Hey folks, my name is James A. Hunter and I’m an Urban
Fantasy writer, not that you’ll catch me making that confession in public. I’m
the author of the Golem Chronicles—starring a dysfunctional, socially awkward, vigilante,
shapeshifting golem—and the Yancy Lazarus series, which revolves around
the adventures and various shenanigans of Yancy Lazarus, a magical, wet-works
man turned rambling blues hound. I’d like to thank Fang-tastic books for
inviting me on.
Is the setting to your story important?
Oh,
absolutely. As a fantasy writer, I’m a natural world builder, and I love
expanding the often-bizarre universe Lazarus
is forced to trek through in his ass-backward attempts to save the world. The
setting is contemporary and urban with supernatural and fantastical creatures
from a wide array of backgrounds hiding in plain sight. There is also a
supernatural realm, Outworld, which exists on a different plane, but which can
be accessed by traveling through a shady, otherworldly city known as the Hub.
My books draw from a lot of different mythologies and feature creatures you’re
not likely to find elsewhere.
Did you always want to be a writer? If not what did
you want to be?
I
never honestly thought I’d end up as a full-time writer. After high-school I
went into the Marine Corps and it wasn’t until my first deployment to Iraq that
I discovered the pleasure in storytelling. I played around as a writer, doing
it on and off during my time in the service, but never really thought it would
amount to anything. After my time in service, I eventually went back to school
and received a degree in theology, then went to the mission field with my
family, which is what I thought I
would do as a career. But I kept writing, writing, writing, and finally
published my first novel in 2015—which ended up being pretty successful (at
least by my standards). When my family transitioned back to the states for
health reasons, I had an awesome new career to fall back on.
When did you first consider yourself a “writer”?
For
me, anyone who enjoys writing—whether published or not—is a writer. Poems,
short stories, flash fiction, novels. Whatever. If you write, then you’re a
writer. Period. So even when I was scratching out my first, terrible stories as
a Marine deployed in Iraq, I considered myself a writer.
What were your goals as an author and have any of
them come true?
I’ve
found that setting goals and bench marks is really important for authors—particularly,
because writing is such a stupendously subjective business. You need to
realistically define success, so you can constantly evaluate where you’re at on
your own journey. For me, selling 10,000 copies in the first year was a huge
dream come true (I’d expected to sell 100 copies, so this blew me out of the
water), and when I could quit my job to write full time a year after publishing
my first book, I was thrilled. Now, I just want to continue living the dream,
continue to improve my craft, and continue to make fans happy with the quality
of my books.
Is there a genre you haven’t written in that one day
you’d like to tackle?
Right
now my mainstay genre is urban/dark fantasy in all its wonderful and morbid
forms. Originally, though, I started out writing horror novels and short
stories and someday I may swing back that way. I plan to release a short-story
horror collection in early 2017. I also have an idea for a more traditional
high-fantasy, which I would like to get around to writing one day, but for now
gritty urban fantasy is my bread and butter.
What was the first book you ever published?
The
first book I ever published was Strange Magic, the first book in my
Yancy Lazarus series. Cold Hearted is the second full length Lazarus novel, followed
by Wendigo Rising, with a fourth book due out this September (plus a couple of
novellas, which are also available now).
Cold Hearted: A Yancy Lazarus Novel
The Yancy Lazarus Series
Episode 2
James A. Hunter
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Shadow Alley Press
Date of Publication: May 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-1514234266
ASIN: B00WDQCY30
Number of pages: 415
Word Count: 111,000
Cover Artist: Dane, EbookLaunch.com
Book Description:
PRAISE FOR COLD HEARTED:
Yancy Lazarus is back and facing off against his most dangerous foe yet—without the benefit of his magic. A breakneck thriller that'll keep you turning the pages!
—Sam Witt, Author of Half-Made Girls (Pitchfork County Novels)
Yancy Lazarus just wants to be left alone. He wants to play his blues music, smoke a few cigarettes, and otherwise leave the supernatural world to fend for itself.
He especially wants to be left alone by the Guild of the Staff—the mage ruling body—where he used to work as a Fix-It man. But when a little kid gets nabbed by an ancient Fae creature from the nether regions of Winter and the Guild refuses to set things right, he just can’t seem to heed good sense and leave things be.
Nothing’s ever easy though. Turns out, the kidnapping is just the tip of one big ol’ iceberg of pain and trouble. It seems some nefarious force is working behind the scenes to try and unhinge the tenuous balance between the supernatural nations and usher in a new world order. So now, if Yancy ever hopes to see the bottom of another beer bottle, he’s gonna have to partner up with an FBI agent—an agent who’s been hunting him for years—in order to bring down a nigh-immortal, douchebag mage from a different era. And to top it off, Yancy’s gonna have to pull it off without his magical powers … Boy, some days just aren’t worth getting out of bed for.
CHAPTER ONE:
Spelunking
The tunnel
stretched out before me like the throat of some monstrous serpent, icy blue
walls radiating pale witchlight to guide my feet. I shuffled along the winding
pathway, trying for speed and failing miserably. There was snow underfoot, but
the powder was often interspersed with patches of slick ice, which made the
going treacherous as hell. It didn’t help a lick that my feet were so numb I
couldn’t feel my toes, even though I had on heavy boots and thermal socks.
Every friggin’ step felt like a crapshoot and I wasn’t quite sure how the dice
would land.
I heard a howl
from somewhere back in the darkness, a warbling noise that echoed and bounced
around the narrow tunnel. I glanced back for a moment, which is precisely when
my feet skidded out from under me and I went down hard, my ass connecting on
the slippery ground below. My hip ached from the tumble, but at least my head
landed in a pile of snow instead of on hard ground. I lay there for a moment,
staring up at the curved ceiling, simmering in indignation.
Why me? Why
couldn’t I ever just keep my head down and mind my own friggin’ business? I
felt like kicking my own ass for being such a gullible, softhearted mook. Shit,
the least I could do was be a little more selective. Tell people I’d only do
them favors if the location was somewhere nice and beautiful … like say, sunny,
sandy, not-cold-as-balls Honolulu.
I guess,
technically, Thurak-Tir—home to the High Fae of the Winterlands—was a
beautiful-ish place, so long as you’re the kind of person who doesn’t mind the
arctic tundra of Siberia. The buildings are impressive at least: slick spires
of frost, carved and sculpted into a thousand wonders; a house fashioned to
resemble a frozen waterfall; a palace made of snow and crystalline-rime in the
image of Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life; a tower in the shape of a serpentine
neck, complete with scales, topped by a massive dragon’s head. Under the light
of day, the whole city sparkles like a diamond, and at night beautiful slashes
of green and gold drift through the air, a semi-permanent Aurora Borealis.
But it’s also
piss-freezing cold and only beautiful in the way a statue is—lifeless, still,
too perfect. And the residents are all the same. Bunch of too-good-for-you,
cold-hearted pricks. I absolutely hate Thurak-Tir. Give me a warm New Orleans
night in a dirty bar with a crowd of shit-faced hobos any day of the week.
Down in the
subterranean caverns below the city, where I happened to be trudging around,
was even worse. Monsters, spirits, and a whole lot of frigid air. The light of
day never penetrated these depths, so the cold … well, the cold seemed both
malevolent and alive, like some frostbite-belching yeti.
More yowls and
howls, followed by cackling laughter: Ice gnomes—not nearly as cute or cuddly
as they sound—closing in, and fast. Time to move.
I scrambled onto
my hands and knees, gaining my feet like a clumsy toddler taking his first
steps, and shambled away from the chorus of mocking laughter. Creepy little
twerps.
If I was going
to make it out of this place in one piece, I needed better lighting.
Thankfully, I’ve got something a little handier than a flashlight. I can do
magic, and not the cheap stuff you see in Vegas with flowers or floating cards
or disappearing stagehands. People like me, who can touch the Vis, can do real
magic. Although magic isn’t the right word—magic is a Rube word for those not
in-the-know. Users just call it the Vis, an old Latin word meaning force or
energy. Simply put, there are energies out there, underlying matter, existence,
and in fact, all Creation. It just so happens that I can manipulate that
energy. Period. End of story.
I paused for a
moment, and opened myself to the Vis. Power rolled into me like magma from an
active volcano, heat and life and energy filling me up, sending renewed
strength into my limbs. I was careful only to draw a little and push the rest
away—unchecked, the Vis can be as seductive and dangerous as a beautiful woman
with a grudge.
Weaves of fire
and air flowed out around me as I shaped that raw force; a soft nimbus of
orange light encircled me, granting both better visibility and a small pocket
of comforting warmth. Sure, it would make me stand out like a dirty redneck at
a posh country club, but there was nothing I could do about that.
I got moving
again, huffing and puffing my way along. More frenzied cries floated toward me
from the tunnel twisting away behind. I needed to move faster, but the gloom
still hampered my progress, forcing me to slow down and take my time. Even with
the combined illumination from my construct and the ghostly witchlight bleeding
from the walls, I could only see a few feet out. This was a night place, a dark
place that fought the intrusion of light and heat with tooth and nail.
Even going
sloth-speed, I almost didn’t see the cliff until my feet were over the edge. I
hollered and threw on the brakes in a panic—digging in with my heels and
pinwheeling my arms as I fell once more onto my back. I landed with a whuff of
expelled air and immediately sprawled out my arms and legs. The greater surface
area seemed to slow me down a little, but not enough. My legs skittered over
the side, drawing me onward and downward. I clawed at the unyielding ice with
numb fingers, my thin winter gloves making it all the more difficult.
I pulled more
power, more Vis, into my body, and pushed thin strands of fire out through my
fingertips. Small divots blossomed into the ice-covered surface of the floor,
little grooves where my digits could find purchase.
Unfortunately my
gloves began to smolder from the flame, the leather sending up curls of gray
smoke. I ignored the heat—survival was my first priority. I dug in, giving it
everything I had, arms and hands straining with the effort.
At last I
skidded to a halt, my slide coming to a premature stop though it was a damn
close thing. The tension in my arms and hands eased up as I slowly, carefully,
pulled my hips and legs back from the drop-off, though my feet still dangled
out in the air. Past the drop-off was blackness all the way down with no bottom
in sight. Admittedly, the soft glow surrounding my body didn’t do much to
diminish the gloom. Hell, the bottom could’ve been ten feet down or ten
thousand. Better not to find out by taking a leap.
My heart thudded
hard against my ribs. I’m not exactly afraid of heights, mind you, but anyone
would be apprehensive about the prospect of careening off a cliff into
potentially unending blackness. I took one more glance over the edge and
uttered a sigh of relief. Whew. Dodged a bullet there.
I heard a hoot
of mirth just a second before something hard and heavy collided into my back—a
wallop right between my aching shoulder blades.
My fingers tore
free of their meager holds and over the drop-off I went, manic gnome laughter
filling my ears as I fell. I tumbled down and down, flipping through the air
like a fumbled football. I caught just a brief glimpse of a short, knobby form
peering over the edge, his whole stumpy body shaking as he cackled. Asshole
gnomes.
I lashed out
with air—great columns of the stuff—directed down to slow my descent. That was
a start, but the construct wouldn’t keep me from getting impaled on a giant
icicle or busting my guts open on a rocky outcropping.
So next, I
pulled in strands of artic cold, weaves of spirit and reinforced bands of fae
power, floating through the air like so much dust. A shimmering bubble of
green—shifting from emerald to pine to jade and back again—snapped into place
with an effort of will, encompassing me in a tight globe of power, exerting a slight
pressure on my body. A small safeguard against pointy things and an air pocket
to cushion my body from the inevitable impact.
Splash-thud.
About the Author:
Hey all, my name is James Hunter and I’m a writer, among other things. So just a little about me: I’m a former Marine Corps Sergeant, combat veteran, and pirate hunter (seriously). I’m also a member of The Royal Order of the Shellback—’cause that’s a real thing. I’ve also been a missionary and international aid worker in Bangkok, Thailand. And, a space-ship captain, can’t forget that.
Okay … the last one is only in my imagination.
Currently, I’m a stay at home Dad—taking care of my two kids—while also writing full time, making up absurd stories that I hope people will continue to buy. When I’m not working, writing, or spending time with family, I occasionally eat and sleep.
You can visit me to find out more at www.JamesAHunter.wordpress.com
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