Huntsman by Cambria Hebert

AUTHORS NOTE

Once upon a time, there was a writer…

Who refused to give up on her dream.

And though her dream shifted and changed, became work instead of something magical, she wanted it still.

I just typed the end of this book… and I felt some tears well up in my eyes. This book took months to write. I wanted to release it much sooner, but the process was a bit daunting. I think I always say it, and it’s true: Writing does not get easier for me. In some ways, it gets harder. This series in particular has been a bit of a challenge for me. I feel like it’s been a lot of world-building, which is a little odd because it’s a contemporary book/series. Perhaps it’s the fairy-tale tie-ins I try so hard to weave through. And honestly, I don’t even know if I’m completely successful, but I try anyway.

Huntsmanoriginally set out to be a book about the huntsman, you know, the man who was supposed to kill Snow White but didn’t. Whatever happened to that guy anyway? When Earth surprised me in Ivory White with his true identity, I knew I wanted to write his book. He was loud and demanding in my head. For a while, he definitely flirted with the idea of making a play for Ivory. But he didn’t. He knew she wasn’t the one for him.

I wanted to write someone who was “bad” but also likable. I wanted to write a flawed man that, honestly, we probably shouldn’t like but did anyway. I mean, sure, I wanted to make him human… but I also wanted to make people root for him even if he was bad. I hoped to inspire loyalty toward him regardless of his killer ways. When I set out to write this book, I thought, “I won’t have him kill people on the page,” because that would make him “unlikable.” And then I was like… “That’s lame.” And it was also counterproductive. I mean, we kept hearing him say he’s killed people, and we already saw him try to kill Ivory. I didn’t want to gloss over who he was for the sake of him being more “human.” He IS human. Even as a killer. Lol. So he killed some people. I think it made him more authentic to his true character. What do you think?

Also, when I started this book, Virginia was not his original love interest. Interesting, right? I had originally planned to have his family send an assassin after him (a woman) and have them fall in love. I pondered that plot for a long time. Even as I was writing Prince, I plotted, made notes, etc. But there was something off about it. Earth was always so loud, but about this, he was kind of quiet. It was odd.

Then a friend messaged me. She said, “I guess Earth and Virginia are getting together.”

I was shook.

Like shookened!

I had never once thought of that. LOL. I know. Some writer I am. But really, I hadn’t thought that. I had always just thought I would write Virginia a story of her own (even had the photo cover picked out).

The second that idea was in my brain, Earth was kinda… wild. That quiet, off feeling disappeared. Earth was like, “YES!” He was like, “She’s mine, and I’ll fight Neo for her.” I was like, “Oh dear.”

But I was also very intrigued. I mean, the dynamic between Neo and Earth was already hella strained. This was just icing on the cake. It was like asking for a battle.

And then I realized how alike he was to Flynn Ryder (who is like my favorite “prince”). He’s a criminal. In with a bad crowd. Moody.

Virginia was my Rapunzel—a girl trapped in a tower. And Earth was really the only one courageous enough to get her out. The only one willing to battle Neo.

She’s light where he’s dark. But she’s also very accepting.

They make a great match—in my opinion.

Originally, with Virginia, I was going to have her walk again. I had plotted I would have her do that surgery Neo went on about forever and that she grew close to Earth in recovery.

It felt wrong.

It felt like I would be sending a message that to get a happily-ever-after you had to walk. That you couldn’t be in a wheelchair.

I want this entire series to have the theme that fairy tales are for everyone. No matter your race, sexual preference, social status… It doesn’t matter if you are disabled, disfigured… or a villain. You can be happy. Everyone deserves that.

For some research, I watched some YouTube videos made by people who are paralyzed and in wheelchairs. I read some articles, etc. as well. One thing someone said that truly, truly stuck out to me was, “People always assume the thing we want most is to walk again. That’s not true.”

I realized, while I hadn’t really contemplated what someone who was wheelchair-bound might feel, I would probably think that. Not because I’m ignorant or ill-meaning but because I didn’t know better. Because I never thought about it.

So I thought about it. A lot.

And Virginia revealed that she didn’t think she’d ever walk again—something we all thought because that’s what Neo told us. We had HIS side of the story. Not hers. Here she was, frustrated and exhausted, tired of making walking again her only goal. She just wanted a life and to be happy.

I really felt that.

This story became about a lot more than a feud between brothers or the huntsman. It’s about acceptance, forgiveness, family. It’s about how others see you but also how you see yourself and the balance between those two things.

I don’t know if Earth “deserved” a happy ending, but I really wanted him to have it. I wanted Virginia to have it too.

It was such a challenge to write a paraplegic. I would like to say if I portrayed any of this incorrectly, I sincerely apologize. I did do research, but I can’t possibly know everything. I’ve never been in Virginia’s position. It was a gamble writing her because it is something I’m unfamiliar with, but at the same time, I wanted to be a voice. I wanted to bring some awareness and some romance to those in a wheelchair. Maybe you’ve never thought about it just as I hadn’t before. Maybe now you have.

On top of Virginia, I was writing an assassin. An Asian man who came from a bad past and turned into a killer. That wasn’t easy either. I’m not an assassin (though I’ve offed some people in books… lol). Alternating between a killer and a wheelchair-bound woman was difficult, to say the least. I’d also like to note that, for the little bit of Korean language I added into the book, if there are any errors, I apologize. I did my best to look up the translations, and I read a few articles and watched a few language videos. I do watch a lot of K-drama, so a lot of the phrases are familiar to me, but I am not fluent. So any errors are mine and mine alone. I would also like to note I used informal tone for Earth when he was speaking (a more casual way of speaking) because it was his brother and Virginia he was speaking to.

It took me almost four months to write this book, which is pretty long for me. It’s just a little shorter in words than Prince (my longest book to date), and at times, I considering quitting. I considered stopping this series after this book was over—even though I wanted to write books for Beau and Emogen. Oh yeah, what did you think of the beast?