How "Call Me Zhenya" Came to Be

This week, I'm going to spend some time talking about my Kindle Scout book, Call Me Zhenya, and how I came to write it. Next week, I'll be encore-posting some blog posts I did over at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers about Kindle Scout and the Scouting process. I hope you'll enjoy a peek inside my creative process (aka--KK's brain is freakin' weird).

You might get tired of seeing this cover.
I won't. It's pretty. *pets*

The seed idea for this book hit me several years ago. I was watching an episode of Angel (first-run--I told you it's been a while...), during the Season Four arc when Angelus was unleashed. There's a scene where Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (STILL BITTER, JOSS WHEDON) breaks Faith out of prison so she can go do her vampire-slaying thang. She was in prison voluntarily, atoning for her sins from way back in Season One (and Season Four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but they needed her, so she took a fancy dive through a glass window and high-tailed it out with Wes. (Which, frankly, any lady in her right mind would do, because, hello, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce.)

That scene got me thinking. What if a spy were in prison voluntarily, taking a hit for something that happened in an operation that wasn't her fault? That evolved into having her there for protective custody. Then another spy comes to let her out. And what if that spy were the man who betrayed her? Or the man who killed her lover?

The idea sat in my ideas folder for a long time, just called "Spy Girl." I'd thought about writing it to submit to a specific publisher, but then the line at that publisher was discontinued before I got the manuscript underway. So it continued to incubate.

Evgeni Malkin, Russian Werewolf Spy

A few years later, my BFF and I were talking about story ideas, hockey player fic, and specifically Evgeni Malkin. (This was the same type of conversation that led to me writing Blood on the Ice, which started with "Vampire hockey. Go.") At some point, one of us said, "Evgeni Malkin, Russian Werewolf Spy." Maybe she said it, maybe I did--I don't actually remember. But that made me start thinking about "Spy Girl" again, and suddenly the whole story fell into place. The Spy Girl, inspired by Faith, became Anna, who's been sitting in a prison in Barrow, Alaska for two years under what she was told would be temporary protective custody. Then along comes Evgeni Belyakov, Russian Werewolf Spy, an assassin who's been having second thoughts about an assignment he was involved in two years ago. Poking around in places he wasn't supposed to, he found out things he shouldn't have. And now he's going to atone by breaking Anna out of prison. Because if she stays there, the Agency that promised to protect her is going to kill her to prevent the information inside her genetically enhanced superbrain from falling into enemy hands.

So that's the story of the story. I hope you'll take a minute to drop by and vote. I had a hell of a lot of fun writing this book, and I think you'll have a hell of a lot of fun reading it.

My Three Favorite Things on the Internet This Week

The Internet is a glorious repository of wonderful things. Here are my three favorite things from the Internet this week:

3. This description of Chris Pratt, by his Parks and Recreation co-star Nick Offerman:

2. This picture of Evgeni Malkin in a Santa Hat:

1. This tweet from Sasha Devlin. (Yes, I know this one's a bit self-serving, but man, it made me all verklempt so deal with it):

PRESS RELEASE—Evgeni Malkin a Vampire?

 

Evgeni Malkin (far right) appears to be garbed for an initiation rite at the House of the Eternal.

Has Malkin been Turned? The LVH investigates.

(Quebec, October 2014)

Photos surfaced last night indicating Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, arguably one of the best hockey players in the world, has been Turned. The pictures were released in the guise of a Halloween party, with Malkin and other NHL players in full costume. However, the photos clearly show Malkin baring fangs and wearing traditional ceremonial garb used in initiation rites in the House of the Eternal, the fundamentalist vampire church that has become quite vocal about vampire rights in the lead-up to this fall’s mid-term elections in the US.

“If Malkin’s been Turned, he needs to contact us,” states Patricia Beaulieu, LVH Commissioner. “We have numerous rules in place stating that an NHL player, if he’s been Turned, must leave the NHL and play for the LVH if he chooses to continue to play hockey.”

“We have no evidence Malkin’s no longer human,” counters NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “It’s a Halloween costume, for God’s sake. Get your fangy heads out of your asses.”

We also reached out to Travis Payne, right wing for the LVH’s Chicago Cobras, whose fight with the NHL to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup has been well-publicized. “Those fangs are fake,” says Payne, “and nobody has fangs that look that fake unless they’re wearing them over real fangs. Trust me on that. Malkin needs to face the music. They kicked me out of the league so fast it’d make your head spin—I don’t know why they’re waffling on this guy.”

More information as the story develops.