Hypothetical Letter to My Number One Fan

So I have been doing research on pre-sales marketing, and perhaps the most interesting pointer I found was to imagine your number one fan, and marketing everything toward that  number one fan. What I decided to do was actually write a letter to my hypothetical number one fan who hypothetically wrote some fan mail to me about When Stars Die. I just thought it’d be a fun way to keep myself striving toward some pretty high goals for myself as well as a fun, unique way to speak a little bit about the book.

Dear Hypothetical Number One Fan,

I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed When Stars Die. It’s nice to know that you find Amelia a relatable character. She wasn’t really inspired by anything. She took on a life of her own. She had this goal, this almost impossible goal of wanting to be a professed nun, and so every action, every decision she made revolved around that. And she is very protective of her younger brother. It’s why she wants to become a nun. She believes that by becoming part of the Professed Order, she can become closer to Deus in order to cleanse her brother’s blood since he is a witch–and witches, in her world, are worse than murderers, after all. So it’s great to hear you can relate to that protective aspect of Amelia.

As for the inspiration for my witches, well, I wanted there to be a reason for someone being a witch. I wanted witches to be mankind’s punishment for sinning. I wanted people to hate witches only because their religious text tells them–so, in essence, these people are brainwashed to hate witches. They don’t question their text because they’ve been inundated with it so strongly throughout their lives. It’s hard to undo something that has been imprinted from the time you are able to grasp and remember things. But I also wanted the witches to be taboo, for no one to speak of them. Propaganda is the only thing that reminds anyone of their existence. Cathedral Reims is filled with terrifying imagery of witches being strangled, burned, and impaled. I wanted fire to be the only way a witch can be recognized so that way I could create my own reason for why witches are later burned in the book–use their own terrifying power against them.  

As for Cathedral Reims itself, where the book begins, I did do research on convents and hierarchies and how things worked. I even watched a special on a particular convent in America. I concluded that while they move through a hierarchy before being professed, each convent is run differently, so I decided to make mine unforgiving to show just how strongly the country of Warbele is devoted to Deus and how much these people are willing to sacrifice to worship him. I don’t know if there are people out there who would take a severe beating for God, but the characters in my book endure worse to show they are devoted to Deus. They endure beatings, hair pulling, leeches, claustrophobia, and harsh, cold winters on their way to becoming professed as nuns. I’m into the whole religious fanaticism thing, so what goes on at Cathedral Reims is fanaticism–definitely not what modern day convents are like. I find it fascinating that people would give up who they are to prove themselves to an almighty being. I know I couldn’t endure what Amelia does, especially since there is no promise of a wonderful afterlife in spite of what the religious text in Amelia’s world says.

So why did I create a new country instead of using a country already in existence? At first I had an entirely new world planned out, but once I parsed everything down, I no longer had a whole world anymore. But I still wanted new laws, a new governmental system, and I wanted it to be in the 19th century but not hold the same values as the rest of the developed world. In order to do that, I had to create a new country completely ruled by the papacy. The papacy determines the laws, dress, mannerisms, how everyone should act, and who should be in power. While I don’t focus heavily on the papacy, it’s obvious Warbele is a country ruled by religion. The rest of the world doesn’t treat witches the way Warbele does. In fact, the rest of the world would view Warbele’s treatment of witches as barbaric, but Warbele is deliberately shut off from the rest of the world so no one is influenced by the thinking of the other countries.

All in all, I am so happy you loved my book and had so many interesting questions. Feel free to always write to me, and I will always try to answer when I can.

 

Interview With My Book’s Character

A sort of likeness of Amelia made in a Soulless dress-up game.

Me: Hello all! This is Amber Forbes signing in to interview When Star Die’s Amelia Gareth! We are honored to have her here, especially since she is so busy with the next book in the trilogy. So, Amelia, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Amelia: Well…um…there isn’t a whole lot to say. I’m a sister at Cathedral Reims and I desperately want to be professed.

Me: Why do you want to be professed? I hear the road to profession is unbearable.

Amelia: Is anyone important going to read this.

Me: What do you mean by important?

Amelia: Anyone who would use my words against me.

Me: Not at all!

Amelia: Good. I want to be professed because my little brother is a witch. I hope that by serving Deus, we will be forgiven for the sins my parents have placed upon him.

Me: I heard you ran away from home. Tell me a little bit about that.

Amelia: You see, when parents commit a Seven Deadly Sin for a prolonged period of time, the child born from those sins is a witch. I suppose after my birth, my parents grew careless. As far as I know, they were never careless before I was born, so I’m the lucky one. But my brother…well, I will cleanse him. He is working to become a priest, and I am working to become a nun. There is no greater gift than to serve Deus.

Me: That’s a lot for you two. Tell me what it’s like being in Cathedral Reims. I know in the book we don’t get a full view of the workings because of circumstantial matters.

Amelia: Well, when we all come in, we are simply known as sisters. We all refer to each other in that way unless we’re very close to one another, such as my best friend Colette and I. All convents do things differently, but we’re all novices until were professed, as in novitiates. When we first enter, it functions much like a finishing school: full, three course meals, classes, socialization time, more classes. But then we’re slowly weaned of things until we’re eating bland meals, being beaten into silence during classes, allowed no more socialization except to pray, and must attend all Liturgy of the Hours, which are moments of prayer with the professed. Then we must endure harsh trials to become professed. Once we’ve passed those, we are nuns and can choose vocations, such as teaching, or we can choose to pray all day for suffering to end. I want to do teaching.

Me: The inner workings of Cathedral Reims sound complex. How do you feel about all that?

Amelia: It isn’t the most ideal life for me, but I dream of becoming professed nonetheless. Witches are so hated in our world. Everyone is taught to hate them from birth for little reason other than our Vulgate tells us to. We’re fed the religious readings of the Vulgate from the time we are able to understand and onward.

Me: What about you? Do you hate witches?

Amelia: I wasn’t rabidly fed the Vulgate, so I was able to think on my own. But I can’t hate them when my brother is one.

Me: That mind of yours will get you places. Anything more you want our audience to know?

Amelia: I want them to know that while this is a paranormal romance, things are…unconventional. It won’t seem that way at first, but hopefully readers will be able to deduce early on just what is really happening. If not, there are fun surprises in store.

Me: Thank you. This is Amelia Gareth! Stay turned for more on When Stars Die! Amber signing off!