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In Sirenz, boarding school roomies Meg and Shar learned the hazards of making a deal with Hades, Lord of the Underworld. The wearing of a Tiffany's diamond ring in Sirenz Back In Fashion reactivates their contract, they find themselves back in his employ as sirens. And things are a little different this time; Shar is whisked off to the Underworld to play hostess as the dark god attempts to win her affections, while Meg is stuck topside, obligated to send spoiled rich girl Paulina Swanson to the Underworld. Hot gods, mere mortals and the Underworld have their secrets. Will Meg and Shar ever ditch Hades, and keep their wardrobes and souls intact?
What’s Your Twist?
Believe
it or not, Sirenz was going to be a vampire
story. Don’t ask how—we never got that far. A quick perusal of the bookstore
shelves helped us decide to do something different (lots of vampire books out
there!). We picked Greek Mythology—not that that hadn’t been done before
either. It’s all been done when you think about it. We turn to archetypal
stories and characters because we know and love them. The tricky-sticky part as
a writer is to put your own spin on it. With a bit of luck (and perhaps a
contract signed in blood…) we’ve hopefully pulled it off.
For Sirenz and
Sirenz Back In Fashion, we took the
Greek myths only slightly off the traditional roads, keeping to the basic tenets
of the stories.
Ninety
percent of the time, Hades, god of the Underworld, is generally portrayed as
creepy, old, withered, and horrific, skulking in his dark, grim and damp realm.
Just because his domain is underground, doesn’t mean he has to look like a
zombie mole. He’s still married to Persephone and at odds with Demeter, but our
Hades has a thing for haute couture, fine dining, sleek furnishings, and only
the best of everything he touches. He is sun-bronzed, suave, seductive,
cultured and irresistible. How can he lure underlings and servants if he’s
repulsive, unless it’s by force? Temptation is so much more alluring than force
or threat.
The Underworld—even in the Greek myths is described dark
and hellish, but when you cross the River Styx in Sirenz Back In Fashion and
enter the black palace of Hades, you’ll find a dazzling white throne room,
lavender lakes, pink sand beaches, red mountains and numerous others wonders.
Hades, the eldest brother who according to the laws of primo-geniture and
inheritance legally should have been the ruler of the pantheon instead of Zeus,
has created his own ‘happy place.’ Very few know of Hades’ creation, as he
perpetuates the perception of Tartarus being a terrible place for his own
purposes.
Last year Sirenz
wasn’t the only one of several books featuring Hades in an appealing way. Enter
our twist-on-twist: Our Hades and the world of Sirenz are fun, campy and comedic.
And there are other characters besides Hades who were subject to our
‘special treatment:’ Hermes, who’s a bit of a jock; Persephone, who’s more
vixen than victim; and the Sirenz themselves, we stuck to the mythology for our
main characters. Sirens were bird women—and Shar and Meg find this out the hard
way. Sirenz Back In Fashion touches
on the mermaid side of things, but you have to read the book to find out the
twist on that one!
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Nat's Bio: When not playing with pointed objects, Natalie Zaman is usually writing. She lives in central New Jersey with her family and several fine looking chickens.
http://nataliezaman.blogspot.com/
Char's Bio: Lover of sparkly things, Char doesn't have as many shoes as she'd like, but wouldn't have time to wear them anyway with her three boys, husband, cat with issues, demented squirrels and insistent characters all demanding her time. She is represented by Natalie Lakosil of the Bradford Literary Agency and is hoping to get all her characters into print just so they'll be quiet.
3 comments:
For me my favourite is Hestia because even if she is often forgotten she is the one all of us need at least at one time
all the best and thank you for the giveaway ( i hope it's international)
isabelle(dot)frisch(at)gmail(dot)com
I like Athena.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
Hecate always fascinated me. She's got a lot of mystery around her and someone once said even Zeus was a little scared of her. That's my type of woman. :)
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