Creating a believable paranormal tale: Enemy Through the Gates

Today I have on author D.T. Dyllin, a chocoholic and paranormal believer like myself talking about creating a believable paranormal tale. Her debut novel, Enemy Through the Gates, a YA paranormal romance just debuted.

About Enemy Through the Gates:

P. J. Stone, like most eighteen-year-old girls, is a little boy crazy and somewhat obsessed with finding the perfect boyfriend. Some days she feels like she might be the last remaining virgin in her entire high school, and maybe even the entire tri-state area. After a traumatic night at a friend’s party, P. J. realizes what she truly wants has been right under her nose all along. Bryn O’Bannon, her best friend and partner in crime since age five, is head over heels in love with her, and she feels the same about him.

But P. J.’s life isn’t that simple. She’s a member of a separate society that exists secretly among the rest of the world; the society raises gifted individuals to protect the world from interdimensional interlopers, and P. J. was taught to put duty before her heart. She is expected to choose a suitable mate in order to perpetuate the Seer line. Unfortunately, Bryn is a Guardian and is forbidden to date—let alone mate with—a Seer such as herself.

As if figuring out her love life isn’t complicated enough, P. J. begins having visions of a threat to her world only she is able to perceive. Now, she must concoct and execute a plan to avert world disaster while at the same time avoiding the dissolution of her love life.

D.T. Dyllin
Creating a believable paranormal tale

Today for my second to last stop on my whirl wind of a virtual book tour, my illustrious host Donna Galanti has asked me to comment on creating a believable paranormal tale so that the reader can suspend their disbelief enough to believe. I must say this is the perfect topic for me because believability is very important to me. And here’s why…

I began my love affair with everything Superman when I could barely talk. I would sit and watch the old black and white TV show reruns with my mom. But as I got older, despite my never wavering love for The Man of Steel, there were some things about his world that crawled up under my skin and chafed me. For example…how can donning a pair of dorky wire rimmed glasses really fool everyone into not connecting the dots of who Clark Kent really was? Maybe if they were ‘magic’ glasses that gave off glamor or something, then I could have bought it…maybe. With no explanation given I became disillusioned by a world that I’d grown to love with my whole being. How hard world it have been to give me, the willing believer, some explanation as to why something that seemed so ridiculous was in fact ingenious? Not very…at least not in my opinion.

So when I set out into the world armed with pen and paper (in reality my lap top) and a very vivid imagination, I vowed that I would not let any future readers down in the same way that I had been let down. I want my fantasy worlds to be almost possible. No matter how fantastic the premise might be, I want the reader to be able to suspend their disbelief easily. It’s really about setting up world rules, and clearly defining them. For example, in my story ‘Enemy Through The Gates’, the secret world that exists within our world is populated by four basic types of ‘gifted’ humans.

Seers: They possess the ability to see any danger or threat to our world along with any matters pertaining to the gates. (Gates are a series of portals or “doors” throughout our dimension linking it to other dimensions.)

Gatekeepers: They have the ability to manipulate montauk-monster.com/pharmacy/amoxicillin various energy fields, including the energy around the gates. They can open and close the gates, which comes in handy with shutting out unwanted visitors to our world.

Speakers: They have the ability to understand and speak all languages of any origin.

Guardians: They have super strength, super speed like Superman (minus the vulnerability to Kryptonite) but can be injured like any mortal human.

Once the basic parameters for the fantasy world are in place (such as the attributes of the ‘gifted’ humans in ‘Enemy Through The Gates) then as far as I’m concerned, the hard part is over.

Then comes the fun part. I begin working out how a character will react to the difficulties I throw at them. I suppose it’s the actress in me which prompts me to write only in a first person narrative because I like to lose myself in a character like P.J. It’s similar to acting in a play or movie, a part of me blends in emotionally with a character like P.J. yet I react to that world as if looking through P.J.’s colored glasses. It is my heartfelt conviction that realistic characters are what matters most in any story. And in my case, they sometimes surprise me with what they end up doing.

When all is said and done, I think the most intriguing part about creating a believable fantasy world for a novel is playing with all the ‘what ifs’ in one’s imagination. There are an infinite amount of possibilities for countless types of fantasy worlds, and they can all live in blissful co-existence on our bookshelves.

And now it’s time to thank my gracious host Donna for allowing me to share some of the challenges that go into creating a believable paranormal tale. Wait…Isn’t that an oxymoron or something? It has to at least be ironic. Where’s a dictionary when you need one??? Hmmm…

Check out an excerpt from Enemy Through the Gates:

And just as suddenly as it had begun, the kiss ended. Bryn stood quickly, leaving me on the ground to stare up at him in a daze. He swore under his breath, turning away from me to run his hands through his hair. “That shouldn’t have happened.” His voice broke an octave lower than normal, causing my stomach to do a little flip-flop.

“Bryn.” His name, carrying an unsaid plea, felt new and unfamiliar on my tongue. I wanted his lips on me again, so much so that me being almost raped didn’t even seem relevant anymore. “Bryn,” I said again, bringing the fingertips of my hand to touch my lips, imagining his were still locked with mine.

Bryn turned back towards me, acknowledging my silent plea with wide eyes. Tension was etched into every line on his face. “You’re drunk, and that shouldn’t have happened.”

Maybe I was buzzed, but not drunk. And for the life of me I couldn’t remember why kissing Bryn was such a bad idea. I’d never imagined kissing someone could feel so—right. So there was no reason why it shouldn’t have happened or why it shouldn’t happen again. “Why?” I whispered. “Why shouldn’t it have happened? I want—I want you to kiss me again.”

About D.T. Dyllin:

Cynical-Optimist. Chocolate-holic. Sarcasm Addict. Paranormal Believer. Self imposed Insomniac. Sci-Fi Dork. Animal Lover. Writer. Those are just a few words to describe D. T. Dyllin. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband and very spoiled GSD. ‘Enemy Through The Gates’ is her debut novel.

Connect with D.T. Dyllin here:

Blog/site:  http://www.Mykindofquirky.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/D-T-Dyllin/258426047570107

Twitter:  @DTDyllin

Purchase Enemy Through The Gates on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

PRIZE INFORMATION

The author will be giving away a $15 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour and to the host with the most comments (excluding the author’s and the host’s).