David and Aimee Thurlo
Many cultures have legends of vampire-like creatures. Is the nightwalker actually a Navajo legend?
No, nightwalkers are our own creation. But, because most traditional Navajos are cautious about the night, it seemed like a good idea to follow up on.
Skinwalkers are definitely part of the Navajo lore. Tells us about them.
Skinwalkers go back to the Navajo creation stories, having existed during the time before the Navajo ancestors came up from the underworld to live in the Southwest. Skinwalkers--often called Navajo witches--are corrupt magic users that harm and manipulate other Navajos. They engage in many forbidden activities that are considered taboo and are feared and shunned. Navajos that are seen as strange, especially old Navajos that live alone, are often falsely accused of being Navajo witches--skinwalkers. Skinwalkers are sometimes seen wearing coyote skins, and are said to have the ability to shape shift into these and other animals.
Especially in BLOOD RETRIBUTION, you have your skinwalkers more like a pack of werewolves, that it is passed on by the bite of a skinwalker rather than shapeshifting being a skill acquired by magic. Is this a departure from the traditional skinwalker? If so, why did you make them more like werewolves?
Part of the mythology we developed for our Navajo vampires had to include a biological explanation for skinwalkers. In the world of Lee Nez, vampires are primarily creatures of Europe and Asia, and skinwalkers an exclusively Navajo subspecies of werewolves. The affliction that causes someone to become a vampire is related, but different, than the one that causes someone to become a werewolf, and obviously the symptoms are different, as well. For example, vampires have enhanced human abilities, such as night vision, strength, agility, and self healing--to a point. Skinwalkers (Navajo werewolves, if you prefer) can shapeshift into animals of an equal mass. This requires much more energy and stress, so skinwalkers, unlike nightwalkers, are very short-lived. Their shapeshifting also traps a human mind in an animal's body, so although they have the physical characteristics of the animal and the animal predatory drive, they think like the human. Good, because they recognize guns and stop lights, bad, because a real panther could probably kick their butts.
Are you planning a sequel? If so, what is next for Lee and Diane?
The next Lee Nez novel, PALE DEATH, will be out in early October as a Forge hardcover. In this story (which has a GREAT cover),
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