The Strangers of Precedent

What Inspired The Strangers of Precedent?

I love series with a variety of supernatural creatures interacting, so I vividly had ideas for a trio of these supernatural creatures running around the world: A Vampire who would eventually become Drake, The Fairie he was in love with who eventually became Bobbi, and a girl who could connect to large monsters that somehow evolved into Hecate Charmer overtime. Eventually they combined with the idea of a mysterious small town to create Precedent, and complaints about Vampire romance brought an aged-down Bobbi back up from an initial 15 to 19, then 21.

The Weird-Searchers started as an interlude for a completely different story that has yet to have a Web Serial execution. I wanted to be upfront about this story not having the happiest ending from early on, so they were a good vehicle to say that Bobbi, Drake, and Charmer won’t be around by the time the story ends. They were inspired a bit by true crime and other research-heavy podcasts.

What’s something you haven’t revealed about the characters that you can tell us without spoilers?

Probably nothing, but…

• You probably already guessed that Bobbi is canonically asexual, but doesn’t really have the language to say that, so she won’t.
• If Drake weren’t malnourished, he would only look about 25.
• Hecate’s voice actually sounds different depending on the listener. Franklin hears her speak French for example, Singe hears Draconic, and Thoth hears Ancient Egyptian, while the rest generally hear English. The main thing they can agree on is that her voice demands respect.
• Franklin doesn’t stop growing, and is larger now than he was 20 years ago. I like to say he goes by lobster rules.
• The library that Thoth’s people lived in was a Library of Alexandria, and part of the reason it was burned was to kill them.
• Though Singe is a junior, it wasn’t his parents doing. He chose to take his father’s name after his passing.
• Syren is a lesbian, which one may have guessed by her thoughts on Vita.

Weird-Searchers:

• Mira and Felix are step-siblings.
• Felix started the podcast before they came out as nonbinary, so episodes from earlier seasons feature a different name and pronouns.
• Mira dreamed of becoming a scribe before she moved to Earth, and now has a journalism degree.
• Bruce was given that name in her appearance last season to preserve anonymity, but decided to keep it when she joined the podcast, if only so she doesn’t have to deal with people butchering her actual name, given that she’s not a native English-speaker

How old are the characters?

• Thoth is the oldest at well over 2000 years.
• Hecate is a distant second at something over 300 years.
• Franklin is a little under 200 years old at the start of the series.
• Vlad is a little over 100.
• Singe is in his mid-to-late 20s.
• Bobbi has already said she’s 21 at the start of the series, and has turned 22 by the end of this book.
• Syren started at 17, and has since turned 18.
• The Weird-Searchers are all in their early 30s at the time they’re recording.

How tall are the characters?

• Franklin is the tallest at over 7 feet.
• Hecate stands 6’9”
• Singe is 6’7” when human, but is 7’ near exact in his more draconic appearance.
• Vlad is 5’8”
• Syren is 5’6”
• Thoth 5’3”
• Bobbi is 4’11”

Weird-Searchers:

• Bruce is 6’5”
• Felix is 5’7”
• Mira is 5’9”

Who is each character’s favorite Superhero?

Strangers takes place when vigilantism is still illegal, so during the main plot, they would probably say Nightingale or Electron, as Electron gets a lot of media attention country-wide, and Nightingale is Precedent’s hometown hero.

At the time of Weird-Searchers, the main cast would mostly say Black Dragon, while Singe himself would say The Ember Phoenix. Drake would stick with Electron.

Weird-Searchers:

Bruce would like Lyra Morro, even though she isn’t much a superhero, on account of being from an Atlantis. Mira actually loves the Elementals. Felix likes Tesla Coil.

Are there any connections to characters from other stories we wouldn’t know about?

Yes.

Will we meet any more of the characters’ families?

The next book will feature a bit more of Hecate’s personal connections outside the group.

What will be different about the novel version?

I haven’t started on the edit yet, but you can expect more chapters, partially because they’ll be shorter, and partially because I may take advantage of the chance to add more scenes.

Weird-Searchers will be consistently labeled as interludes, but our chapter-end epilogues may end up being treated as chapters themselves, even made a little longer.

I will probably add dates to the chapters, but I don’t know how exact I want them.

Will the characters leave Precedent?

Bobbi already left for a little while, but you probably don’t mean kidnapping.

Yes, there will be some outings, eventually.

Will we meet characters we know live in Precedent, but haven’t appeared in Strangers yet?

Yes.

Will X and Y get together?

Probably not.

We’ve met Fey, Demons, Changelings, Raosi, Djinn, and Humans. Will we meet any of the other races?

Maybe.

Rovnabai?

We’re not that close.

Who’s Bobbi’s mom?

Are you sure she has one?

Slayer?

I hardly know her!

Who’s Vita’s dad?

That’s invasive.

Who’s your favorite character?

No.

Who’s your least favorite character?

The General. I’m glad he got burned.

Any songs your playlist for this book and the next?

I don’t make a lot of playlists for my writing honestly, but I listened to Blood Roses by Tori Amos often enough to count it.

Can you give us a preview of the next story?

A small preview shouldn’t hurt (I reserve the right to alter this before it publishes next month):

See y’all next month!