She loves indulging in dark chocolate, reading eclectic novels, and dreaming of ocean vacations, but instead spends most of her time writing fantasy romance, walking, Molly-the black lab mix, and hiking in the Colorado Rockies. You can find Jessica: Website, twitter, Goodreads,
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When I think
of goblins or trolls I think of all the monsters that I’ve read about over the
years. Starting with my favorite book from childhood, The Princess and the Goblin, by
the classic fairy tale author George MacDonald. A little girl is stolen and
Curdy must go into the mines to steal her back from the Goblin King. It has
everything. A lost princess, the hero is a poor, but honest boy, and of course,
the goblins. Creepy creatures that make you afraid of the dark.
And then there are the goblins
of Gringot’s from Harry Potter. JK Rowling did a fabulous job putting goblins
in charge of everyone’s money, and I love the way they portrayed them in the
movie versions. How can something so small be so scary? Well, they are. Goblins
are some of our worst nightmares. They are small, so they can fit in tiny
spaces. They can hide under beds or in dark corners. They lurk, waiting to…GET
YOU!
I picture these
story book goblins as white, almost slimey, creatures with thin skin and
bulbous eyes. Creatures of the dark, growing like mushrooms without sunlight.
Long thin fingers and greedy mouths with tiny narrow teeth, the better to bite
you, my dear.
But when I wrote
PRINCE
BY BLOOD AND BONE, my
second book in the Tales of the Black Court, the goblins in my head were from
the movie Labyrinth, mixed up
creatures with bits and pieces that could have come from many animals as well
as the white slimy ones so I have two types of goblins in PRINCE BY BLOOD AND
BONE. The first ones you meet are the hobgoblins, white and slimy, I pictured
them more like rubbery ghosts. They can ooze between the crack of stones and
slide under the thin space between you, your bed, and the floor. They have
stretchy faces and contort their expressions, especially their bottomless eyes.
And they love scaring people, like my heroine, Bryanna, when she finds herself
trapped underground in an abandoned gnome palace with a man who is trapped as
his own monster.
Prince Kian
is under a spell and trapped as a beast by his mother the evil queen. He
identifies with the monsters he’s forced to share his space with. Even dices
and plays cards with the larger goblins, creatures I based on the small almost
friendly goblins of the movie Labyrinth, but mine are large and gross. They
have extra eyes and arms and live in filthy conditions where they would love to
eat toss you into the large black pot on the fire and cook you for dinner with
a few rats thrown in for good measure.
As for trolls, once again the Harry Potter movies are
foremost in my mind. Large and stupid with snot running from their noses. Troll
bogeys, yuck! And of course we all know of the trolls that live under bridges,
ready to eat anyone who passes by. Trolls have extra long limbs and are shaped
more like apes than like humans. They have small eyes and poor eyesight. And
they smell. Pee-ew!
In PRINCE BY
BLOOD AND BONE, Prince Kian’s fiancé is part-troll, part-elf, I called them
troll-kin. The cast-off half-breed cousins of the elves they feel they’ve been
discarded and used over the centuries. With the lovely crystalline eyes of the
elves, but not as tall or as elegant, they have stockier bodies and rougher
features. And some of them are very stupid, depending on how much troll they
have in their blood.
I love twisting fairy tales and I love twisting fairy tale
creatures for my romances. Taking something that we all know and fear and
making it my own. That’s what Halloween is for. That’s where all the great monstorous
inspiration comes from, we pull it out from under our own beds, extract it from
the nightmares and add our own touches until a troll becomes a troll-kin and a
goblin morphs into a bigger, scarier beast.
Prince by Blood and Bone, A Fantasy
Romance of the Black Court
A rebellious prince, a
reluctant witch, and a mysterious prophecy,
twisted together in a tale
of Beauty and the Beast
Trapped
in an underground palace Prince Kian must remain a beast, or give in to the
queen’s plan to strip him of his powers. But Kian refuses to submit to his
mother's evil plan and is determined to escape both his prison and his
curse—even if it means dabbling in witch's magic.
On the
run for most of her life, Bryanna MacElvy has never learned to use her healing
Gift. When she’s pulled by Kian’s spell into his prison, the prince sees the
golden witch as his salvation. Refusing to let her, or to accept she is
incapable of curing him, Kian offers her a terrible bargain—heal him, or give
up her freedom forever.
Their
lives entwined by fate, the prince must learn to love a human and Bryanna must
learn to trust herself—or risk losing their freedom, his powers, and their
passion, to the evil of the Black Queen.
Dare to
enter Jessica Aspen’s world of steamy, fantasy romance in book two of her fairy
tale trilogy: Tales of the Black Court
Purchase LinksI need to say thank you to Jessica again. Not only did she do this guest post, she also did an interview a few days ago. She's responsible for finding half of the authors who agreed to take part this year. And she sponsored one of the giveaways too. She has my gratitude and appreciation more than I can express. :-)
Don't forget to enter the Comment Incentive Giveaway. It is a great chance to win a book you'd like to have! The link can be found at the top of the page.
oki that's the goblins i kind of imagined until one year ago^^, not really the kind you are tempted to go say hello to (even with the best intention in mind^^)
ReplyDeletei really love when an author thyinks a lot about teh detail in the universes of their books it makes it so much more easy to get immersed in it
thank you a lot Jessica for this new contribution. your series sound really fascinating
Thanks for the excerpt
ReplyDeleteLabyrinth to this day is still one of my favorite movies! I love that you based your goblins off of them. This definitely sounds like a fun and intriguing world. I will definitely add it to my wishlist! Thanks so much for the guest post!
ReplyDeleteit's a film i love too!!! ( i need to find the dvd)
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