Interview/Character Spotlight: The Becoming of Abraxas Shepherd

Hey Bookworms!

Today's interview is going to be slightly different! Today, instead of asking a bunch of questions, I asked one of my most favourite authors just one question . I asked her about the birth of my favourite character from her book, the character that I'm so in love with: Brax Shepherd. 

Before I hand this over to her, I'd like to tell you more about Brax. 

Brax is a demon, who contaminates the minds of weak humans, and makes them do vile things. Not the kind of character you expected me to be crushing on, is he? Well, what can I say? Brax is not what he seems like! 

And to know the real him, you'll have to pick up this amazing book, and read for yourself! 

Buy Testimony Of The Damned now:

Amazon India. 

Amazon US.

Amazon UK.

Still not sold about the book? Read my interview with K.G. Reuss about Brax, and I'm pretty sure you'll be clicking one of those links!

Hey K! Thanks for taking time out of your super busy schedule for answering this question! 

As you know, I've loved Brax ever since I read Testimony, so today, I want to ask you the question that has been in my mind for a long time. How was Brax's character born? How did you get the idea? 

It all started one long, rainy day in the spring of 2016. I was exhausted. My head hurt. My body ached. And the damn work radio wouldn’t stop going off. It had already been a long shift—cardiac arrests, overdoses, broken hips. I was sitting in my chair, grumbling about dispatch hating us as I flipped through the channels on the television, when I stopped on the news. I leaned forward, captivated by the footage. Earthquakes. Murders. Fires. Car accidents. War. It all ate at me.

Then the radio went off. Again.

A psych eval. I called out for my partner, who took the wrong time to use the bathroom. We made our way out to our ambulance and headed to the call, all while discussing in great detail the possible scenario we’d probably encounter.

Neither of us thought it would be a child.

Dispatch updated us. It was a kid. Twelve years old. That’s all we got.

I’m not going to lie. I hate psych calls. Calls I hate even more than psych calls are pediatric calls. Combine the two? Forget about it.  

Long story short, kid is a cutter. Uses the pain as a way to get away from other pain. Pain that the mother’s boyfriend brings to the child. Suffice it to say, it becomes a three-ring circus in the back of the ambulance with emotions, blood, and outbursts.

After dropping the kid and mother at the emergency room, we get called out for a basic transfer to a rehab facility in town. Easy peasy! I could use the relief.

Enter the other side of Hell. A sweet grandma with a broken hip. She told me countless stories on the transport of all the beautiful things she’d seen in the world. She’d filled her life with traveling as far as Egypt to see the pyramids. She danced on Broadway. She laughed. She loved. She warmed my heart after such a bad day.

After dropping her off, I sat down at my station and thought about things. Why were there such bad things in the world? The news showed more bad than good. The child I’d picked up experienced heartache and heartbreak that no child should ever know. It broke my heart. And all I kept thinking was “Why?”.

    This was the moment Brax Shepherd was born.

    He was the voice whispering to the sick, sad, and depraved. He was the hand that guided people through the most heinous of acts. It was his words that sparked a war. That led to the death of a man on Main Street. That made a man harm a child. It was him. Always him.

    Because God wouldn’t be so cruel to harm a child. But where was God? Brax asks that question in Testimony of the Damned.

“Where is your God? Why isn’t he here for you? Why has he never been here when you needed him? Why is it that I, a demon, am here for you—have always been with you?”

Where. Is. God.

And then Maggie Westbrook was born. She was the other side of the coin. She was the woman dancing on stage. Taking in the beauty of the world. Laughing. Loving. Forgiving.

She was the god people around her needed. She was the savior. If she could save Brax Shepherd, one of the most wicked demons ever sent from Hell’s Gates, then she could save the world.

But at what cost? Is the beauty of the world enough to save the monsters in it?

Brax was everyone’s demon. He was hatred. Anger. Sin. Betrayal. He was a creature birthed from the depravity of humanity. But most importantly, he was Maggie’s angel in disguise. Despite his atrocities, she saw something in him. And that in turn, lit a fire inside of him that couldn’t be quelled. It spurred on a story that kept screaming at me to be told. I guess one could go as far as saying that I am Brax Shepherd’s first victim.

Wow. I'd have never imagined that was how Brax was born. No wonder he's so amazing!

Changed your mind, didn't she? That's what she does best! When I signed up for reviewing this book, I'd never known what I was getting myself into! K.G. Reuss is a wonder woman, and all of her books leave you wanting for more!