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 are interviewing DWW from Jennifer Priester’s novel Mortal Realm Witch: Learning About Magic.
Katelina: Hello DWW and welcome! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
DWW: I can’t tell you what I look like at this time. I currently live in the Mortal Realm, your Realm, in a place called Fountain City. The Mortal Realm is not where I have always lived but I was born in it and this is where I learned that I was a witch and how to use my magic. Later on I lived in the Other Realm, the place where most witches, warlocks, and their familiars live, for a few hundred years, where I worked before moving back to the Mortal Realm. My first appearance is in Book One of the Mortal Realm Witch series, Mortal Realm Witch: Learning About Magic, and I am in every book after this one except for the Third Series Companion, Tales of Other Realm Creatures, and the Guidebook: The Guide to Other Realm Creatures.
K: So this book is the first in a series, right? From what I understand it’s a little bit different than a “traditional” novel.
D: Yes. Each book, with the exception of Books Three, Five, and the Guidebook, are told in short story form. Each short story builds off the last as a chapter would in a chapter book, but is told in different ways. Here is what I am talking about: In Mortal Realm Witch: Learning About Magic, I tell the first story. I tell about myself and it is the story of how I became a witch. In the next story my familiar, Trillman, takes over and tells about his teaching me magic and the challenges he faces as I learn more about what my powers can do. In the third story, the first Head of the Witches Council that you meet in this series, Trom, takes over my training after Trillman quits, leaving me with no familiar and no one to teach me magic. Trom tells this story from his point of view. In the fourth story I teach the wolf pups, Witch and Warlock. This story is told in third person rather than first to give you the feel as if you are watching me and these pups. It is also told this way to make the story feel more natural as you read about them learning to hunt as regular wolves as well as magical ones. The next story may feel out of place to some as it is about a witch living in the Other Realm, not me, who wants a dragon for a familiar. This story is told from her point of view. This story is told where it is because it shows you the impact I had on some of the rules and how it affects witches in both Realms. The characters in this story, the witch Ally, and the dragon Air Raid, also play a big role later in the series. The final story in the book is told in first person once again by me and tells the story of how I met Sampson and leads up to my new life in the Other Realm.
K: So what is the second book about?
D: Then the second book picks up where the first leaves off and Sampson’s story continues and his adventures with a new witch in the Mortal Realm begin. In this book I help the witch, Turtle, a lot, whether it’s dealing with Sampson, learning magic, or something else. She is also a big help to me when a battle breaks out between witches and witch hunters. In Book Two, Mortal Realm Witch: The Magic Continues (avail. this Spring.) you also get to go deeper into some events of Book One in an all new story featuring several shorter stories in one. One of these shorter stories tells what might have happened to lead up to Trillman’s quitting.
K: You said book three was different?
D: Yes. Book Three, Mortal Realms Witch: Realms Unite?, is one large story about my plan to unite the Realms, the challenges I face, and how I go about it. You will discover some big secrets in this book about Trom and myself. In the end of the book Trom will come to me with a message that will set off the events of Book Four, The Adventures of DWW2, with some stories about my daughter Asantra and her challenges and adventures leading up to my return to the Mortal Realm and setting off the events for Book Five (currently unnamed), the final book in the main Mortal Realm Witch series (there are three companions and a guidebook, as well as some upcoming free to read stories.)
K: What about the fifth book?
D: Because Book Five is the final book it is told as one large and fast paced story that answers many questions that were raised throughout the series, as well as setting off a big chain of events that hopefully leads to the final step in uniting the Realms forever and hopefully ends with both Realms fully united, but Five isn’t finished yet and knowing my author the way I do, anything can happen!
K: Wow! Sounds like it’s all fairly mapped out. Your author is way more organized than mine! How would you say that you evolve over the series?
D: I start out like any other kid or witch in training. I break some rules, find ways around others, don’t really take my duties seriously, and don’t always listen to the ones trying to teach me. This leads to many problems including my magic teacher, my familiar, quitting his job. Over time I learn to be more responsible, stop breaking rules and because of this I am given a big opportunity. It’s not the only reason but I was given the opportunity but if those things hadn’t changed I never would have been given it. Upon accepting the opportunity I get a new job and life in the Other Realm. Now I would be the one in charge of punishing rule breakers. Besides this I would get to do more enjoyable things as well, such as train new familiars. Throughout the series you will discover the good, the bad, and many of the challenges that came with my job.
warlock accouterments by Jo
K: Do you have any enemies?
D: Yes, his name is Sampson. Sampson is a, or was a, power hungry warlock who wanted (and probably still does!) to control both the Mortal Realm and the Other Realm. We become enemies from the moment I refuse to help him with his take over plans. Besides being power hungry, Sampson also has natural ability to twist things around so you believe he means one thing when he really means another. He gets me with this trick a few times throughout the series.
K: Oh wow! That sounds very “epic”. Hopefully you don’t face any other challenges!
D: .In the series I also face the challenge of uniting the Realms. It’s a difficult task that is only made more difficult with Sampson’s interference. And I also face the threat of witch hunters, black magic, an attempt by a warlock to rid the world of wolves, my daughter Asantra, and…I think that’s enough for now.
K: Wow! You’re author sounds as mean as mine. Did she at least involve you in a good romance?
D: Well, I was involved in one, once. It was very short and not really worth mentioning except my daughter, Asantra, was the result of it. Who was he? Someone who first appears in one of the first three books in the series. I won’t say who it is or which book because I think it is something that is best discovered for yourself rather than hearing it from me. I will tell you that I liked him because he was creative, smart, and ambitious.
K: Do you think that has helped to make you who you are, or is there another event that shaped you?
D: I actually believe it was when I became a full time teacher to two wolf pups, Witch and Warlock, for a year. As I was teaching them about their magical powers, how to use them, and also how to be regular wolves, I learned a lot about myself. There were some things that the two of them did that I didn’t agree with yet realized that I would have done the same thing. The biggest example of this is when the pups are protecting their territory from an enemy wolf.
K: What is the one thing you want the most in the whole world?
D: I would really like for mortals to see past all the predjudices against witches and see us as we really are.
photo by photophilde CC via flicker
K: That sounds fair enough. It looks like we’re running out of time, so real quick, if you could say one thing to your readers, what would it be?
D: Sometimes you might fail at something that you really wanted to succeed at and might consider giving up. If it’s something you really want don’t give up. Just believe in it and try again. Depending on what it is, sometimes all you need to do is figure out what went wrong the first time and change your approach. If you get the chance, when the time comes, check out: Book Three, Mortal Realm Witch: Realms Unite?, and you will see what I mean.
K: That is excellent advice! And if you could say one thing to your author?
D: I would say thanks for not giving up on my first story. If you had we would have missed out on a lot of great adventures together.
K: And with that we’re out of time. You can find DWW in Mortal Realm Witch: Learning About Magic available at
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Realm-Witch-Learning-About/dp/193878300X/
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mortal-realm-witch-jennifer-priester/1111957728?ean=9781938783005
Also check out the website for more info: http://www.mortalrealmwitch.com/meettheauthor.html
And a special thank you to Jennifer Priester 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:
Amaranthine by Joleene Naylor 
E.J. Wesley
/ April 27, 2013Loved the interview! 🙂
Joleene Naylor
/ April 30, 2013It was a fun one!
dm yates
/ May 8, 2013Great interview. The series sounds like quite the read.
Joleene Naylor
/ May 9, 2013There’s more interviews coming up from this series 😉