Tag: Evander

Gabriel and Evander – Character Sketches

Miranda TurnerLeave a comment

I recently commissioned Sarah Jo Chreene to create line drawings of Gabriel and Evander, and she went above and beyond. They’re gorgeous! I’ve typed up character sketches to go along with them and share with you all. You can find Sarah Jo Chreene’s page here.

Gabriel Sinclair

Description:

6 feet tall, long dark hair, swimmers build, changeable eyes (violet, blue, gray), graceful, pale skinned, 28-years-old, androgynous, high cheekbones, full lips, arched brows, stubborn jaw

Character traits:

self-sacrificing, snarky, damaged, dominant (but not a jerk about it), fights for the underdog, his mouth gets him in trouble, smart, powerful, trained fighterNotes: Only half-angelus/half-daemon to ever exist, considered an enemy of both as he’s an abomination, the Creator assigned him mentors, one Daemon and one Angelus

Background:

Abandoned in an alley as little more than a toddler, Gabriel was taken in by a Catholic orphanage. Until the age of seven when a priest tried to kill him due to his unnatural traits and a belief he was possessed and needed an exorcism, he lived with the nuns and the other children who came and went from the orphanage. During the exorcism, Gabriel’s powers acted to protect him and flashed him into an alley where a dark mage was waiting for him, having been searching for a power source for a long time.

The following six years of his life were spent as a prisoner (more details in the books), and he was abused regularly. At the age of thirteen, he was rescued by the archangel Michael and was promptly introduced to the Daemon Barabbas, both of whom became honorary uncles and mentors for the young halfling. They trained him to survive at all costs, and he spent the next fifteen years dodging agents of both the Light and the Darkness and fighting them off when necessary for survival. 

At the age of twenty-eight, he was once again forced to change his life when Michael showed up with a team of Bellators, agents of the Light, and a mission for him. There is, of course, a prophecy. 

Father: Daemon Prince, once second to only Lucifer himself, seriously evil

Mother: details currently unknown, Angelus, one of the only females

Other information:

When his story begins, he is fully suppressing his dark side using pain as a coping mechanism. He must feed on blood as well as regular food to maintain full strength, though he does this as little as possible causing his true power levels to be masked. He has only killed in defense of himself or others and remembers every kill.

Evander Ryan

Description:

6’5″, brown hair, green eyes, tanned skin, muscular build, classically handsome

Character Traits:

Arrogant, Leader, Strong, Organized (until Gabriel throws him off), Strategist, Narrow-minded, Believes his own hype, ignorant when it comes to interpersonal relationships, an idiot when it comes to Gabriel

Background:

Evander is the last of the Creator’s handcrafted Bellators brought into being centuries after the others who the Creator had long since granted the ability to find mates and procreate, sustaining future generations on their own. Something of a favorite of the Creator, he was very sheltered and kept ignorant of a lot of the world in effort to create a “perfect” Bellator. (More about Evander’s background in book 2!)

Other Information:

most powerful Sustainer in history, leader of the most powerful Bellator group, Gabriel’s sodalis vitae (life/soul mate)

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into Gabriel and Evander!

The End of a Chapter

Miranda TurnerLeave a comment

When I first became a member of this community of authors, writing professionals, and fans, I was a reader, and I always will be. As I got more involved in the community, I slowly began to become a Beta reader and even had the nickname “The Plot Doctor” for a while. Upon the realization that I was to become a single mother of eight (I mean, I knew how many kids I had. It was the single part that was a surprise.), I moved to full time editing work. But in my heart of hearts, I was always a writer.

Yesterday, I posted on Facebook that I was shutting down my editing business. I’m keeping a select few long term clients so that I’ll be editing at most two books a month. This way, I will have time to write and be a mom, not just some sort of editing gremlin who never sleeps and is always grumpy and often sick. Plus, I need downtime too. I just have to make it through this month, which is frankly going to be hell.

This month I have five books on my editing schedule, not to mention edits on my own book will be returned to me. I already had to push my book release back because of editing work and the crazy amount of illness that has occurred in my home this winter. Not only were the kids dropping left and right, but my health was compromised by the crazy schedule I was keeping and trying to care for my family at the same time. It was this that ultimately led to my decision to shut it all down and focus on my number one passion: writing.

Starting in May, I will have at most two books (maybe three on occasion) on my schedule for edits, leaving me plenty of time to craft my own stories. Getting book two of The Bearer of Truth series done has been a nightmare. Add to that the normal impostor syndrome, worries about how readers are going to take the book, some feedback that shook me for a while, and I had a soup of self-doubt, anxiety, and depression just waiting to drown me. But, ultimately, I pulled up my big girl pants and made some changes to the story, though not too many. I have to write what is in my heart and go where my characters lead. I have beta feedback to go through and edits are coming, and I know I will put out the best version of the story possible.

This book isn’t about the fluffy love stuff. Book one wasn’t really either, which is why it wasn’t marketed as a romance but an urban fantasy. This series is slow burn when it comes to the romance. They have more important things to accomplish, and let’s face it, Gabriel and Evander aren’t getting anywhere near a healthy relationship until they can take the time to work on it, and time is something they just don’t have right now. Plus, they’re both kind of assholes sometimes.

I hope you all will stick with me through their journey. It’s filled with many perils and a lot of heartbreak, but I promise it’ll be worth it in the end.

Surviving the Shadows – The Bearer of Truth – Book 2

In other news, I have a tentative release date of May 6th for Surviving the Shadows. I will be doing a preorder once again, and it should be up before the original release date since I had promo already scheduled all around that date. When the preorder link is live, I will release the full cover, but for now, here’s a cover tease and the edited and reedited blurb. Blurbs are hard. lol

Blurb – Surviving the Shadows

Gabriel has been gone longer than predicted, and Evander is growing increasingly worried each day that passes without his return. Confounded by their leaders’ lack of answers, Evander and the team begin to fear the worst.

In the midst of fruitlessly searching Miami for clues to the Daemon Abaddon’s whereabouts, Evander begins to have disturbingly vivid dreams. With a little help from a newly-returned and empty-handed Michael and Barabbas, Evander discovers Gabriel has been calling out for help across their nascent bond. With a little backup from an unlikely source, they set off to rescue Gabriel from the depths of the Underworld.

Gabriel is old friends with torture, and his captors haven’t been gentle. Despite growing weaker every day, Gabriel resolves to survive long enough for rescue, or to die fighting, until a Dark Seer begins to dredge up the terror of Gabriel’s horrific childhood, threatening to destroy his mind and soul. Nearing the end, Gabriel manages a last-ditch effort to contact help, reaching out to Evander in his dreams.

Against all odds, Evander and the team fight through the Underworld to reach Gabriel, and come face to face with mortality. Sacrifices made for the bonds of brotherhood nearly break them, and Gabriel learns the hard way that embracing the darkness while fighting for the light may be the only way to survive.

From the underbelly of Reno to the glitz and glam of Vegas, Gabriel, Evander, and the men they call family will be tested, and the final confrontation with Gabriel’s maker may be the end of everything they hold dear.

 Surviving the Shadows is an LGBTQ urban fantasy with a romantic subplot. It is a direct sequel to Shadowing the Light and reading the first book in the series is essential to enjoying this one. Please see the disclaimer on the Copyright Page for content advisories.

Updates and More Fun BoT Insights

Miranda TurnerLeave a comment

Hello everyone! Sorry the post is so late this week. It’s been a wild one with a holiday Monday, snow days, and sick kids. So let’s get to it.

Updates

A Blaze in the Dark is with my editor after it was approved by both my alpha reader and a beta reader. It looks like February 7th is definitely the publication date. I’m still waiting on the cover, but as soon as it’s done, I’ll do a cover reveal. This story is in the Bearer of Truth world, but you don’t have to read it to keep up with the BoT books, though I did put some fun clues in it for those who do! You also don’t have to read the BoT books to understand what is going on in this novella. It’s more of a romance than the BoT series because the focus is on Antonio and Bain’s relationship.

I’m currently back to work on book 2 in The Bearer of Truth series. I need everything I’ve already written fixed up for my new direction before Wednesday when I’m renting a place to be alone for a few days and write. I’m really excited about this book, and I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as you enjoyed the first book. Again, this will be romance light as Gabriel and Evander are on a journey to making their relationship work, but it is not at the forefront of the story. The main story line is about what they’re trying to accomplish in the world as a team and who Gabriel is. But, for those of you who want to throat punch Evander, he is going to make some important positive steps.

Also, I’m going to give this blog more structure, so here is my proposed schedule:

Me Monday – This will be personal posts including author stuff or any subject I choose to discuss.

Watch Out Wednesday – Book Recs and Reviews

Fantasy Friday – Delving into the lore of my worlds or any other Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi subject

Gabriel, Evander, & Series Direction

This is another post that was previously posted on the blog tour but I edited it a bit and cleaned it up. I wanted to share the information here too. Next week will be an entirely new post about how the immortal warriors fell from grace.

A lot of what I know about my characters and world can’t be shared yet since I’ve only released the first book and it’s a planned five book series. I don’t want to spoil anything. So, I’m going to give you a little insight into Evander and Gabriel and why they avoided each other for so long. Also, some information about the mate bond.

I think it’s hard to strike the right balance when you’re writing a series following the same two main characters stretching over several books. We often want the characters to change quickly, to get better and become better people immediately because seeing that change is so satisfying and being able to point at exactly what changed them makes us feel like there’s a chance it can really happen. But my guys aren’t so easy, unfortunately. They are, in fact, stubborn.

Gabriel is a good guy at heart, but he’s damaged. He has a dark past we don’t know anything about (yet), and it still affects his present. He’s very clearly a good person, but he’s closed off, doesn’t trust anyone, and too apt to use his tongue as a weapon. Evander is arrogant and has made the mistake of believing his own hype. He’s sheltered, ignorant of the real world, and even worse, doesn’t care to learn, and his team isn’t much better. They’ve been living in an isolated location, some of them for decades, only leaving when sent on missions individually or as a team. They didn’t even take the time to really get to know each other outside of the superficial.

Evander and Gabriel have known they were mates for a few years, but they have been very careful not to establish any type of real connection between them. You can feel the mate bond’s pull, but without acknowledgement or feeding it by getting to know each other, it can be ignored and will have very few real consequences. Or at least the one’s it did have both Evander and Gabriel were willing to put up with; though they each had their own reasons for doing so. They were still able to fight on opposing sides; Evander was still able to try to kill Gabriel, or at least he believed he could. He never really wondered why he kept coming close but never finished the job. At the start of the first book, they can no longer avoid one another and have to function in each other’s orbit. That’s when things get interesting because the pull gets stronger, and the true side effects of an incomplete mate bond start to show.  

That being said, the romantic element of this book is merely a subplot. The main focus is on their mission as a team, building relationships within the team, and the other strange occurrences that are happening all around them. They are trying to complete their mission and figure out what is happening on earth. Are all the things they keep stumbling upon just coincidences, or are they all connected? Is there a master plan, or have they been sent on a wild goose chase? What do their leaders know that they don’t? What is Gabriel truly capable of? Along with many, many more questions, some of which will be answered in this book, but most will be answered as the series goes along. I hope to answer enough of these questions in each book that they feel like a satisfying read by the end even if it’s obvious there’s more to come.

If you haven’t read it yet and would like to check it out, you can find Shadowing the Light at this universal link.