Interview with Frank Hope from Infernal Hope
Frank Hope, one of the main characters from Infernal Hope, a twenty-year-old human male with short dark hair and black clothes, sits his lanky body in the sleek chair covered in nubby orange fabric. He adjusts his mic clip several times, moving it different places. He straightens up when the interviewer arrives, clears his throat, and tries to be civil and still, two things he sometimes finds difficult.
Interviewer: How do you feel about the way this book turned out?
Frank: I like it better than the other ones. In the other two, Kasimir and I were always together, but it wasn’t a full on happily ever after. (He grins.) This one was much better.
Interviewer: If your name were a verb, what would it be?
Frank: Are you ****ing serious? Oprah doesn’t ask shit like that.
Interviewer: It’s just a question, Frank. And I’ll have to ask you to mind your language, please.
Frank: (He rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, leans back in his chair, and throws his arms back, catching an elbow in each hand.) Yeah, okay. Sure. Whatever.
Interviewer: So, if your name were a verb—
Frank: No, wait. (His arms swing down and he clasps them in front of his spread legs.) Look, I love poetry by I hate the—uh crap—can I say crap?
Interviewer: I think “crap” is okay.
Frank: Cool. Okay, so I hate the crap out of English. I pretty much hated school. Period. But, (He cocks a dark eyebrow.) My first name is an adjective or a noun, and my last name is a noun or a verb. Happy?
Interviewer: It wasn’t a trick question. It was supposed to be fun.
Frank (Looking down and picking at his nails.) Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Your idea of fun is pretty ****ing lame, though.
Interviewer: Language, please. Tell me about your powers.
Frank: That’s part of what this book is about. Back on Earth, I realized I could command demons. I can also summon them. The only people who can do that on Earth are Necromancers. They work for the diabolical energy corporations, harvesting demons to create fuel. I can also understand demons. That’s pretty rare. I can summon wraith fog—which is basically a black smoke. So, that’s not normal. When I got to the Eternal Realm, I learned I had a few other powers, and I try to find out what I am and how my powers work.
Interviewer: Kasimir is a prince, right? A demon prince. How did the two of you get together?
Frank (Leaning forward on his elbows.) He’s a prince, but they don’t like to be called demons. That whole evil demon—er—crap—is a human construct. It’s racist, actually. They’re Eternals.
Interviewer: Eternals. Got it.
Frank: We met on Earth when I summoned him. I was in love with—thought I was in love with—someone else at the time. Once I got my head out of my—butt—I realized Kasimir and I were meant for each other. I’ve never known anyone like him. He’s…he’s just everything. He’s taught me so much about life and myself. Saying he makes me a better person sound so cliche, but it’s true. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him.
Interviewer: I heard you’ve met with some prejudice from the royal family. Can you tell me about that?
Frank: It was all over the Eternal Realm, actually. It makes sense to a point. I was a Necromancer. I’m human. My people are basically committing genocide against their entire world. So, I can understand that. At the same time, I’m not like other humans, so it was kind of hard to get my head around at first.
The royal family, though. Ugh. Kasimir’s mother and sister were fine, really, but Kasimir’s father is a total—he sucks, okay? He’s a jerk but that’s way too soft a word. He calls me Kasimir’s “pet monster.”
Interviewer: It sounds like you really dislike this king.
Frank: I hate him. Not because of anything he says to me, but the way he treats Kasimir makes me want to punch him in the throat. He’s always on Kasimir’s back about his feathers—most eligos have webbed wings. Always calling him “featherling.” Always treating him like he’s disappointed in him. I hate him.
Interviewer: Do you have any pets?
Frank (His shoulders thump against the back of his chair.) Seriously?
Interviewer: Well, don’t you? Haven’t I seen you with a dragon? And a black wolf?
Frank: (Snorts and shakes his head.) No. He’s my friend, not a pet. That’s Vazan. He’s a pooka. He shapeshifts. He’s also an adorable fae guy.
Interviewer: Tell me about what jobs you’ve held.
Frank: Why? Are you offering me a job?
Interviewer: I’m just asking you questions, Frank.
Frank (blows out his lips) I was a waiter, then a Necromancer….then sort of a beach bum, really. In the Eternal Realm, in this book, I mostly just hang out with Kasimir and have sex constantly until there’s a war and a bunch of stuff happens. I do discover something eventually, but that would be giving too much away.
Interviewer: What was your key motivation in this book?
Frank (Sits up straight and stares at me with an earnest expression.) I wanted to marry Kasimir.
Interviewer: Why did you want that?
Frank: Because I love him. (Puffs with impatience.)
Interviewer: But you can love someone without marrying them. Why was getting married so important to you.
Frank: (vulnerable suddenly, his hands spread open in his lap.) You know I’m from the eighties, right? I left Earth in 1986. Texas, in the US. It’s tough being gay in that time period. We have few legal rights, and we can’t marry. The first time I ever saw a wedding as a little boy, I wanted one. They seemed magical to me. I knew I was gay from about seven, and I learned pretty quickly that meant not being able to do a lot of the things straight people do—like get married. When I went to the Eternal Realm—men can get married there! Being gay is no big deal! As soon as I realized that I knew I wanted to marry Kasimir. The whole big, obnoxious fairytale thing. You know, huge cake, fancy clothes, people everywhere, vows, a band—all of it.
Interviewer: You and Kasimir are very different. How do you make your relationship work?
Frank: We’re different, but—it’s like we have these broken pieces that fit together. We have to work at it, but we’re better together.
Ex-necromancer Frank Hope risked his life to help his demon lover Kasimir return to his homeland, a dimension humans call Hell and Kasimir calls the Eternal Realm—a beautiful medievalesque land. Now, because Kasimir is the heir apparent to a vast, wealthy kingdom, the two live in luxury in a palace by the sea. But darkness haunts them.
Necromancers, humans sworn to capture and slay demons for Earth’s energy corporations to use as fuel, continue to strike the Eternal Realm. Strife between the Eternals’ kingdoms grows as well.
When war breaks out with a neighboring land, Frank and Kasimir are forced to make hard choices that threaten their relationship—and even their lives. Is their love truly meant to be? Will the universe that once smiled upon them turn against them?
This is the final book in the Love Songs for Lost Worlds trilogy and combines elements of fantasy, paranormal, and gay romance within the framework of an alternate 1980s world.
Warnings: Violence, gay bashing, suicidal ideation, foul language, explicit sex, light bondage, vomiting, suicide attempt and sexual assault
About the Series:
Kasimir, a demon boy, secretly watched a human boy, Frank through an interdimensional window. While Kasimir struggled with an abusive father, Frank grieved his father’s death. Little Kasimir watched…and fell I’m love.
Years later, Frank, who always felt like a loser, discovers he has a special power—commanding demons. That’s a valuable skill to corporations like DemonCo who slay and process demons to be used as fuel. When fate brings Kasimir and Frank together, they meet as enemies, but Kasimir believes they are destined to be lovers.
With themes of redemption, courage, and true love, this paranormal fantasy series is set in an alternate 1980’s Texas and the mystical Eternal Realm.
Get It At Amazon
Book One | Book Two
Sionnach is giving away a $15 Amazon gift card with this tour:
I relax, as well. I hate whatever things lurk in his past that disturb him so. We are living a beautiful life with each other. He seems happy—ecstatic even. But when he sleeps, he’s still pursued by whatever things haunt him.
Things haunt us here, but he is unaware of them.
He doesn’t know the Vanishings have increased, or that we stopped going to the village because the animosity toward him there had begun to worry me. When someone calls him a Necromancer, he corrects them happily—‘ex-Necromancer.’ He doesn’t realize that doesn’t matter to nearly everyone here. To my mother, Rahvel, Bedon, Varalica, and me, he’s a hero. To everyone else, he’s still a villain. And I know that would break his heart.
I’ve instructed Bedon and Varalica not to discuss the Vanishings in front of Frank. He’s blissfully unaware of how dangerous it is to live beyond the palace’s shields.
The only things he fears are in his dreams, and I will have it that way for as long as possible.
So I hold my beloved, and press my lips to his head, his face, and tell him ‘I’m here,’ in hopes my words create a lifeline to the pleasures he loves so much in our world.
I can’t fully partake in those pleasures myself. I love Frank dearly, but I can’t relax here like he does when he’s awake.
I’m free of my betrothal and want to frolic with Frank for as long as I can. I live in fear of the next time my father wants to forge alliances with my hand. Although I’m allowed a measure of say in such things, I still fear confrontations with my father. Frank has my heart, will always have my heart, but I worry how long our freedom will last.
However much I love being here with Frank, I never wanted this. When I Vanished from the Eternal Realm, when Frank summoned me, I was terrified. Once I learned I would not be processed for fiendium but would be his familiar, instead, I was actually happy. Not only was I with the man I had fallen in love with when we were children, I no longer had to worry about being king. I didn’t have to deal with my father’s constant mocking. All I had to do was love Frank.
Now, it’s all back on my shoulders—all of the responsibility, all of the abuse, and the prospect of being married off to someone else. Sometimes, I almost wish he hadn’t saved me. I wish he had gone to Eden and let me die.
I can’t tell him any of that. He’s haunted by enough without my adding worries. For now, there’s only us and our love.
Kasimir turns over, his dazzling eyes alight with mischief. “Twenty minutes from now you’ll be all over me again.”
“Yeah, well…okay. But right now, I feel completely drained.”
“So do I. I wish it were lunchtime already. I’m famished!” He lifts up on one elbow. “You seemed to quite enjoy that sparkling wine yesterday. Would you like me to ask Bedon to get some more of that for us?”
Before I can answer, a man flies from the cliff above us and lands neatly next to us. He’s wearing the colors of the king, black and emerald green. Livery, I think I’ve heard Kasimir call it. I think he’s a messenger. His skin is darker than Kasimir’s, almost bronze, and his bat wings are nearly black. Like all of the eligos, he’s striking and handsome. And again, I feel like the luckiest guy alive, because Kasimir, surrounded by men who all look like underwear models, has chosen me.
It seems so weird now to think I was ever a Necromancer. That I ever worked for DemonCo and thought about killing Eternals to make fiendium. The human world runs on fiendium, on the lives of the eligos and all of the other inhabitants of this world. It’s just a world, like ours, but we somehow decided it was ours to pillage and justified our greed by saying they were demons, evil incarnate, when they’re actually just people and animals from another world.
I catch my snap, then. I haven’t actually been listening to what Mr. Bronze has been saying, but Kasimir stands up, raining sand, with an alarmed expression on his beautiful face. “I see,” says Kasimir. “I need to change clothes….”
“Wear your armor. They leave in an hour.” He turns toward the cliff and raises his wings as if to fly. “Oh,” he faces Kasimir again. “He said to bring your pet monster.” With that he flaps his wings and flies back toward the cliff.
Awww. Kasimir’s asshole father’s term of endearment for me. Great. What now? “What was that all about?”
“We need to fly back to the palace,” says Kasimir. His wings shoot out behind him. They look like giant hawk’s wings, feathered instead of webbed like most other eligos and copper striped with gold. They’re breathtaking. It doesn’t matter how fucking awesome they are, however, I still hate flying. I endure it, but it still makes me feel faint. I hate heights, which kind of sucks when the love of your life has wings.
“What’s going on?”
He spreads his arms so I can hug him while he carries me. “Father is confronting an army from the Kingdom of the Red Moon. He wants us to ride with him.”
I’m Sionnach (prounced SHUHN ukh) and I’m a trans male author of romance and fantasy. Most of my books are gay romances because they’re so much fun to write. Opposites attract is my favorite trope with hurt/comfort right behind it. Few things are as fun to me as bringing men to life and pushing them into each other’s arms. I love happily ever afters and believe true love is absolutely real.
Before I started writing full time, I volunteered as a grant writer for animal rescue nonprofits. I love animals, and they inevitably find their way into my stories. I share my life with my husband and seven spoiled cats. I’m also the emotional support human to a crazy husky. He/him
Website: https://www.SionnachWintergreen.com
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