I spent most of 2020 working social media for two state senate campaigns. Politics is always fraught, but with COVID looming large, casting a shadow over everything we did, it was an especially hard year. Tensions and tempers were high, and being on social media, I had a front row seat to hatred-inspired trollish comments and messages that are the hallmark of online political discourse. Fueled by algorithms that segment us into echo chambers, we don’t talk to each other. We just try to score points.
At the end of that year, weary of social distancing and deeply saddened by all the hatred, I sat down to write a novel. I’ve written novels before, of course, but this time I wanted to make myself feel better. After staring at a blank cursor for a few minutes, I typed out three words:
Write something happy.
I gave Joy her name before I gave her a plot. :)
It’s hard to write a book that is tonally different from how you’re feeling. I recognized that early on, and I shifted my goal slightly to the idea of writing something hopeful.
The key hope I wanted to develop? The idea that two very different beings can work together for a common purpose. That even when they disagree with one another, they listen and gift the other a simple benefit of the doubt: good intentions.
The idea that they would share the same body popped into my head almost immediately, and not quite out of nowhere. I’ve long been fascinated by stories of body sharing, uncommon though they may be. In fact, the biggest challenge I had early on is the simple truth that most of these stories involve aliens, and I wanted to write fantasy (although the line between these genres is fuzzy, as I will shortly demonstrate). I spun through notions of ghosts and spirits and quickly dismissed them as being tonally off. I wanted to write something more hopeful than dark, so this isn’t a ghost story, even if Joy briefly thinks it is in Chapter 1 (as she tries to figure out what’s happening to her).
I can’t remember the moment when writing about the Fae occurred to me. It wasn’t an obvious choice because Fae don’t normally possess people, but I had run into interpretations of Fae as aliens before, an interpretation that brought me full-circle back to my initial inclination. I did mention that the line between fantasy and science fiction is fuzzy, right? I even make this observation explicit in a brief getting-to-know-you exchange in Chapter 17:
“So … you’re an alien?” Joy asked.
“That’s what you got out of my story?”
“I’m curious about your powers and how they work. I thought it was magic, but if you’re an alien, then maybe not?”
“What’s the difference?”
Once the notion of Fae as aliens clicked into place, the world sort of exploded in my mind. They’re not corporeal, they’re beings of energy, of light and sound, and their magic works through sound, through the Songs of the Fae. They can possess people … and animals and plants (although plant possession doesn’t come up in the book) … and some of them do this regularly. Some of them live in the real world, human lifetime after human lifetime, and some of them absolutely refuse to do so. This is the big rift between them. And where would incorporeal Fae hang out? Probably not somewhere where humans tend to live, so I put them on the frozen continent of Antarctica. An insight that, in a flash, had me reconnecting my interpretation with the traditional notion of the Winter and Summer Courts.
This was a fun story to write. At its heart are two damaged souls, one powerful but unable to trust, one trusting and in need of claiming power. Together, they work magic.
I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!
When Joy wakes up in an alley, she knows three things: she was brutally murdered, she has somehow come back to life … and she is not alone. She’s been possessed by an inhuman presence, a being that has taken over her dying body. That being is powerful, in pain, and on the run from entities more dangerous than he is.
Shade, a Fae prince on the run, didn’t mean to share the body he jumped into. Desperate and afraid, accused of a murder he didn’t commit, he only sought a place to hide—but if he leaves Joy now, he faces discovery and a fate worse than death.
Forced to work together to solve multiple murders, including her own, Joy and Shade discover hidden strengths and an unlikely friendship. Yet as their souls become increasingly intertwined, they realize their true danger might come from each other … and if they don’t find a way to untangle the knot their souls have become, then even the truth won’t set them free.
Knot of Souls is a stand-alone buddy love fantasy that forces two very different beings to work together … and come out stronger on the other side.
Knot of Souls is available at Amazon.
Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but Christine believes great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. She writes primarily about people, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.
In addition to writing, Christine is a freelance editor and political activist. Disability advocacy is of particular interest to her; she has a rare genetic eye condition called Stargardt Macular Degeneration and has been legally blind since the age of eighteen. In her free time, she enjoys role playing, board games, and a good cup of tea. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband and two kids.
Author Links
Website ➜https://christineamsden.com/wordpress/
X ➜ http://www.x.com/christineamsden
Facebook ➜https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christine-Amsden-Author-Page/127673027288664?ref=hl
