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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Interviewing Kate Lutter about her paranormal release Wild Point Island

I'm very pleased to interview author Kate Lutter today about her new paranormal release, Wild Point Island.

In your book Wild Point Island, Ella Patterson is a half human-half revenant. A revenant is a visible ghost or animated corpse that was believed to return from the grave to terrorize the living. How can Ella be half living and half undead? Are there others of the same mixed blood?

WOW.  I love your use of the word terrorize.  I hadn’t thought of the revenants like that before, but you’re right.  The world of Wild Point Island is one scary place if you don’t belong there.  Wild Point Island was inspired by True Blood.  I loved the romance aspect between Bill, the vampire—once human, now vampire—and Sookie, half human and half fairy.     

In my novel, the hero Simon is a full revenant.  Once human he was changed 420 years ago approximately when he and others who landed on Wild Point Island ate a local plant, which was poisonous.  He had what we call a near death experience.  The plant changed him 
 physiologically into another life form.  In this new form—as a revenant—he has immortality, but he’s confined to the island and must continue to eat the plant in order to survive.  Similar to a vampire, he does best out of the heat of the sun where he assumes a human form.  During the day he exists in a spirit form and must retreat into the specially designed walls of his house and recharge his energy.  

Ella, the heroine, is half human and half revenant.  Her father is revenant; her mother is human.  She is a unique blend and has some of the revenant qualities.  For example, she can thought talk.  Interestingly, her twin sister, Lily, can also mind read with greater precision than Ella.  As a half and half (which is what they’re called) they can live off the island, although Lily will begin to notice some muscle weakness which is an indication that her revenant half is beginning to deteriorate.

And, in answer to your question, there are very few half and halves alive.  For a very good reason, but you’ll have to read the book.  Ha. Ha. 

Why was Ella banished from Wild Point Island? How old was she when banished? Did she go alone?

Without giving too much of the plot away, Ella and Lily and her mother were banished from the island when the girls were ten years old.  It seems their parents had promised something to the Island Council, the ruling body on the island, and they reneged on their promise.  They were banished and the father was imprisoned for fifty years. 

Ella must return to Wild Point Island to help her father escape prison or he will be killed. How did she learn about his need? Is he a revenant or human? Why was he imprisoned?

Again, I have to be careful in how I answer this question because much of what you’re asking is what Ella discovers when she returns to the island to rescue her father.  What Ella knows or thinks she knows is that her father was imprisoned because of her and her sister.  She doesn’t know why, but she does feel responsible.  She becomes a chemist and a bit obsessed with the notion that she must find a way to reunite her parents.  On the night she was banished from the island, she has a clear memory that the soldiers were coming for her and her sister.  Although everyone denies that fact, she believes it to be true.  She devotes five years to developing a magic elixir, a chemical substance that would allow the revenants to survive off the island.  Her plan is to use the elixir as a bargaining tool to free her father, a revenant, from his imprisonment.    

In order to help her father, Ella finds an ally in Simon Viccars, a seductive revenant who has powerful ties to the corrupt High Council. Is the High Council the group holding her father imprisoned? Simon badly wants his freedom from the island, but is that even a possibility? Won't he die if he leaves Wild Point Island?

Yes, the High Council is holding Ella’s father imprisoned.   And Ella has been in secret contact with her uncle who lives on the island for years.  He has promised to help her.  But all is never as it seems on Wild Point Island.  Once on the island, Ella soon discovers that she can trust no one.  When she meets Simon Viccars, a revenant, Ella must decide if Simon truly loves her or is he after the magic elixir.  You ask another good question about whether if Simon can ever get off the island.  The High Council itself is riddled with corruption.  Does the Council want Ella’s magic elixir or would they rather things remain status quo?  If Simon helps Ella, will he damn his own chances of getting off the island?

Briefly describe the magical systems of your world. How do those who are empowered, the revenants, gain their abilities? Does Ella possess any unique powers?

One of the biggest challenges in writing this novel was the world building and creating a backstory to explain why these people were stuck on this island in the first place.  In answer to your question—the revenants can thought talk and they can also mind read.  They are descendants of the original Lost Colony of Roanoke—English colonists who landed on the Island of Roanoke, off the coast of North Carolina.  I actually used names from the original manifest of the ship to name my characters.  Simon Viccars is 420 years old, but trust me, he still looks good.  The Island Council is composed of those who came off the original ship.  They have the strongest powers to mind read.  Imagine how that one ability could wreak havoc in the human world if the revenants were allowed to mingle with the human population.  There is also a group of Ancients who maintain the moral code of the Island.  Some of these Ancients have some Azande blood in their veins, which gives them the ability to create illusions.  Ella’s mother was an Azande, and Ella had inherited this ability to create illusions.  She uses this ability to help free her father.  

All in all, I wrote Wild Point Island, to be a real page turner, where nothing is as it appears to be.  I wanted to keep the reader guessing until the end.  Who can Ella trust?  Can she and Simon be together, even though they’re two different life forms?

 
Wild Point Island  
By Kate Lutter

Banished from Wild Point Island as a child, Ella Pattenson, a half human-half revenant, has managed to hide her true identity as a descendent of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.  Thought to have perished, the settlers survived but were transformed into revenants--immortal beings who live forever as long as they remain on the island.

Now, Ella must return to the place of her birth to rescue her father from imprisonment and a soon to be unspeakable death.  Her only hope is to trust a seductive revenant who seems to have ties to the corrupt High Council.  Simon Viccars is sexy and like no man she’s ever met. But he’s been trapped on the island for 400 years and is willing to do almost anything for his freedom.

With the forces of the island conspiring against her, Ella  must risk her father, her heart, and her life on love.  




 
About the Author

Kate Lutter believes she was born to write. She wrote her first novel when she was in eighth grade, but then almost burned her house down when she tried to incinerate her story in the garbage can because she couldn’t get the plot to turn out right. Now, many years later, she lives in NJ with her husband and five cats (no matches in sight) and spends her days writing contemporary paranormal romances, traveling the world, and hanging out with her four wild sisters. She is happy to report that her debut novel, Wild Point Island, the first in a series, has just been published by Crescent Moon Press. She is busy writing the sequel and her weekly travel blog entitled Hot Blogging with Chuckwhich features her very snarky and rascally almost famous cat.

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Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. Read her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS for adventurous epic fantasy romance: Book One, SEEKING A SCRIBE, and Book Two, HERITAGE AVENGED. She has also authored the Ciel's Legacy series, with fast action mermaid/pirate storylines: TEARS ON A TRANQUIL LAKE and TORTUGA TREASURE.  For a FREE ebook download, read her historic fantasy, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.

2 comments:

www.katelutter.com said...

Thanks so much, Marsha, for allowing me this opportunity to be on your site. You asked some very insightful questions and allowed me so much time to explain the very unique world of Wild Point Island. I have to admit that I was originally inspired by True Blood, that hot HBO drama--especially the love story between vampire Bill and the small town waitress Sookie and the whole doomed aspect of it all--but then my imagination took off--the revenants took over and before I knew it--I had created an entirely different world. I hope your readers will be willingly to take a chance on me!! My readers tell me I've written a real page-turner! I hope so. Take care. Kate Lutter

Marsha A. Moore said...

Kate, I think you're book sounds fascinating and it's on my TBR list! Glad to have you here today.