Special Guest Blog With Toni Sweeney

WIZARD WIFE’S RESIDENT BAD BOY



“EVERYONE LOVES A SINNER”…in keeping with that theme, I’d like to tell you a little bit about the villain of the piece…Exeter Dubhtina.

They say everyone loves a bad boy, and Exeter’s about as bad as they come and he’s not even subtle about it. In the Land of Fae—Ais Linn—Exeter is the Lord of Dark Fire, in fact that’s what his last name means in Gaelic: dubh (black) and tina (fire), prounounced Doo-Cheena.



So how does our bad boy look? Like all other fae, he’s drop-dead gorgeous, of course, and, since he’s e-vil, there’s that frisson of danger about him even in repose, as our heroine discovers on first sight:



She’d expected him to be ugly. A monster. As usual, her perception of fae, even an evil one, was wrong. Like all the other male faeries she’d encountered, Exeter was exceptionally handsome. At the moment, his wings and antenna weren’t visible. Megan wondered if he would have the same dragonfly-like wings as David, Brigid, and Ossian possessed, or if—being a purveyor of dark magic—he would possess ones like a bat or some other nightdweller. Oh, yes, my Lord Exeter’s handsome, she thought. In a Fallen Angel-sort of way. Wings aside, Exeter could easily have been mistaken for the stereotypical portrait of a vampire…tall, pale, his black hair brushing his waist in a thick, straight fall. His eyes were so dark they appeared black. There was only one difference Megan could see. His pupils were dark crimson, and oblique. Like a cat’s.



Exeter comes by his wicked ways honestly. His father was a Lord of Dark Fire, his mother a solitary faery, in the pantheon of fae—one of their most vicious, generally living alone and loving it—so the poor lad got a double dose of bad from the start. Exeter’s father had co-ruled Ais Linn with Padraig McMuir, but sharing isn’t in the Dubhtina vocabulary so soon a power struggle began. It was already present in the son before his father died, for Exeter had a rival for power in young Tavis (David) McMuir, Lord Padraig’s son. As youngsters, the two had clashed at various feiles, jousting and participating in mock sword-fights and generally fighting to a draw since they were equal in skill, so Exeter knew when he came to power, he was going to need all the magical back-up he could get. To even the playing field a little, he sent his sister Siobhan to seduce young Tavis. Not necessarily to marry him—though Siobhan managed to be betrothed to Prince Tavy for a little while—he simply wanted his sister to have a child by a White Fire lord, because such a one, raised in the Black Fire tradition would be a most powerful wizard indeed. Fortunately, Lord Padraig discovered the plan and kicked Siobhan out of Tavis’ bed and Ais Linn castle before a little White Fire lord could be begotten.



And so it began… Once he became the true Lord of Black Fire, Exeter set about subjugating all in his domain, and then casting his dark and dangerous eye further afield…to another dimension and a planet called Earth where the people had welcomed the fae and made them into legend. He’d sent out feelers, discovering he could do “things” there…as David explains to his wife:



“Let’s just say that all th’ bad thin’s happenin’ here in th’ past millennia were na simply caused by humans or th’ de’il.”



Exeter’s bad and he doesn’t try to hide the fact. He surrounds himself with the wicked of the supernatural world—his most trusted knights aren’t called the Wolf Pack simply because they chase pretty girls. They’re all werewolves, more bad boys who get tanked up on mead and spend their spare time prowling the forest of the Dark Garden terrorizing sprites and leprechauns for just for the Hell of it. He enjoys his wickedness and accepts Megan’s insults as compliments:



“You’re really a piece of work.” She couldn’t keep the wonder out of her voice.

“Thank you.” He dipped his head in a sarcastic little acknowledgement. “I do th’ best I can.”



Why does Exeter want to conquer the Earth. Very simple: Because he can. Because it’s there. In his own words:



“Because they’re amusin’,” Exeter laughed slightly. “An’ so easily manipulated. Like puppets. The fools. I get bored, an’ their prattlin’ o’ Free Will while I move them about like chessman… ’Tis entertainin’”



The White Fire Lords, of course, have thwarted most of Exeter’s schemes by placing Portals and Guardians in various spots on Earth to keep track of his underlings’ comings and goings, but then something happens…there’s to be a Harmonic Convergence—in which all the planets in Earth’s system will be aligned with the sun—Exeter sees it as a great time to put his plans of conquest into action, since White Fire magic will be at its weakest then. So David McMuir, returns to Ais Linn, girding himself for the coming battle, and Megan McMuir, wishing to be with her husband during this terrible time, follows, the only mortal in a magical realm, and walks right into Exeter’s wicked embrace…



..and now, the Dark Lord has a lever to use in the coming battle, and don’t think he won’t use it to the worst of his ability…



I had fun writing Exeter because of the things he does and the things he says (don’t we all—on occasion—wish we could get away with such devilment?) I hope readers will agree with me that he’s definitely someone they can love to hate.

Wizard’s Wife is scheduled for release by Class Act Books ( http://www.classactbooks.com/ ) in late January. It is Toni’s fourth book for that publisher. More about Toni and her novels can be found at http://www.tonivsweeney.com/

Her trailers can be viewed at

http://www.youtube.com/tvsweeney

Thank You for stopping By Toni your book sounds awesome!