Introducing Andre Vonstone

Ordinarily I don’t post on Tuesdays, but today is different. Today I’m interviewing Andre Vonstone, main character of Moonshadow’s Guardian, brother of the king of Moonshadow, and a newly minted vampire. Andre was banished from the kingdom about a year ago after trying to kill Cameron Graves, High Priest of the Temple of Ashe. He’s only just returned to Moonshadow, and I am lucky enough to be the first person to interview him since his return.

DLG: Welcome to Dianna’s Writing Den, Andre. Can you tell us a bit about the incident with Cameron Graves that got you banished?

Andre: Do you make a habit of speaking so directly? It might be wise to remember that I can and will kill you if you piss me off.

Then again, I did come here to share my story.

Cameron is a good priest–he performs the last rites without getting teary, he encourages people with warm words and he gives great speeches–but he’s not always a good man. We’ve had a number of disagreements over the years. The night we got into our fight, we’d both been drinking too much. He said that he wanted to marry Elizabeth, my favourite cousin. I lived with her and her parents for several years of my childhood.

I didn’t think anything like that should happen, so I told him it was a bad idea. He wouldn’t lay off of it, and he said some really dirty things about her. I couldn’t help myself. I was drunk. I attacked him.

Either way, he still hasn’t tried to marry Elizabeth, so I got my point across.

DLG: Fascinating. How did you feel about getting banished for this fight?

Andre: Well, I think it’s more than a little stupid. I mean, I know he’s a priest. I know that. And I know I took it too far. But of course, my brother never thought about throwing me in the dungeon. He just threw me out. I certainly didn’t feel any brotherly love. Mostly, it just irritated me. I didn’t mind travelling through Tar’Ig’Vor and the Magi Plains, but I much prefer Moonshadow.

DLG: Is that why you came back?

Andre: Not really. I mean, I was getting sick of travelling. But I could’ve stopped in any town in the Magi Plains and made a life for myself. I thought about it. I didn’t think about staying in Tar’Ig’Vor–the people there aren’t really civilized and they have such a restrictive culture–but I did think about staying in the Plains, making a life for myself.

What brought me back was my son, Calder. He’s the product of a relationship I had with a maid about eight years ago. We were together for about a year, and I even suggested–before she got pregnant–that Jacob allow me to marry her. He said I shouldn’t be marrying a commoner. She got pregnant and she was so angry that I wouldn’t–couldn’t–accept him that she left me.

I kept in touch with her and I always kept watch over my little boy, and I promised him I’d be back for the spring festival. He was the one thing worth risking my life for.

DLG: Wow. What a beautiful story. Now that you’ve been appointed as one of the king’s advisers, what do you plan to do?

Andre: Well, I’d really like to go live in some small town where nobody knows my name in the heart of Moonshadow. Realistically, that’s not going to happen. I’m going to stay here and try to help my brother rule the country. I’ve worked in some… interesting… fields before and I have expertise he might need. Really, it’s a way to stay close to my son, and maybe I can even make the kingdom a better place for him.

DLG: Those sound like pretty honourable goals. It’s been great talking to you, but it appears to me that we’ve run out of time. Thank you so much for joining us.

Today’s interview was part of a blog chain at the Absolute Write Water Cooler. The idea is that each month we do a chain of related posts. This month’s theme was interviews. You can check out the interview before mine here and sometime in the next couple of days you’ll be able to see the next one over at Twilight Asylum. You can find a list of the rest of the participants here.