World Building with Julia Rachel Barrett

by Julia Rachel Barrett, guest blogger and author of Captured.

I am a scrappy, fiery redhead and my heroines, poor things, generally end up redheads too. Mari Damon, in my new work of Science Fiction, Captured, gets kidnapped by an interstellar trapper because he notices her red hair shining in the sun. Like she says in the book – I’ll paraphrase – If I’d known you were coming by, I’d have worn a hat!

The story of Mari and Ekkatt flowed out of me – I had a blast writing it. Not only is the book an extremely sexy read, I touch on subjects like the Stockholm Syndrome, where victims begin to identify with their kidnappers, collective guilt and its repercussions, and religious intolerance and bigotry. Writing the book touched me in unexpected ways – like me, Mari is Jewish and her situation is fraught with guilt – she suffers from survivor guilt because she has managed to survive while the other women she arrived with were were auctioned off, and worse, she has fallen in love with her captor. She feels as if she’s betraying herself and her own people. Her captor, Ekkatt, on the other hand, is wracked with guilt over what he’s done. No, he’s never killed or even injured a human and his species is vegetarian, but in his job as a trapper, he’s sent many women like Mari to the meat market, having been taught by his own religious authorities that humans are nothing more than beasts, that they have no soul. From our perspective, it would be comparable to a tribe in the Amazon hunting and eating a monkey. When Mari inadvertently awakens from stasis during the voyage and Ekkatt has his first chance to actually speak with a human female, he experiences an epiphany…his entire life has been a lie and he is guilty of condoning murder. From that moment on, keeping Mari alive becomes his primary goal. Only her forgiveness can heal him.

Mari never expects to find herself caged in a cargo hold on a spaceship.  She learns from her captors she's headed to the meat market.  When they try to return her to stasis, she resists.  The male in charge, Ekkatt, allows her to remain awake.  Mari realizes her survival depends upon connecting with Ekkatt.  She must make him see her as a sentient being or she will end up dinner.

Ekkatt has never spoken to any human.  Humans are beasts.  They are valued for one thing, the money they bring at auction.  The Attun are vegetarians, but other species prize human flesh and Ekkatt makes good money trapping.  Then the female with red hair awakens.  She speaks to him and forces him to admit she has a name.  Mari throws Ekkatt's entire life into question, the biggest question...can he watch her sold to the highest bidder?

Excerpt:

Mari heard him utter something in a guttural voice to his companion, right before he strode her way on his long, powerful legs. His strides ate up the distance between them. Unconsciously, Mari backed away from the door of her cage. In her current state, naked and vulnerable, if this thing wanted to rip her limb from limb, gut her, and eat her alive, he could.

He stopped in front of her and stared into her face. Legs shaking, Mari ordered herself to meet his eyes. She watched his nostrils flare, as if he could smell her fear. How could he not? She could smell it herself. Being naked made it worse. But, what was she supposed to do? Attempt to cover herself with her hands? That would be an exercise in futility. His eyes roamed over her perusing her from head to toe. He grunted something. Even though the language sounded alien to her it was impossible to miss the dismissive tone in his gravelly voice.

He stood in front of her with his arms crossed and his eyes challenging. He was obviously waiting for her to cower and cringe. Mari didn’t know where she was or what the hell was going on, but she remembered something she’d once read: the antidote to fear is courage. She realized she had no choice but to stare right back, step forward, cross her arms mocking his posture, and say loud enough for his companion to hear, “Fuck you, asshole.”

The fucker laughed. His laugh sounded human. Mari recognized it instantly. She didn’t know if he laughed at her words or at her chutzpah, but the fucker laughed.

“That is good,” he said in heavily accented English. The words sounded slow on his tongue. “You have courage, female.”

Mari watched him shift his weight. He seemed impatient. “You should not be awake,” he stated in his very thick accent.

Mari shrugged.

The man swept a sheathed hand toward all the other women lying on the floor of their cages. “You should not be awake,” he repeated.

Mari ignored his statement. Instead she pointed at his uniform. “I want my clothes.”

The man grimaced.

“You speak my language. You understand what I’m saying. I want my clothes.” One thing at a time.

“You have no need. You are a beast. An animal.” He enunciated clearly for her sake. “An animal has no need of clothing.”

“If I’m an animal, then why do you bother to speak with me? I want my clothes.”

He laughed again. “You are like a trained pet. Pets have no need of garments. Our buyers must be able to see the merchandise with imperfections and all.”

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Thanks for hosting me! Enjoy! Julia

To buy Captured, click here.

To visit Julia’s Website...Facebook.

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Tagged as: beasts, bigotry, collective guilt, fiery redhead, first chance, fraught with guilt, Julia Rachel Barrett, kidnappers, meat market, paraphrase, red hair, redheads, religious authorities, religious intolerance, repercussions, spaceship, stasis, stockholm syndrome, survivor guilt, trapper

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