Demon Hunt Dou Interview w/ Kado & Auren

Kado and Auren Interview for Demon Hunt

I've had the opportunity to speak with Kado and Auren from the Shadow Stalker series about the events that took place in Demon Hunt, a Shadow Stalker prequel novella by Renee Scattergood.

Kathryn: Thanks for joining us today!

Kado: We're honored to be here.

Kathryn: So Auren, what is so exciting about these camping trips Kado would take you on.

Auren: Well, before I knew what they were really about *narrows her eyes at Kado*, they were just the one time Kado and I ever got to have any fun together. It was still like getting the seemingly useless lessons at home, but at least we had some fun putting a lot of those things into practice.

Kathryn: Like the tracking?

Auren: Yeah, and I love climbing and exploring caves. Just as long as it doesn't involve eating grubs.

Kathryn: Yeah, I don't think I'd want to eat grubs either. Kado did you ever look at these trips as an opportunity to bond with Auren?

Kado: To be honest, no. I was focused on her training.

Auren: *whispering conspiratorially* He had fun.

Kado: *rolling his eyes* I never said I didn't have fun. It was just not my focus.

Kathryn: Kado, how did you know Auren was in trouble when she released the demon and how did you get to her so fast?

Kado: She and I share a connection of sorts that I created in the shadow world. It links our spirits to one another and allows me to be able to know her thoughts. When she was attacked by the demon, I felt her pain. Probably not nearly as much as she would have felt it—

Auren: Not even remotely close.

Kado glares at Auren.

Auren: Sorry.

Kado: As I was saying, I felt her pain. Then I travelled to her through the shadow world.

Kathryn: Is it difficult to find someone in the shadow world?

Kado: It is for a young shadow stalker who is still in training, but it's quite easy for an experienced shadow stalker. It's even easier when you have that bond established with someone.

Kathryn: Auren, what was going through your mind when you were laying on the ground injured, after being attacked by the demon, and Kado was walking away from you?

Auren: I knew Kado would never just leave me to die or anything if he could save me. What scared me was I thought he believed I was beyond help and that's why he decided to leave me to go after the demon. I really thought I had been mortally wounded.

Kathryn: What made you change your mind, Kado?

Character Interview w/ Ithaca Davidson

Early on in the book, you are accused of always quoting the Bible. Can you tell us why?

I don’t think there is a more quotable source of information than the Holy Bible. Every word in it is the truth, so why not use it to emphasize my point? Even if you’ve never read a word of God’s Word, you can still acknowledge the truth contained within it. And I try to use that truth to illustrate the truth in what I’m trying to say.  Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

Character Interview w/ Claudius Webster

Did you enjoy watching most of your employee’s dying?

Of course not. No sane person enjoys watching others suffer. Well, There’s Miss Tessmacher, but she’s an exception. If it were up to me, none of those people would have lost their lives. And let me state for the record that I had nothing to do with that tragic event. I have absolutely no idea how those creatures were unleashed, and I thoroughly regret not being able to save those people.

Character Interview w/ Zaith

As Jutaya’s best friend, what can you tell us about her that only a best friend would know?

Ah, ha! That’s a good one but I’ll have to watch what I say, she has a way of finding out what she doesn’t need to know. Oh, here’s a gross factoid; after flossing her teeth she leaves the string draped on the side of the sink to ‘dry’ until morning. Why dry? Apparently the acid in our saliva starts to break down the compound keeping the floss together and if left in the garbage can (even one with a lid) it festers and the smell gets into her clothes and the sheets and drapes and she can’t stand the smell of herself. Thank Zola I laser floss!

What’s it like to be a lead reporter for ‘National News Now’?

It’s my dream job but it’s no walk in the park… although I did tend to do that a lot – lol! The employee-boss relationships are strained at best since the supervising producer, Toufin, just happens to be a womanizer and has had a crush on me since I started working there. The man has potential but won’t grow up. Anyway, getting to stick my nose into other people’s business is what I do best and what could be better than getting paid to do what you love?

Character Interview w/ Grace Jameson

You face many trials over the years from childhood to adult life. Can you tell us which challenge was the hardest for you to face?

The hardest challenge, without doubt, was leaving my husband. I was terrified. I didn’t know where to go, or even if I would survive. I only knew that if I’d stayed he would have killed me sooner or later.

Throughout your books you come to inherit some very strong friends in Charlie and Derek. Could you tell us how you met each and, what your first impression was for the both of them?

I don’t think I could survive without either of them. We don’t often get to choose our family, but I chose mine and I know how fortunate I am. I like to think we were drawn together through a mutual need. Derek lost his sister, my best friend at the time, when we were still in High School. He adopted me as his own pretty soon after that, and Charlie came as part of the package!

Charlie always teased me in the beginning. He liked to pretend he didn’t want me around. But I knew he didn’t mean it, because it felt different to when my father said it. I suddenly had two big brothers who I knew instinctively would protect me and I behaved like any younger sister would – I followed them around and bugged the hell out of them!

In Hands of Evil, you find yourself with a strong support network. How do you think you would have fared if you didn’t have this through your journey?

I can’t imagine a world without my brothers, it would be a lonely, desolate place. But I’m a survivor, so I would have found a way out of the nightmare somehow. I’m not sure what that version of me would look like, I’m not even sure I want to know. Thankfully, I’ll never have to find out because there are people who see the good in others and who go that extra mile.

Character Interview w/ Dezmind Lisle

You specifically asked for Jutaya Fyce to be the contractor on your mission, ‘A Guide into the Deserts’. Why?

The incident at the Rally told me two things: one, this woman cares about people and two, this woman has to be a Contractor. So I looked her up on the database and checked out her job history – she was daring and cocky and not afraid to work in the Expanse near the Deserts. That said a lot. I don’t know. For moment as I stood there when everyone was cowering in fear between us and I got a feeling about her – it turned out to be a good one.

There were many personality clashes between you and Jutaya. How did the two of you manage to work together?

Necessity breeds familiarity. For the most part I’d say that knowing she was literally the only Xannian who could even attempt to take us out into the Deserts and home again made it easier to overlook the high-attitude and bitchiness – if I let myself rationalize it out I had to admit that if our positions were reversed I’d be just as sour and just as stressed. I knew she wasn’t there for the cause… it was something about risking innocent lives that kept her glued to us. In that way we started to understand one another, or so I’d like to think.

Character Interview w/ Jonathan Jukes

So, JJ it is noticeable throughout your book Hands of Evil, that you have a lot of training in the military. How did you come to obtain your military background?

My best friend, Andrew Butcher (Butch), persuaded me to sign up. We were pretty wild when we were kids, got ourselves into quite a few scrapes, so I think it was the only option. That discipline, you know, the sense of purpose. I would have followed him anywhere, but I’m glad I followed him into the Marines.

In your military record it states you served as a Royal Marine Commando. Could you elaborate on the kinds of duties this entails?

My main role was that of a sniper within a reconnaissance troop. Without getting too technical it means I have an expertise in weapons, field craft and observation – so knowledge of distances, terrain, that kind of thing. As a Marine I worked in extreme environments and was deployed to Iraq in 2003. During one of my tours I worked with the Commandos rifle company and was part of a two man team.

Character Interview w/ Elijah Turner

What was it like to wake up to darkness with no memory?

It’s terrifying. You don’t know if you’re really alive or if you’ve died and was in some sort of purgatory. It’s hard to describe. There’s a sinking feeling when you realize you can’t remember your own name. But I’ll say this, when your memory comes back in bits and pieces like that, it has a way of showing you a lot about yourself that you might not have noticed otherwise.

Did you expect to find any survivors?

Honestly, finding survivors was the last thing on my mind. I was more concerned with being a survivor than with finding one.

Character Interview w/ Jutaya Fyce

What were your feelings, when the mission first began, toward the people you traveled with through the deserts?

What a pack of idiots. I mean, we’re taught our whole lives to stay away from the Deserts – what in Zola’s name could have possibly been going though their heads to agree to such a fool-hardy mission – nothing, that’s what! To this day I firmly believe that they lost a grip on all their faculties. I honestly don’t know what Dezmind said to get them to set aside such culturally resonant fear, but he did it.

Why did you want your best friend, Zaith, to come along on the mission?

It’s not so much that I wanted her to come (okay maybe that was part of it) but more that I expected her to come. She was so caught up in this Spoken Truth crap that even she fell for Dezmind’s spell – then again, she never could let a lead go cold and this was one heck of a story. Besides, other than Merik the others in the Kahn-lea were blinded by Dezmind’s beliefs and even Merik was willing to set aside commonsense just to be able to write something ‘new’ poetically. He was his own kind of crazy… I just wanted familiar crazy – Zaith would have kept me sane.

Character Interview w/ Susannah McElvogue

Susannah, you have a strong military background serving as a Royal Engineer. How did you find yourself working at the Morgan and Fairchild agency?

Kelvin likes to tell people he stole me away, but the moment I heard he was setting up with Bradley, I set my sights on running the show. They are the kind of men you follow, it’s just how it is. 

There are plenty of bizarre personalities that make up the team at Morgan and Fairchild. Do you have a curtain team member that you prefer the most out of all of them? In other words who is your favorite?

I’m not sure I’d describe them as bizarre, but some of the situations we find ourselves in are a little out of the ordinary, so it takes a certain personality type, sure. As for favourites, I love all my boys, and girls, for that matter. They each have their strengths and weaknesses and I know how to play to them. Choosing between them would be like choosing a limb to remove – it’s not going to happen.

Character Interview w/ Kado

Hi Kado, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

I am a shadow stalker who was chosen at birth to be trained by our Foramar to replace him upon his death. Auren believes I am a courier, but I have spent the last eighteen years acting as a liaison between the shadow stalkers and the Coalition, the current government of the northern territory of the Serpent Isles. It has been my cover for keeping Auren’s secret. Shadow stalkers do not live among the people of the Serpent Isles, and it was the only way to legitimize my reason for being here. I am very recognizable as a shadow stalker to those who have fought beside us in the war with the Galvadi Empire, which helped the Coalition win their independence. Auren’s presence with me is not unusual because many people who know of us know that we foster our children out to be raised by others.

Character Interview w/ Auren Trask

Tell us a little about you and the world you reside in?

The Serpent Isles are an island chain in the far north of my world. There are other land masses, mostly islands, around the world, but we are far from any of them. We are the most advanced culture on our world as well. Some of the other islands have primitive cultures, but the other islands are not very hospitable places to live. The wildlife is much too dangerous to coexist with on some, and the climates are too harsh on others. We are not sure why our culture seemed to thrive and advance, while others that remain are so primitive, but there are legends that suggest shadow stalkers played a role in that, if you believe in such things.

Character Interview w/ Charles Macavoy

Where do you presently work? And why did you choose this career for yourself?

I work within a murder investigation team, which is part of the Metropolitan Police Service. I’ve always felt a strong sense of duty, of responsibility for others. I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s the reason I gravitated towards the force.

We have heard you have a reputation for being tough. Do you believe this has anything to do with your life experiences?

Character Interview w/ Aye

You were a very confused child that spent much of her childhood sheltered by Father. Did you ever have true resentment towards him?

I confess I did. I never understood why he sheltered me so much. In the end though I did learn the why he did, but still why didn’t he have more faith in me that I could control the darkness inside me.

Character Interview w/ Pio

       The life of an angel is unique. Can you tell us a bit more about what it is like?

For me personally life was doing for my Lord. I am the incarnation of  Father’s mercy, and was very devoted to my work. I dealt with a lot of fallen angels requesting Father’s mercy to return back home, yet I am my own being as well. This lead to butting heads with Father often, an act that could of gotten me expelled. In the end I always complied with my Father’s will.

What was your first impression of the child that was Aye?

I thought she was beautiful, and had one hell of a kick. There was also bit of mystery to her… a sadness too even though Father showered her with anything she wanted.