Launch party: AJ Larrieu’s Twisted Miracles

Our Firebird friend AJ Larrieu’s fantastic debut novel, Twisted Miracles, came out with Carina Press last week. I’ve had the privilege of reading Dangerous Calling, its sequel, and AJ’s self-published novella, Anchored, which takes place in the same world. I honestly think AJ can take her place in the urban fantasy / paranormal romance echelon alongside some of my favorite authors like Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews.

Yes, she’s that good, people. Richly conceived world building, three dimensional characters I care about, plots that ratchet the tension and the stakes up and then up again, and yep, luscious romances and strong writing craft. So I rubbed my hands together with glee when she said I could interview her for this blog launch.

 So tell us a bit about Twisted Miracles:

 First let me say—wow! What an awesome introduction! Thank you so much. I will be content to write well in the shadow of those very talented authors for the whole of my career.

 Here’s the official description of Twisted Miracles:

  Cass Weatherfield’s powers come with a deadly price.

 Cass knows it was her telekinetic gift that killed a college classmate five years back, even if no one else believes her. She’s lived in hiding from her fellow shadowminds ever since, plagued by guilt and suppressing her abilities with sedatives. Until the night her past walks back into her life in the form of sexy Shane Tanner, the ex-boyfriend who trained her…and the one she left without saying goodbye.

When Shane tells her that his twin sister, Mina—Cass’s childhood friend—is missing, Cass vows to help, which means returning to New Orleans to use her dangerous skills in the search. But finding Mina only leads to darker questions. As Cass and Shane race to learn who is targeting shadowminds, they find themselves drawn to each other, body and soul. Just as their powerful intimacy reignites, events take a terrifying turn, and Cass realizes that to save the people she loves, she must embrace the powers that ruined her life.

The unofficial description is this: It’s the story of a woman who’s lost her place in the world, and how she finds it again.

Can you describe how you came up with this world? It’s so much like our own, but with angel guardians watching over each major city who are anchored to that city, and a secret community of shadowminds with psychic abilities. No shifters (yet?), few vampires, no dragons. And although Cass and Susannah are certainly powerful women, they don’t ever wear leather or carry swords. What compelled you to go in this direction?

 The world came to me in a very organic way. I started with the idea that people could apply mental energy externally, and then I did the thought experiment—what would be possible? The various abilities my characters have followed from there. I even worked out the genetics of how various gifts are inherited. But that’s just me being nerdy. On another level, I love paranormal fiction where the supernatural world is separate and hidden—as though you need to know the password to get in. I wanted my world of shadowminds to feel like a slightly-off mirror image of our own, as though the book is your secret passage to something just below the surface of the familiar.

  I love that description of the book as a secret passage, and that’s how it feels to me reading it, as if shadowminds really do live among us.

What do you think is the dividing line between urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and where do you fall along that continuum?

 I think that line is blurry. Or, maybe a better way to put it is this: I think it’s not a line, but a scale. Enough stones on the relationship side, and you’ve got a paranormal romance. When the world-building, overarching plot arcs and master villains outweigh the romance, I think you’ve got urban fantasy, or paranormal fantasy, or whatever we’re calling it these days. I think my books are right at the tipping point of the scale, which makes them hard to classify. But those are the stories I like to read.

  I feel the same. They appeal both to the SF/F reader and the romance reader in me. Speaking of romance, how do you keep the romantic tension fresh in each book? Twisted Miracles has a bit of a love triangle which is resolved before the end of the book. Does the other guy show up again later on, or do other complications arise as the series progresses?

I think of relationships as living, evolving things. They either adapt to handle new challenges, or they die. A lot of the romantic tension between Cass and Shane comes not from secondary love interests, but from their struggle to adapt as their destinies put new obstacles between them. In any relationship, the things each person needs from the other are going to change over time, and for Cass and Shane, those needs end up having a lot of impact on them as individuals. They don’t have an easy path ahead of them—but I promise they’ll persevere.

  This works for me. They live in a complex, difficult world, don’t they? And that in and of itself can be a very natural source of tension. Which you use so well. You claim you’re a pantser, but your books have such strong forward momentum and are intricately plotted. Does all the magic happen in the rewrites, or is your subconscious just incredibly good at knowing how to structure a story? (In which case, can I borrow yours for a while? Mine’s, uh, at the dry cleaners. Yeah. That’s it.)

Aw, thanks! The truth is, I’ve never been able to write linearly—but I definitely don’t keep everything in my head! I tend to start by writing the turning points of the story (and if I’m being honest, those are often the sex scenes). Once the big turning points are written, I discover the smaller ones, and then the even smaller ones, and so on. Then I puzzle everything together, throw out what doesn’t make sense, and see what the plot looks like. I’ll often write down each scene on an index card and lay the cards out on the living room rug, moving things around in sequence or putting cards higher or lower to indicate the level of tension the scene needs. I re-order, re-write, lather, rinse repeat. I wish I were a plotter. It sounds a lot less painful.

  Ha! Maybe a bit less painful, yeah. I confess, the idea of writing nonlinearly make s my brain hurt.

  You’ve done something I think is unique: your main book series centers on the single character and her world, but your novella was about a different heroine, Susannah, guardian of Biloxi, and you’ve hinted that your next novella will be about another guardian. Will you continue along these lines, with the novellas shedding light on other parts of your fascinating world?

 Right now, I’m contracted for two books told in Cass’s voice and a third told in a different voice and set in a different city. I’ve also have plans for future novellas about more the guardians. I think of my fictional universe in city-sized chunks–there are a handful of cities that have their own plot arcs, plus the characters who will make those destinies happen.

  I assume these stories will mostly be centered in the same area? You’ve got stories set in New Orleans and Biloxi, with intimations of shadowmind activity in other nearby cities. Why the South? It seems to have a strong pull for so many paranormal-leaning writers–everyone from Anne Rice to Charlaine Harris. Tell us about your version of Louisiana and Mississippi and what draws you to portray that in your books.

I was born and raised in the South, so it felt very natural for me to write stories set there. I also like books in which the settings play a strong role, so I wanted to write a place I understood. I do have some ideas about why so many paranormal fiction authors seem to gravitate toward Southern settings—in fact, I’ll be part of a panel on Southern Urban Fantasy at the RT Booklovers’ Convention in New Orleans this May, and we’ll be talking about this exact topic. It would be easy to say that the romantic, almost mythical quality of the South makes a fertile ground for spooky stories, but I think it goes deeper than that. The cultural fabric of the South is complex. It has so many beautiful aspects, yet so many flaws, and more than a little darkness. Exploring and understanding that kind of complexity is part of writing fiction. 

Beautifully said. Thank you for your thoughtful answers, AJ! It was a pleasure to interview you, and I wish you oodles of success, if for no other reason than I selfishly want to read many more of your books.

 Thanks for the awesome interview! I had so much fun with these questions.

You can find Twisted Miracles on Amazon, Nook, and other online vendors, and read more about AJ at her website.