I read a lot. Like, really a lot, over 200 books a year. The majority of my reading is paranormal, fantasy or SF. Which means I have read a LOT of books about werewolves and vampires. I still love both of those tropes, but every so often it’s fun to leave behind the comfortable tried-and-true in favor of something a little more unique. So when it came time to design my fantasy worlds I deliberately chose some more exotic supernatural beings.
Like dragons, sirens and gargoyles. And phantoms.
Why those ones?
My Otherselves series is one of mirrors and magic and parallel worlds. Each Mirror World has its own elemental magic—Air, Fire, Water and Stone—as well as the mirror magic that joins them. The Mirror Worlds are imperfect copies of each other. Rare people, known as Callers, have otherselves—mirror twins—on each of the Mirror Worlds.
The villain of the series is a sorceress named Qeturah who was exiled from the True World to the Fire World for killing her Fire otherself. Qeturah seeks power and uses a magic ritual to bear the child of a fire elemental. Her child is dragon shifter.
But because Qeturah has otherselves, they also conceived the children of the elementals on their Mirror Worlds. So the child of the Water Elemental is a merman/siren, the Stone Elemental’s child is a gargoyle and the Air Elemental’s is a phantom.
Part of the joy of writing a book with a supernatural element is keeping the parts of mythology that you like and throwing away the rest.
My dragon has the standard fire breath and ability to fly, but he can also communicate with volcanoes and shift into a boy.
My merman/siren has a white dolphin tail and neither had gills nor rides around on a mutant sea horse. His siren voice can persuade people to do what he wants, even forget things, rather than lure people to their deaths.
My gargoyles are seven feet tall, not short and squat. They have fangs and claws, but no wings, and each gargoyle is made from a different type of stone. They live below the earth in caverns, not on rooftops.
My phantom is not a ghost who can walk through walls, but rather are boy with the ability to turn invisible at will and who can also Call the wind to fly him around.
I had a lot of fun creating my Mirror Worlds and supernatural creatures, and I’m delighted to be sharing them with readers!
About Nicole Luiken
Nicole Luiken wrote her first book at age thirteen and was published while still in high school.
She is the author of numerous YA books, including the popular Violet Eyes series.
She lives in Edmonton, AB. It is physically impossible for her to go more than three days in a row without writing.
Otherselves
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About AMID WIND AND STONE
Behind the mirror lies your otherself…
There is one True World, and then there are the four Mirror Worlds: Fire, Water, Air, and Stone.
Audrey and Dorotea are “ otherselves”—twin copies of each other who live on different Mirror Worlds.
On Air, Audrey has the ability to communicate with wind spirits. As war looms, she’s torn between loyalty to her country and her feelings for a roguish phantom who may be a dangerous spy.
Blackouts and earthquakes threaten the few remaining humans on Stone, who have been forced to live underground. To save her injured sister, Dorotea breaks taboo and releases an imprisoned gargoyle. Brooding, sensitive Jasper makes her wonder if gargoyles are truly traitors, as she’s always been told.
Unbeknownst to them, they both face the same enemy—an evil sorceress bent on shattering all the Mirror Worlds.
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