When the spirit fever struck a town, a village or an outpost, it
left few if any survivors. The white man blamed the Indian saying they used
their mojo on them. The Indians blamed the white man for angering the spirits.
The survivors knew it didn’t matter. The Fevered were forever changed.
A gift he needs to tame…
Kid feels what the world around him feels, he is a raw,
bleeding nerve, and he can’t control the pain anymore. After lashing out at
everyone he loves, he agrees to an exile atop Quanto’s mountain to learn to
control the power he wields. Desperate to end it, Kid battles with Wyatt the
eldest Morning Star—hoping against hope that the man will kill him. He longs
only for peace…
A gift she wants to harness…
Evelyn Lang grew up with a territorial judge for a father, and a
secret—her father’s Fevered ability passed to her. When he’s killed in broad
daylight in a little town in Kansas after freeing a slave, Lang is no longer
bound by her father’s oath to never use her ability—now she must train it. She
travels across hostile territory in search of the man who trained her father.
She longs only for vengeance…
Tempestuous passions, opposing needs, and impulsive decisions
divide them…
Conflicting goals put Kid and Evelyn in direct opposition.
Her hunger for justice cuts him, but Quanto refuses his requests to train
alone. Forced to train together, they must confront their deepest fears if they
are ever to achieve their greatest desire….
His pain. Her obsession. Their battle
Putting Heather on the Spot - Questions for the Author
Because every release is a little different, we're kicking off our release week with a Q&A brought to you by the readers! The following questions are some that I have received from readers of the Fevered Hearts series--and from my girls who were there from day one. Do you have a question? Head over to the website and submit it or post it in a comment and I'll answer--as best I can--either here or in the next round of Q& A.
On the pendants that
guide the children of a Fevered to the mountain, if Quanto dies, will the
Pendants change to send people to the ranch? Or will they go away?
The pendants are a physical construct, theoretically they
won’t change or disappear if/when Quanto dies—I stress the word theoretically
because as much as I know, the future is always mutable.
Can the Fevered that
Quanto trained find their way to the ranch? Can other Fevered children find their way to
Dorado?
I grouped these two questions together because the same
answer applies. Anyone can find Dorado, the town itself isn’t hidden. That
said, they are also not advertising the presence of the Fevered—but word does
travel.
Why did Delilah freak
out when she saw Wyatt?
The answer was right there on the page. She thought that he was
the man she called Father.
Why do Jason's eyes glow?
Sneaky, but we haven’t answered that on the page yet. Winks
What kind of
underwear do the women wear?
Different kinds, though I’ve a website around here somewhere
that my fantastic crit partner sent me if I really need the details.
How much research do
you have to do to write a historical PLUS add all of the paranormal
elements--which do seem to have a lot of basis in science?
Research varies. I studied Texas history in school and I’ve
done an extensive amount of research on different tribes, geographical
challenges and the political issues facing the state during the 1850s. I don’t
touch on all of them. Because Dorado is fictional and located well away from
the larger population centers, I can make them far more insular. But the
arrival of the army in book 4 has allowed for tension to continue to
mount. I try to make sure the gear and
tools they had available is covered. I had to research stagecoach lines and the
extension of rail lines and what went where. I also had to make sure I had a
fair amount of understanding how long it would take to travel from one place to
another. I really didn’t want the Mountain to be like the one in Krull – it
hopped around all over the place.
That said, I do have some fluidity in the nature of their
gifts and that travel from various points in different weather can speed up or
slow down their travel. It also helps if you know exactly where you’re going.
As for the science of all of it, magic has its place—but the
Spirit Fever is also a virus, so I use what I know of viruses and how they
mutate based on their interaction with DNA to allow for different “strains” of
Fevered.
And is that more information than you wanted?
Where in Texas today
would Dorado be?
About fifty miles give or take due west of Austin/San
Antonio region in Hill Country.
Do you feel the
social construct helps frame your story because it's historical or would these
characters interact in much the same way in modern America?
I think the nature of their upbringing in that era and the
need to be wholly self-sufficient really does contribute to how these
characters interact with each other. Distance—particularly when you can’t just
run around the corner to see someone or pick up a phone—makes the time spent
together more valuable. So while they might have interacted in some of the same
ways in their interpersonal relationships, I really do think the 1850s setting
plays a huge role!
Are there going to be
any future Fevered who have arranged marriages destroyed when they bond with a Fevered?
(Many marriages in the 1800s were arranged, after all.)
Another sneaky one…and to that I can only say no
comment.
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