Angel Martinez:

Hello all and thanks for stopping by my place on your rounds of Hot Angels and Cool Demons!

Excuse me a sec...*nudges cat away from keyboard, throws pile of laundry off the chair so you can sit*

Much better. Demons in Western culture are, by definition, evil. We might write stories about redemption or demons who manage to become less evil, but the fact remains that our literary history is stuck with evil demons. Part of this is because demons are embedded in our written history, but not really a part of our older, oral history. Monsters? Ghosts? Evil spirits and vengeful fae? Those we have aplenty in our folklore, but we didn't really have demons, per se, until the monks started writing about them.

This is not the case in many Asian cultures, where the spirit world in general and demons specifically populate the folklore like mosquitoes on a July night in Churchman's Marsh. Japan, with its rich Shinto traditions and diverse island culture has, perhaps, more demons per square kilometer than any other land on Earth. Oni and ikuchi, yokai and ainu, the stories are endless, the variations and mutations delightful in their gleeful multiplication.

For you see, folklore is like Sculpey.

Hey! Stop edging away! I'm not crazy...crazier...than usual... In the words of Inigo Montoya, "Let me explain. No, it is too much, let me sum up."

It's true though. Unlike the written word, which becomes rigid on the page, spoken folklore has a mutable quality I adore. Stories change from region to region, the nature of a being can be one thing in the North and something completely different in the South. I've discussed this before regarding pookas, Irish spirits who take on different forms depending on which part of the island you're perusing. So demons in Japanese stories have a certain moldability to them - each storyteller free to spin their own version (within parameters recognized by the listener.)

For my story, Boots, I didn't want a simple talking cat. While I grew up with talking animals in stories, I wanted a better explanation. Why did the darn cat talk? Why did it care if some dispossessed kid made it in the world? My writing cats and I struggled with this for a bit. Was Puss a shifter? No...too many of those. Was he an alien? Oh, dear gods, too X-files. I dove into my folklore files for intelligent cats (Stop glaring, girls! I know all cats are intelligent. I meant human-like...oh, never mind. Go back to your sunbeam.)

The Kasha presented himself as the perfect solution. An air demon, most accounts paint the Kasha as repulsive and, if not evil, at least inimicable to human sensibilities. Some stories say the Kasha rides thunderstorms and lightning, and swoops down from the heavens to steal and eat unattended corpses.

(Moira Hahn's "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" - the Kasha is on the right with the DDT)

Not very appealing, eh? But the Kasha could have another interpretation - that of a guide for the dead. In Japanese tradition, ghosts are spirits whose deaths have not been properly attended. They become lost on their journey to the spirit world and often become angry and vengeful. Perhaps when the Kasha has been perceived as body-snatching, its actual purpose was that of soul guide.

And so my Puss, my Kasha was born. Reborn. Molded from the Sculpey of time and folktale as an air demon charged with the guiding of souls, banished for his arrogance and disobedience, a flawed, tragic hero simply ripe for redemption.

Don't forget folks - comment for a chance to win all sorts of fun stories at the end of the Tour!

Boots - A Twisted Fairytale for Modern Readers

In Honeybole, jobs are scarce and so are faithful boyfriends. But when Willem’s father leaves him the family cat, his luck begins to change. It might not seem like much, but at least the talking cat listens and understands him better than anyone else.

Kasha was once a powerful demon, a guide of dead souls, until his arrogance led to his banishment. Forced to live with, and sometimes serve humans, he lives a lonely, humiliating existence. In Willem, though, he finds a man he serves gladly. He’ll stop at nothing to secure Willem’s happiness, even if it means losing him.

Boots - available at

Amber Allure

All Romance

Amazon

And lots of other nice ebook retailers!