Unhuman Light Archives - Tena Stetler

Apr 25th Interview Chris Stoneheart Author of Unhuman Light

Give a warm welcome to Chris Stoneheart, author of Unhuman Light! Released February 7, 2019.

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 Chris’ Unhuman Light, book on of the Chronicles of the Light.

What inspired this particular story?

This world has been in my head for decades, in one form or another. When you look at the old mythologies, sometimes you can see how old tales from different civilizations are the same story as seen from a different culture. Jupiter and Zeus are the most obvious example, but there are a thousand others. However, in some mythologies, things seem contradictory. The vampire myths, for example. To me, it seems as if there are multiple kinds of vampire, else the mythologies don’t work. So, my story has three species of vampire. Two of the species “die” at dawn, the other can choose when to sleep or be awake but can’t handle direct sunlight. All of them drink blood, of course. One species is evil — the changing process turns them into a monster. The other two can decide whether to be good, evil, or something in between.

Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down?

If an idea comes to me in the middle of the night, I reach for my phone and send myself an email using the speech-to-text feature. More ideas come to me when driving than any other time though, and at least once a week I have to pull over and send myself an email. If I don’t, it’s probably gone forever.

Do you see yourself in your characters?

Write what you know, right? I put pieces of myself into characters, and pieces of family and friends, too. I was once a professional juggler, for instance, and Kaitlin knows how to juggle. I know what learning to juggle does to your brain and your reflexes, so using it in the book was a no-brainer (pardon the pun). Someone I’m close to was adopted from another country, and elements of her personality show up in Lauren’s character. I used to have a mixed-breed dog with a lot of Newf in him, so parts of his personality show up in Shadow, Kaitlin’s Newfoundland dog. I guess it would be more accurate to say that pieces of my life are strewn throughout my books, in no particular order.

What do you want your readers to take away from your books?

I can still remember the magic and awe I felt when I first read Tolkien around forty years ago. I want to give my readers the same feelings. His stories were of middle earth, but they were supposed to be our history. He gave us the original poem that turned into our “and the cow jumped over the moon” tale, and inserted other similar tidbits into his novels. It made his story more real, and there were lots of goose bumps. My books take place in our modern-day world, but I try to make the old mythologies make sense. It’s the reverse of the way he did it, but I hope I can evoke the same basic thoughts and emotions.

The Chronicles of the Light is urban fantasy, but if you enjoy fantasy of any kind, I hope you’ll take a chance and dive into my world.

Tell us a little about Unhuman Light.

Chronicles of the Light, book one…

Bodies keep piling up, but Kaitlin O’Malley refuses to back down, even when threatened by someone once worshipped as a god. Training for a battle between good and evil, she teams up with the Dragon King and a powerful lion, and finds herself protected by a Master Vampire who wants her in his bed.

With a vile enemy ready to destroy her, the men in her life lock her up to keep her safe, but Kaitlin will never let other people fight her battles. She’ll have to break free and venture out on her own, wielding a powerful weapon to protect herself — a weapon her enemies would kill for. To face the enemy alone, Kaitlin must view the world in an Unhuman Light.

In a supernatural battle of magic and strength, can an unlikely human prevail?

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Chapter One

“Aery, I need a shot!” I screamed, holding back the energy pulsing at my fingertips until he was out of the way. The instant he maneuvered to give me a clear path, I unleashed the fiery red energy and watched it streak through the air and slice into the grotesque monster who’d been holding his own in a fight with Aaron Drake.

My power drained from me as it hit our foe in the chest, melting through skin, bone, and more. I lifted my arm a few inches and the caustic light streaking from my hand rose like a laser. When it reached the hideous creature’s throat, I moved my hand right and left until he was decapitated, and then watched in horrified fascination while the body seemed to evaporate before my eyes.

My gaze swung to my friend, and I checked to be sure he was okay. I was used to Aaron totally dominating, no matter the species he was fighting, and the fact he’d maneuvered to give me a clear shot told me the ancient dragonshifter wasn’t sure he could’ve won. My heart settled when I saw he seemed okay. He’s hard to kill, but I had no idea what we’d just fought.

As far as I know, I’m the only person who can get away with a cute nickname for the sexy, tough-as-nails, bad-assed owner of Drake Security, but I never do it around other people. I wouldn’t have said it today while battling an unknown monster, but it slipped out. No problem though, the bad guy seemed to evaporate and turn to smoke once the life force left his body. I usually want to cry after a kill — even when it’s a really bad guy — but not having to look at a body made it easier. Either way, I couldn’t give into the guilt and soul searching until the op was over.

“What was that?” I asked Aaron.

“Not sure,” he said, barely out of breath. “I used to see things kind of like him a few thousand years ago, but not since we entered the Common Era. I’ll send a sketch to a few friends and see if they have any ideas. I was about to shift into dragon form and see if my fire would work, but your laser did the trick.”

I took a breath and pulled energy in from the forest around us. I’d used almost all my reserves with that one shot, and I’d be useless if something else came along. I leaned against a tree and tried to relax in the crisp, autumn air. It’s easier to absorb energy when you’re at peace.

Aaron, of course, noticed. “I can top you up. You know I have plenty.”

I shook my head. “I’m not up for pain right now. Just give me five minutes with a few trees.” I could almost always find an old tree willing to give me energy. It might take a little time, but not as long as gathering it from the air around me. A waterfall would be faster, or even a creek or stream, but I didn’t hear running water.

“I won’t push more in than you can take, not during a mission.” Aaron said. “You used it to save me, the least I can do is top you back up.”

“Okay,” I relented, “but into my hands. I’ll route it to the right chakras.”

He didn’t argue, thank goodness, and held his hands out for me to grasp. I dropped my shields enough to let his energy flow out of his palms and into mine, and as it streamed up my arms and into my body, my heart seemed to need less energy to pump my blood.

I initially routed the power he gifted me to my first two chakras, since I primarily pull from those for my weapon, and then filled the rest. He truly does have plenty, but I never want to get used to depending on him.

During the few minutes Aaron’s energy filled me, I was at one with everything around me — totally at peace with the world, the universe, and perhaps even God. All energy is magic, but Aaron’s is a special kind of magic.

If we were romantically compatible, I’d be madly in love with him, but since we aren’t, he’s one of my best friends. I love him, but it isn’t the girlfriend kind of love.

When I was as full as I could get without feeling pain, I gently let go of his hands. When we do this as an exercise and he’s expanding the volume I can hold, he forces it in long past when I would choose to let go. This hurts about as much as I imagine a lightning strike would, and there’s a lot of screaming and crying involved on my part. I hate acting like a girly-girl, but he assures me he screamed and begged when his reserves were being stretched, too. Of course, that was thousands of years ago, so who could say how much he remembered of the pain?

Today, though, I felt warm and full and loved.

“Thanks,” I told him. Words couldn’t adequately thank him, so the single word would have to do. Besides, we were still on our mission and needed to focus, so I asked, “Do we circle back around and try the mystery cave, or try my idea?” I already knew venturing into the unknown cave wasn’t an option, but hoped he’d consider my Plan B. Aaron hadn’t liked it when I’d proposed it a few hours earlier, but we were running out of options.

He lifted his chin in agreement but showed no emotion. Aaron Drake totally rocks bad-ass. “Let’s pull Nathan in to help,” he answered. “I’m not comfortable using you as human bait with just me as your backup.”

I nodded and leaned against a tree, closed my eyes, and made Aaron’s energy my own while he texted Nathan our coordinates. Nathan wasn’t too far away, but was acting as lookout and would need to put someone in his spot before joining us.

We knew women were being kidnapped and taken to these woods just outside the boundaries of Prentice Cooper State Forest. Aaron is a weredragon and has an exceptionally good sense of smell, which had helped him find the women’s scents, but the trail had ended around ten feet from the cave’s entrance. I’d found narrow wheel marks leading towards the cave, and Aaron scented a few non-human male scents in the same area. Aaron couldn’t identify the species of the non-humans by smell, and wasn’t sure about them now that he’d seen one of them, either.

I theorized they might be putting the women into some sort of cart to get them into the cave, but Aaron didn’t want to go in without knowing what we were walking into. I understood the logic, even if it frustrated me. Still, Aaron was thousands of years old and hadn’t made it this far by being stupid, so I generally listened to his advice. Not always, but usually.

My Plan B had been to send me into the staging area as a bumbling, helpless female making a lot of noise, and hope someone showed up so Aaron could interrogate them and find out what was going on.

However, if we happened upon more of whatever we’d been fighting earlier, I wasn’t sure how we’d question it. Aaron and Nathan in human form and working together could probably subdue one of the creatures, but if more appeared they’d likely be forced to shift into their animal forms. Not a problem for Nathan, who shifted into a lion, but Aaron’s gigantic dragon form was hard to hide, as he tended to knock trees down and create a huge disturbance even when he didn’t take flight. He might’ve gotten away with it a hundred years ago, but with practically every American owning a camera phone today, he wouldn’t risk it.

The creature I’d killed had looked like an amalgamation of goat, ape, and the Incredible Hulk — minus the green. It’d been tan and brown, with long curved horns and vertical slitted eyes with flaming red irises where they should’ve been black. Creepy was an understatement, and he’d scared the bejeebers out of me even before I knew he was almost too much for Aaron to take on in human form.

As a human who can’t magically heal like the shapeshifters, I only use my metaphysical laser to kill from a distance. Attempting to wound a powerful supernatural creature would likely only get me killed, once they saw I was a serious danger. I could cut limbs off with my laser, or deliver a kill shot, but couldn’t do much else. However, we’d need to capture the next one so it could be questioned, which meant I could only act if I thought there was no other choice.

I was full of energy now though, and if I portioned it out I could probably kill two with what Aaron had given me.

Nathan, as always, startled me when he appeared in front of me. He walks as quietly in human form as when he’s a lion, and he’s just as ill-behaved, arrogant, and stubborn as any grumpy house-cat, so we didn’t exactly get along. I trusted him with my life on a mission, I just didn’t like being around him. Too bad he’s gorgeous.

Ignoring the fact he’d startled me, I told the men, “I need to hand off my gun and mags to one of you. The goat monsters will probably be able to smell them, and I’ll lose my helpless female vibe.”

Nathan held his hand out, choosing to remain nonverbal as usual when around me. I held my tongue, pulled my nine millimeter from the bellyband and handed it off, then the three extra magazines. He put my weapon in a zippered pocket on the side of his thigh, and slid my mags into slots on the inside of his military style tech-vest.

No matter how much of an ass he might be, he’s still built like my ideal man and I always have to work to keep from lusting after his more-than-perfect human body. He can smell emotions and physical reactions, and I endeavored to give him nothing. It was more likely he didn’t care what I thought or felt, but just in case he did, I wanted to keep as much feedback from him as possible.

We were about a half mile from the staging area Aaron had found, and I started walking to it, knowing Aaron would map out a plan with Nathan and they’d both be in position long before I arrived.

Walking away from them, through the woods, towards danger without my gun was terrifying, but I breathed through my fear and tried to keep my physiological reactions to a minimum. Both for my own pride, to keep Aaron and Nathan from smelling my fear, but also because it wouldn’t do for the goat-people to know I was terrified before I saw them. A lost human can be expected to smell a little scared, but not out-of-her-mind frightened.

About the Author:

Chris Stoneheart lives in a fifty-year-old house smack dab in the middle of The South, with what promises to soon be a full-fledged herd of retired racing greyhounds. Chris read The Hobbit in elementary school, and The Lord of the Rings in middle school, and has been addicted to fantasy ever since. (It’s probably best we don’t talk about what Chris read in high school.)

Chronicles of the Light gives us a world where weredragons, werewolves, werelions, three different species of vampires, and a variety of other mythological beings exist.

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It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Unhuman Light!

Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Chris Stoneheart. Chronicles of the Light, Unhuman Light, Urban Fantasy by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Feb 8th Release Day Blitz Unhuman Light by Chris Stoneheart

Welcome Chris Stoneheart author of Unhuman Light for a release day blitz!

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 Chris and Unhuman Light! Pssst…. Make sure you read all the way to the end and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

What inspired this particular story?

So many things came together to create this universe. Shared mythologies in cultures across the world has to mean there’s something to the myths – right? So, my muse tried to figure out how those not-so-mythological beings might have adapted to live in our modern world, where a huge percentage of humans have a camera phone ready to document anything unnatural. Not that I believe werewolves and vampires are real, but if they were, pretending to be human would be more important than ever in our modern world. Vampires, werewolves, and the members of the various pantheons — what might their lives look like today?

And what about dragons? How were they never real? And what if there were shapeshifter dragons who survived after all of the real ones were killed? How would they survive when their species doesn’t exist anymore?

What do you want your readers to take away from your books?

I want them to question their reality a little, to think a little deeper about society and its rules — and why we have them.

Is it possible to pull from the theories of Einstein and Joseph Campbell in a single book/series, without making it so heavy it’s no longer entertainment? My readers will have to be the judge of whether I pulled it off.

Mostly, I want to entertain them. I want them to come away from my novels thinking about the characters and plot, and what might happen in future books.

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

It’s all Tolkien’s fault. He’s the one who made me question whether the trees are sentient, and if so, whether some might be jealous of the mobile life forms. Also, elves and dwarves and giant spiders, not to mention wizards who can work magic. We got to know Gandalf the grandfatherly-type before we saw the scary side of him, and that made an impact on me in elementary school, when I first read The Hobbitt. Then, when I read The Lord of the Rings in middle school, I was officially a fan of fantasy. I’ve had this series and these characters in my head for decades, and I’m thrilled I can finally share them.

Thanks so much for having me on the blog today! If readers want to find Unhuman Light, they can go to: https://books2read.com/unhumanlight

A little about Unhuman Light, Chronicles of the Light-Book One an urban fantasy!

In a supernatural battle of magic and strength, can an unlikely human prevail?

Books2Read Amazon Kobo

About the Author:

Chronicles of the Light gives us a world where weredragons, werewolves, werelions, three different species of vampires, and a variety of other mythological beings exist.

ARE YOU STALKING ME? You should be! Come find me!

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