#GuestPost I love Paranormal because... by Stefanie J. Pristavu

Please welcome Stefanie Pristavu, author of Hunters!

         I'm here on Clare's awesome blog to talk to you all about the wonders of writing paranormal. No, I'm not kidding. Paranormal and Urban Fantasy kicks major butt.

       When I started off, I began writing a contemporary YA series (which I still love to death, don't get me wrong), but only after learning more about genres and the craft of writing did I understand that I'd actually slipped a little something unusual in there at all (and also assumed a lot since I believe that's what research mean – hey, don't give me that look, I was ten!)

        On a whim, I jumped to the paranormal genre which I'm still stuck on. And here's where Hunters comes in. For me, it was an awful lot of fun writing it, coming up with superpowers for my characters, names, traits, places and world-building.

        Let's give it in a more organized manner.

            I love paranormal BECAUSE:

1.      Characters can have superpowers

         You can't really do this in contemporary. But where paranormal, fantasy and urban fantasy are concerned, there are little things your characters can't do. Wanna make them fly? Go ahead. Crush through walls? Why not? Blow fire out their nostrils? Well, those are technically dragons, but why no? Bottom line is, as long as you keep things consistent, you can have your heroes and villains do whatever you want.

          I've loved the idea of superpowers all along. So, in Hunters, Rachel and Daniel have super-strength and speed, awesome eyesight with the ability to zoom in on a target, paranormal sensing abilities and also a psychic link that allows them to read each other's thoughts and feelings. Vampires have similar powers, without the mind-reading thing. What ensues is a battle between relatively equal forces. Bring it on!

2.      You make the world!

        Unlike in fantasy, you can't exactly create an entire world. But you have the liberty of shifting the known universe in whichever twisted way you might like. And tweaking is often more fun than actually thinking of a whole new world.

        In Hunters I take my characters to Romania, which is actually where I currently reside, so all the description is pretty much of real places. There are a few places I might be wrong seeing as my memory isn't picture-perfect, but I did my best. I chose to put unreal creatures in real places. But that's just how I roll.

3.      Creatures galore

        Wanna create an unknown force/creature/danger for your characters? Go right ahead. The bigger and the badder, the better.

       Except for the Hunters (a new race I've created) and the obvious vampires, I've inserted wraiths and banshees into the story. Loved making up traits and rules for these creatures. Also, give them some nifty superpowers.

4.      Gender equality

Yeah, this doesn't really have anything to do with the paranormal genre itself, but it's actually something it's lacking. How many times did you read a story about a girl who is the love interest of some paranormal superhero? How about a book in which their equals?

I'm not a feminist, but this formula with the helpless female and male superhero bugs the hell out of me. If done well, it could be awesome. Instead, as far as I've read, it makes the heroine extremely annoying. I've made Rachel and Daniel equal. Okay, he's a little stronger than her, but only because he's older. She has her own perks that save his heroic butt, and, as far as I'm concerned, is just as strong and as important.

5.      What you get out of paranormal

Fun! A whole lot of it too. And that's what I got from writing Hunters and what I hope readers get from reading it. I didn't make it a brilliant peace of show – just a fun ride with hopefully lovable characters you can root for.

Hunters by Stefanie J. Pristavu

Rachel’s life isn’t perfect. Sure, she has super powers, an awesome job and a hunky boyfriend. But her boyfriend has a problem with her vampire-hunting duties, she keeps hitting dead ends in her quest to find the vampire boss, Vlad, and Daniel, her partner and best friend, is getting married. And she has no idea why that bothers her.


In his creepy castle, Vlad is no happier with his situation. He’d paid good money to keep the Hunters off his back, and a pair of them have been raining havoc so close to his home. Sweet revenge is in order.


Vlad sweeps down and solves all of Rachel’s relationship problems in one fell swoop. But not in the way she would have wanted. To make matters worse, the Hunters’ High Council calls her and Daniel for trial and sentences them to death for throwing the vampire hunting rule book out the window.


On the run from the Hunters as well as all vampires, Rachel starts seeing Daniel as much more than a best friend. But the new found comfort shatters when evil voices inside her head sing of destruction and doom, and a creepy Banshee turns their crutch-legend into a prophecy of war. A war she and Daniel must start to save their race from extinction. And Rachel seriously doubts that a head-on battle between the vampires and the Hunters will be their ticket out of the death sentence.

Buy Hunters from Amazon.

  

Born and raised in Romania, the only girl amongst two brothers, Stefanie has spent her childhood playing pretend and inventing characters. Once she actually learned how to spell in English, she started writing the adventures of her alter egos. Hundreds of thousands of words and thirteen years later, after two years of learning the craft of writing, Steph still tests the waters of her imagination, coming up with stories and characters.

http://www.fireandiceya.com/authors/stefaniejpristavu/hunters.html