Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today, Kethric Wilcox – Kethric began writing and publishing as a personal challenge to be creative in a new medium. He was attracted to the LGBT Romance genre after reading several paranormal romances where it seemed like the shape-shifters never faced dangers outside the relationship issues thrown at them by their authors. Thus was born the shifter hunting House of Beauty on the premise of a twisted fairy tale.
Thanks so much, Kethric, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: If you could sit down with one other writer, living or dead, who would you choose, and what would you ask them?
Kethric Wilcox: I’ve actually been lucky enough to do this twice in real life. A number of years ago Katherine Kurtz attended a convention and mentioned that if anyone really wanted to get to know her they’d invite her for a drink. I don’t think she expected anyone to take her up on it, but a friend of mine and I did just that. We had a wonderful time chatting with her about the home in Ireland she was restoring and about the process she used when developing her setting for the Deryni Chronicles. I’ve also had the chance to chat with Mercedes Lackey at a convention though it was a brief conversation as she autographed my copy of one of the Valdemar books.
JSC: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?
KW: I knew I wanted to write back in my sophomore year in high school and was encouraged by my English teacher at the time. I didn’t really discover how good I was at writing until I went back to college to finish my degree in graphic design in my mid-twenties and two of my English professors tried to redirect my focus from Art to English. One tried to encourage me pick up a minor in English along with my Art major, but I was already doing a History minor.
JSC: If I were a Hollywood producer about to put your book on the big screen, whom would you want me to cast as the leads? Why? And can we have pictures to drool over?
KW: For the leads in the Tracker: Kieran Belle – if he could be enticed to acting from his modeling career Travis Smith who was the inspiration model for the character. Corwin “Cory” Cooper – Hunter Parrish comes the closest of young blond actors to the look of Cory.
JSC: How would you describe your writing style/genre?
KW: My writing genre is M/M paranormal romance for the most part. My writing style is pantser, to outline kills the creative mood for me.
JSC: Were you a voracious reader as a child?
KW: Surprisingly, no I wasn’t. I didn’t become a voracious reader until after I graduated high school and a friend introduced me to Katherine Kurtz’s works and Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Then I started devouring SciFi/Fantasy books.
JSC: What was your first published work? Tell me a little about it.
KW: My first published work was Tracker; book one of my Legend of the Silver Hunter trilogy. I’d been reading M/M for about a year and noticed all the shifter romances didn’t have any kind of outside threat to the packs or the romance itself beyond the standard problems of the average dating couple. I wanted to know why there were no hunters seeking shifter-pelt trophies or trying to rid the world of the evil taint of shifters. So, when a different writing project fell apart, I decided to challenge myself to write what I wasn’t getting in the M/M paranormal world. I decided to take the tail of Beauty and the Beast and twist it. The premise was what if Beauty’s happily ever after was a lie. From that premise was born the shifter hunting House of Beauty. I then asked myself could one of Beauty’s descendants fall in love with a shifter and achieve the happily ever after Beauty couldn’t.
JSC: What fantasy realm would you choose to live in and why?
KW: Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar. I fell in love the Companions, and Vanyel was the first gay character I’d ever read about. The world is full of texture and life, with interesting cultures and languages. I want to be a Herald-mage or a Hawkbrother Healer-Adept.
JSC: What’s your writing process?
KW: Mostly I sit at the computer and let the words flow and let the characters tell me where we’re going. I do research to be accurate, especially for topics I know nothing about. In my book Witch, there’s a scene involving a caution about handling things around a blacksmith shop. I had to go look up the unseen dangers of hot metal, since I don’t do blacksmithing but the character was a master smith.
JSC: Would you visit the future or the past, and why?
KW: Hmm, a difficult choice when you’re a huge Doctor Who geek. I think if I could hop in the TARDIS, I’d want to visit the past and pop into the court of Catherine the Great of Russia. I’d like to meet the woman brave enough to seize the Russian throne and also let herself be a test subject for a smallpox vaccine.
JSC: What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
KW: I just wrapped up the first book of my new Origin of the Vampires series, The Curse and I have partial starts for both of the following books as well as notes and scenes for a second Silver Hunter series. The plan is to do the first of the new Silver Hunter books, titled The Goldilocks Pledge, and then do book two of the Vampire series. Depending on how crazy real life gets hopefully I’ll have The Goldilocks Pledge out around Aug/Sept of 2018.
And now for Kethric’s new book: The Curse:
Cain Slays Abel!
In this day and age, that’s not an earth-shattering headline. We want headlines that scream of life-altering events.
Terrorists Nuke Peace Conference!
Wow! What a gripping headline. This is something to change the world. Oh, wait! The world did transform. This ran as the lead story a few hours before the beginning of The Upheaval. The current world birthed in nuclear fire and electromagnetic disruption. Gone are the nations I grew up with. My life altered again.
Cain Slays Abel!
The truth behind such a classic story is far more complicated than anyone could imagine. The brothers’ tale is a life-altering event, at least for me. Twice a report of murder transformed my life in an unpredictable way. I am Richard St. Martin, Master of Darkness. Before my story can be told, you need to learn the story of the first dark monster, Cain. My stepchildren call him Father Cain because he was the first. To find the actuality behind the myth, I recruited two talented mortals – Dr. Jeremiah Banks, Archaeologist, and Professor Juan Di Vargas, Theologian and Religious Scholar. Together they found the secret origin of the vampires:
The Curse!
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Excerpt
Prologue: Richard St. Martin Sets the Quest in Motion
“And the Lord commanded Adam, “Go and fashion a knife to slay thy son, who is an abomination in my sight. The blade of the knife shall be a cubit in length of pure bronze. Fashion the handle and guard from cedar, and wrap the handle in leather made from a newborn calf. In the pommel set a ruby the size of the end of your thumb. When this blade is completed bring it to the Cave of Treasures and leave it at the entrance for three days. On the morning of the fourth day, take the blade from the Cave of Treasures and seek out thy son, the abomination, and slay him.”
Gospel of El-Abel 2:1-5
An old journal sits open on the corner of a battle-scarred desk, in the back of St. Martin’s Antiques and Collectibles, placed beside his personal diary started several years ago. The diary’s author glanced down at the current page of his life story.
March 5, 1992
I sat in the old house for two days after killing the being claiming to be Cain, son of Adam and Eve. Do biblical tales contain more than stories? Still can’t decide whom to convince, myself here in the present or some time off in the future. The effects of Cain’s curse started to take affect yesterday. In the course of lighting the fire, I found my Ruby magic tainted with Ebony magic, which possessed a strange sparkle. Faint stirrings of hunger manifested, and my canines elongated into fangs. Major magic awoke the moment my silver sword cleaved the vampire’s head from his shoulders. Now to find out what becomes of my life or unlife.
Would you believe twenty-five years passed since I wrote this entry? Didn’t think the crazy old man was Cain the first of his kind. The reality of my situation makes everything my poor lost Susan believed in, the fiction the critics of Judeo-Christian beliefs claim. Wonder what the church would make of Cain’s journal or any of the other ancient books in my private collection. Still can’t figure out what to make of some of the passages directed at his successor, in particular the one at the end of the journal; the man thought as he flipped to the last page of Cain’s journal, which contained writing.
Under the full moon in the throne room of El-Abel soak these last pages in blood from one of my grandchildren and reveal the deepest truth.
The man paused his reading when a text vibrated his phone. Pulling his phone out he glanced at the message and decided to put himself to the test. He hit the phone number in the text and waited while the number rang.
“Kieran Belle, can I help you?”
“Mr. Belle, Richard St. Martin, here. I’m a hunter, and I understand your services, as a tracker, are for hire.”
****
Historians debate what events mark the collapse of the United States of America and Western democracy. Some argue for the contested elections in 2016, 2018, and 2020, which brought one party rule to the American federal government. Others support the passage of indentured servitude laws to replace the banned death. The Third Russian Revolution of 2042, which ended the Russian Federation and restored the Russian Empire, under a distant cousin of the czars, rocked the American government. Most historians agree the declaration of intention to secede issued by, California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska in 2055 marked a defining moment in Western history. The stunning defeat of America’s ruling party in the 2056 elections and the rapid reforms of the New Progressive Party prevented a second American Civil War.
The New Progressive Party (NPP) managed to hold the United States together until 2092. In the run-up to the elections of 2092, the NPP invited world religious leaders to attend a conference to promote an end to religious conflicts. History remembers the Fayetteville, Arkansas conference not for peace but for the terrorist attack, which sparked the Upheaval. To this day, those responsible for the six dirty bombs, which destroyed the city and killed the assembled religious leaders, remain anonymous. Sparked by the attack, radical Eco-terrorists unleashed a dozen High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) devices across the globe. Chaos ensued as modern conveniences, electrical grids, and defense systems, near earth orbit satellites, and other sophisticated systems crashed.
A century of war exploded around the globe as the old orders collapsed, and lead to the rise of new nation states ruled by conservative reactionary forces. The three nations of North America, the United States, Canada, and the Republic of Mexico dissolved. The new nations of the Federal Union of North America, the Confederate States of America, The Republic of Texas, and the Republic of California replaced them. Continental Western Europe unified under the Catholic Church as the New Holy Roman Empire. By 2200, new nations settled into place with only a few minor border wars. In addition, in 2200, the Catholic Church elected a new dynamic cardinal Pope as Francis III, who made his mission to ensure no repeats of the Upheaval. Pope Francis forced the signing of The Holy Accord of 2204, banning the redevelopment of air and space technology. Travel restrictions became commonplace not only between the new nation states but also within many of the new nations.
A Brief Overview of the late 21st through the early 23rd Century, Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, 13th Edition, published 2531, by the University of Havana Press.
****
Имперская служба новостей – (Москва) 14-марта 2026 года
Ричард Сен-Мартен исчезает в русской пустыне
Russian news accounts claim Richard St. Martin, the famous shifter hunter, died somewhere in the wilderness of the empire in early 2026. The entire team of hunters hired by the Emperor vanished without a trace. His Most Russian Majesty ordered an elaborate state funeral for the members of the hunting party. The St. Martin estate lingered in probate until a young man came forward with documents, which declared him St. Martin’s heir. Witnesses at the time consider Seth Abelson, the man who inherited St. Martin’s estate in 2030, an imposter.
At the time of St. Martin’s recorded death, The Order of St. Hubert did not possess the power and authority we enjoy today. Founded to honor the patron saint of hunters and to train them, The Order serves as the law enforcement arm of Mother Church and the Empire. At our core, we remain hunters.
The Upheaval enabled The Order’s rise to prominence with the election of our Cardinal/Grand Master to the Papal throne. Once relations between nations stabilized law enforcement personnel received limited travel permits. After a century of chaos, rumors still circulated about St. Martin’s collection of hunting trophies. Under Vatican instructions, The Order of St. Hubert formed a team and investigated the rumors. The chosen members discovered Richard St. Martin’s secret library in Amsterdam, New York, Federal Union of North America. In hopes of laying claim to this treasure, the Order dispatched an archival team to recover the contents of the library. Unknown forces killed both teams. The last authentic communication received by the Mother House of the Order came on January 25, 2211. Circumstances surrounding the event meant we acquired only one journal sent to inform us of the secrets St. Martin kept hidden. The Order received an incomplete copy, which leaves us uncertain of the actual proof behind our agent’s claims. Attached is a copy of the late Father Sebastian’s cover letter for the records. Recovery of St. Martin’s original journal remains one of the highest priorities for all members of the Order.
Alexander Le Roux,
Knight-Archivist
Order of St. Hubert
Liege, Belgium, Holy Roman Empire
****
December 10, 2210
Sorry I cannot call you by name, but by making and sending as many copies as possible, I cannot address those who receive these copies. By the time you receive this package, I am dead or worse, do not trust any further communications from me. I beg you, take all precautions available to ensure these documents reach either my Grand Master or the Pope. Warn Mother Church an ancient enemy still exists. The Order counted Richard St. Martin, whom we called Lord Hunter, as an ally. Now I fear misplaced our trust. In the aftermath of Lord Hunter’s death during the hunt for Celina Dyta, the Order did not possess the influence needed to claim his estate. The Upheaval and the wars, which followed the disaster, led to us becoming influential enough to claim what we believed belonged in our protection.
After things settled down, travel resumed between the Holy Roman Empire and the Federal Union of North America. The Vatican dispatched my team to recover relics from Lord Hunter’s last listed residence in Amsterdam, New York. What we found horrified us and challenged our faith in our Lord and Savior. The volumes contained in the St. Martin Museum of the Supernatural, contain dangerous materials. The attached dairy contains entries from a blasphemous tome purported to be the Journal of Cain. This journal’s vague claims and twisted history challenge every tenant of our faith. The author’s claim of being the first-born son of Adam and Eve and the first vampire raises a specter of horror in our hearts. Worse the book contains additional notes in the verified hand of Lord Hunter. Notes which claim one of his early kills as the vampire claiming to be Cain, and receiving Cain’s curse as foretold in the Bible.
I beseech you to pass this package on. Whatever the truth may be vampires started to come for us and I alone remain, the last of my team as I write this. Warn Mother Church.
Father Sebastian Drummond,
A Priest-Scout
Order of St. Hubert of Lieges
****
“Master, we did as you required. We destroyed the Order’s team before they communicated with their motherhouse. As you commanded, we sent a false partial journal to The Order with a letter from one members of the team. The agents scattered the partial copies as well as the one whole copy of the journal you prepared. We shall track and move the copies along as needed.”
“Thank you, my little spy. The whole journal must find its way into the hands of an academic, a religious scholar, or an archaeologist. The journal contains secrets I need revealed, starting with the location of El-Abel.”
Author Bio
Kethric Wilcox began writing and publishing as a personal challenge to be creative in a new medium. He was attracted to the LGBT Romance genre after reading several paranormal romances where it seemed like the shape-shifters never faced dangers outside the relationship issues thrown at them by their authors. Thus was born the shifter hunting House of Beauty on the premise of a twisted fairy tale. What if Beauty and the Beast didn’t end with happily ever after? Wilcox’s Legend of the Silver Hunter trilogy looks at this question and then asks what happens if a member of this family falls in love with a descendant of the Beast, can they find happily ever after or are they doomed to repeat the tale. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Wilcox now lives and works in Little Rock, Arkansas in a house that he and his partner renovated. By day Wilcox is a graphic artist and exhibit designer, and at night an author of paranormal romances.
Wilcox currently has two new trilogies in progress: Origin of the Vampires (The Curse, Lord Hunter, and Lord Slayer) set in a dystopian future of the Silver Hunter world; and Legacy of the Silver Hunter (The Goldilocks Pledge, Ruby Wine, and Black Snow) which continues the story told in the Legend trilogy from the view points of other couples in Kieran and Cory’s lives.
Details about the world of the Silver Hunter can be found on Wilcox’s blog at www.kethricwilcox.com.
Follow Wilcox on Twitter at @KethricW
as KethricWilcox on Instagram and on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005011665438
Follow these universal book links to find Kethric Wilcox’s books at your favorite e-book retailer.
Tracker: books2read.com/u/4DAoJe
Witch: books2read.com/u/49xPdW
Hunter: books2read.com/u/m0zxWJ