31 December 2010

Find out what happens when Cupid is involved with Pepper O'Neal's characters





Today, I’m talking with white witch Kole Trillion, the heroine of my novella, Love Potion No. 2-14, coming out on February 2, 2011 from eTreasures Publishing.













Pepper: I understand that you’re a white witch. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Kole: White or black magic is how we differentiate between good and bad magic. White magic is what we call good magic, and a white witch is governed by one main law: ‘And it harm none.’ This basically means that the white witch will not create any harmful spells or potions, or use magic in a way that could harm another being. Of course, there really isn’t good and bad magic, there’s just magic. A white witch has access to the same power and knowledge that a black witch has and could choose to use magic to do evil, just as a black witch could choose to use magic to do good. The only difference between the two types of witches is how they choose to use their gift.



Pepper: I see. But surely, there must have been times when you were sorely tempted to use your magic to get back at someone who hurt you, wasn’t there? 
Kole: Of course, there was. I’m human after all. But I also realize that if I abuse the gift I’ve been given, I could lose my ability to use that gift for good. The power to hurt someone who has offended or betrayed you can be very addictive. Or so I’ve been told. I’ve known some witches who have turned to the darker side of magic and, as a result, have lost everything dear to them in their quest for more and more power. I don’t want that to happen to me. 

Pepper: Now in Love Potion No. 2-14, you’re in love with Detective Gage Corwin, and you’re also his prime suspect. How do you feel about that? 
Kole: Obviously, I’m not very happy about it. Like most women, I’d prefer to love someone who loves me back. I’m not a glutton for punishment, after all. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching my customers who come to me for love spells and potions, it’s that you can’t choose who you love. And you also can force someone to love you. So like any woman with an unrequited love, I just have to make the best of it. 

Pepper: But surely as a witch, there must be something you can do about the situation. 
Kole: I suppose I could fix myself a forgetfulness potion, but that seems like a coward’s way out to me. Or I could do what psychologists advise and imagine Gage as being fat, bald, and ugly, with dirty hair and offensive body odor. That might help a little. But even though I can picture him in my mind that way, with someone as good looking as him, it’s a bit hard to for me to make myself believe it. 

Pepper: I know from personal experience that running a business is hard. So there must have been times when you were struggling and worried about how to pay the bills. Were you ever tempted to use your magic to influence the outcome of the lottery?
Kole: I won’t deny there were times I was tempted. But again, the law that governs my use of magic is ‘And it harm none.’ If I were to use a spell to win the lottery, that would harm the person who would have won the lottery if I hadn’t interfered. So, as tempted as I may have been, it’s not something I could do with a clean conscious. After all, every action has a reaction. And if I use my magic to unnaturally twist things for my benefit, someone else could suffer, and the person suffering probably wouldn’t be a witch with magic to help them overcome it. So, I’d have to be pretty selfish to do something like that. 

Pepper: That makes sense. But are there spells that you can use to help yourself that don’t hurt others? 
Kole: Oh, yes. Of course, there are. For an example—since we’re talking about money—I could use a spell to attract wealth to myself. This is the same kind of spell that I would use to attract riches to one of my customers. Magic is flexible, and Nature is very giving. So I can easily use magic to attract wealth and prosperity to myself or to a customer without taking any wealth and prosperity away from someone else. But I can’t change the outcome of something ruled by fate, such as the lottery, without harming the person fate would have given it to. 

Pepper: Is there any time you would use your magic to change the outcome of fate? 
Kole: Absolutely. For self-defense or for the defense of others. Or if a black witch had screwed up the outcome to begin with, and I was trying to restore the balance. 




Pepper: What can you tell us about Gage, your co-star in Love Potion No. 2-14? 
Kole: Gage is…complicated. He’s gruff, but gentle, brash, but a little shy. He’s stubborn, and he can be a tad unreasonable, especially when he thinks he’s right. But under it all, he has a good heart. Gage doesn’t hate me just because he doesn’t believe in magic. It’s because he thinks I’m cheating the people who come to me for help. He sees me as the worst kind of fraud and con artist—the kind that trades false hope for hard-earned cash. Gage believes that if a sick person buys a health potion from me, that customer may believe that the potion can make them well. And because they believe it, they either won’t go to a doctor and get the real help they need, or they won’t be able to afford to go to the doctor because I took their money. Of course, the fact that my spells and potions do work and my customers won’t help him in his investigation only makes the whole thing that much more frustrating for him. But Gage is a good man, and sooner or later, he’ll have to admit there are things his cold, hard logic just can’t explain. When that happens, he’ll come to his senses and change his mind about me. I hope.

Pepper: Thank you very much for talking with me, Kole. 

Be watching for Kole and Gage in the romantic comedy Love Potion No. 2-14 to be released on February 2, 2011 as part of eTreasure’s Valentine’s Day Anthology, Cupid Gone Wild. The anthology will be released as a set on February 1, 2011, and the individual books separately between February 2-14, 2011, beginning with Love Potion No. 2-14 on February 2, 2011. 

If you’d like to read the blurb, go to http://pepperoneal.com/non-series-books

You can also read an excerpt at http://pepperoneal.com/non-series-books/excerpt-love-potion-2-14

And you can contact me at http://www.pepperoneal.com/contact



Thank you Pepper for sharing your adventures your writing and your characters with us over the last five days.
I have been fascinated by your adventures, loved your photographs, and wish I coud meet your characters for real.
May 2011 be a wonderful year for you.

Pepper O'Neal is a new author who deserves to be at the top of your tbr books.

1 comment:

Sherry Gloag said...

Happy New Year Pepper (it's 8 minutes old here !! LOL)
Thanks for the time and wonderful content of all your blogs this week.
I've thoroughly enjoyed them all, and wish you all the best for 2011.