Shadowfever

"Who Is JZB?"

Who is JZB? If I had a dime for every time I've been asked that question, I could quit working. When I began writing the Fever Series in 2005, I had a clear vision of what it was going to be: a dark fantasy with gritty noir edges set in Dublin, Ireland, the saga of MacKayla Lane, 22-year old bartender from Georgia, caught in the middle of an ancient war between humans and Fae. It was going to be about illusion and seduction, murder and revenge, deadly lies and deadlier truths.

The one thing it wasn't about was JZB. For those of you who haven't read the series, you're wondering who he is. For those of you who have read the series, you're wondering the same thing. You've sent me thousands of emails filled with guesses, packed my message board forum with over half a million posts, and cornered me at signings demanding answers. With the release of Shadowfever the final book in the series just around the corner, I can't even go to my doctor's/dentist/post office without someone saying: won't you please answer that one question now that it's almost over anyway? Yes, they say, I have a dozen other huge questions but first I want the answer to that one. Then I want to know who killed Alina, what's going on with the book and the concubine and the Unseelie King and Cruce and V'lane and the dreamy-eyed guy and Christian MacKeltar and when are you going to write the story from JZB's point of view? Usually said in a one-word rush of breath. And there we are back to JZB. We got away from him but not for long.

I shake my head, bemused that somehow Mac's story became Barron's story. I've lost count of the threatening emails I've received demanding Barrons get a happy ending, or else.

Sometimes a character hijacks a series. From the moment Jericho Z. Barrons stalked onto the page, pissy, broody, borderline sociopathic and unapologetically sexual hell, just plain unapologetic readers loved him. And I have no idea why. Here are some of the things he says to Mac:

• Go home, Ms. Lane. Be young, be pretty, get married, have babies, grow old with your pretty husband.

• I will chain you up, tie you down, leash you with magic, whatever I have to do, but you will help me get that book. And when I've got it, I might let you live.

• God said let there be light. I said "say please."

• Hope strengthens. Fear kills. You're a sheep, Ms. Lane. Lamb to the slaughter in a city of wolves.

Barrons and Mac are night and day, the Sahara and the North Pole. Mac says: I get off on a man with strong moral fiber. The closest Barrons ever gets to fiber is walking down the cereal aisle at the grocery store.

So why the obsession with JZB? You tell me. And if you need a fix in the meantime, drop by karenmoning.com where I've just posted his song and I suppose he says it the best: I am your dirty dreams. I am JZB.