On the blog this week, I’m featuring #PitProm Winner and #TeamFantasy Queen, Katherine Toran! Katherine Toran is a brilliant author, and the #PitProm team has their fingers crossed that we’ll see her young adult high fantasy, The Witch and the Demon, in print someday soon!
Twitter Pitch:
Fleeing a witchhunter, autistic Ebba sells her heart to a demon—trapping her in a deathmatch and an equally violent courtship. #PitProm #YA
Query Blurb:
Fatally injured by a witchhunter, eighteen-year-old Ebba flees into a magic-blighted forest and stumbles upon Kryptos, a demon whose heart has been ripped out. She didn’t realize he was one of twelve dark gods planning to invade her world, or she never would have sacrificed her dying heart to keep his beating.
After Kryptos resurrects her, he makes her his mortal champion in Hell’s deathmatch to determine which deity will lead the conquest. Bound by their contract to fight or die, Ebba plots to sabotage Kryptos, only to accidentally initiate a courtship. How was she supposed to know throwing a severed head at him would be taken as a proposal of marriage? Kryptos turns out to be charming, handsome, a bit awkward—and utterly dedicated to world domination.
As her heartless condition erodes her conscience, it becomes harder and harder for Ebba to deceive the demon who possesses her heart in more ways than one. Doing the right thing has never felt so wrong when she must betray her love to save her world.
Get to Know the Author!!
- What inspired you to write this book?
I write the stories I wish someone else had written so I could read them. THE WITCH AND THE DEMON was inspired by my adoration for bad boy heroes but frustration with the genre’s clichés. I wanted to see if I could write my villainous love interest while avoiding any unfortunate stalkerish implications or love triangles. My heroine, Ebba, accidentally ends up in a courtship with a demon after she throws a severed head at him. The difference between their moral values is both played for laughs and a source of major conflict throughout the book.
2. Who is your favorite character?
Kryptos, the demon, is my favorite character. As the God of Cowardice, he has a puffed-up ego and doesn’t understand humans, which makes him great fun to write
3. Are you a pantser or a planner?
I’m 100% a planner. This probably comes from having Asperger syndrome, a trait I share with my main character.
4. How do you edit? (What is your editing weakness? (i.e. commas))
When editing, I read my book aloud to myself. This is amazingly helpful for catching mistakes.
5. Which books have most influenced your writing?
Terry Pratchett is my favorite author and my greatest influence. He inspired my love for humorously subverting fantasy tropes. I personally admire him for continuing to write up until the end of his life after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
I’ll also read anything by Mercedes Lackey and Leigh Bardugo.
6. What are you reading currently?
I recently finished My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier, a chilling story about a boy whose younger sister is a psychopath. I highly recommend it. The ending caught me completely by surprise in the best way.
Follow Katherine Toran on Twitter!
Read some of her other work here:
Angel Maker: http://www.abyssapexzine.com/2017/01/angel-maker/
Expendable: https://everydayfiction.com/expendable-by-katherine-toran/
Three Rules: http://shortfictionbreak.com/three-rules/
Eli Celata 
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