World-Building Wednesdays: Alexia Reed

Please welcome today’s guest, dark paranormal romantic suspense author…

When I pick up a book, the worldbuilding is what draws me in first. It can be hard to do with standalone books, but with series, I get invested quickly. Worldbuilding is more than descriptions, it’s the characters and how they react to the world around them…It’s everything that makes that book different.

When writing Hunting the Shadows, I knew right off that I wanted a military compound called the Centre, set in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. I did this for a few reasons, such as not wanting to name a place in particular, but the main reason is because they’re part of the shadow ops project, funded by shadow government. The public don’t know about these psychic experiments going on (that have been since the Cold War). Therefore, I didn’t want to set it somewhere with easy access. I wanted them to have the shroud of mystery surrounding them. For those curious about details…I have an Insider’s View of the Centre up on my site. I post pictures here about their surroundings and anything relevant, like what the Centre looks like.Worldbuilding for me also is the characters and who they are. In my world, they are psychically-enhanced agents who, as babies, were injected with a virus that changed them. They were raised and trained to be agents to fight terrorism wars. While each book has an individual main character couple, all of the characters in the squad are important. They are all main characters and I did this for a reason. I read so many books where, in series, after the heroine and hero’s book is done, in the next they are barely heard form again. I didn’t want that.

My characters are a family. And like a family, they fight and they make up and they can be jerks to each other at times, but through it all, no matter what, they are there for each other in one form or another.

Yes, book 1 is all about J.C. and Amy, but that doesn’t mean they disappear. They play just as big of roles in book 2 with the rest of the gang. I thought that was important for the heart of the series.

And through all this paranormal stuff, I add in science (or try to explain things at least) and suspense (serial killers!). That’s part of my worldbuilding. So it’s not just setting that plays a part, it’s characters and how they interact and the author’s own personal flair. No matter what, dazzle me with your worldbuilding and I’m hooked.

 Amy has spent her life in isolation. Locked away in the Centre, a secret government facility where children with extraordinary abilities are raised as highly skilled fighters, she longs for a normal life. A life where being around people doesn’t overload her sensitive telepathic mind. A life where she can’t see through the eyes of a murderer as he hunts down his next victim…

J.C. Nikolaiev was a top researcher, but when his conscience got the better of him, he tried to destroy his work and free his subjects—and was imprisoned as a traitor. To save himself and prevent more people from dying, J.C. must catch the serial killer stalking the halls of the facility. But his only leads come from a woman whose thoughts have invaded his mind…

Finally out of the psych ward, Amy joins forces with J.C. to find the killer before he closes in on them. Can their growing attraction withstand the truths they uncover?

You can purchase Hunting the Shadows through the Carina Press, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

 

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If you are an author and would like to write a guest post for World-Building Wednesdays, please contact Ash at ash@smashattackreads.com or on Twitter @SmashAttackAsh. We would love to hear your thoughts!