Norse mythology, actually most kind of mythology, has been a subject that have been close to my heart for most of my life. I am by far the least religious person you can find but the myths and lore about the vikings and Norse Gods, bloody as it may be has always put a thrill in me. And in a way I guess it is just the fact that it is more lore and folktales than religion that suits me. Because lore and folktales are more commonly known as tales, unlike religion that is taken as a fact and truth even though there’s nothing that proves that it is anything else but 95% lore too.The idea of turning Norse mythology and Native American lore into one well-oiled series was never really the plan, Haven was at the start, a Native American were
The idea of turning Norse mythology and Native American lore into one well-oiled series was never really the plan, Haven was at the start, a Native American were hunter who was going to have no other passion than traveling the roads like a nomad. His only mission in life that of killing off the entire shifter race because of what one crazed shifter did to his family and tribe. He was never meant to have a lover, a group of men and women who he considered his family, no his story was at the early stages of my brain’s development of this story a very solitude and dark life.
It wasn’t until I started plotting out his story that the idea of Norse Mythology and the Fenrir Ulv, being the ultimate father of all shifters, started to creep into my mind. First, the Fenrir Ulv was going to be the Ultimate shifter, as he still is, the father of all creation when it came to were shifters. He was meant to have been Haven’s ultimate challenge, who Haven, in the end, was meant to die from trying to kill, and who know’s he might just still do that, but all in all no matter what happens the path Haven went down was nothing like I first anticipated or planned.
Native American lore and history have is another subject that has always been something that has fascinated me. Native Americans being the only real natives of the continent of North America, it’s always surprised me how little we see of that history there. They were there, living the earth, making homes and a living long before Columbus discovered the Americas and were and are a huge part, the essential part of North American history and still “the white” man’s minute long presence is what dominates our history books. With Haven’s Revenge, I wanted to change that, I wanted to make Native American history and lore a main part of the story.
Those who have read my books, and I guess especially those that have read my books and knows me, know’s I favor the underdog, the oddball, the grumpy goodhearted bastards of society who everyone else has lost faith in, those are the men and women I prefer since following the stream of political correctness has never really been my cup of tea. I can honestly say I despise political correctness for the sake of it because way too many people hide behind it and are allowed to act like cowards because of it.
Planning Haven’s Revenge, at the beginning, was fairly easy because his cause his reason was just going to be that of revenging his past with his acts of devotion to killing of every shifter till all of them were dead. It wasn’t until I reacquainted myself with the Fenrir Ulv and Norse Mythology, and my love for it came back to live that I started playing with the idea of making it part of the heart of my story. I mean killing the Fenrir off when he was such a cool myth and when it would be so much more fun and interesting to have him stay alive and for once being one of the good guys!
It is funny when it comes to Norse Mythology and Vikings, most people get it wrong, Thor and Odin, and even Loki always somehow become heroes like Superman or Batman. Bad boys with good guys heart when in reality all of them were if you read the Edda or other sources of Norse Mythology information, they were all evil and selfish bastards. And as for the Viking, there was nothing gentle or loving about them, they were all brutes. Barbarians.
Being pretty familiar with Norse mythology researching it I knew what I was looking for and really just needed to look up details such as how the Fenrir Ulv was captured by the Asa Gods, where exactly he was held and how they drove that sword through his giant jaws. The point was to keep as much of the original lore as possible, to keep the realness of what most people know or what is known as the “truth” so that you would get that familiar feeling as you read the story. Besides the most complicated story keeps to the facts, when you start swaying out too much and you need to explain in too much great detail that is when the story is lost. At least in my eyes it is.
So, what happened between Haven being a pissed of forever lost were hunter with nothing else on his mind than prowling the land of the United States killing shifters and ending up as ranch hand training horses, being the candy of a farm boy’s eye and becoming the key to that farm boy’s future as the King of Wolves?
It is fairly stupid to call me romantic, because in reality I am not, I am way too cynical to be called romantic but I guess there’s a part of me, even if that part is fairly small, that still likes the idea of love like no other kind of love. The kind of love that will make you break all the rules, even your own, the kind of love that will get you through that long and dark tunnel and out into the light, the kind of love that makes you a possessive son of a gun and makes you wait forever and a lifetime just to be with that person for no other reason than that you have no room for anyone else. I guess a small part of me that exists out there at least for some people.
Mind you now I say love, not being in love, because even if the idea of being in love and the idea of that one perfect mate/lover/partner/second half (call it what you want) is something a lot of people hope is true, love can be any type of love it doesn’t have to be boy meets girl or boy meets boy. It can be the love between a parent and child, grandson, and grandfather and so on and so forth, and I think that you see all those kinds of loves all through Haven’s Revenge, that love is what love is and come in all different shapes and colors and none is better than the other just different.
As soon as I started to toy with the idea of making Thor and foremost Odin into the bad guys of my story and the Fenrir Ulv (and his siblings the Midgard Snake and Sleipnir) together into the good guys everything just sorts of fell into place all on its own. Coleman and Vojin they were the first characters to take form in my head, Vojin immediately being the key to the Native American lore of things.
To me, Native American culture and lore is a lot about self-discovery, about finding you inner strength, personal spirituality, and sacrifice. That you are willing to give up a lot of your own things to bring pleasure, happiness and safety for your people/family/tribe and at times that ultimate sacrifice is death itself but it is not feared because you are always protected by the spirit you made part of you. In Haven’s Revenge all of the Caddo community are a proof of this Zacharias, Haven’s father, death, Vojin being the link between the Caddo community, the Fenrir Ulv, and the Shifter council with the original eleven (twenty) cubs that were the children of the Caddo man who was the first man to ever be possessed by the Fenrir spirit and who managed to not go crazy.
The Caddo Norse story is the lack of a better word, a complex story, and I think that show’s in the criticism the book get both from people who love it and hate it, because the most common criticism it, or I have gotten, from readers and reviewers is that there’s “things” that doesn’t make sense like who the hell is Viktor and Hawk, the pop up and disappears and we don’t really great a grip on them, Vojin is essential to the story but we don’t see him enough, and this was supposed to be Haven’s and Alex’s story but it is stolen away because of all those other characters or their story was rushed (which I personally don’t get because it was dragged out to the point of almost becoming too much) but all these criticisms and others have answers.
The M/M Romance community is very used to, or spoiled (winks) with HEA’s with stories that start and ends with boy meets boy and then they live happily ever after. They are used to series where the MC are the main focus and there’s a new couple in each book and the couples from the past book or books only, if at all, makes small guest appearances. Not in mine, they don’t.
I don’t, only, write traditional romance stories, I obviously don’t mind them, but all my stories (with one exception of Finding Home) the main plot of the story isn’t love and getting the two MC’s together as a couple, they are a sidekick to the bigger picture, the red thread, the moral of the story which as in the Caddo Norse Novels is the war between the Asa Gods and the Fenrir Ulv/ Paranormal and human world. It is the war between good and evil, look and you shall find a lot of my own personal views on things all the good and all the evil represents real situations or people. What is the moral of the story? Characters pop up in Haven’s Revenge and disappears for a reason, we are shifted back and forth in time to show the reader historic events that have a purpose for the future.
And as for Haven and Alexander, whatever possessed you to think that their story was over to begin with? (Grins) There are load of things still going on with those two and their fate, their story, together as well as apart has only just begun (and that goes for Vojin too.)
Luca is a first year med student at the University of Gothenburg. He is following in his father’s footsteps, something he’d been programmed to do all his life. He lives a sheltered and still life, with no real friends. Luca would love to change that but doesn’t know how, since he always feels so odd around other people, like he doesn’t quite fit in. There’s so much inside him that wants out, like wanting to become a veterinarian more than a doctor. And the fact that he likes boys and not girls. But he doesn’t tell anyone about that—not even himself.
In comes Kai, an American cowboy in Gothenburg. He’s doing his thesis overseas to broadens his horizons before he does what he has always wanted to do, which is to go back home and run the family ranch. He just happens to see Luca one day leaving class and can’t stop watching the shy guy as he waded his way through the crowd with quick, silent steps, and his head down to avoid eye contact with anyone. For weeks Kai watches him from a distance, trying to figure out how to approach him.
Had he known that spilled coffee and slippery, awkward book bags would have gotten him close to the guy, he might have physically bumped into him a long time ago.
Finding Home is a book with star-crossed lovers meeting and the evil mind of the wicked witch in the west threatening to crush young love’s every dream!
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About the Author
Phetra often refers to herself as the odd man out, the dorky book nerd who rather spend her time with a good book or making up fantastic stories with even more fantastic characters, than live in the real world dealing with real people. The real world is strange, in a very non humorous way, and people in it complicates it to the point of wearing you out. In the world of the written word, no matter if it is in someone else’s words or that of her own things might get busy, complicated, and sometime even plain painful, but somewhere along the line there is always a hero on the horizon. He might not be prime or proper, a church going pretty boy since the author prefer rebellious men and women who don’t follow the protocols of society. One of her favorite saying are that only dead fish follow the stream and well she ain’t no dead fish. Phetra live together with her family, two children, a domestic partner and their two cats in Gothenburg, Sweden and when reading her books you will notice that she always finds a way of bringing her on culture into her books. The joy of writing and reading comes from her childhood and is something she has always loved, something she is passionate to share with others. Phetra loves hearing from her readers even with ideas of what they want to come next. If you are looking for her, the best place to start looking is at home in the quietest corner of the house, where she’ll be curled up with either her Kindle reading or with her laptop typing away.
You can also find Phetra at:
Amazon author page: Phetra H. Novak
Webpage: http://www.phetranovak.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhetraNovak
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phetra.hedlund
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14436714.Phetra_H_Novak