Mythical Creatures With
KYOKO M.
I tend to write about angels and demons as my favorite mythical creatures because I think that the morality of what they represent is incredibly interesting. Angels are usually all about saving lives and demons are all about destroying them. I like how they are great foils for each other, and I like that they all came from the same place. They’re on opposite sides after the war in Heaven, but they used to be on the same side, and I think that’s a great central source of conflict. Often, one of the most compelling pieces of advice for your antagonists is that “villains think they’re the hero of their own story” and so it opens you up to a whole new perspective when you consider it that way. Each of them thinks they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and that causes them to butt heads, and when you throw plain old human beings in the mix, then things just go crazy. I also like the idea of immortality in the context of good and evil. It’s got to be extremely difficult to be patient with human beings if you’re an angel or a demon, since depending on the mythos, they’ve been alive for millions of years. They could have acquired so much knowledge in that amount of time that I wonder if they find human beings to be the most ridiculous things they’ve ever laid eyes on. For example, the CW’s Supernatural took the stance that angels are pretty much just self-serving soldiers and most of them are insulted by the very idea of humanity. Conversely, the demons on that show pretty much formed a symbiotic relationship off of humans by either walking around in them via possession or just using them to get what they want in the end. I think immortality weighs into the angels and demons’ decisions a lot in that instance, where the angels think human beings are of no use whereas the demons recognize how they can profit off of them by playing to their desires. My Black Parade series adopts the idea of benevolent, kind angels, but they are certainly nothing to be trifled with. For example, one of my longtime favorite characters is the archangel Gabriel, who is like walking sunshine until it’s time to fight and then he can split dudes in half like a loaf of French bread. Some of the angels in my books have gotten grumpy with having to essentially babysit humanity until Judgment Day, but for the most part, the angels are protective of the human race and see their value in the long run, whereas the demons just see people as currency, or worse, as a meal. The demons have a predator/prey relationship with humanity and the angels do their best to intercede before things get too nasty. I sort of picture the angels like supernatural police officers, in that way. They’re meant to protect and serve both God and man, and I think there’s something very noble about a mythical creature who is there to guide people, since people are so prone to destruction. Kyoko M. is the Author of Back to Black. You can find out more about Kyoko M. here.
Seer and demon slayer Jordan Amador has had it rough lately: separated from her husband the archangel Michael, hated by the angels who think she betrayed them, hunted by demons who want her dead or enslaved, and rejected by her friends and family for lying to them. Disgraced and miserable, she’s all but ready to lay down and die until another Seer named Myra Bennett saves her life. Myra gives Jordan a new mission: to wipe out a nest of demons that are terrorizing her family as well as the innocent people of Houston, Texas. Jordan goes undercover to infiltrate the demons’ nest and figure out how to eliminate them. Meanwhile, she’s locked in a deadly game with the archdemon Belial, who constantly visits her night after night in her dreams to convince her to give him her soul. Between the insanely gorgeous, but deadly archdemon poking around in her head and the vicious creatures surrounding her, she’s not sure how much longer she can survive.
