Guest Post and Giveaway: The Necromancer's Betrayal (Necromancer #2) by Mimi Sebastian

Cover Artist: Debra Dixon

Description:

Her powers have been hobbled. Her enemies are growing stronger.

Old loves challenge her. And her worst betrayer may be herself.

Necromancer Ruby Montagne is battling for her life in the realm of demons. Unfairly branded for the death of a fellow necromancer, she’s got to prove her innocence without the full use of her magic. And the real culprit is still on the loose.

While someone is stalking her friends among the witches, Ruby searches for answers inside the dark intrigues of both the demon and necromancer worlds. Ruby must confront this new, sinister threat while reconciling her feelings for her former lover, a demon warrior. Only it’s difficult . . . because a sexy vampire is making it clear that he’d like to be a lot more than just friends.

The competition for Ruby’s trust heats up as the enemy pushes her toward a dark side that could threaten the entire realm. Yet what can Ruby do when she’s not even sure what she is? With the fabric separating the realms at stake, she must decide whom to trust. But will the ultimate betrayal be her own?

GUEST POST

Necromancy in the Fantasy Genre 

I’m not sure the exact moment the character of my necromancer, Ruby, began speaking to me, telling me her story. I knew necromancers could reanimate people, make zombies, but I hadn’t read a whole lot about them. I’d encountered a couple of minor necromancer characters in a couple of urban fantasy books. Neither went into much detail about the mythology for necromancers, so once the idea struck, I became fascinated with exploring this type of supernatural character, more specifically how she manages a dark power. 

In reviewing the literature, mythology, and even gaming, necromancers have the ability to bring to dead back to life, but there are multiple classes of the undead. This is an important distinction for my Necromancer Books. At times, Ruby simply reanimates a corpse to get information, then puts it back down, or she makes zombies or revenants. Both are fun to write. Revenants are interesting in that they are basically zombies with their soul restored. They come alive with their minds and emotions intact and can be powerful and, of course, struggle with an insatiable appetite for flesh. The revenant that Ruby creates in book one, The Necromancer’s Seduction, is Adam, a slain witch. The best part with Adam’s character was exploring how he dealt with returning to life and realizing he was now a nightmarish creature. He was pretty pissed at Ruby, and controlling him proved to be quite a test of her power. 

Some other interesting necromancer abilities I’ve come across include: ability to communicate with spirits, travel to the underworld, curse or hex the living, extracting disease from the dead and inflicting them on the living, even remove living souls. Necromancers have created undead armies, and at times, have joined the ranks of the undead themselves, which leads me to my next point. In much of the gaming world and movies, necromancers are bad, which I get. Wielding the power of the dead probably warps a person. 

The Hobbit included the necromancer who Gandalf battles and turns out to be Sauron. One of my favorite necromancers is Evil Ash from the Army of Darkness movie. Evil Ash himself rises from the dead and raises an army of “deadites”. And I can’t discuss necromancers in movies without mentioning Re-Animator. I don’t plan on writing any scenes with reanimated, decapitated heads, because you just can’t top Re-Animator! Their take on reanimation was interesting in that Herbert West is a scientist who invents a serum to bring the dead back to life. (Re-Animator was based on the H.P. Lovecraft story titled simply, Herbert West-Reanimator.) 

Over the course of the three necromancer books, I introduce various aspects to her power as she uses it and learns more about necromancer history. Without giving too much away, her powers extend far beyond just reanimation to actually using the arcane energy from the dead as a power source and a way to travel between worlds of the living and dead. 

All of this leads to the best part of Ruby’s character and why she spoke to me so strongly. How does she use her power for good without losing her humanity? Not easily. Her power is almost a character unto itself. It sometimes urges her to use it in ways she knows is wrong, and when she does use her power, it gives her a rush similar to a drug induced high. In my mythology, many necromancers turned evil, succumbed to the temptation to use their power in negative ways. 

Ruby is going to stumble quite a bit and be tempted by the “dark side”. But it’s that struggle and how she transcends it, that makes for a stronger heroine and more interesting character.

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About the author:

Mimi Sebastian raised herself on books and the strange and unusual, and an unhealthy dose of comics and movies. When a career as a punk guitarist failed to materialize, she completed her degree in urban planning, spent two years in the Ivory Coast with the Peace Corps, and another three years in Brazil. By day, she debates the merits of transport oriented development, by night she writes about necromancers and pirates. She’s convinced she could live off coffee, ice cream, and comic books, but is sure only one of those is good for her health.

She's a member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of RWA. A transplant from the beaches of Florida, Mimi now wanders the desert in Phoenix, AZ, and attempts to balance writing with a day career, fantastic family, and household diva: her Amazon parrot.

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