Halloween Blog Fest - Meet Tali Spencer

I'm taking a break from running around like a headless chicken to introduce another of my guest bloggers. Meet Tali Spencer everyone. She's bringing a very interesting story with her. Can I just say I'm fascinated by her connection to her material. Oh, and I'm a big Tanith Lee fan myself.
Jana’s Halloween Blog Interview questions

Where did you come up with the idea for your characters?
The theme of the Devil’s Night anthology is demons being wicked, in particular m/m demons being wicked. I had just written Sorcerer’s Knot, a dark tale with sorcerers and tentacles, and I decided I wanted to do something different. Instead of a fantasy world or the usual urban fantasy, I decided to use my knowledge of South America and Aymara/Quechua folklore to create a Bolivian demon. The shaman/demon Katari in “The Seventh Sacrifice” is a fusion of real life Aymara shamans and pre-Inca myth.

What drew you to write for this type of world?
My love of blending Andean culture and fantasy. I lived for while in La Paz and married into an old Yungas family that traced its origins back to the conquistadors. Due to my love of history and myth, and because I was connected to people known in the community, I learned a lot of Andean folklore and immersed myself in the culture: visiting archeological sites, collecting indigenous art, music, and crafts, and talking with scholars and village elders who shared their family stories. I wrote these down in notebooks and still have them. The stories of this part of the world are amazing, and also fantastical. Andean culture is this astonishing and incomplete melding of Christianity with native religion that lends itself to wildly inventive uses of both. “The Seventh Sacrifice” takes place in and around a Catholic church that sits atop Inca foundations. There’s a native legend that cursed snakes live in the church bell tower, so I spun that story sideways into a world where an Andean serpent-shifter could exist.

Who is your favorite horror/fantasy author? How did their works influence you? What is your favorite work by that author?

I worship at the feet of Tanith Lee. Her poetic imagery, rich world building, and diverse cultural influences create the most amazing stories of demons, mortals, gods and the impossible beauty that is being alive—or sometimes dead. She was the first writer to show me through her work that humans are amazing, beautiful , sexual ,and terrible all at the same time. I love the notion that good and evil are fluid, and so is sexuality, virtue, and honor. When we see someone, or try to assign meaning to their actions… what is it we are really seeing? Them, or ourselves? I reread Night’s Master, the first book of Lee’s Flat Earth series, often.

Who is your favorite character you've written and why?

My favorite character tends to be the one I’m writing right now, so that would be Madd in my WIP, Thick as Thieves. He’s one of those men the rest of society pushes to the side: young, small, a witch, and a thief. He’s so angry at the world, he’d just as soon everyone in it burn. But then he’s thrown into a partnership with a giant sex-obsessed barbarian named Vorgell. It’s such a blast to write about this prickly ne’er-do-well with a chip on his shoulder and his humungous companion whose one goal is to get Madd into bed. I’m wrapping that novel up in the next week or two, and then I’ll move onto a new favorite.

How do you keep the supernatural fresh?

I’m not sure if I do, because I like to play with existing tropes. I’ve been around science fiction and fantasy a long time. Right now, I’m seeing lots of writers rehashing the same stories I first read decades ago. As a reader, what pulls me in won’t be the genre—because I’ve seen vampires, werewolves, shifters, gods, and every other supernatural or human nut case a hundred times before—but the writing. Good writing, solid world-building, and strong use of setting make me forget the trope and hang onto the characters and their story. So that’s what I try to do in my own writing. I try to create a world that’s different from what readers usually see. I try to take them someplace new through unusual settings and less-used magic systems. I also like to use humans as main characters, rather than magical beings, because humans don’t need to become animals to be dangerous. We have way fewer scruples than vampires and weres.

What is your favorite supernatural trope to write (ghost, vampire, demon, etc.)?

Give me gods, demons, and dragons any day. I love powerful beings that embrace their power and view the world through a different framework from the human. Otherness fascinates me. It touches on my love of the alien in science fiction, which I also write. Most of my supernatural characters are gods or demi-gods, beings humans are better off not awakening or trying to control. In a way, they are an allegory for what humans never seem to learn: how to control ourselves.

How would you like to see supernatural fiction develop?

Personally, I would like to see less human creatures. How do we handle our entire world becoming alien to us, not just infested by beings who look like us and generally behave like us except for their acceptable quirks, like being elves or shifters? What about quirks that aren’t acceptable? Something powerful that doesn’t give a crap about humanity and with which we can’t communicate… that’s what scares me.

One way to sample supernatural fiction is through short stories and anthologies. The Devil’s Night anthology by Storm Moon Press has several stories of m/m demon fun. Could be great reading for Halloween! Wickedness is one of those areas where the supernatural has a built-in advantage because creatures from the dark side fit in so beautifully. And darkness can be erotic, too. My story “The Seventh Sacrifice” depicts a collision of cultures, sex, and fate: In modern day La Paz, a young Spaniard hell-bent on revenge is attracted to a native sorcerer determined to break a centuries old curse.

Excerpt:
Two stone steps flanked by tables of packaged, prefabricated charms led to the narrow hole-in-the-wall that constituted a store. Every spare millimeter of space was packed with arcane objects. Fully furred llama fetuses with huge, black eyes and grimacing teeth hung from a pole over the doorway, while more of the same—mummified and without fur—lay piled in baskets. The dried husks of armadillos, toads, and starfish held sway among racks of cheap beads, brass bells, and trays of colored powders. Beltran hoped the powders were herbs, but at least one looked like dried blood, and he knew the others could be anything from antlers to hooves, teeth, or bones.

But what caught his eye next, and took away his already scanty breath, was the man sitting on a stool just inside the doorway. Black hair, straight and shining, framed a brown face with strong features and high cheekbones. The heavy mane cascaded behind broad shoulders and a red poncho of alpaca wool. As the man rose to his feet, Beltran saw that he was taller than most native men, with a wiry, powerful frame. The shopkeeper’s eyes commanded him most of all: deep and black, they locked onto his with a hunger so fierce, the compulsion in them made him quiver.
Holy Mother of God, Beltran thought, forcing himself to breathe normally. Marisol never told me her shaman would be gorgeous!





and how ironic is the music playing as I blog this