanging out
the crack of its mouth. Samuel got to his knees, drawing closer. The deer
twisted its neck in horror, its dark eyes watching him. They were wide and
black. The eyes of prey.

Samuel reached
inside his jacket and got the knife.

“It’s okay,” he
said softly as he straddled the deer’s torso, making sure to fully secure him
underneath his legs. The buck’s muscles twitched, but the creature could do
nothing. How had the girl felt when she’d been caught in the bear trap, iron
teeth snapping into her leg? Like the buck? Did she think she’d be free?
Somehow, he couldn’t picture her as a deer. She was more like a scrappy wolf
cub.

Or a demon.

About the Author:

Nikki Richard is a sensitive queer writer with moods and coping mechanisms. An MFA graduate from the University of Baltimore, she lives in the city with her hot wife, amazing daughter, and fluffy cat.

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