Today I have the pleasure in welcoming Allison Pang to the blog. Allison was a marine biologist in a former life but is now the debut author of a new urban fantasy novel entitled A Brush of Darkness, which was released yesterday! My review will be posted later today.
So, please give a warm welcome to Allison…
Making a Deal with the Devil
What if an Otherworldly being offered you a Contract that promised all your dreams might come true?
One of the main facets of the worldbuilding in a Brush of Darkness is the concept of a TouchStone. In my world, there are three paths of Otherwordly beings – Dark (i.e. daemons and vampires, etc.) , Light (angels, unicorns, etc.) and Middle (Faerie). All three groups have their own sets of powers and issues, and all three like to come to the mortal realm to hang out (for various and sundry reasons). However, there’s a price for them to do so. For example, without a TouchStone, they are limited by the time of day that they can cross the veil in and out of our world – namely only at the peak hours – midnight, noon, twilight and dawn.
As you can imagine, this tends to cramp their style. One way they get around this limitation is by forming a TouchStone bond with a mortal. This bond is usually a fairly detailed written Contract between both parties and overseen by the Faery Protectorate to make sure the mortals don’t get cheated. As you can imagine, it’s not always as easy as that. Because being a TouchStone can be fairly draining on a mortal, often there’s a reward clause written into the Contract.
For example, Abby, the heroine in A Brush of Darkness, signed a seven year Contract with the Faery Protectorate herself – and in return, she doesn’t age during that time frame. The caveat is that she only remains ageless as long as she stays within the boundaries of the town of Portsmyth. Sounds easy enough – until she discovers that if she strays outside those boundaries, she’ll not only age – she’ll age a year for every minute she’s out there.
(Definitely a case of needing to read the fine print before you sign!)
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. Sometimes the Contracts are short term with very few strings attached – i.e. a vampire trading sex for blood, for example. Sometimes they’re done for love. The possibilities and variations are endless, much like relationships in real life.
Thanks Allison!
You can find out more about Allison here:
3 Comments
I really want to read this one, too bad the my galley grab had already expired. So I guess I'll just buy my own copy
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The touchstone contracts are a really interesting concept. I'll keep an eye out for this one.
Jennifer (An Abundance of Books)
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I've got Brush of Darkness on my wish list – and I have some book money to spend, yeah!
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