A warm welcome to author Rhys Ford joining us today to celebrate the release of “Bound”, the first book in brand new series “Chinatown Demons”.

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An Alternate San Francisco, Just A Step To The Left Of Our Own Glittering City —

When I began to write Bound, I knew I wanted to have a bit of fantastical combined with a dash of Asian horror. Sort of. The monsters in Asian mythology are usually a bit odd and driven by fierce emotions, usually revenge. There were bits and pieces I wanted to pull together as well as give a shout out to inspirations along the way. Since I’m going to be writing this as a serialized saga, it allows me to tease out bits and pieces of the world as I go, which is a lot of fun.

There’s a long argument of the pros and cons of having a paranormal world that’s hidden or out in the open. I’ve done both, most notably in Ink and Shadows for hidden and blurring the lines of hidden and open in the Hellsinger series. For the Chinatown Demons serializations, I wanted to do a hidden world where only the very wise could see the dangers but people knew something was off about the supernatural. Kind of a step away from the world we live in now.

So with all that being said, let’s talk about world building and what the underlying layers of the Chinatown Demons’ worlds hold.

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Chinatown Demons, What They Eat, and Other Odd Things¹

Ah, here comes the hardest part about fusing legends, myths, and an urban fantasy. Rules.

One of the first things in creating a “alt-human” is determining what rules they exist by. This includes any supernatural powers the writer might want to give them but at the same time, you’ve got some pretty basic things to decide.

Like… do they eat?

You’d think that would be a simple thing but in reality, it’s not.

Often, the smallest things is what pulls a reader out of the story and if you’ve determined your “monster” can only eat golden sparrow eyelashes and then three books later he’s munching on a cheeseburger, you’re going to hear about it. So figuring all of that stuff out in the beginning goes a long way in avoiding these kinds of canon mistakes.

I decided Xian could eat food but he is also driven by the bakeneko requirement of drinking blood. Now this might seem like a vampire thing but in reality, a lot of Asian vampires don’t drink blood. What they ingest to keep themselves fit and trim range from spinal fluid to eyeballs and sometimes even dreams. Asian demons have an even wider range of food groups to pick from including vengeful thoughts and toenail clippings. I’m not sure how you can be a fierce demon and have to stop at a nail salon for takeout but there you go. As you can imagine, that’s not something I want to saddle any of my characters with.

Also…ewwwww.

Not to food kink shame but…. Ewwwwwww.

Now not all demons eat disgusting things although most do visit horrors upon any human being they encounter. Kappa, which resemble turtles, are quite fond of cucumber but they will definitely go out of their way to drown someone. To counteract this, a person would hollow out a cucumber and either whisper their families’ names into the space or write their names on paper and wrap around the cucumber then set it into the water, ensuring the kappa won’t drown the names they find.

Not going to work on the bakeneko, kitsune or tanuki demons but the tengu might have some second thoughts. The monkey demons probably would just laugh.

While demons in Asian folklore often eat human flesh, like the kappa, many are “seduced” by certain other foods like sweet potatoes, rice, or a certain kind of fish. Other demons are repelled by a certain food, like the siren-like sea maiden that flees if someone throws an onigiri, a type of rice ball wrapped in seaweed, at her. Oni means demon so it’s kind of like a built in shield there.

For Xian, blood seemed to be the safest and easiest way to satisfy his demon nature while maintaining an authentic air about him. Still, it’s a thirst he has to quench and although he’s a medical examiner, “dead” blood won’t do. It has to be live. I’ve toyed with the whole bags of blood idea and that might work for him in a pinch but not for long term. Boy needs feeding.

BUT all that aside, he does love a good bao and food is one of his delights. So I’m looking forward actually to delving into traditional, old-school dishes he might have eaten when he was younger and introducing them into the text.

I’ll be leaving the bitter melon out. Because no matter how foul a demon might be, bitter melon is an evil that cannot be defeated.

¹ Art by Jonathan Golding

Bound, Chinatown Demons, Book One

Chinatown, San Francisco.

A different place — another time— and where the city’s streets keep secrets, shadowy mysteries SFPD Inspector Spencer Ricci needs to dig through after he finds himself on a case involving a dismembered, mummified man in a restaurant’s locked storage room.

Spencer drags around a lot of baggage, including an ongoing battle with the bottle and a long career as an LAPD detective he’d set fire to in a blaze of booze-soaked mistakes. San Francisco is supposed to be a new start but his old ghosts haunt him, beckoning him back into his self-destructive bad habits. Bad habits that include contemplating doing dirty things with the wrong kind of guy and this time, it’s a sleek, cold-tempered medical examiner named Xian Carter with a complicated reputation.

For a century-old demon, Xian Carter is content with his secretive life. Hiding his nature from the mundane world, he blends in with the city’s inhabitants as best he can but even the best of predators make mistakes. Delving into the mysteries of the dead provide a welcome distraction from endless nights and hiding in plain sight amuses him, until something supernaturally wicked comes knocking on his door with an extremely hot, broody Inspector close behind.

Murder makes for strange bedfellows and this one is no exception. The twists and turns of the case leaves Xian and Spencer on a wild goose chase after clues but Xian can only hope there’s a human at the end of the trail—because the last thing San Francisco needs is another predator.

Purchase Bound at

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bound-Chinatown-Demons-Book-One-ebook/dp/B08NFNLVKB/

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bound-182

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bound-rhys-ford/1138366858?ean=2940163084210

And other online bookstores!

Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and is a two-time LAMBDA finalist with her Murder and Mayhem novels. She is also a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.

 

She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Harley, a grey tuxedo with a flower on her face, Badger, a disgruntled alley cat who isn’t sure living inside is a step up the social ladder as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.

 

Rhys can be found at the following locations:

Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Facebook Group: Coffee, Cats, and Murder: https://www.facebook.com/groups/635660536617002/

Twitter: @Rhys_Ford

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