"Shadow's Son" For Those Who Finished and Wish to Discuss with Sprunk **Spoilers**

[Cindy]

Finished the book? Want to talk to Sprunk about certain elements of the book here's your chance!

[Travis]

Jon, first off thanks for joining a forum such as this! And secondly I gotta say I love your story of Caim thus far and cannot wait for book 3. Hopefully, this won't be too in depth of a question, but I think Kit has to be one of the most interesting aspects coming along with Caim. In book two we find a little more about her but in Shadow's Son she was this mysterious spirit. Can you give us a little background in where her character may have come from?

[Jon]

Hey Travis,
I'm glad to be here. And thank you.
Kit comes from the realm of Fae, which is one of many worlds on the Other Side (that is, NOT the physical world). The Fae are immortal in a similar way to Tolkien's elves.

[Travis]

Small misunderstanding, sorry. I meant what was your inspiration for Kit. Can you tell us why she has been with Caim since his parents death (well, atleast his fathers). Why did you feel like he needed to have her with him? Maybe I read more into things (that has gotten me into trouble before) but I kind of see a throw back to imaginary friends when we were younger. After your novels, I can't help wish I had a kit... Wait, that is kind of weird.

[Jon]

Ah! I'm asked so often about Kit's lineage and homeworld that I just answer all questions about her that way. My mistake.

Kit is a happy accident. She wasn't in the initial outline of the novel. She just appeared while I was writing and refused to leave. I kept her because she brought humanity and depth to an otherwise very dark protagonist.

But as the novel progressed, I had some serious doubts about Kit. Was she a real person, or just an imaginary friend like you mentioned? I finally decided she must be real, and her role changed quite a bit during revisions and going into the second book.

When Caim was an infant, his mother summoned a spirit to watch over him (the woman had some serious foresight), and Kit was the one who answered. While some would call this a geas, or compulsion, Kit claims she loved baby Caim at first sight and decided to stay of her own free will.

From a meta viewpoint, Kit is the yin to Caim's yang. She is the keeper of his conscience and the key to his heart.

[Travis]

Man, that's awesome!! I cannot wait for more Caim-Kit action in Shadow's Master. Now from your recent FB post one step closer to getting in my hands! Congrats!

[Terry]

Hey Jon. I guess I'll pose the question a lot of people seem to have. I have my own views on it and felt it was necessary, but Why did there need to be the rape scene with Josie?

[Jon]

I went back and forth about the rape sentence (I hesitate to call it a scene because the actual description is so brief). I knew it would raise some eyebrows--there are many who believe that rape is an overused device in fantasy lit—and so I tried the scene without it. Marcus and his men kill Kas, and then advance on Josey menacingly… fade to black. But it felt cowardly. If I was going to portray a world of such cruelty and violence, then I couldn’t be afraid to let that evil actually touch my characters.

As a side note, few things bother me more than when an otherwise good writer places his/her characters in a perilous situation, and then “rescues” them from an unpleasant fate through authorial sleight-of-hand.

I understand rape is an extremely delicate topic, but I felt that for a man like Marcus—corrupt, misogynistic, and frustrated by his repeated failures—to simply grab Josey and whisk her away with kid gloves would be disingenuous. If that offends anyone, I’m sorry, but I had to listen to my integrity as a storyteller.

[Jon]

Travis, thank you. If you follow my blog, you'll see that the final book of the series was a difficult one to "bring home." But I'm very happy with the saga.

[Terry]

Jon wrote: "I went back and forth about the rape sentence (I hesitate to call it a scene because the actual description is so brief). I knew it would raise some eyebrows--there are many who believe that rape i..."
Thank you. That's pretty much some of what I thought, which I posted in one of the other threads here concerning that particular scene.
My other question is, I'm a guy who loves action, sword fights and magic. Is there any particular fighting style that Caim's skills are based from?

[Jon]

Well, I prefer to let the reader supply the style they imagine when they read a story, because everyone sees something a little different.

But having said that, I (loosely) based Caim's style on ninjutsu, which is very direct and lethal. Caim doesn't go for style points; he just wants to kill you and be done with it.

[Michael]

Nice story, Jon. Great fight scenes. Kit was genius, and Caim is a great character. This is only the second "assassin" story I've read, and I preferred this over The Way of Shadows. Given that's a NYT bestseller, I'd say you're doing great.

I had heard about a rape scene before reading so I wasn't taken by surprise, except that I expected a lot more from the buzz. There was really very little there.

Don't suppose you're going to World Fantasy Con next week, are you? All this typing has made me thirsty.

[Jon]

Thank you, Michael. That's high praise coming from you.

Alas, no, I won't be at WFC this year. Please hoist a glass for me.