QUESTION 1: Why is there a portrait of Pritkin as a young man on Ida Larsen’s website? It is awesome, but is there a short story planned for it?
Ida Larsen, for those who don’t know, is the artist who did the character portraits on my website. Her art can be found at her personal website (http://www.ida-larsen-art.com) and at her Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/Mizzdraconia). Go take a look if you get some time–she’s really talented!
In answer to your question, the portrait wasn’t of Pritkin, but of Rosier, his father. It isn’t on my website yet because I need to decide between several versions. But I’m posting a small pic of what the finished piece will look like on FB later today, so you’ll have an idea.
As far as the story thing goes, I make it a habit these days not to announce any future stories, but simply to post them when they’re finished and I like them. It seems to work better for me that way.
QUESTION 2: It seems like Billy the ghost is slowly throughout the books receiving smaller role/participation. Is Billy (and ghosts) going to be removed?
Actually, Billy has about the same part that he ever did. The difference is that the books are longer now, so it looks like there’s less of him. Touch the Dark, for example, was 107,000 words, while Hunt the Moon was 142,500, and Billy played an important role in it. But he wasn’t in every scene because a) he wasn’t needed and b) it was made clear from TTD that Billy has his own ghostly life going on. At the beginning of that book, if you recall, Cassie was mad as hell because Billy was loafed off somewhere while she was almost being assassinated. And it was stated that this was not particularly unusual for him.
On that subject, I’ve never liked books in which every character’s life seems to revolve around that of the heroine’s. You get the idea sometimes that they don’t breathe unless she says it’s okay, and that they only really live when in her presence. I’ve read a few series that were so much this way that I actually expected to have the ending being her waking up in a mental ward, with the whole thing a hallucination. Because real people do not hang on someone’s every word and action like that. Real people have their own lives and agendas, and I wanted my world to feel real. So characters come and go as they do in real life, and you don’t (at least, I sincerely hope you don’t) get the idea that Cassie is the center of everyone’s universe.
QUESTION 3: It’s repeated throughout the series that the fey are really fond of children, but in Midnight’s Daughter, Dory mentions that Benny’s mother had tried to eat him, which doesn’t really sound too loving. So was that a generalisation that doesn’t apply to all types of fey, or was Benny’s mother the exception to the rule?
That was a reference to the standard troll mythology, namely that they’re a race of cannibalistic giants (or dwarves, depending on the legend and/or type of troll) with a particular fondness for babies. Grýla, for example, is a female troll in Scandinavian lore who eats wicked children. However, no, it isn’t standard in my universe, in which trolls, like any species that wants to survive, take good care of their offspring.
QUESTION 4: I was just wondering what’s Dory’s scent, well gun power for sure but what else?
Dory doesn’t have a distinct scent, other than “human.” It’s one reason she’s so deadly to vampires; they can’t scent her as something Other. As far as the gunpowder thing goes, Dory uses guns when appropriate, but often they aren’t for the type of things she fights. Plus, vamps can smell them, and they’re loud even with so-called silencers, which really only bring the decibel level down to non-deafening for humans. It still brings vamps running, though, and nobody likes to have to deal with back up. Dory prefers knives—silent, deadly and scent-free.
QUESTION 5: What are Cyrus & Sebastian’s wolf names? Does Cyrus know what Lia is and if so, for how long?
Cyrus was stripped of his clan name when he was kicked out (since vargulfs aren’t really considered people). However, it used to be Quick Foot because of his speed when in wolf form. Sebastian was known as Son of the Storm, because his father’s name was Storm Rider. But he took a new name, Pathfinder, when he became clan leader, because that was what he hoped to do—to find a path through the constant squabbling of the clans to a better future.