Author's Note

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for reading my story! This story was a huge passion project of mine and I'm so grateful for everyone who read it! 

This story came to me from a dream I had about my husband and I. My husband always loves the main protagonist characters, so I loosely based Devilynn off of him but with more stubbornness.

I wanted to give all of the characters a flaw that could be considered a strength. For most of the characters their particular strength/flaw is their devotion. For Devilynn his devotion for his nation and his wife conflict with one another. For Fern her devotion to her throne creates her physical strength but blinds her from anything else. Shinkyo's devotion was her people, which presented the determination to win the war but, in the process, discard her husband. 

Fern's character in particular was always a discussion my husband and I had over dinner. I often see people give villain's redemption qualities or stories, but I wanted to make Fern a character without one. I truly wanted the audience to despise her character.

My favorite character to create and write was Erebus/Birch. My husband actually came up with the idea of having a spy and hence, Birch was created. At first, he was going to be a character with only a strong devotion and love for his nation, but I quickly changed it to be towards Shinkyo. I also fell in love with writing Crowriff! I based a lot of his quirky happy-o-lucky personality traits on my dad.

The premise of the title 'The husband and Hero' was meant to symbolize Devilynn as the husband and the hero as Shinkyo. Within the cover art, Shinkyo is the girl on the right with the same eyes that only Devilynn can see in the story. On the left is Shinkyo when she was Eri in her past life. 

I also enjoyed writing Devilynn quiet a bit. When I originally came up with Devilynn's character I wanted him to be a rollercoaster of emotions. At the beginning of the novel he was meant to be easily shaken by the responsibilities he now has and the unsureness that is in front of him. But as the novel goes on with winning a few battles and standing besides Fern, he becomes more cocky and egotistical. Birch/Erebus strength, passion, and abilities begins to feed into Devilynn's more paranoid side as it is stronger than Devilynn's passion for Frostala. Near the very end of the book, I wanted Devilynn's confident to completely crash due to finding out his wife, Eri, has been Shinkyo this whole time, which brings him back to the same character he started as.

Making the kingdom of Robal essentially created by Frostala was a concept I truly wanted to make since the very beginning. I have a bachelor's in special education and spent years researching the history of how people with disabilities were treated and considered throughout time; this of which sparked the idea of making Robal the way it was.

Some of the characters have unique meanings to their names too! Eri essentially means blessing/reason; which is what she is the entire time to Devilynn. While Shinkyo means new. Unlike Devilynn, who really sticks to the fact that he's a person living as a character, Shinkyo takes this new life as her very own. She becomes a new person while still holding onto those old memories. 

Zaro was named after an old game of chance, showcasing how risky he could be. Devilynn was the name of a character I designed as a little kid, there's no big meaning to it really. His name was almost Deathra.

Erebus name is based off of the Greek god that is often considered a shadow. Within the book we never actually get to meet the real Erebus, but we get a shadow of a glance from Birch. Birch, Fern, and Willowcrus were just named after trees/plants.

Crowriff was actually a name that randomly popped into my head; my husband was playing sword and shield and the Pokémon Corviknight appeared. I thought it was really cute and wanted to make a character that was tough looking but a sweetheart. So Crowriff came to be.

Richi's character is based on one of my old kindergarten students. I wanted Killian to be an ideal villian for the original story but needed a reason for why he was considered a tyrant only some of the time.

It has been such a blessing getting to write and read this alongside all of you. Thank you for every moment!

I will be releasing two more short stories this week.

Friday- Birch's story (The linger tale of a finger)

Friday- Eri and Zaro (When the world became colorful)

I'll be answering any questions left in the comments. = )