Author Extra: Human Aspect by Elizabeth L. Brooks

Human Aspect by Elizabeth L. Brooks

Non GLBT

Dauch has never doubted his clan's wisdom: Humans are fit only as prey and
slaves to the shapechanging lochmari. Nor has he ever doubted his place in
his clan: As the Warleader's son and heir, his only true rival is his
despised cousin, Afel. But when, on the very cusp of manhood, he spies human
lovers in the lochmari forest, he is suddenly faced with questions he had
never thought to ask -- and a dangerous new infatuation. Dauch hopes to find
a way to embarrass his rival and gain the woman he wants, but his anger and
obsession will only pave the path to his doom unless he can learn something
no lochmar has ever known before: how to love.

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Author Extra:

I love the idea of watching the world through the eyes of a "bad guy". I
love diving into their heads and figuring out what makes them tick.

Are they seeking revenge? Wounded and simply lashing out indiscriminately?
Do they have a mental disorder such as sociopathy or psychopathy that makes
them incapable of empathy for their victims?

Or maybe it's a matter of culture.

In "Human Aspect", the lochmari are indisputably the bad guys of the world.
These warrior shapeshifters raid human villages, stealing supplies and
taking prisoners for slaves, and they have absolutely no remorse about it.
To the lochmari, humans are merely another species of animal. Not only that,
but the very survival of the lochmari depends on those slaves they take.

My main character, Dauch, is a product of this culture. He's a warrior's
warrior, highly competent, indifferent to pain, (mostly) obedient to the
chain of command, contemptuous of those who don't share his values. By all
rights, he should be thoroughly unlikeable as a character...

And here's another question I love to explore, when I'm writing: how do you
reform a bad guy? How do you make an unlikeable character sympathetic to the
reader so that they forgive him for his failures? How do you make him
overcome those failures and strive to become a better person?

Sometimes, all it takes is love -- and sometimes, it takes the crushing
weight of a curse.