“Perhaps
your story is as full of twists and turns as my own. Perhaps not. Either way, I
think both of us have many secrets.”
White Wolf is populated with characters of all kinds, but the two central figures are Sasha, who I've already blogged about, and Nikita. Unlikely allies, even unlikelier friends, and both victims of circumstance. One of the themes of the book is identity: the contrast of public versus private identity, the need to pretend to be one thing in order to accomplish something more important than oneself. The novel's setting has proved an immense challenge when it comes to research, but I wanted to use it because it provides the perfect landscape in which to take the monster/man identity concepts of paranormal and horror literature and break them down in a historically-grounded, very human way. In many ways, I think the most horrifying aspects of the story are the real-life atrocities committed by humans.
If Sasha is the endearing and honest figure of the story, then Nikita is his foil. Full of secrets and repressed emotion. Full of guilt and starting to doubt himself in significant ways. For me, he's endearing in his own way, and his relationship with his lady love is proving, thus far, to be one of the most challenging, balance-beam romances of my writing to date. Very worthwhile, though.
I absolutely cannot wait to share this one with you guys. It's been challenging, and thrilling, and I'm psyched to get all my little book babies on the page so they can start meeting each other and disagreeing about everything.
***
“I’m
not a nice man. But I always tell the truth.”
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