Monday, June 18, 2012

Six Things to Take on a Faerie Hunt Guest blog with Luna Lindsey




We all know the tools for hunting vampires.  It’s a pretty short list, and you may already have the basics in the trunk of your car.  (Or maybe you’d rather the vampire hunt you so you can just surrender to his embrace.)

So you hear something go bump in the night and you creep cautiously to the window, weapon in hand, and slowly peek out… 

Put that wooden stake down.  It won’t do you a bit of good against a faerie.  Garlic will only make your meat more tasty and that holy water is full of toradh he can convert to glamour and use against you. 

So what truly scares a faerie?

1.       Iron.  Before the invention of ironworking, faeries ruled the earth as gods.  The bronze and stone of the previous ages were warm and living.  Iron represents the cold, hard, and unforgiving “new” technologies that brought cities, complex monolithic religions, and centralized governments.  In the absence of belief, the old gods lost power and became faeries, and much later, even the faeries themselves receded at the mercy of humanity’s waning belief. 

Iron is the essence of the destruction of faekind.  An iron net will burn and cripple a faerie.  An iron blade will render his soul apart.  But it must be wrought iron, not steel.  Raid your local antique store, because true wrought iron hasn’t been made in five decades.  If you have a blacksmith on your team, he can convert old iron scrap into all kinds of interesting weapons, including iron shot for guns.

In a pinch, an old railroad spike will do.  Use it like a wooden stake – if you can get close enough.
2.       Disbelief.  Like iron, disbelief is the antithesis of the fae.  They are made of human dreams and nightmares.  Their magic dissolves under the pressure of cold logic.  Faeries are impossible, right?  Tell yourself lies if you have to, because what you don’t believe can’t hurt you.
3.       A dreamer.  Faeries consume the toradh, or energy, that comes from talented artists and creators.  In spite of or because of that, dreamers make excellent spellcasters.  As long as there is a little glamour around, a dreamer merely has to believe hard enough to bring her imagination to life.  The trappings of ritual can boost a dreamer’s belief – so bring some rhymes or candles or a pretty amulet.
4.       Magic items.  In the past ages, the fae have imbued a few physical items with glamour, and these relics can come in handy when your dreamer is indisposed or abducted.  Beware:  Fae relics are as capricious as their makers, and can backfire.  “Lucky” items can also carry great power, like four-leaf clovers, misprinted coins, and rabbit feet.
5.       A clever mind.  The fae are very cunning creatures.  Contrawise, they can be easily fooled, if you happen upon their blind spot.  Your best bet is to outwit them.  Most faeries are bound to keep their promises, at least within their interpretation.  Wording is everything.  If you can remind the faerie of her promise, and convince her it means what you want it to mean, you’re safe. 

Depending on the ilk of faerie, you have other crafty options.  Some faeries are bound when you give them gifts, or when they’ve done something nice for you, or when you finish their sentences, or when they’ve injured you in a way they didn’t intend.  Know your folklore, so you can identify what kind of faerie you face and what his weaknesses are.  Keep on your toes so that they don’t end up outwitting you.
6.       True Names.  You’ve heard the story of Rumpelstiltskin.  It is no mistake that stories like this abound in the lore.  Knowing the true name of a faerie gives you absolute power over them.  The only problem is that faeries keep their names hidden.  What we can learn from the lore, however, is that the fae can be proud or careless.  Just stay alive long enough for them to slip up.

Sandy and Jina run a secret society to hunt faeries.  Sandy has quite the collection of iron weapons, traps, and cages.  Studious Sandy is a natural at disbelief, and Jina is the dreamer.  They are both clever, but you’ll have to read Emerald City Dreamer to see if they will be clever enough…

On my blog tour this month, I will discuss other lists of things you need to know about faeries, including a list of why you should be afraid of them in the first place.  Check my blog for links!


Book Details 
Word count: 124,000 
Genre: Urban Fantasy 
Amazon Kindle Price: $3.99 
Available from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk 
ASIN: B007L9CTEI 

Jina and Sandy survived the unthinkable. Now they've set up a secret Order in Seattle to fight the impossible - fairytale creatures born of human nightmares and nourished on dreams. 

Their tools: iron, lore, science, glamour, and support groups. As beginners, without access to the ancient societies of faerie hunters, they must rediscover how to protect themselves. And in order to fight the fiends of the world, Sandy must take control her inner ghosts. 

As a dreamer in a rock band, Jina unknowingly feeds the fae and attracts unseen enemies at every turn. Now, they're finally on the tail of at least one dark monster bent on evil. She is a dreamer, so she must follow her heart - but which way does it lead? 

Jett is an elf who only wants to protect her hodge-podge clan of faeries from the encroaching world of science and religion - which have systematically slaughtered her kind and the beliefs that gave birth to her people. True dreamers are rare beings, and when she finds them, she does everything she can to protect them and claim them as her own. 

Ezra is a teenager who never feels comfortable in his own skin. Most people like him well enough, but when he looks in the mirror, he sees a demon. He has been taken in by the Garbage Eaters, who expect obedience and purity. Before long, he suffers a crisis of faith that may lead him into real danger. Delve into this deeply developed, internally consistent world of the fae, and meet beings who are simultaneously alien, elegant, and terrifying, fueled by dreams and the creative energy of artists. 

Glimpse the secret world of Tir Nan Og through the eyes of fully fledged four-dimensional characters living in a Seattle that is just a bit weirder than you think. 

This is a story with psychological depth, a page-turner with unexpected twists and turns. 

When prey hunts, who will lead the chase, and who will run? 


YouTube Video Author Reading of short story Right After Feeding Time: http://youtu.be/0q-ckzF0Jyw 




About the Author:

Luna is mostly a Washington native, however she was born in Salt Lake City, UT. She grew up in the Tri-Cities, Washington, spending time between the three cities of Richland, Pasco, Kennewick, and outlying town Benton City. She grew up reading her father's sci-fi collection, which included many classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Orson Scott Card. She was homeschooled, and as a child was into piano, model rockets, astronomy, physics, 4H, Girl Scouts, writing, giving speeches, computers, and raising rabbits. 

She started attending cons and playing RPGs in her early 20s. In 2003, Luna moved to Seattle. She lives a weird life and loves to geek out and delve into many topics. Her interests are many, and sometimes she forgets all the things she knows how to do. Luna worked for many years in the IT field, mostly in the computer software industries, before quitting to write full time in 2010. She has written over thirty short stories and three novels. 

Website and Blog: http://www.lunalindsey.com 









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