✨ Character Interview ✨
An Interview with Lili of the Gamin Immortals Series
As written by the author Sophia Whittemore
It’s not easy to get ahold of Lili for an interview, let me tell you. Between her being a cynical immortal type and also singlehandedly holding the small, mystical town of Gamin together these past few months by solving every magical crime known to mankind… let’s just say her schedule is booked.
Lili crosses her arms as she sits across from me, wearing her trademark peacoat jacket as we sit together for a cuppa at the Sweeney Inn– a space run by the necromancer-twin duo of Patty and Jason Sweeney.
I try to get a closer look at the contents of the murky, reddish liquid in Lili’s cup…
LILI: Are you here to interview me or to interrogate me, author?
I sit back down.
SW: Noted. Let me just get those papers out the way here…
I put some sticky notes aside, fumbling with a paperclip. Lili suppresses a sigh, stopped only from leaving the table by an encouraging thumbs up from freckle-faced barkeep-turned-necromancer Patty minding the inn’s café and bar behind us.
SW: So, first question. Which of the other characters in Wake the Dead would you marry, kill, or hookup with?
LILI: I’d marry my partner Jo Kim, obviously. I developed an emotional closeness to her ever since she pointed a shotgun at my head during our first case together. The perfect suspect that could warm my undead heart. I’d kill, well… I’d try not to kill anyone really. I think I’ve done too much of that in the past. I’m trying to do better. (She raises an eyebrow at the last one) I highly doubt I’d do the deed with anyone. I’m demisexual– my emotions and my sexuality are inextricable. Without a strong emotional connection, I’m afraid hookup culture isn’t my… taste. (She smirks into her glass at that.)
SW: Ah. I should have known. Next up. Would you visit the future or the past, and why?
LILI: I can’t change the past. I’ve lived it, and frankly, once around is enough for me. I don’t know about the future. I think I’m still struggling with accepting the present, really. I think Patty would encourage me to say that “the present is called the present because it’s a gift from the universe to you” or something sentimental like that.
SW: So, will you say it?
LILI: Do I look like a snuggly and cozy advert to you?
SW: Point taken. (I turn to the next note, flabbergasted by the question). Um… how does the world end?
LILI: Oh, I see what’s happening here. Just because I’m an immortal with a gray-shaded past, that must mean that I’m partial to knowing other immortals who might end the world. Is that it? (She crosses her arms with a smirk). Please, dear. If anything– you know more humans who might end the world than I know immortals who can be bothered to end it.
SW: Sadly true. Next ques–
Lili reaches across the table at this point and takes the notes out of my hand. She begins to shuffle through them, laughing to herself. Her teeth, I note, are irregularly sharp.
LILI: Oh, this is rich. What’s my drink of choice? What’s in my fridge right now? What’s my favorite food? Come now, Sophie. You can do better than this.
She tosses the cards beneath her glass, where the paper seeps red.
LILI: My turn to ask the questions.
SW: I don’t think that’s how this…
Lili holds my stare until, finally, I accept my fate.
LILI: Excellent. First question. Why’d you write me into existence?
SW: You want the truth?
LILI: If you can handle it.
SW: I wrote you in the first book Catch Lili Too as an ode to the awesome queer punk friends I’d made on my own journey. Your inner monologue was me during a time of deep depression in my life, when I struggled with feeling each day was too long. The feeling of being an immortal, I’d imagine. Where every day felt long but…
LILI: Empty?
SW: Yes, that’s it. And it was only by meeting my amazing group of QPOC and QTPOC friends that I was able to accept myself. Being demisexual. Being queer. Being nonbinary and Indonesian American and what all these identities meant to me. So, I made you. A jaded immortal tired of living forever who gets dragged into a murder case with other various mythological characters– a found family who helps you find a reason to live…
LILI: A reason to live that involves stopping a killer. How morbid.
SW: You get me.
LILI: I suppose I do. Second question. Why write the sequel Wake the Dead ?
SW: I missed you.
LILI: You flatter me.
SW: I’m serious. I missed writing about the town of Gamin. Writing you and Byron and Jason and Patty and Detective Ikiaq. Writing about Jo Kim and the mandrakes and the giants and wanting to delve more into this paranormal small town where everything goes wrong that could. And, by happy accident, sometimes things go right.
LILI: And giving a home to our queer, merry crew helped, I take it?
SW: Always. We always need more. We need more stories so more people feel seen. I’m blessed to work with talented people– I learn so much from them. From my friends and loved ones.
LILI: I suppose I get how you feel. Community, love, friendship… it’s. Helpful. Or something.
SW: Aww, that was almost sentimental coming from you, Lili.
LILI: Don’t push your luck.
Wake the Dead
by Sophie Whittemore
Series: Gamin Immortals (book 2)
Release Date: Tuesday, May 9 2023
Publisher: NineStar Press
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Length: Novel / 83,700 Words / 295 Pages
Primary Plot Arc: Speculative Fiction
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery-Thriller, Paranormal
Tropes: exhausted immortal, immortal love, monster lovers
LGBTQ+ Identities: Ace, demi, bi, gay, gender-fluid, lesbian, non-binary, poly, trans, queer
Pairings: FF, MM, T4T
Keywords/Categories: horror, mystery, thriller, paranormal, ace, asexual, demi, bi, bisexual, gay, gender fluid, lesbian, non-binary, enby, nb, poly, trans, transgender, queer, new release, announcement, giveaway, gods, deities, monsters, elves, fairies, mythology, non-Eurocentric mythology, found family, villains, redemption arc, morally gray heroes, antiheroes, immortal
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Blurb
An ominous presence awakens in the small town of Gamin.
Fairies murdered by crazed monsters. Magic that makes immortals lose their minds and their heads (literally). Whispers of a vendetta against the fairy crime lords who own the infamous Kraken Club.
One ace siren detective, Lili, is dragged back into defending her turf…and hopefully, she doesn’t die this time around.
Warnings: violence, survivors, mental illness
Excerpt
Prologue
The Kraken Club
The Kuntilanak’s name was Indah, at least, it was in the strip club. Her long, black hair wrapped like a shroud around her body as she circled the pole. When her hair coiled past her shoulders, it revealed the nail sticking out of the back of her neck, thick as a child’s fist, the color of rust and blood. Black rope was tied around her legs, cuffing them to the soles of the boots she wore as heels. A tall and thin man, a fairy, with willow-emerald skin and eyes the color of lotus leaves, held out a wad of dollar bills. He placed them at her feet.
“Smile,” he told her.
She did, baring her fangs.
The fairy grinned. “Ah.” He traced his thumb against those fangs, still grinning as she sank them into skin that tasted of rotting leaves and nectar. The fangs retracted when he didn’t flinch. “Like a vampire.”
Indah laughed, bending over to pocket the bills in one smooth movement. “The vampires wish they were Kuntilanak like me.”
* * * * *
As soon as she pressed the bills to the glittering zipup pouch at her thigh, they disappeared. The fairy waggled his long, thin fingers. “Alakazam.” He chuckled even though this wasn’t a laughing matter. Being of fairy blood, he couldn’t care less.
“Fae magic doesn’t feed me. Money does. So, if you’re not willing to pay with real cash, then get out.” She spat at his eye, praying he went blind. “Setan.”
She moved toward the bathroom, taking the long way around so she wouldn’t run into the handsy Ljósálfar manning the bar with his light-blond hair and translucent skin. He thought he was handsome, and he took many a mortal woman to bed, but his overconfidence turned the Kuntilanak girl off him.
Overconfidence just made you all the more of an asshole, and she knew his type. Pelle was just another elf acting as a handler in this gods-forsaken place.
She slammed into the bathroom and took the sink covered in the least amount of glitter and wadded tissue paper. She splashed under her armpits and near her groin, counting the feeble bills she’d collected in the first hour of the night.
The blue bathroom door swung lazily open behind her, screeching against tile. “Fuck off, Pelle!” She screamed it out, hoping she could scare him off.
Instead, it was the green fairy. He stood in front of her with his legs splayed wide, his eyes focused on her face.
“You again? I’m not for free.” She raised her middle finger, water trickling down the sides of her face. Smelling a sweet-smoky mix of nail polish and cigarettes in the back.
No reaction. His eyes stayed focused on her face. “Hello? Fairy dude, you doing all right?”
His neck bent backward then slammed forward again. Something splintered: wood, blood, and bone.
“They’re coming,” he said. “The ones who see all.” Then he struck.
About the Author
Sophie Whittemore is a Dartmouth Film/Digital Arts major with a mom from Indonesia and a dad from Minnesota. They’re known for their Gamin Immortal series (Catch Lili Too) and Legends of Rahasia series, specifically, the viral publication Priestess for the Blind God. Their writing career kicked off with the whimsical Impetus Rising collection, published at age 17.
They grew up in Chicago and live a life of thoroughly unexpected adventures and a dash of mayhem: whether that’s making video games or short films, scripting for a webcomic, or writing about all the punk-rock antiheroes we should give another chance (and subsequently blogging about them).
Sophie’s been featured as a Standout in the Daily Herald and makes animated-live action films on the side. Their queer-gamer film “IRL – In Real Life” won in the Freedom & Unity Young Filmmaker Contest (JAMIE KANZLER AWARDS Second Prize; ADULT: Personal Stories, Third Prize) and was a Semifinalist at the NYC Rainbow Cinema Film Festival. They’ve published in multiple literary magazines and also worked as a staff writer for a time at AsAmNews and Her Campus Media. Ultimately, Sophie lives life with these ideas: 1) live your truth unapologetically and 2) don’t make bets with supernatural creatures.
Author Links
Giveaway
Sophie is giving away a $20 gift certificate for Nine Star Press with this tour:
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