Dear Reader,
I know Riftsiders: Unlawful Possession looks like a horror/romance/comedy. I would be lying to say it isn’t. After all, it’s got funny characters and situations, sex, demons, sex with demons, and all of the other required elements of those genres.
But.
I encourage you to explore deeper into the themes and symbols. Use it as a lens to view the way society views people of different skin tones, nationalities, sexualities, beliefs, and the neurodivergent. Other books in the series will examine other population segments. Step back and ask if marginalized groups are treated with respect or are they treated as demons. Question how laws, media, society and the attitudes that permeate our lives on a daily basis vary based on a perceived demographic label.
Are any of the characters better off for hosting their riftsiders in this reality? I’m not going to answer that question. But I urge you to consider it. The members of the lead ensemble identify as possessed. They don’t attend the support group to remove their demon, but to learn to live with it. If they were exorcised, would they be the same characters? If you completely ignore a demographic trait from a given group, rather than simply acknowledge a healthy difference – are you really doing them any favors?
Throughout the Riftsiders series, each character confronts how they deal with their riftsider passenger. Their demographic. Some embrace it. Some despise it. Some fear it.
I’m not saying any demographic group in reality is anything like a demon. But sometimes the world at large would make you feel like it’s that bad.
Look at these as the traits we assign to minority groups or any individual labelled as ‘different’. When removed – how much of that person is lost with that label? This is the dilemma of exorcised individuals being reduced to Imps and the Discarded throughout Riftsiders. Lose your demon and you may lose yourself. Does ignoring someone’s uniqueness render them as something less than they ever were?
Again, I’m not answering. I’m just providing lenses. Lenses that help you look at someone, acknowledge what sets them apart, what makes them – or you – so different you cannot even understand it and… accept.
See you on the other side.
Paul A. DeStefano and his wife live on Long Island, NY, with a strange menagerie that includes a dog, a few cats, sugar gliders, a bearded dragon, and several grown children that have not left.
After graduating from Hofstra University with a split degree in English and Acting, he worked in the board gaming and roleplaying industry for decades, including officially licensed projects for Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. He did not win the Origins Award for Best Miniatures Rules in 2004 and has forgotten that bitter defeat. When not playing and working on games, he is sometimes found touring internationally, giving lectures on worldbuilding and character design.
Being a professional full-time blacksmith for several years made him realize how much less painful it was to go back to writing. He’s been lucky enough to hold the Top Humor Writer badge at Medium multiple times and has had his work narrated by James Cosmo (Lord Mormont from Game of Thrones) on multimillion-dollar Kickstarter projects.
It is also worth noting that having never taken any bassoon lessons, he still cannot play one.
His latest book is the urban fantasy/paranormal romance novel, RIFTSIDERS: UNLAWFUL POSSESSION.
Visit his website at www.PaulADeStefano.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and Instagram.
Enrique Marin wants a quiet life after the death of his wife. Just one problem stands in the way–he’s possessed by the misanthropic English demon, Tzazin. A violent night under demonic influence accidentally leads Enrique to love, and it’s anything but quiet. Shy, autistic yoga instructor Elle thought allowing herself to be possessed by the very-not-shy sex demon Key would help her find love. She finds Enrique, but she didn’t count on coping with the anti-demon bigotry of society. Fate–and AA meetings for the possessed–brings them together, but hostile forces, demonic and human, fight to keep them apart. It might cost them everything to keep their love alive.
Book Information
Release Date: April 18, 2022
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1509241231; 292 pages; $16.99; E-Book, $4.99
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HZpkPE
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