A Priest, a Plague, and a Prophecy - About This Story

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Jun 12

Originally posted during my blog tour for A Priest, a Plague, and a Prophecy

Good day lovely readers! A Priest, a Plague, and a Prophecy is a single title involving a sweet man who enjoys food, plants, and books, and the manly (secretly sweet) orc warrior who falls in love with him. I am thrilled to finally publish this story. This is a sweet, low(er)-angst, no-sexy-times-but-lots-of-snuggles, sort of story. Elias is ace but wants romance, and Gurrkk is just the orc to give that to him!

As with many of my stories, this one was also simmering in the back of my mind for several years. I honestly don’t know how long but “several” seems accurate enough. I had a couple scenes rolling around without any firm foundation for them. I knew I wanted an orc, and I knew I wanted a sweet man to capture his attention. But how the story and the characters evolved took them far away from their original versions. I don’t even know if they had names or not. Elias and Gurrkk certainly came later when I finally settled down to write the darn thing.

As fate would have it, I wrote it the summer before the dreaded virus really ramped up and smacked us in the face. I finished it that winter, I think. So there I was, with a completed book, that had “plague” in the title. Ugh. So I shelved it. I just didn’t feel it was appropriate, and I feared people would think I was capitalizing off the suffering of others. Despite my story’s plague being a very small, off-screen footnote that only catapults certain events, I just felt more comfortable sitting on it. I only pulled it out and dusted it off when we got the vaccine and things seemed to settle down a bit. Now I just really want folks to know that this has nothing to do with the dreaded virus and everything to do with sweet snuggles and romantic friendships.

I enjoyed subverting expectations by not making Gurrkk a sex-crazed beast (though no shade to stories that follow that aspect… I happen to like such beasts at times, ahem), and instead make him a bit of a cinnamon roll center with an intimidating shell. He can throw down, no question, but he’d much rather laugh, eat, and play. As for Elias, well, he just wants a quiet life with his books, his plants, and plenty of food. He’s a sweet soul that wishes harm on no one. Not the likeliest candidate for an orc’s mate, but there you have it.

Courtesy of HeroForge = Elias, a priest at the Sibyl’s Temple

The rest of the characters came organically. Elias’s siblings, Gurrkk’s clan, the antagonist of the story, sort of sprang up and morphed and solidified during revisions and edits. I’m really proud of how it turned out. It was my chance to dip my toe into sweet and not be so dark all the time! I also pushed myself to look for humor and expand on it. I love books with wit and bite that make me laugh aloud but I’ve yet to find that in myself to present on paper. I think I’m getting a bit better, mostly due to my DnD friend group since adlibbing is the name of the game, and it’s always “yes… and?” I’m hoping to keep that up for even my darker books, since humor is one of the best ways to fight against despair and to remind yourself that you are human.