Interview with Loren

Hello! And welcome to the weekend Amaranthine interviews where YOU ask the questions!

In honor of the new book, I’m going to give everyone else some time off and conduct these interviews myself. See what a good author I am?

Jo: Today we have Loren. His interview was delayed a week because of time constraints, but now he’s in the frying pan – erm, I mean, in the hot seat – no, no… um… it’s his turn. Welcome Loren.

Loren: Um…okay.

J: Let’s start with an easy one. Lisa asks: Just exactly, how old are you….?

L: Easy? It depends on what the year is in the Amaranthine world. I was born in 1978, so if we go off of the year that my author wrote Shades of Gray then I’m 27. If we go off the year she published it, then I’m 31. If we go off of what year it really is then I’m 38. (Incidentally, I’m two years older than my author.)

J: Yeah, yeah, you’re a geezer. Dawn asks: You’re a man in your 30’s does it bother you that people treat you like a kid?

L: Yeah it does. As you said, I’m  not a kid anymore. Though sometimes it can be kind of handy because it means they don’t heap a lot of crap on me since I’m “just a kid” but at the same time… I guess it is a double edged sword. The main problem is chicks, though. Teenage chicks are mostly kind of…boring, you know? I try it now and then – like that girl who wanted me to make her a vampire – but I can’t stand them for very long. Meanwhile no decent chick will give me a chance because I look like a kid to them.  I thought I’d solved it with Ume, but…

J: In that vein, Tricia, Alicia, and Laura ask: Are you looking for a love interest or do you have one you’re hiding?

L: I’m not looking-looking, but I’m kind-of-looking, if you know what I mean. Like, I’d like to have someone, but I’m not getting on Plenty of Fish, or anything. I really liked Ume, and I guess I still like her, but I don’t know how that could work unless she’s gonna get over all that crap, you know? Right now, I kind of have my eye on Xandria, but don’t tell anyone.

J: Don’t worry, I won’t. Tricia asks: Do you think you’ll find true love?

L: Sure. I think everyone finds it eventually. You just have to not let it go.

J: That’s a romantic view of things. Dawn also asks: Does it upset you that you don’t have any special Vampire powers?

L: *shrugs* Sometimes. I mean, it would be cool to be all powerful and shit, you know? Like Jorick or Oren. I know that vampires get more powers, or get stronger, as they age, so maybe someday I’ll develop something.

J: That’s a good lead in to Dawn’s next question: If you could pick a power which one would you want?

L: It’s hard to decide between mind reading and all that, like Jorick has, and the super strength like Micah’s got. Jorick can make people do what they want by manipulating their minds, but Micah can make them do what he wants by bashing their face in. I don’t know which one is more bad ass.

J: Amy asks: Everyone seems to like you, and I don’t think anyone considers you a threat. Do you use that to your advantage?

L: Truthfully it used to really piss me off. I wanted people to see me and be instantly scared, like they are with Jorick, but then Micah pointed out that it is an advantage because they know Jorick will hurt them, so they’re on guard and ready for an attack, but with me they aren’t, so I can get in two or three shots before they recover from surprise, and if I’m good I can take them out before they ever do. I guess it’s all how you look at it, but I would still like to look scary sometimes.

J: No one is ever scared of me either. Jennifer asks: What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done and/or want to do for fun?

L: I want to sky dive, dude! The trouble is everyone does it in the daytime, and I can’t do it then, so that sucks.

J: Heather says: Your story breaks my heart and I’m glad you had Jorick, my question is how exactly did you two find each other?

 

You can read Loren’s origin story in the FREE short Ashton

L: Oh. *looks uncomfortable* Ashton, my brother, turned me just a few hours before the rogues killed him. It was…they got distracted with it all, and he’d told me to run, so I took off. I ran into Jorick farther up the beach. I think he was attracted to all the noise, or maybe he was out patrolling for them already, or maybe he was just out looking for food. I don’t know. But I told him what happened and so he took me back to his place, and when some of the rogues came looking for me he killed them. I’d met Jorick before – not really spoken to him or anything, but I’d seen him a few times. I just thought of him as that weird unfriendly hermit guy who lived up the beach. I’d never really paid attention.

 

J: Dawn asks: What was Jorick like before Katelina came along?

L: Bossy. Kind of jaded. He was always going on about how none of the love or romance stuff was real, that it was all a myth people made up so that they could procreate without guilt, because people love guilt and blah, blah, blah. I knew it was all crap then, or he wouldn’t have been reading some of the books he did, and he wouldn’t have saved Velnya’s letters. He wasn’t all annoying, though. Like, he taught me all about how to be a vampire and what to do and what not to do, and about the Executioners and The Laws, and all of that stuff, and he taught me how to hunt on my own since I don’t have his mental powers, and he helped me pay the bills and stuff on my house until I could start getting money on my own.

J: Yeah, I can figure out where your money comes from. Bonnie asks: What do you really think about Jorick?

L: I dunno. I guess I…I look up to him, you know? He’s like the vampire version of a father-figure, I guess. As I said, he helped me with all that stuff when he didn’t have to. I mean, technically I was part of that rogue group, at least as far as the blood line shit goes, but when the Executioners came he didn’t tell them that. Hell, he didn’t tell them anything about me at all. So he’s really a good guy. I think he just doesn’t want to admit he is. Like, he likes to think he’s cold and dead and blah, blah, because it makes him tougher that way.

J: Interesting. Alicia asks: do you like Katelina for Jorick?

L: I wasn’t sure at first. I’ll be honest, when I first met her I kind of had my eye on her myself. I mean, she seemed too modern for him, you know? And especially since he spouted all that crap. Then he told me about everything that happened, and I could read between the lines, so I gave that up. But yeah, they seem to work good together. Maybe because they’re opposites, you know? They balance each other out, but at the same time they overlap enough that it works.

J: Could be. Bonnie asks: What do you really think about Katelina?

L: I think it’s a shame our author didn’t write that Katelina/Kateesha scene she toyed with – heh-heh.

J: You’d better behave before Jorick hears that.

L: Are you sure he’d mind? *snicker*

J: *giving Loren a hard look* Moving on, Alicia asks: Why do like Micah so much?

L: When Kariss and I got to the war coven, she pretty much dumped me, and I didn’t really know anyone except from stories Jorick told. Micah was the only one who stepped up and said “hey”, and who was willing to tell me who everyone was and explain it all – I guess he was kind of like the Jorick replacement, you know?

J: Bonnie asks, what do you think about Micah?

Loren guest stars in the FREE short Tales from the Island: Micah

L: *slowly* Micah is a lot like Jorick. He spouts all this bullshit because he thinks it makes him tougher, but he’s really a softy too. Like, I know he really likes Katelina, though not in a bang-her kind of way, but like a kid sister, though I doubt he’d ever admit it. He’s not big on admitting his feelings for anyone, actually, just like Jorick isn’t. you have to just be able to guess. My Dad was kind  of like that, too, so I guess that’s why I get along with them, because I’m used to that.

 

J: That could be. Amy asks: Do you agree with Micah and think that Verchiel is up to no good?

L: Pfft. No. I think he’s overreacting. Verchiel seems like an okay guy to me, and I think he just looks at Katelina as a sister or a buddy, you know? And even if Micah was right and Verchiel was after her, I don’t think he’d do anything about it because he seems to actually like Jorick, too. I think it might have to do with all that weird blood connection stuff. He was made by Kateesha, and she and Jorick shared a master, so really he and Jorick are related if you think of it that way. It’s like he’s just having fun aggravating his Uncle.

J: I don’t think you’d better tell Jorick that one. Amy asks: What do you think of that whole Katelina/Jorick/Verchiel/Micah thing?

L: I think they’re all kind of crazy.

J: I can’t argue with that. Christine asks: Loren are you happy? Would you leave and go your own way if you could?

L: Nah. I don’t really want to be by myself. Maybe someday I will, but…I dunno. I guess I don’t see the point of being alive if it’s just to hide out alone. What’s the difference between that and being dead, you know?

J: Dawn asks: Why did you feel such a need to run off and fight in a war?

L: I was just tired of Jorick always treating me like a kid, and I was bored with everything at home. I mean I can’t get a job, and I’m not going to play Twilight and go to school over and over (even if I could – I don’t think that work anyway), and I’d beat all my games, and satellite sucks nowadays, and Jorick was only so much company, you know? I guess I wanted to try it on my own, but that’s when I realized I don’t really want to be alone, I just needed some different people to hang out with. Jorick might not respect me, but I guess, when I think about it, he’s never going to. It’s like a dad with his son. He might be proud of him, but he is never gonna look at him as an equal because, to him, he still sees that little kid. No matter what I do, Jorick is going to see that scared fledgling, but instead of being mad about that, I should look at that as proof that he thinks of me like a son of sorts, and be contented with that.

J: That’s very…mature. Angela asks: If an evil Genie, offered you 3 wishes, would you take them and what would you do with them?

L: Ha ha! Hell yeah I’d take them! I’d wish my arm back, then I’d wish for a few million dollars, and then I’d save the third one for some time when I really, really needed something.

J: Alicia asks: do you miss your arm?

L: Oh yeah. I still go to do things, or grab things, and am surprised when nothing happens. I wonder if there’s a way to take someone else’s arm and graft it on? Like, I know a human arm wouldn’t work because the skin and blood vessels and stuff wouldn’t knit themselves back overnight, but I wonder if I got an arm off of another vampire if maybe that would work? The trouble is I don’t want to take one off of someone…

J: Hmmm. It is an interesting quandary. I bet they’ve tried it in the Munich laboratories. While we’re on the topic, though, Bonnie asks: what weapon do you use now that you only have one arm?

L: Micah is the main one who taught me to fight, and he doesn’t believe in weapons, but Jorick did teach me some, too, and he likes daggers and short blades like that. Mainly I just use whatever I can get a hold of, but it would be cool to buy something of my own and carry it around, huh?

You can also find Loren in his own FREE short.

J: Bonnie also asks: Do you blame Traven for what happened or do you think it was an accident?  Are you glad he’s dead?

L: I don’t think he did it thinking “I’ll blow this guy’s arm off”, it was more like “I want this to explode now and I don’t care”, so yeah, it’s completely his fault. I don’t know if him dying makes it even, though. It would have been better if he’d just lost his arm, too.

J: And for a final question, Sharon asks: If there was one thing you could do, and I mean anything, what would it be?

L: Go out in the daytime. I really miss hanging out on the beach, you know? I grew up there; swimming, boating, skiing, tanning, all of that stuff. And yeah, you can do some of it at night, but there’s no one else there. That was the fun of it, like meeting people and making these sort of temporary best friends because you were both doing the same thing, and maybe you never saw them again, but for those few hours you were like unified…I dunno, it’s hard to explain, I guess.

J: Hard to explain tends to sum you up. And with that we are out of questions and time. Thanks so much to everyone who asked a question, and who dropped by to read this. Be sure to check out the post where you can leave a question for Oren.

Have you missed some interviews? Catch up!

Samael
Katelina
Katelina’s Bonus Follow Up
Verchiel
Jorick Part I
Jorick Part II
Micah
Kai
Torina
Velnya’s Resurrection
Velnya
Etsuko

Posted by Joleene Naylor on June 12, 2016

https://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/2016/06/12/interview-with-loren-2/