Interview with The Mistress & her Lover

Hello! My name is Katelina, and welcome to Weekend Character Interviews. Using state of the art-mumbo-jumbo author magic, Jo has temporarily bent the laws of fictional space and time to allow various literary universes to converge long enough for me to ask different characters a few questions. Since I spend a lot of time in the Amaranthine series quizzing vampires on what they’re doing, where they’re going and why, Jo thought I would be the perfect interviewer. 

Today we have another two-for – this time from none other than SassySue King’s upcoming The Devil’s Mistress. And since there are two of them, Jorick has volunteered to help me out.

the Devil's Mistress

Katelina:  Hello guys! Could you tell us a little about yourselves for the readers at home? We can start with physical descriptions if you’d like.

She:  My lover is good looking, with beautifully coifed, thick, brown hair, worn rather long, and big brown eyes; with a Johnny Depp smile.

K: You know, he DOES kind of have a Johnny Depp-ness about him…

She: When we first met I knew those eyes would take me places I never dreamed existed. And they have.

I’m a librarian

He: Her hair is big, curly and  blonde. She has a cute petite figure with just enough of everything and silky blue eyes. When we first met, sitting in the Starbucks, I knew those eyes would take me to places I always longed for but would never admit to. And they have.

I work in mid-management for the Devil collecting souls. A soul collector.  I’m not an evil demon or anything. *He glances at Jorick to confirm no offense taken* Though I am immortal.

K: That’s sweet. They described each other. *pokes Jorick* It makes me wonder how you would describe me!

Jorick: *clears throat* Yes, well…

K: So where are you from?

He: We live in a medium sized city in Southwestern Ontario, in Canada. Couples like us exist in every town in the world.

So far we’ve been brought to life through some of Sue’s stories but we’re hopeful *they both look at Sue with raised eyebrows* that our story will be published soon in an expanded version.

Sue: *leans in* I’m working on it! Stop nagging!

K: Wow. Your author actually made an appearance without needing to be tied to a chair! That’s an improvement on our author. If you could say one thing to her before she disappears what would it be?

She: Thank you for giving us life and making so many readers smile – and maybe to think.

K: That’s nice. I can’t say I have anything nice to say about mine. *ahem* Anyway, so back to you and your story.  I’m guessing that you two are a couple?

She: Yes. We are romantically involved. We love each other with all our body, heart and soul (no pun intended).

He: The most appealing thing about her is she listens to my old jokes, which are very old since I’ve had over a century to collect them. They are so old she’s never heard them. And she always laughs just like she did the first time we met. She’s smart, funny and sexy. And she never judges me.

 She: The best thing about him is his attentiveness. When we are together it’s all about me and what I want or need. It might be his guilt coming out since we are not together as much as we would like that makes him like that,  or it may be his past history, but the main thing is, he is attentive. Because of his age and all he’s seen, his stories are new and exciting.  And I’ve always loved history. He brings it to life. I’ve been helping him to regain his humanity and sense of humour and now he totally cracks me up. We see things in life from different angles and this allows each of us to see the other’s perspective. As he said his jokes are hysterical.  He is smart, funny and sexy.  He promised he would never fail me and he hasn’t. He always has my back.

And we have no secrets which makes everything easier to handle.

K: That’s really sweet. *pokes Jorick* Isn’t that really sweet?

J: *ahem* yeah. I suppose. Don’t we have questions for them?

K: Well don’t you? You’re supposed to be helping- 

J: Yes. So is this the kind of story where you’re smashing skulls and killing enemies or…

by Neetesh Gupta via flickr

He: Enemies as such no. But I do work for the Devil, ya know (grins his Johnny Depp smile).

*Katelina forgets where she is for a moment and Jorick gives her a dark look*

Some think I’m the enemy

She: His boss, Mr. D, as we call him, because calling him the Devil just sounds so… evil, and my lover is not evil, could demote him from mid-management and send him, and me as well, to the sweat shops of Hell. That’s the rumour anyway and it has all of the mid-management team and their partners paranoid.

K:  Yeah, I could see that. Though you’d think there would be rules about that sort of thing, you know? About sending perfectly decent people – er, or vampires – to hell. Jorick here is always on about the hopelessness of it all, just because he’s a vampire –

J: No, I’m not. Moving along. I imagine that dealing with his boss is the central challenge in the story?

She: Well, I have to keep his secret, and it’s not easy with my nosy girl-friends. His job frustrates me no end. I vowed I would help him regain his humanity. It’s not easy trying to live an ordinary life with him. *deep sigh* It’s a challenge alright.

He: I hate to disappoint her and don’t wish to lose her either. She would be perfectly justified to leave me and I wouldn’t blame her a bit. But I don’t want to have to face that situation. My boss  wants the job done with no distractions. He considers her a distraction, so it’s a challenge keeping both her and my boss happy. And, according to her, I seem to be having a problem understanding this ‘humanity’ thing. But I’m trying.

She: *pokes him* – Yeah you sure are ‘trying’

He: *smiles back, clasps her hand and holds it for the rest of the interview.*

K: How do the two of you evolve during the story?

She: Oddly enough he supports and encourages me to be the best I can be. This is true in both my personal and professional life.

He: She brings out the softer side in me which no one has been able to do for at least a century. This job breeds cynicism and shuts the door on emotions. With her my human side grows and I feel emotions again. I become more human.

K: Now that’s romantic. *turns to Jorick*. Isn’t that romantic?

J: *to their guests* What’s the one event that you feel has helped to shape your personality?

She: Before I took a risk with him, I always played by the rules. Taking the risk with him is the best thing I ever did. People have to take some kind of risks in life otherwise you won’t grow as a person.

He: Well I did go to Hell … that was pretty personality shaping…

By mcclanahoochie Chris McClanahan

J: Fair enough.

K: Yeah, that would be pretty life changing. On a more upbeat note, what is the one thing you want the most in the whole world?

*in unison*

He: to be able to live a more complete fulfilling life with her.

She: to be able to live a more complete fulfilling life with him.

K: Oh! Did you hear that Jorick?

J: Yes. I’m right here and I’m not deaf. *to their guests* If you could say one thing to your readers, what would it be?

She: Don’t look at the details of our life look at the larger picture. See yourselves in our shoes

K: And time is running out but, before you go, I do have one perhaps delicate question. In the stories you are referred to as Lover and Mistress with no given names. Why is that?

He: The idea started as a sort of joke with inspirations from Sue’s writing class As we went along living a day to day existence, with similar problems to every couple, Sue realised she was using the characters to demonstrate the ‘every person’ experience. With the same problems, conflicts, and joys faced by the average couple.

By labeling a hero and heroine with names an image would immediately impose itself in the mind of the audience. The result might be identification with people they’ve known with those names. And it would no longer be “us”.

She: If you read very carefully, you will see that we do have names…..

K: And with that we’re out of time! A special thank you to our guests for stopping in! You can read more of them on SassySue King’s blog at http://sassyspeaks.wordpress.com/

And a special thanks to SassySue for playing along!

If you’re an author and would like your character(s) to be interviewed by me, then check out this very cool page that has all the details:

https://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/character-interviews/

Posted by Joleene Naylor on October 22, 2011

https://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/interview-with-the-mistress-her-lover/