Martyr's Vow Series, Book 2
Horror/Supernatural/Romance
Date Published: 12-15-2023
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
All Armand wants is to share his life with his girlfriend Vonnie. But money is tight, their relationship is fizzling, and not even a monster-hunting side gig is paying off.
When a mysterious drifter named Mr. Penny-Farthing blows into town on his antique high-wheeler, Armand thinks his troubles are over. Penny-Farthing offers Armand and Vonnie enough money to cover their expenses with one condition: they must find and return the soul of a serial killer who escaped Hell.
Completing Penny-Farthing’s contract won’t be easy when demons appear all over the city and bodies start piling up. Overwhelmed and pushed to the brink, Armand realizes his greatest fear isn’t demons or shadowy murderers: it’s losing Vonnie forever. Can Armand stop a killer and keep the woman he loves, or will Hell take everything from him?
Nail-biting and visceral, Mr. Penny-Farthing is a high-octane horror story about escaping your comfort zone while fighting for love.
Interview with Eric Avedissian
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
As a teenager, I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and learned that fiction could be fun. Fiction didn’t have to follow conventions or contain complex language in order to say something profound. From that book, I was hooked and devoured everything Vonnegut wrote. I enjoyed the absurdity and comedy in his writing and the way he communicated depth and humanity.
How do you select the names of your characters?
Sometimes names come to me out of the blue, or I’ll use the names of people I’ve known. When I was a newspaper reporter, I interviewed people and would note their names. Is the name interesting? What does it convey? Are there any hidden meanings behind it? Names are tricky. Readers like names that reveal a bit of character and personality. That’s why it’s important to nail the first and last names. Failing that, I’ll scan the baby name websites and pull the most interesting and archaic names. Nothing says memorable than a weird name with mythological roots.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
I do. With The Martyr’s Vow series, I’ve hidden symbols and Easter eggs that only the most astute reader will find and understand. I’ve hidden some foreshadowing in the earlier books that won’t show up until the later ones. With my first book, Accursed Son, there’s the significance of the pancakes or the motorcycle or what the Aralez’s feather means. These secrets play a part in the overarching themes from each book.
What was your hardest scene to write?
When a character I really like dies or gets hurt. I feel for these weird word-babies and want to safeguard them from harm, but when the inevitable happens, it stings. It’s especially hard when the character is an animal. In a rough draft of one of my books, a dog gets hurt. I couldn’t let that happen, so I deleted that part from the final draft. It was too painful watching a fictitious villain kick a fictitious dog.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
With The Martyr’s Vow series, I’m building a shared world where the stories are connected. Accursed Son and Mr. Penny-Farthing are the first two books in the series and tell the story of the same protagonist. Midnight in Bat Hollow is set in the same universe and is a prologue of one of the side characters from the Martyr’s Vow series. While these stories are connected and share characters, not everything I write is set in that universe. I submitted a manuscript to my publisher for a cosmic horror sunshine noir book totally separate from The Martyr’s Vow.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
Mr. Penny-Farthing is the second book in the Martyr’s Vow series, and focuses on the protagonists, Armand and Vonnie, who are going through some things in their relationship. They’ve been together for years and are finding themselves stressed and living in another part of the country. They have to decide whether to address the elephant in the room about their relationship, which increases the tension. While they’re finding themselves on edge, there’s an outbreak of demons they have to address. Two monster hunters, one messy romance. How do you keep your love together when you’re fighting hellspawn? I think I achieved the balance between horror, romance, and comedy well in this novel.
What inspired you to write Mr. Penny-Farthing?
I’ve had the idea for Mr. Penny-Farthing (the antagonist) for years ever since I read about Christman Genipperteinga, a 16th century highwayman and serial killer who reportedly killed hundreds of people. I wanted to put these two in a story together, and the Martyr’s Vow series fit the bill.
Can you tell us a little bit about the next book in Martyr’s Vow series or what you have planned for the future?
The third book in the Martyr’s Vow series sees Armand and Vonnie investigate a branch of Armand’s family alluded to in the first book; his mother’s side, the infamous Barsamian clan. That leads them down a rabbit hole straight to the family’s curse, and why Armand can communicate with the dead.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Mr. Penny-Farthing?
Armand and Vonnie are known to readers from Accursed Son. Mr. Penny-Farthing is a creepy dude on a high-wheeled bicycle who breezes into town and offers Armand and Vonnie a handsome cash payment if they’d find the soul of a serial killer who escaped Hell. Things get complicated when the runaway soul possesses a man with a grudge and before long, demons are summoned and bodies start stacking up.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I liked bringing Armand and Vonnie together further. Both of them realize who they are during this story, and must abandon the people they thought society wants them to be. Doing this strengthens their relationship. Also slaughtering demons proves strangely rekindles their romance. You know the saying: Couples who slay together stay together.
About the Author
Eric Avedissian is an adjunct professor and speculative fiction author. His work includes the novels Accursed Son, Midnight at Bat Hollow, and the role-playing game Ravaged Earth. His short stories appear in various anthologies, including Across the Universe, Great Wars, and Three Time Travelers Walk Into…. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and a ridiculous number of books. When not chained to his writing desk, he hikes the Pinelands and wastes too much time on social media. Visit him online at www.ericavedissian.com.
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Twitter @angryreporter
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