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Title: InHuman
Author: Kama Falzoi Post
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Release date: December 13, 2016
About InHuman
Kama Falzoi Post on the Characters of InHuman
InHUMAN started out in a different body. A hastily thrown-together manuscript—50,000 words—written furiously during National November Writing Month, and titled The Dark Eternal.
The characters were there from the beginning: Mira, with her raging red hair and human/alien complex, and Adam, the alien-in-the-hot-body who captures her heart. Originally, the conflict centered around Adam’s desire to either remain in a human body, or go back to his original species. But I found, as I kept revising (for, like, years) that it was necessary to create a nemesis. Someone dark and salty, someone opposite Mira, who served to highlight her faults, threaten Adam, and push the narrative forward.
Enter Decklin.
Decklin was loads of fun to write because I could make her both confident and evil—a dangerous mix. She doesn’t think anything can stand in her way, certainly not a teenage girl. But Mira proves her wrong.
That was fun too, giving Mira the chops to stand up to a powerful enemy. She had to reach down inside herself to find the strength and courage, but it had been there all along. Kind of like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. She always had the shoes, she just didn’t know how to use them.
Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but the concept applies.
Something that has always fascinated me is pondering what defines us as human beings. Are we human because we’re in human bodies? What if you sawed off our legs, our arms, took us apart piece by piece? When do we stop being human? Maybe it comes down to something inside, something intangible. Our soul? If so, where is that located? Can it be displaced?
As you can see, I did way too much thinking.
But those kind of ruminations served as the inspiration for Adam’s character: an alien soul placed in a human body. Both he and Mira think of the body as a vessel at first, and Mira especially writes him off because of that:
I didn’t want to hear about his feelings. The body served only as a machine to him, a vessel.
But as the story progresses, she begins to see he is not much different than her. He has the same emotions, the same drive. Inside that body, he experiences all the human things we experience.
And of course, you know what happens at the end. The other phenomenon humans strive for: the happy ever after. At least, that’s what I lead you to believe…
-Kama Falzoi Post
About Kama Falzoi Post
Kama Falzoi Post is a functioning member of society, a part-time introvert, a pinnacle of contradictions, the mother of a hurricane, a step-mother, and an author. She enjoys drinking red wine and then drinking more red wine, listening to music that moves her, and taking things too far.
She developed a love of books and writing at a very early age. Her stories have appeared in a handful of literary magazines including Inkwell and SmokeLong Quarterly, and most recently in the anthology Outliers of Speculative Fiction. She lives in a small town outside a small city with her husband, son, and too many cats.
She developed a love of books and writing at a very early age. Her stories have appeared in a handful of literary magazines including Inkwell and SmokeLong Quarterly, and most recently in the anthology Outliers of Speculative Fiction. She lives in a small town outside a small city with her husband, son, and too many cats.
