#hell's heresies

[phoenixwrites]

Meet Emerie Fox, the protagonist of my debut novel!

Art commissions by @itsdancingquen and @mypillowpaper (fuck AI, pay artists!)

Age: 24

Occupation: Human Interest columnist of the Milton Messenger

Sign: Gemini

Favorite band: Tin Machine - she believes was the peak of David Bowie’s career. (She has questionable opinions)

Dislikes: Untidiness (she never left the konmari trend), gymnasiums, under seasoned food, and natto.

Likes: Home renovation, taxidermied animals found at thrift stores, cleaning, organizing, kendo (she says she does, but she hasn’t had a lesson since high school and only started using her old one to fight demons), matcha, okonomiyaki, tacos, and takoyaki.

To find out more about her...order here!

[theangrypomeranian]

look what came in the mail~

@phoenixwrites I can't wait to read your masterpiece!!

[phoenixwrites]

There is a CANON romance in my book (OUT OCTOBER 8TH, 2024!).

But I will be SEVERELY disappointed if people aren't swapping my characters around and pairing them in weird rare pairs I never considered.

And there better be LOTS of kinky fic.

[phoenixwrites]

I hope something really bad happens to the guy you based off hook in your book😈 (If there’s one character that I loathe with a passion burning hotter than a thousand suns and brings out the entire ugly in me, it’s that d****ebag pirate😡)

Like for real Phoenix I hate him so much…

AHAHAHA!

I don't remember if you read the original Hell's Heresies fanfic when it was posted, but I originally had Hook as Emma's philandering cheating boyfriend she was in a very clearly toxic relationship with. I think the original plan was for Hook to get eaten by Neal's demon father, who haunted the local library (shoutout to @thestraggletag).

In this book, however, I didn't want my main to be in a toxic relationship, I wanted her in a STALE relationship, a relationship that both parties should've gotten out of a long time ago, but are so used to each other that they haven't.

Thus Dylan was born, who looks a great deal like Hook (I used the exact same description), but his main flaw is being a clueless and inconsiderate boyfriend who hasn't realized that his college relationship has expired.

[phoenixwrites]

For Hell's Heresies, is there any particular theology/mythologies you're using for worldbuilding?

Yes!

I focused mainly on Christian and gnostic mythology, because that lends itself so well to a haunted house story involving demons. But my main character is Japanese, so her family's Japanese folklore plays a little bit of a role (which will be expanded upon in later books) in how she handles her haunting.

As for theology--well, I'm sure you all know about my C.S. Lewis obsession, and I've told my fellow CSL friends to play a drinking game with all of the CSL references. (You will get sloshed.) But I also have a more universalist ethic and what I'd like to be most clear about Hell's Heresies is the idea that every conception of the divine is true, just in a different language. My witch character Zephyr grew up Neopagan and doesn't believe in my priest character Father Zebulun's rigid Catholicism. Father Zebulun believes Zephyr's witchcraft is sinful (which gets more hilarious when we learn about his mother in the sequel...) and despises her moral relativism.

They both believe in demons, but they have different conceptions on what they are and what they came from. They're both right, but they have different theological languages to describe the same thing.

(YOUR UNIVERSALISM IS SHOWING, PHI.)

Meanwhile, my main character Emerie is firmly agnostic (and will remain so throughout the course of the series), but her family's folklore gives her an almost nonplussed attitude towards the supernatural events that unfold around her.

[phoenixwrites]

How did you decide on names for your book? I know they're kind of similar to the ouat characters (like, I can clearly see how you got Emerie Fox from Emma Swan, but what made you choose Fox in particular?)

Hope you don’t mind the questions, I'm just very curious about your book 😅

First of all, ask me ALL THE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BOOK. It has been my dream to be a published author for as long as I can remember, and I absolutely love sharing about it.

Yes, Emma Swan definitely inspired Emerie Fox! The character is now quite a bit different from Emma. I chose Emerie mainly because I've loved the name for a long time, but didn't want to use it for future kids. I know, boring. And I wanted another animal name as her surname, to tribute Miss Swan, and I liked Fox the best and it is a sneaky bit of foreshadowing for some of the sequel. (Yes, there will be a sequel!)

I went on a quest to find the most interesting demon of myth to be her leading man and I found Samael. There are a bunch of really cool Jewish and Gnostic myths about Samael, and I wanted to incorporate that.

Then there's my wonderful priest, Father Boaz Zebulun. I wanted my priest to have a super dramatic Biblical name, and I liked how "Boaz Zebulun" sounded together.

And for my witch, her name is Zephyr Moon. I wanted her to have a hippy-dippy name to contrast with her very stiff professional corporate lawyer persona because it made me laugh to think of a very tightly wound lawyer-witch with the most free love name ever.

[phoenixwrites]

Oh okay, what is she painting then? It's confusing sorry

Her house!

But someone keeps messing up her progress...

[phoenixwrites]

is the cover of your book implying she wrote "sold" on the sign with a paint roller as wide as her hips

She didn't write the "sold" on the sign!

Someone else did...