Wattpad's Finest: Reviews & Interviews

Interview with Smilies: Author of Furtive Affairs

Once again I have the privilege to interview one of my favorite authors here on Wattpad! For those of you who've read up this far you know that Ms. Stark has been featured here once before for another work entitled This Blinding Smoke. This time it's for Furtive Affairs!

Onto the interview!

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JMC_Hufflepuff: Furtive Affairs seems to be quite different than your other books. This Blinding Smoke deals with demons, half demons, and humans as well as the lost memories of your MCs. Oasis of Blood deals with a radical group trying to enforce their religion all on everyone else while the world seems to be ending. What was the initial inspiration?

Smilies: Honestly, I'm not quite sure when I had the inspiration for the idea. I wanted to write something for Camp NaNoWriMo, and wanted to try new genres like Paranormal and Romance and Furtive Affairs kind of was...born... Also, I think Lucian was the initial character I thought of, and as soon as I had him in my mind the story and plot and everything just formed.

JMC_Hufflepuff:In Furtive Affairs we see mainly small town politics, a one legged Magixus and an angry spirit. What inspired this change? In your other novels there is tons of traveling all about the world and big time issues going on. This story is just set within Mauverton.

Smilies: Okay, I really like stories that take place in one setting. I didn't realize it then that I had such a preference, but as I'm rewriting TBS, I realize writing in one city is so much easier. I like how everything is limited to what goes on in Mauverton and I can focus going into detail into the characters whereas in other novels I have to develop their really large world, and the fact that there are problems bigger than the characters.

JMC_Hufflepuff: In Mauverton using magic is something punishable with death and yet the man behind it (Charles Rosewood) hires a Magixis to come to town. Was there symbolism in that? Showing a darker side to a man the town adored  & respected?

Smilies: Yeah, there's definitely some sort of symbolism in it. Shows the desperation Charles had to actually resort to hiring a Spirit Hunter even though he hates magic. I mean, the guy went to great lengths to banish it, so the issue must be quite serious for him to have to call on a Magixus for help.

JMC_Hufflepuff: Ivanna even before the spirit shows up was always a bit of an outcast. Is that what drew her to into helping Lucian with the spirit? She felt she'd found a place to fit in? Or was it just because she's one of those people who can't just sit idle?

Smilies: A little bit of both. Definitely Ivana helped Lucian because she felt like an outcast. But I doubt she'd have anything to with him had the traumatic experience not occurred (*cough* the thing with her "family member") and she didn't want to watch as this evil spirit got away with anything more after it had hurt her and her family so much. A lot of her reasons behind it was vengeance, I think.

JMC_Hufflepuff:The night after the three patrolling officers are killed Charles Rosewood says it was a bear behind it  & offers his own daughter Katrina up as a prize for any man who kills it. This to me as a reader showed how much of a patriarchal society Mauverton was. Ivanna, a woman had her eye witness claims disregarded and Katrina was offered a trophy by her father. Did you intend to use that to show how hard the FA world is for a woman? Were you drawing parallels to some issues we still see in society today? If so what are those issues?

Smilies: . I'm glad you picked up on that because I hoped someone would pick up on the fact that women in Mauverton were quite suppressed. There are definitely connections to the real world. When Charles offers Katarina up, now that I think about it, it's a bit extreme but I wrote it because in the real world some young girls ARE sold as prize wives to men and the thought of it sickens me. That was the main parallel to the real world I had.