Sabrina Garie is on a journey to create the most kick-ass heroine romance fiction has ever known and the hero who can take her. A believer that big, audacious goals spice up life, she relies on coffee, red wine and laughter to make those goals (and her characters) come alive.
When not at the computer, she wrangles vegetables and extra helpings of homework into her star-spangled, fashion-loving progeny, kowtows to a fat cat and reads, a lot. As a child, she wanted to be an astronaut, just to see what’s out there. Now, she just makes it up.
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Phoebe lives trapped between two worlds. Born an Amazon warrior, she’s sworn to serve the Greek pantheon. It’s her work as a scholar in the human world that gives her life passion and purpose and eases her heart—which shattered when the pantheon forced her to abandon her human lover.
Alexander Xenos is world renowned classics expert, who has dedicated his life to the study of ancient cultures and promoting peace. His fame and global adventures hide a hole in his heart, ripped out by a beautiful, gentle scholar, who shut him out cold after the most intense love affair he'd ever had.
Thirty years later, Sander meets his long lost love, only to learn she's an Amazon, the mythical gods are real, and they are about to go to war. And Phoebe, who still sets his blood to boil, is in the thick of it. He'll have to prevent a conflict between the Greek and Norse pantheons or lose her again—this time permanently.
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Sander and Phoebe spent a life time apart before reuniting in Life Reignited, when they are both well into their 50s. Back together, needless to say, they have to catch up on the others’ lives. Here, I've asked Sander to interview Phoebe. It’s written from Phoebe's point of view. Let’s get started. Sander, you can start.
“Thanks, Phoebe, I’ve been wondering how do Amazons structure their lives in modern society?”
Sander would start with an intellectual question. "The wrong way."
"Now Phoebes, I'm trying to understand how it works."
"Of course." Phoebe took a long breath, to stuff down the anger puffing up her chest. She’d never really fit in the Amazon culture. With Sander, better to start with the facts, then move to the bitching. "The Amazons are governed by a seven person Council of Elders. To reach it, one must first be a recognized expert in one of the seven critical area of Amazon life. Within each area, the one with the most kills or victories is selected. The most inked up back in other words. Once inducted to the council, you only leave with a sword through the stomach or a physical or mental impairment. It’ a job for life, and the decisions of the Elders are law.” Phoebe swallowed hard before continuing. The next part always turned her to mush, and Amazons were not allowed to go all mushy.
“Before our son Tai and his lover, Annie, took on the Elders to create a Blood Bond, the Amazon version of marriage, families had been forbidden by the council. Instead, Amazons would hook up with the Gargareans, our male counterparts, annually at the Thirteen Nights ritual, where a couple would do the deed for about two weeks. If a child were conceived, females were taken by the Amazons, males by the Gargareans. Babies are raised in common nurseries. In practice, most mothers keep an eye on their offspring from a shadowed distance and sisters of the same mother tend to watch out for each other.” Phoebe kept her head down, not wanting to see how Sander was reacting to this all.
"Indeed, the wrong way," Sander consented after hearing the whole story. "So my love, given all that, how do you survive the gods? From our experience in Norway, they're bloody crazy."
"No argument from me on that conclusion, dearest. The best way is to stay under their radar. For the most part, they see us as gnats to be used and discarded. If you don't draw attention to yourself, they tend to leave us alone. Of late, the biggest problems were from our own Elders, determined to control everything as human power takes over more and more of the world."
"If that's so, how did you keep's Tai's birth a secret in the beginning." Sadness crept into Sander's warm hazel eyes. Knowing him, not being present at their son's birth would always be considered a great loss.
"Fortunately, I never got too big. It was easy to hide out since my job in the human world was at a University and I served the Amazons as their historian, keeper of the culture, lore and glory. I could work remotely from my human home. Fortunately no inter-pantheon battles emerged so I was never called to fight, which helped keep the pregnancy a secret. Tai was born in a human hospital, a blissfully easy birth. I was able to keep him hidden for a few months. When he was old enough, I bought two plane tickets to London. And then Andromache, the leader of the Amazon Council, appeared at my doorstep leather straps in hand, hoping for a tryst, I’ve succumbed in the past, when my loneliness for you got so strong. She found Tai, gave him to the Gargareans and stuck me into retraining. Afterwards, I moved to the university and stayed as far away as possible. I wanted nothing more to do with my life as an Amazon."
"You didn't watch over Tai?" Sander asked.
Phoebe laughed, at the surprise that turned Sander's gentle face into harsh angles. "Of course, I did. Historians have a strong network, linked on cyberspace. I had everyone I knew, and everyone they knew following his every move. I could sneak things he needed into the training camps, when he went to college, when he started work. I would choose conferences that took me near him, so I could sneak a glance now and then. I watched over him as I watched over you, my love."
From the way his eyes widened, it was clear a light bulb went off in his head. "Access to the Greek site, the rescue team in the Swiss Alps, my passport in Libya, the Gilligan's Islands CDs on my 50th birthday? You?"
She nodded, blinking back the tears threatening a tidal wave down her cheeks. "Yeah, all me. I may not have been able to be with you, but I never left you. Never."
And with that, I think my characters need some time alone to work through that revelation. Come learn more about them in Life Reignited.
