Hell To Pay Synopsis:
The contract was destroyed
and Tom's soul saved from Hell.
Or so they thought.
Demon deal-maker, Saul, and his mortal lover, Thomas Ives, find themselves on the run when the other demons take none too kindly to Saul's bending of the rules. With the denizens of Hell on their heels, Saul and Tom must fight to stay one step ahead, knowing that if they're caught there's only one direction they're headed: down.
When Heaven decides to get involved, Saul's actions are no longer a mere bureaucratic misdemeanour but the basis of a factional confrontation. And now only one question remains: to whom does Tom's soul truly belong?
Demon deal-maker, Saul, and his mortal lover, Thomas Ives, find themselves on the run when the other demons take none too kindly to Saul's bending of the rules. With the denizens of Hell on their heels, Saul and Tom must fight to stay one step ahead, knowing that if they're caught there's only one direction they're headed: down.
When Heaven decides to get involved, Saul's actions are no longer a mere bureaucratic misdemeanour but the basis of a factional confrontation. And now only one question remains: to whom does Tom's soul truly belong?
21st Century Demon Synopsis:
It should have been an easy
job: a contract signed and a new soul earmarked for Hell. But when suave demon
deal-maker Saul chooses nerdy Thomas Ives as his next target, events take an
unexpected turn. The lines between business transaction and pleasure blur, and
Saul must decide whether he cares more for his professional reputation or the
soul he just condemned to eternal damnation.
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The
bulk of A Twenty-First Century Demon was set on Earth in our current age, so
little world-building was required, except in so far as I created a back story
for Saul and his daily routine. However, once I commenced work on Hell to Pay,
I knew I needed to go beyond that and take the characters to Heaven and Hell.
Hell
was my main focus, since it was the more important of the two to the story. I’d
briefly established the idea of Hell-Fire, and the demons’ connection to it, in
the short, but I expanded that in the novella and envisaged Hell as a hot,
desolate place: rock face and roaring flames. Its mortal inhabitants are not
having a great time—think constant screams—but the demons like to indulge in
the odd luxury brought down from the human realm above. In my version of Hell,
all the demons are ex-humans, though some have served longer than others.
Mirroring Earth, Hell has become very bureaucratic over the years, and it’s all
about the paperwork and following procedure.
Heaven
is similar in that respect; each realm has its rules. We don’t spend a lot of
time in Heaven, but when we do, I wanted something quintessential, so it is a
land of fluffy clouds and golden gates, and, unlike the melting pot that is
Hell, all its inhabitants are uniform: white-winged, blue-eyed, and sporting
halos of golden curls.
Perhaps
some may feel my realms are too closely tied with traditional views of both
places; nonetheless, I did it that way on purpose. I wanted to create something
instantly recognisable that readers could relate to and then forget, because
this story, to my mind, is a character piece. It’s about these two guys who
shouldn’t fall in love, shouldn’t be together, and yet here they are, each
unable to let the other go.
About the Author:
NICKI J. MARKUS was born in England
in 1982, but now lives in Adelaide, South Australia with her husband. She has
loved both reading and writing from a young age and is also a keen linguist,
having studied several foreign languages.
Nicki launched her writing career in 2011.
She published works through Wicked Nights Publishing and Silver Publishing
before both companies closed their doors. She is now self-publishing some of
her works, including the novella Time Keepers and the fantasy
novel The Ragnarök Chronicles.
Nicki also writes M/M fiction under the
alternate pen name of ASTA IDONEA and has had several short
stories published by Wayward Ink Publishing. She is currently working on her
first M/M novella.
Nicki works as a freelance editor and
proofreader, and in her spare time she enjoys: music, theatre, cinema,
photography, sketching, and cross stitch. She also loves history, folklore and
mythology, pen-palling, and travel.
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