CHARACTER INTERVIEW
WITH KELLY MEDING
So for my post, I've invited two characters from my MetaWars series to stop by. As a former gossip rag journalist, Dahlia "Ember" Perkins knows how to do an interview, and what better person to have her interview than the only character of mine who's in a stable relationship, Teresa "Trance" West. (And for anyone who's saying "but what about Evy and Wyatt?" can you really call their up/down/on/off/WTF-are-we-doing relationship stable? Hmmm…..?)
On with the show!Teresa: So wait, what are we talking about today?
Dahlia: (checks notes) Um, your love life, apparently.
T: My love life is not available for public scrutiny.
D: It is now. Part of being a public figure, I guess.
T: So if this is about my love life, why isn't Gage here suffering through this with me?
D: (checks notes again) He wasn't invited. It's just you, me, and a couple of pre-determined questions. Not wholly unlike our first official interview at Channel Nine.
T: True. Although that interview didn't end so well.
D: The interview was fine. (frowns) It's everything that happened afterward….
T: (shudders) As long as no psychotic former-Banes are hiding nearby waiting to cause an explosion and kill us both, I think we're okay. Let's get this over with.
D: Good plan. So for readers unfamiliar with who you are, why don't you give us a brief rundown?
T: My name is Teresa West. I was trained to one day be a member of the Ranger Corps, which was a federally-funded organization of Meta-powered superheroes. Fifteen years ago, at the very end of a horrific War against a group of villains called the Banes, every living Meta on the planet lost their powers. A few months ago, our powers returned, only mine weren't my original powers. I can now blast people with purple energy orbs, as well as use them to create force fields and blow things up. Since I had the strongest powers, and since my father used to be a great Ranger leader, I ended up in charge of the six of us heroes who managed to find our way back to each other here in Los Angeles.
D: How do you feel you're doing as a leader?
T: It's not a position I ever thought I'd be in, and I was most definitely thrust into it without training or a choice. I couldn't let my friends down. We were being attacked by an enemy we weren't certain how to fight, and all I could really concentrate on was surviving. (sighs) And we obviously didn't all survive.
(moment of silence)
D: What's been the most rewarding part of these last few months as a repowered hero?
T: Gage.
D: (grins) Can you expand on that?
T: Gage "Cipher" McAllister, to be specific. He's the oldest of us, and when we were kids he held our group together that final day of the War. I never admitted it back then, but I had a huge crush on him, even though he was four years older than me. After our powers returned and we met up again….well, it turns out my feelings were no longer one-sided. We'd both changed so much, and we were both dealing with our own demons, but we found a kind of peace in each other. When we weren't yelling at each other or worrying about each other, or just plain being too stubborn to talk things out.
D: So you found love in the midst of a crisis?
T: Basically, yes. Neither one of us was looking for a relationship, but we found one, and I believe I'm all the stronger for having him.
D: What's been the most difficult part of working alongside your—for lack of a better word—lover?
T: It's never easy being a leader and having to make tough decisions in the heat of battle. I never wanted that responsibility, but I also didn't turn away when it was given to me. Working next to Gage every day is amazing, but it's also terrifying. Back when this all got started, someone once asked me if it came down to sacrificing Gage to save other lives, would I be able to make that call? And sure enough, I ended up in that exact situation.
D: I remember. Fortunately, everything worked out all right in the end.
T: (touches her throat) Eventually. Having a loved one put in harm's way because of your own actions is a horrifying thing, but I have never in my life fought harder than in that moment when I believed Gage was going to die. Your love for them drives you, pushes you farther than you ever thought you could go. Not that I wouldn't fight for any one of you, and I have, but…
D: I get it.
T: You can have all of the training and power in the world, but if you don't have something worth fighting for beyond a generic ideal of heroism, then what's the point?
D: So what are you fighting for, Teresa?
T: A better world. A world Gage and I can be safe in—where any children I might have can live without fear of being oppressed, or rounded up and imprisoned simply because they're Meta. A world where we can all be happy. (laughs) I know it sounds very sappy and greeting-card-like, but that's the ideal. That's what I'm fighting for, and I'm doing it with the man I love by my side.
D: May we all be so lucky.
T: Be careful what you wish for….
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A native of the Delaware seashore, Kelly Meding lives in Maryland, with a neurotic cat who occasionally meows at ghosts. Kelly received her Bachelor's Degree in Communication in 2002 and she hasn't used it since, preferring instead to wile away her non-writing hours on the sales floor of a national retail chain. After discovering Freddy Krueger at a very young age, Kelly began a lifelong obsession with horror, science fiction, and fantasy, on which she blames her interest in vampires, psychic powers, superheroes, and all things paranormal. When not writing, she can be found crafting jewelry, enjoying a good cup of coffee, or scouring the Internet for gossip on her favorite television shows. She is the author of the Dreg City series from Dell.OTHER BOOKS BY KELLY:
Kelly and Sierra handled themselves very well considering we forced them to switch roles. Hehe Thanks for the fun interview BUT...
ReplyDeleteTEAM STOMP FOR THE WIN!!!
Hey. They like to make us squirm with their plots and cliffhangers. It was fun making them do the squirming this time. LOL
DeleteTEAM ROMP ALL THE WAY!!!
Looks like a great series!
ReplyDelete