Legacy - Character Profile -Mastrodai

Originally posted during my Legacy book tour. 

Legacy was a labor of pain and love (as most projects are) but also with the added burden of at least meeting expectations or perhaps exceeding them. Sequels are never as good as the first book, and I had the unenviable task of continuing Leopold’s journey, hoping to inject the same amount of passion, action, and dire consequences as the first. I think I succeeded. Only time will tell. 

The biggest change from book one to book two is the inclusion of Mastrodai’s point of view. Mastrodai is Leopold’s alien lover and quasi-master (if you read the first book, you know what I mean). This was one of the greater challenges that came with the sequel. While I certainly had a solid idea of who Mastrodai was in the first book, I was forced to stop and consider his thoughts and his own struggles, ones that Leopold might not be privy to. 

Writing an alien is hard. You have to ask yourself—how alien is too alien? How alien is not alien enough? How do you depict a non-human in a way that is relatable enough and yet foreign enough for readers to be convinced of his non-human-ness? Well, for a while I floundered. I had a few false starts before I put it away and then came back to it at a later date. As I let the problem simmer in my mind, I finally felt ready to sit down and simply ask Mastrodai about himself. I discovered his motivations, his instincts, and how he sees the world. How he is different from the rest of his species/kin/culture in some ways and yet very similar in others. He is truly an oddball but, in many ways, he exemplifies the best of his species. 

Then his point of view chapters became my favorite scenes. I enjoyed evolving his relationships with his parents, his brother, his bodyguards. It forced me to map out the lives of those in his inner circle, and by extension, Leopold’s circle. Mastrodai has many loyal to him, and that comes with concern and advice like with any other relationships. 

Since I modeled Mastrodai’s species—mrrogs—after lions and wolves, I was able to expand upon his more bestial nature. That was when the fun really began, let me tell you. In some ways, this book is bit bloodier than the last since Mastrodai has to physically fight at times to protect those he loves. And when he fights, boy howdy... he takes no prisoners. And since I write and read a lot of shifter books, I drew on what I knew and the research for those books to really solidify his more instinctual mannerisms. 

He is markedly different from Leopold, which is precisely what I wanted. It was an adjustment at times to flip between their POVs. Their voices were different despite their shared goals, not just because of their species but their upbringings and their respective positions in the InterGalactic cultures and societies. 

They both want to free the human species but their motivations are different. Leopold wants his people to have choices, free will, to be seen as more than property. To be free to pursue life the way they wish to. Mastrodai is certainly not averse to that, however, his motivation is far more personal. He wants Leopold as his equal—not just in his eyes but in the eyes of the InterGalactic community. He wants freedom and “official status” for Leopold and, by extension, the human species, to keep his mate safe. His focus is on his role as mate and what that means to him on an instinctual, primal level. Mates protect. Mates provide. So he will risk anything and everything to make sure he does just that. 

In “Leopold” we got to see Mastrodai exclusively through Leopold’s eyes. But in “Legacy” we get to see how Mastrodai views himself, his world, and Leopold. It was amazing to see, and I loved every moment of it. I hope you will, also. 

I hope you stay safe and healthy, and may dragons guard your dreams, 

M.D. Grimm