Anca was born to hunt, but not all monsters are beasts.
About Fated to be Monsters: The Hunting Households are failing. Her people are starving. And the callous Queen Astasia reigns in luxury. Anca’s only chance to usurp the cycle of tyranny arrives with an unthinkable task: hunt a rampaging beast alongside Eugen, a feared former hunter. She discovers that Eugen despises the queen and the hunters, like Anca, who exiled him. Yet as the hunt falters, their mutual hate turns to desire.
But Eugen has more secrets than Anca
can imagine. With their prey close, and the fate of their land in the balance,
she must choose between what duty demands
and what her heart craves.
Good
morning, Anca. Thank you for joining us today. Let’s begin with where you are from?
I was born and raised in my family’s
lands under the banner of our Hunting Household. Open grasslands, plenty of
food. That sounds grand, but it was mostly a stony, cold bastion. I felt
sheltered for a while, until my parents decided I was old enough to hunt. I
started appreciating the peace of House Sulia after that.
Tell
us a bit about Fated to be Monsters. This story is about the biggest hunt of our lifetimes, but also when we
escaped our fates. It’s about the end of who Eugen and I once were. We were
both raised for a purpose: myself to hunt and repress, him to execute anyone
whom the queen commanded. Neither of us imagined we would become those people.
What
did you think the first time you saw Eugen. Scared. Angry. I assumed he hated me because my parents burned down his
family’s bastion and orphaned him. Everything I heard about him was the cruelty
and the things he did in the name of the queen. I suppose he heard the same
things about me—except his job was to kill dissidents and I just dealt with the
monsters.
Since we’re being honest, I was
thrilled. Even though he wasn’t hunting monsters like I, he was still in the
field. He had our Nobil blood and had all of its gifts. For the first time in
years, I felt like I was around a rival. I didn’t see the man I fell in love
with until days after we met.
What was your second thought? I mean…he’s hot. Besides what I felt about him, I couldn’t deny that. Not that I would ever admit that to anyone. I was ready to write him off as a sociopath with good looks. Then we started working together. He was nicer than I expected. Though the bar was very low at first. It became clear after we started working together. There was just one thing in the way: the Blood Flame, the magic that made him reviled in the first place and the stuff that made him as terrifying as the stories said.
Do you
feel it was love at first sight? No.
Not even a little. What we have now had to be discovered. We wear so much
armor, both literally and emotionally, that it’s hard for people like us to
feel vulnerable. Isn’t that what love is? Choosing to be vulnerable with
someone else? He was the Queen’s Executioner when we met, but I never for a
moment thought he would hurt me. It was surprisingly easy to open up to him.
What
do you like most about Eugen? He’s
authentic. You ask him what he thinks, he’ll tell you. He’s more caring than
you’d think. Eugen is so protective of his own. He’s loyal. Brave. His sides
are ticklish, but don’t let him know I said that. There are no games with him
and he sees me, not the Nobil of House of Sulia. Eugen didn’t fall in
love with my title or its perks. If we suddenly were deprived of our gifts and
made to live out our days on a farmstead, I think I could do that with him.
How
would you describe him? Tall.
Muscular. His arms look incredible. He’s got a beard and mustache, but it’s all
so trim. I’ve never seen a man so averse to letting his hair grow out. He’s got
brown eyes you can get lost in. He doesn’t smile that often, but it is so warm.
Maybe it’s because he didn’t have much to be happy about for a long time.
How
would he describe you? He’d talk
about my eyes first. He’s told me he noticed them before anything else. Green
like a forest. A little shorter than him. Okay, a lot shorter. Not that he’s
ever complained. Dark blond hair, medium build. I’m sorry, is that how people
describe themselves?
What
made you choose monster hunting for a career? I was born into it. My mother was a Nobil. My
grandfather was a Nobil. The bloodline is passed down over the centuries.
There’s no escaping it and I’m looking forward to passing it on to my eventual
child. I also enjoy it despite the terrifying nature of the work. Though,
whether I do because it suits me or if I was molded for the role is unclear.
What
is your biggest fear? Leaving things
unfinished. One of our principles is of Fated Death: that every single hunter
will die violently. Hunters don’t die of old age. I know what I’m putting on
the line every time I ride out. I never realized how much it scared me until I
decided to change it. After everything that’s happened, I feel like I’ve begun
to make things right. I’m not there yet though. I need to finish this before I
meet my Fated Death.
How
do you relax? I love a good bath with
lavender flowers, preferably. Past that? I hunt game and practice my archery.
Keep up with the news from my Household. I don’t want to come across as someone
who just works all of the time, but that is what I was raised to be. I’m always
thinking about what’s next, what needs to be done. Eugen has helped me relax.
Not because he knows how to relax, but because I’m at ease around him. He’s the
only person I could lay in bed with all day.
What
is the best piece of advice you ever received? My mother was Nobil before me. She killed more
monsters than myself and enforced the queen’s laws to the letter. Delores Sulia
still told me to never compromise who I am. “We are Sulias,” she said.
“Whatever the throne asks of us, we can’t let them change that.”
What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? Oh, that is a long list. At first, I thought I was going to be a horror writer. Lovecraft and King had a heavy hand on my first stories. That was years ago though. Dungeons & Dragons, while not a book per se, really cultivated my love of fantasy, but also got me thinking in terms of worldbuilding. People have told me my worldbuilding is quite good and I credit my years as a Dungeon Master for that.
But there’s also the romance end of
things, right? It’s been a slow burn for me. I’m a little ashamed to say it,
but my first romance-adjacent books were certainly those from the Twilight
series. I’ve always been really into relationships in stories, who ends up with
who. Eventually, I watched all of “Sex and the City”. I’ve devoured
“Bridgerton” on Netflix. It didn’t click that I wanted to write romance until I
started earnestly reading it. Though “Fourth Wing” broke the dam, I have to
credit L.R. Lam’s “Dragonfall” for making the first crack.
If I had to list books that I feel
influenced my writing, I’d have to say: “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, “The
Traitor Queen” by Danielle Jensen, various Lovecraft short stories, and
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
Is
there an event in your private life that you were able to bring to this story
and how do you feel it impacted the novel? I grew up with anger problems. It’s taken years of therapy and work,
but I’ve finally gotten it under control. I phrase it that way because it never
truly goes away. It’s like any other behavioral problem. You have to stay on
top of it.
I bring this up because Eugen’s power
makes him indomitable, but turns him into a raving berserker. He has Anger
Magic, to be glib. As I worked with the character, I quickly found my own
struggles with anger bleeding through. Eugen’s anger is tied to a magical
curse, but this was a chance for me to talk about toxic rage. It’s on the
person with the anger to let go. You have to identify those emotions and reject
them. No one else can help you until you identify that you are
accountable for your behavior.
Tell
us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced
your decision to submit to them? The
Wild Rose Press is a small press that specializes in romance literature. I
originally submitted my debut novel, which was notably not a romance. They
still really enjoyed it and after a lot of work, they accepted it. It’s a happy
coincidence then that I discovered how much I like writing romance shortly
after.
Small presses don’t get as much
spotlight as self-pub or big 5 deals, but it’s a great way to get your books
out there. TWRP really supports its authors and gives them resources. For me,
it gives me the chance to share my work and build a readership. It is such a
relief to have someone handle the business end of things as I learned to
promote and market your own work.
What
book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? I just finished “Onyx Storm” and still recovering. I’m reading ACOWAR
and “When the Moon Hatched” right now. Besides a few ARCs next on my list, I’m thinking
about “House of Sky and Breath” & ACOFS. I’m entering another SJM moment.
Last, what's up next and
when can we expect to see it on the shelves? “Fated to be Monsters” is out and can be found on
Amazon, B&N, and other book retailers. You can find me as @jvontobelwrites
on all platforms. If you are eager for more sneak peeks on my work, I post a
fair bit of that in my newsletter. You can find the sign ups for that at my
website, jacobvontobel.com.
The sequel to my debut, “Shadow &
Sand: A Curse of Flame Story” should be coming out in late 2025. After that, I
have a very hard decision to either finish the Curse Trilogy or finish the
duology that “Fated to be Monsters” began.
Past that, I have a new series I’ve
been cooking up. I will come back to the world that Curse and Fated built
again. However, there’s a story I’ve been dying to tell. It’s too early to talk
about that though.
Jacob brought along an excerpt for us:
Eugen tried to stand, but his wounds
brought him back down with a wince. Every muscle pulled tight, like they were
trying to tie themselves into knots. He took a deep breath and tried to think
of something calming. Anca’s eyes flashed in his mind.
“Believe me, Doia. I’m on your side,”
he said. “Do you think I like being treated like this? My name is a curse. My
bloodline is a stain. I thought if I could beat a Nobil at their own game,
prove that I am better than the best of you, it would pull the wool from your
eyes.”
It was a petty thought. His wound
seemed so obvious now. Eugen lived his life assuming things of the Nobils as
they assumed things about him. He never questioned it. Astasia’s lies were
sweet like honey.
“And what does the Queen gain by
showing me up?” Anca asked.
“Keller has hated her family for
years. A friendly Household on top would let her bully the Nobils into
obedience, given enough time.”
“I’ll remind you that it was the
Queen’s wine and pleasantries that occupied Bire and Stancu,” Anca snapped.
“The queen chose to weaken us. After everything we’ve done. Flame, they
requested my mother lead the charge against your kin. Are we so inconvenient to
your little schemes?”
“Her schemes. And please,” Eugen
gingerly sat forward on his stool. “I don’t give a damn about what your family
did to mine. Last I checked, aren’t you the most feared enforcer of the queen’s
will after me? You say you aren’t your parents. Prove it.”
That pissed her off. Anca’s predatory
cool vanished with a snarl of her teeth. Good, he thought. He wanted her to be
plain with him.
“I could have let you die tonight and
hunted that damn thing on my own. Magic or not, I can kill you. I still might.”
“I don’t doubt it. You’re twice the
hunter I could be and that’s why you should trust me. I need you more than you
need me. Even if you spare me, I’d still be the same hated beast that they say
I am. You’d still be House Sulia. Still Brave. Still Proud.”
Eugen stumbled from his stool and
kneeled before her. It wasn’t intentional, but he didn’t correct himself. It
would take a vow of loyalty to gain their trust again.
Anca’s breath caught as he did. He
growled against the ache as his bruised knees crashed into the dirt. His eyes
settled on the ground in front of her, like when he had vowed to serve Astasia
and the throne. No matter the cost.
“I blinked. I lost myself in a way
that I swore to never do again. You brought me back, Nobil Sulia. I’ve never
done that before. When I find myself ablaze, I can’t be stopped unless I run
out of steam. Everything is murder. All I see is red, but I saw you.”
His voice cracked and Eugen looked up
at her. He wanted to be trusted. He had to hope that she understood that need.
“Stay back from her,” Marin
growled.
“I didn’t have my calming herbs with
me. For so long, it was the only way I could live in my skin. I don’t know how
or why, but you helped me pull it back. There’s something special connecting
us. Let’s show those bastards and that brat on the throne what it looks like
when we move beyond these grudges. I’m tired of keeping us rich at the cost of
the innocent. I’m tired of being told what my fate is. I’m tired of being
hated.”
Craita and Marin watched them knowing
that the slightest move would send them down a path that they could not turn
from. Anca watched him with unreadable eyes. There was contempt, but something
muted her raw ferocity. Eugen thought he saw a flash of amusement before she
rolled her eyes and stood.
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