Hello everyone!
I was recently asked by Kira Adams to participate in a Saturday Spotlight feature. I answered some fun Q&A and released my draft blurb for the Horsewomen of the Apocalypse. See below for a snippet or check out Kira's blog for the full interview. http://kristakakes.blogspot.com/2021/11/spotlight-saturday-gh-brookhorn.html
What inspired you to write The Four HorseWomen of the Apocalypse?
I love the idea of twisting well-known mythologies and stories and making them my own. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse has always intrigued me; four creatures who storm across Earth and cause the very Apocalypse, is just up my street.
I am also a feminist and love women dominated stories. When those two ideas clashed, The HorseWomen were born! Honestly as soon as it did, the ideas rushed at me and I had to write them down. The main theme being: How pissed off and annoyed these deities would be that all of Humanity thinks they’re men!
War fought her way out first being the most forthright, then Pestilence, Death, then finally Famine, who again, just blew out of me and onto the paper. I can’t control them! They are four outspoken and feisty divas.
It is a collection of short stories; each HorseWoman gets their own 10k story and they all get their HEAs at the end of their individual story.
They are fast burn, steamy, sweary and hopefully funny too.
However, I struggled to contain them to these short stories alone. They were originally meant to be a standalone collection, but as I wrote them, a whole other background plot grew and grew, and this collection finishes on an open ending. I am currently writing the companion novel, tentatively called—'The Apocalypse, but not as we know it.’ to complete their arc.
I aim to have them out in the next few months, so watch this space and sign up to my non-spammy newsletter to keep up with progress!
Who is your favourite author? My favourite author is KF Breene. I love her books, her style, the snarky yet somehow vulnerable characters she creates. The worlds she spins and crafts. As a bookworm child, my favourite author was Roald Dahl. Particularly the book Matilda. I read it at least once a month for YEARS!!! She is where my love for independent, outspoken female characters comes from. Matilda 4eva!!! Hahaha Anything else in the works apart from The Horsewomen? ‘Dreams in Reality’ is what started me on my writing adventure and I will go back to it once I have completed the HorseWomen. The kernel for the idea hit me a long time ago, and it whirred around my head for years before I decided to start writing it. Since that original draft, it has gone through so many versions and I have learnt so much that it is barely recognisable as the same story now! I changed tense, POV, everything! To the point where I’ve had to rewrite large parts completely, but I love the story as much now as I did at the beginning and I want to get it right, so postponing it to give me time to work on it some more, was the right thing to do. The original inspiration was my sister. She has schizophrenia and at a point when she was in and out of hospitals being sectioned constantly, my Mum and I had a wistful sort of conversation along the lines of: “What if…What if she isn’t ill. What if she is seeing actual reality and it’s us who cannot see clearly?” The idea stuck and I loved the idea of re-writing her real-life story to a story where she is the hero, where she gets all the things in her life she has been denied because of her ongoing illness. Simple things we all generally take for granted; a true loyal friend, who would break the world, only for you. A partner in life who loves you no matter what. Freedom, both in society and in your own mind.
The idea worked for my preferred genre – Paranormal Romance, and I went with it! I have already written book 2 of this series and book 3 keeps rumbling in the back of my mind, building ideas.
Pantser or Plotter? Definite pantser here. Although I do try to plot some of the important points. Does that count as a mixture?! What are some writing goals you have? I try not to set concrete goals, otherwise I end up getting anxious about meeting my own goals and then get in my head. It’s a vicious circle!! In general, though, I just want a few people to read my books and laugh along with the ridiculous parts, cry along with the sad bits and melt at the spicy ones. …Making a little bit of cash wouldn’t hurt either!!! If you had to have lunch with one of your characters, which one? Can I cheat and say Bob and Junie from Dreams in Reality? Their fierce female friendship is one of the most important aspects of the story (as well as Junie and Caleb’s romantic relationship). I love strong female friendships who support each other to the end. To me it can be as heart-melty as a romantic relationship. Other than those two, I would love to have lunch with War. Whether I’d make it through without being run through with a sword I dunno! It would add an element of danger to the cucumber finger sandwich buffet we are attending though!
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