We had never heard of The Soulseer Chronicles by Sue Tingey until her publicist contacted us, asking if we’d like to check it out. As soon as we looked it up, we were intrigued. We got to sit down and chat with Sue about Marked, the first book in the trilogy:
***INTERVIEW***
I’m delighted; thanks for inviting me.
Can I cheat? There were several parts actually – introducing the main characters is always great fun. I particularly enjoyed describing Pyrites – but then he is a drakon (dragon) so who wouldn’t. Also the big production scenes – these are the ones that will suddenly come to me in the wee small hours and keep me awake half the night. I think the final confrontation between Lucky and Henri has to be at the top of my list as Lucky finally gets kickass – it’s either that or die. It’s a character changing event for her and this is the Lucky we get to see in the second book.
I love everything supernatural and daemons can be so deliciously wicked and conniving. As nothing is out of bounds for them you can make them do anything you want and it can still be believable. The first time I remember coming across a demon was in an old black and white movie “Night of the Demon”. I must have been about five. There was a fantastic scene when the hero was running through a misty forest at night and he knew he was being chased by something but couldn’t see it. The audience couldn’t either; what we could see was this ball of smoke hovering about twenty feet above the ground and huge footprints appearing beneath it as the creature strode after the man. They really should do a remake – I for one would go and see it.
I called up a daemon of course. No, not really – I’m far too much of a scaredy cat. I did buy a Ouija board off Ebay and read up on the rules for using them. I think I opened the box once and then stuck it in a drawer and piled things on top of it. The former owner had posted that they were selling it because they’d called up something very unpleasant and didn’t want the board in the house. In fact they didn’t even want it in the same country – it came from Australia! It was a good selling point to an author who’d written a scene where some schoolgirls had called up an evil daemonic assassin; at least it was until it arrived! At this point I would like to say Never, Ever play with a Ouija Board. They are seriously bad news.
Do you know – I had to think about that for a minute or two. When I’m writing it seems to me it just happens. I usually start with the name and it goes from there. Jamie evolved throughout the first few chapters, and it’s clear he’s up to something, but Lucky needed to trust Jamie despite him having lied to her, manipulated her and messed with her head. So when it came to the big reveal that’s why I made him look like an angel – I mean how could she not trust an angel?
Jinx is a fairly complex character. He brings death to the human world, wiping out thousands as he walks the earth, but despite this or maybe because of this, I didn’t see him as being so dark and cold that he was undesirable. In my head I thought he’d be fun; with such a grim job you’d need to be! So he has an irreverent sense of humour, is a real ladies man (after all most of us girls love a bad boy) and in my mind when he speaks it’s with a slight Irish accent; I don’t know why.
She’s brave, trusting, likes to think the best of people even when they’ve let her down badly and she’s terribly loyal to her friends.
Ah Jamie, I really like Jamie. Despite looking like an angel he is actually far from angelic. Although for the best possible of reasons he deliberately misleads Lucky by convincing her that he’s a vulnerable, terrified student who needs her help. She is completely taken in by him and once he has wheedled his way into her life he gradually changes letting his real appearance show through. He gets taller, his eyes become bluer, his hair blonder, his physic buffer, but why does he do this? Is he still manipulating Lucky or is it that he wants her to be attracted to him? By the time they reach the Underlands he’s definitely finding it harder and harder to lie to Lucky and when he “marks” her it’s not just for her own protection no matter what he might try to tell Lucky, the other daemons or himself.
I’m going to be really wicked here; I would introduce Jinx to King Joffrey from Game of Thrones. Jinx would so make sure the nasty, little creature got his just deserts and would probably leave him as a pile of smoking bones. Joffrey is definitely one bad boy only a mother could love – and then she’d have to be demented.
(A) bonkers, obsessive writer.
If you get any kind of encouragement or criticism at all from a publisher or agent, even if it’s accompanied by a “thanks but no thanks”, at least think about what they’re telling you. When I wrote my first novel (a very long time ago before there was all this advice out there about submitting to publishers) I had no idea what I was doing. I sent the full MS to Headline with no stamped addressed envelope and even so I got a reply. The MS dropped on the doormat with a thud but someone had taken the time to write on the back of a card that although the novel wasn’t for them they had enjoyed it, thought it was well written and that I should get a literary agent – I thought they were just being kind. I know better now! You get a note like that and you should celebrate. You’ve taken the first step on the ladder to publication and even though they’ve said “no” they’re telling you that with some more work the next person you send it to may not.
I think by the end of my novels I’ve always fallen a little in love with my characters. When I finished writing the third book in the Soulseer Chronicles I was bereft, though that’s not to say I won’t write a fourth. However, thinking back on books I’ve read fairly recently and the male leads who’ve made me have a little shiver I would have to say Evan Walker from The Fifth Wave. He is the ultimate bad lad, not that he’s nasty; that’s the trouble he isn’t, but he is an alien, the enemy, he’s one of the creatures who are going to wipe out humanity – except he grows feelings for a human and risks it all to save her and her people.
I’m always writing something, but I’m currently waiting for the line edit of Cursed the second book in the Soulseer series to come back from my publisher for me to add the finishing touches. I have finished the first draft of the third book Bound, but I’m leaving it alone at the moment so when I do read it through again it’s with fresh eyes.
I won’t give too much away but I can say the whole of the second book is set in the Underlands and that not all of Lucky’s first impressions are quite as they seemed. Throughout the second (and third) book Lucky finds out a lot about herself; some good, some not so much. It also turns out she isn’t the only one who’s been lied to and manipulated and it’s not just her life that’s in danger.
Do you really believe in the supernatural?
Thanks for having me.
***About Sue Tingey***
Sue Tingey spent 28 years with a major British bank before leaving the corporate life to work as Practice Manager for an Arboricultural Consultancy. She lives with her husband (and Koi carp) in East Grinstead, West Sussex.
***About the Book***
Marked by Sue Tingey Series: The Soulseer Chronicles #1
Published by Jo Fletcher Books on May 7, 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: 346
Goodreads Buy the Book
With no family and very few friends, Lucky’s psychic ability has always made her an outcast. The only person she can rely on is Kayla, the ghost girl who has been with her since she was born.
But Kayla is not all that she appears.
And when Lucky is visited by a demonic assassin with a message for her friend, she finds herself dragged into the Underlands – and the political fight for the daemon king’s throne.
Lucky, trapped in the daemon world, is determined to find her way home… until she finds herself caught between the charms of the Guardian Jamie, the charismatic Daemon of Death Jinx – and the lure of finding out who she really is.
Have you read this book yet, Pretties? Ready to check it out?
