Can you tell readers a little bit about
yourself and what inspired to write in this particular genre?
I’m
Valerie Storm! I’ve been writing for 20 years, and have always been heavily
inspired by video games and anime. That was what started me in Young Adult
Fantasy – I was always drawn to fantasy stories, especially involving demons or
supernatural dark forces (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Disgaea). The very
first story I ever wrote was a fanfic of Kingdom Hearts wherein my friends and
I got elemental swords and were sent off to save the world, usually from other video
game characters.
Young Adult has always been a special place for me as a reader; I loved reading even at a young age, but, as with many, many others, my life changed when I read Harry Potter. I wanted to replicate that kind of world-breaking story, and I wanted to do it better (especially when I got older and realized just how much retconning happened). Now, here I am: on the third out of eight books for my Demon Storm series!
What inspired you to write this
book?
The Storm
Darkens was purely inspired by my love for villains, body possession, and
hopelessness. I always loved when villains knocked the heroes down to the dirt
in the most despicable ways. In a way, this described most of the books in my
series, for that matter.
In particular, for The Storm Darkens, I think of
Inuyasha: Affections Touching Across Time, where Kagome loses control of her
body and is forced to attack Inuyasha. I LOVED that as an idea, and so The
Storm Darkens grew into existence…though I won’t tell you who’s attacking who, or
just how it goes. In the end, I think The Storm Darkens was a way for me to
flex Raven’s powers, malice, and cruelty, while also expanding on her as a
character in a way I didn’t get to in Storm and Shadow.
Please tell us about your latest
release.
The Storm
Darkens is the third book in my Demon Storm series. As usual, it follows Kari and
Ari, freshly reunited after the events of Birth of the Storm and Storm &
Shadow. However, the villain Raven – who attempted to turn Kari’s attentions
away from love and toward power – is back and ready to try again. The Storm
Darkens, perhaps as evident by its title, is definitely a turning point toward
the dark.
For a long time, this
was one of my stops in my writing career. I got to a certain point and had no
idea where it needed to go – I only had the vibes of Raven’s dastardly plans to
go off of. Within the last ten years or so, I broke that slump and did so much
more with this book than I had ever hoped. I hope readers will see that and
love this book as much as I do now.
Do you have a special formula for creating
characters' names? Do you try to match a name with a certain meaning to
attributes of the character or do you search for names popular in certain time
periods or regions?
This
varies on my intent with the character. A side character – Julia – was named after
a Julia in Okage: Shadow King that I hated SO DEARLY, I made my own Julia just
to make her miserable (at least, that was my intent in the beginning).
Other times, I’ll look
at name meanings that match the attributes of the character. Sometimes this can be
simple things like storm, evil, lightning, shadow…I’ve used mishmashes of Latin
words to make character names (a prequel character’s last name is Luxalba,
something like “white light”). OTHER times I use Fantasy Name Generator. It just
really depends on the vibe I’m going with, how fast I need the name, and how
important the character is going to be. I’ve named several characters off the
cuff (Telda, Roland, Linus, all Raziac Village folk), but had to sit and
brainstorm for others (Velthas, a character who gets namedropped in The Storm
Darkens, was named when I looked at the Zelle app on my phone!)
Was one of your characters more
challenging to write than another?
Anyone
who knows me knows my hardest character to write has always been Ari. I love
him, Kari loves him, but good gods above, I could never quite get the right vibe
for him. Was he angry, rude? Certainly not. But he should be sometimes – he goes
through hard things, especially with Kari in his life. But he doesn’t
internalize that, nor does he hold a grudge. He’s tough, but only when he needs
to be. He can be soft and caring, but he's also very much a leader.
Having always loved
villains, I struggled with Ari being a hero. I could not properly write this
guy who always wanted to do the right thing and had no flaws. How could he be
Kari’s shining knight, always? I think I grew tired of the idea. Partially,
that was where The Storm Darkens saved us both. Ari learns the hard way that
the life he has chosen (and he has very much chosen it, having chased Kari and
accepted her back into his life) isn’t going to be an easy one. He will have
his own trials and hardships, some separate from Kari’s. They’ll have to save
each other. And I think, finally, that was what made me connect with Ari.
Is there a character that you
enjoyed writing more than any of the others?
Raven will always be my answer to this question! I LOVE writing her. I love her semi-tragic backstory, her cruelty, her plans, her flaws…I could write this woman forever, which makes The Storm Darkens so perfect for me. While Storm & Shadow is probably my favorite of the whole series, especially in terms of Raven’s actions and dialogue, in The Storm Darkens, Raven gets to play more of her hand. She COULD absolutely be Kari’s ally, but she’s played the game already. She tried to do it the nice way. Now Raven is ready and willing to rip away everything Kari has until Kari has no choice but to relent and do what Raven has always wanted from her – awaken the Catalyst.
What is your favorite scene from the
book? Could you share a little bit of it, without spoilers of course?
This is
tricky; my opinion changes all the time, lol. I’ll share part of this scene:
Kari and Ari have gone to hunt a demon who is attacking Raziac Village, mostly
in the name of luring Kari out (for Raven!), and Kari loses control:
She can die now. There’s no point to her misery. She has nothing more to give me.
The thoughts that weren’t hers made her brows crease, but the uncertainty was drowned in a swirl of rage building deep in her belly, making her heart pound and her muscles loosen.
Why did she care what happened to this pathetic demon? She was a threat. Kari could remove her.
She squeezed Malice’s throat. Malice’s eye bulged, her wordless gasps pitiful. She flailed her legs, thumping against the ground.
The rage clawed Kari’s insides, claiming small parts of her as it went. Her arms and hands trembled, making erratic sparks dance and fizzle in the air. Her jaw clenched, and her lips twisted into an imitation smile.
“Die,” she grunted.
Those soft, musical notes vibrated in her ears, mutating her thoughts with madness. Beneath her fingers, a bone in Malice’s neck snapped. Soft defiant laughter spilled free from Kari’s mouth—
“Kari.”
Her head snapped around. Ari crouched on his knees several feet away, hand pressed against his side; fingers stained in crimson.
The sword lay beside him, Kari noted. Well within reach. Though she couldn’t connect why that mattered.
“I’m going to kill her. I’m going to end this.”
With the book being part of a
series, are there any character or story arcs, that readers jumping in somewhere
other than the first book, need to be aware of? Can these books be read as
stand alones?
Unfortunately,
these books wouldn’t be very good as standalones. I like to think I address the
previous books’ happenings well, but there are always going to be things
readers won’t understand if they never read Birth of the Storm or Storm &
Shadow.
If I had to try to explain,
I’d say: Kari has lost so much in her life, and finds it hard to rely on
others. Ari has changed this a lot for her, becoming a place of light when she
feels herself falling to darkness – on the other hand, he has given her more to
lose. Kari WANTS to have a home, a place where people love her and accept her,
but fears this can never be.
When Kari learns from Raven that her lightning powers – an impossibility; demons should not have any sort of magic type abilities – hint at something greater, Kari struggles with the possibility that she is too dangerous for this world, for her loved ones; for Ari.
Where can readers find you on the
web?
Mostly I’m on Twitter,
@Valerie_Storm! Sometimes I grace Tumblr and Instagram, but not terribly often
(@valeriestorm & valeriestorm_author, respectively)
Would you like to leave readers with
a little teaser or excerpt from the book?
Sure! Here’s a bit from around the quarter point of The Storm Darkens, where Kari returns to her mentor, Zina, to go over the events of Storm and Shadow:
Zina paused beside the long table. “I sense your news is not favorable.”
“You’d be right.” Kari was surprised to see an unusual number of books and scraps of parchment cluttered the usually clear table.
“What happened?” Zina bent over an old book that looked to be someone’s personal written notes, the writing uneven and illegible in places.
“The gem broke,” Kari muttered.
Zina straightened and faced her with an uncharacteristic frown. “How?”
“Ari. I think his power...blasted Raven’s soul out, or something. The gem cracked.”
“The young lord. You reunited with him?”
“Yes.” Kari steeled herself for a barrage of scolding.
“Interesting,” Zina said instead. “I did not imagine such blessed power would be capable. And Raven?”
“She survived. Escaped.” Kari fidgeted. “Zina, I want some answers.”
Zina tilted her head. “What did she say?”
The directness of Zina’s question—and the lack of even a hint of surprise in her expression—almost made Kari forget her thoughts.
“A lot. You killed someone important to her. You threw me into a Binding with her without telling me anything about her. You know...”
Kari bit her tongue before she could mention the Catalyst.
Zina wouldn’t hurt me. She wouldn’t imprison me. Raven was a liar.
And yet her mouth would not work.
Zina leaned her hands on the table behind her. “Raven was not wrong. How does that make you feel?”
Kari did not need to search to find the answer. “Angry.”
Zina watched her, expression infuriatingly masked. “There are things I have not told you. I did not believe it was yet the right time.”
Kari’s legs shook, carrying her a step closer. “And now?”
“What else transpired? You’ve changed.”
Kari balled her fists. “I...met Ari.”
That truth she could handle speaking.
Zina exhaled a low, unamused chuckle. “So you said. You are reacquainted with the young lord. And?”
Kari hated the shame that tickled. As if she had disappointed Zina. “We have reconciled. The village accepted me back.”
“I know it is foolish to warn you that the past may only repeat itself. And I do hope you understand the deal we made is off the table. I will not call Riniko here. If she returns on her own after realizing you have chosen to remain—”
“She only would if you told her!” Kari snapped. “Right, Zina?”
Zina’s lips twitched into a smile that could cut. “Raven did get under your skin.”
Available
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Excerpt
Again, Kari thought of the purple-skinned mutation that had chased her and Vivianne.
“So there were others?”
Raven sneered. “Failures, yes.” She raised a hand, but Kari grabbed her by the wrist.
“What failures?! Did you send the long-armed mutation that killed my friend?!”
Raven’s emotionless eyes made her heart drop. “I have done so much worse than send one beast out into the world, Kari, but I did not imagine we were here to talk about that.” Raven twisted her hand, tangling Kari’s wrist in long fingers. “Shall I show you every life lost, every drop of blood spilled? Not merely for my own pleasure, but because of you?”
Captain Gorn and his men from Flatcairn, bloodied and broken. And…a field of purple-blue flowers becoming the eternal grave of a young blonde girl.
“Raven…” Kari’s voice hitched, threatening a scream.
Raven laughed, derisive and cold. “Focus, Kari. You know better than to lose yourself to grief, don’t you? You know what is at stake now, in the present.”
Kari wrenched away, eyes wild. When she did, the image of the desolate city wavered and was replaced by a shimmering vision of a dark room. Cages lined the walls, each one filled with a huddled group of monstrous beasts; neither human nor demon, they sported extra limbs or other grotesque developments. Eyeballs protruded from sockets, tongues lolled from the side of mouths, and tumors grew from faces, stomachs, and chests. Their groans and screams filled the space, echoing through a long, dank hallway.
“Stop!” Kari screamed, and the image faded to Raven standing in the middle of a body-ridden street. She stepped away from the witch before stumbling, landing hard on her backside.
“Why are you doing this?”
Raven approached, carefully stepping around the gore and bodies. “This? This is the cost of knowledge. I had to do these filthy, disgusting things to become who I am now.”
She stopped in front of Kari and knelt. Despite the darkness of her eyes, they gleamed with untold levels of cruelty. Kari had always seen such evil inside of Raven, yet she had never imagined things like this.
“I want you to ask a different question, Kari. I want you to ask yourself, what are you going to do to stop me?”
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