Word Affair: Sonnet O'Dell

Monday, February 1, 2016

Wednesday Women: Cera Raine by Sonnet O'Dell

Sonnet O'Dell was one of the first contributors to the Wednesday Women, with her heroine Cassandra Farbanks. Now she's introducing her new leading lady Cera Raine. Thanks for the visit!

(Graphic provided by author)

Cera Raine was born into a life of privilege, a rich and exciting world of money, parties and aristocracy. She was incredibly intelligent and beautiful, the perfect daughter, so no one understands why her father would throw her out at 16 or why just a few years later she would be accused and convicted of his murder. She used her intelligence to survive, just on the wrong side of the law, enough that it makes her interesting to the police as a potential informant and operative. She knows the walk, can talk the talk and can get away with it.

The first book is called A Chance of Rain. In it we follow Cera who agrees to work for the police to get out of prison but her job doesn’t come without certain conditions – one of which being that she wear a bomb around her neck, so that she can be taken out should she try to run. The case she is working on, is to find who is selling a new narcotic substance called Reality, a drug that transports the user to a hallucinogenic dream like state. Cera is smart and calculating but also charming and sexually provocative. She often flirts to get her way or disarm her opponents. She has connections but legal and not, and very complicated relationship with Sebastian Raine, her brother.

Cera is immensely fun to write. I like having a character who says what she wants and gets away with it because she says it with a smile and a saucy wink. I like the world in which she lives, a human colonised solar system in a not too distant future. Under all the easy going attitude and cheekiness, there is a serious and conflicted woman who has a lot of questions and secrets in her past. They do say those that smile the brightest are often the loneliest.

A Chance of Rain and Cera, are my first self-published work. I’m working on the next book in the series, I am aiming for a trilogy. It’s a different sort of story from my normal works and I am hoping that it will be as well liked as my paranormal works.

Social Media Links

www.sonnetodell.com

http://sonnetodelldustypages.blogspot.uk

Twitter: @sonnetodell

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/Sonnet-ODell-Author-Page-127559694006921/

Buy Link for A Chance of Rain:

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015ENC7E4

Amazon US: http://amzn.com/Bo15ENC7E4

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Wednesday Women: Cassandra Farbanks by Sonnet O'Dell

Today, with Sonnet and Cassandra, we dive into the world of paranormal. Welcome!

Enter the giveaway to win a book of the series (winner's choice) as an e-copy, by leaving a comment to this entry! Like the last one, this giveaway runs seven days until next Tuesday.

Cassandra has a life where becoming an adult was sudden and harsh. Her mother died when she was eighteen, having nursed her through that illness she thought the worst thing could be losing her, but she prepared for it. However the worst was yet to come, she learned of another world, a world that dragged her into it every night when the sunset till the sun rose again. She was literally plunged into a darkness she didn’t have time to understand. Her strength comes from the fact that she knows there are monsters, demons and magic lurking in the shadows of this world and she refuses to be afraid. She’s made some bad calls, has the scars to prove it, but she gained one vital piece of knowledge. You learn from your mistakes or you pay for them.

The first book in her series – Soul Market - starts three years after her mother’s death and we can see what kind of person she has become. She’s tough, smart, not someone easily shaken and tends to only rely on herself. But like any character this tough exterior can have its problems. She doesn’t trust other people, she doesn’t ask for help and has a tendency to go off on her own getting herself into trouble.

Cassandra spends a great deal of time trying to compartmentalize her life and lying to keep all the parts separate. Her daytime life and friends cannot know about the reality of her night time life and friends. And forget dating. Allowing someone that close to you, trusting them, allowing them into your heart where they can hurt you, was not something she wanted. She hid from her feelings for one man by dating another only to be hurt in one of the worst ways imaginable and to find that he was still there for her. She learned that having someone else believe in you gives you a different kind of strength; and that when you love someone you find strength you didn’t even know you had. You find the strength to protect them even if it means hurting them and yourself.

Cassandra lost her family, had her heartbroken, nearly died, got shot, stabbed and still kept doing what she believes to be right. I enjoy throwing new things at her, some horrible and scary, just to watch her battle through and come out on top.

I chose to write about the paranormal because there is so much more to see and do and fight. I like giving power over the extraordinary to people and seeing how they use it. It was Abraham Lincoln who said – “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” I’ve always thought that if a good man is given power, he’s does good things with it. If a bad man is given power he will do bad things with it. The people you have to watch are the ones in the middle.

Sonnet O’Dell

About Sonnet: