Tomorrow begins the first of four Fangtastic Friday posts… and here to tell us a little bit about Amaliya, the absolutely freaking FABULOUS heroine in Pretty When She Dies, is the amazing Rhiannon Frater!!

Amaliya:
Writing An Unconventional Heroine

By

Rhiannon Frater

When I set about writing PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES, I knew that the lead character of Amaliya was going to be an immediate departure from the conventional heroine. With her dyed black hair, “Beloved Mother” tattoo, and beat up Bettie Page heels, Amaliya clawed her way into my subconscious out of a grave in a forest and plunged us both into a nightmare like no other.

I dreamed the first two chapters of the novel and woke up with my heart pounding. I had to walk around my apartment to make sure that what I had dreamed was just a nightmare. It was that vivid, that terrifying, and that real. I knew then I had to write about Amaliya.

The heroine of PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES was one of the most difficult characters I ever had to wrestle onto the page. Everything that made her a fascinating character to write about also made her a difficult character to write about. Her dysfunctional family’s impact on her psyche is quite visible in her penchant for running away whenever things get too complicated or emotional. Her multi-cultural heritage (which reflects the diversity of Texas’s founding settlers) gave her an interesting background, but also made Amaliya feel like the consummate outsider. Add in her love of heavy metal, her mad crush on Rob Zombie (which I personally don’t get), and her uncanny ability to get in trouble, and the end result is a woman who stands outside the heroine mold.

Amaliya was immensely challenging to write at times. I wanted to scream at her through the monitor when she did something particularly dangerous. Though she looks like a badass, she is woefully naïve at times and this made me crazy. Never had I been at odds with a character as much as I was with Amaliya. I wanted her to go in one direction, but she would turn her battered heel in another and storm off. At times my frustration with her was overwhelming.

The Cian entered the story. And Cian understood Amaliya from the get-go. In fact, it was seeing Amaliya through Cian’s eyes that helped me finally find peace with her. I finally fully comprehended that Amaliya’s strength lies in the fact that she is not like everyone else. Though she often regards herself as a total screw up, she has an uncanny ability to land on her feet despite the circumstances.

I was then able to sit back and enjoy Amaliya’s evolution into a young woman who finally finds her place in the world and comes to terms with her difficult past.

Amaliya does take a lot of hits from some readers. She has sex with more than one guy in the book and one of them is involved with another woman. She also comes from a very dysfunctional family in East Texas and some people loathe her redneck roots. (Note: Rednecks are not dysfunctional. Amaliya’s family just happens to be). Her obsession with Rob Zombie and heavy metal has also been mentioned to me as being something the reader didn’t like.

Yet, these are the things that made Amaliya feel real to our modern world. She’s young, finding herself, disenfranchised from the mainstream, and trying very hard to find her place in a complicated world. In the end, isn’t she the type of person that would find herself after becoming a vampire?

There are AWESOME prizes every week, a grand prize at the end and the COVER REVEAL of Pretty When She Kills and an interview with the AMAZING cover artist… who has also done JL Byran and Amanda Hocking’s books (just to name a couple!)

 If you don’t have a copy of PWSD:

Pretty When She Dies… $2.99 on Amazon (Kindle)

Pretty When She Dies… $2.99 on B&N (Nook)

Discussion Schedule for Fang-tastic Fridays:
a Pretty When She Dies read-a-long

11/4: Kick off and Chapters 1-6 hosted by The Bookish Brunette
11/11: Chapters 7-12 hosted by On a Book Bender
11/18: Chapters 13-18 hosted by Geeky Blogger’s Book Blog
11/25: Chapters 19-Epilogue and wrap up hosted by The Unread Reader

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