A Fox's Family (American Kitsune Book 4)
Page 42
A Fox's Family is a story that has equal amounts of light-hearted humor and dark moments that show how horrible people can be to each other. One of the aspects of this story that I wanted to focus on was the difference between the human world and the yōkai world—the kitsune world in particular.
One thing that I wanted people to understand here is that the kitsune world isn't all tropes and comedy. Kitsune are a very long-lived species. They can live for hundreds, even thousands of years. Many of the kitsune that were alive when slavery was legal in the human world, and where the sex slave trade not only thrived but was considered perfectly acceptable by societies at large, are still alive today. These kitsune govern their world, and they have a policy that a lot of people who are stuck in their ways, unable to adapt to change, tend to follow—if isn't broken, don't fix it.
I also wanted to present a contrast between the relationships of Kevin, Lilian, and their family with the relationship that Jiāoào had with Maddison and the girls that he enslaved. This was done to show the massive difference between cultures, but also to show the difference between characters. I think showing how Lilian and Kevin's relationship has progressed, and then comparing the way that Kevin and Lilian treat each other over how Jiāoào treats the girls under his yoke shows how much Kevin and Lilian care for each other.
Jiāoào made this story incredibly hard to write. If you hated his guts every time he showed up on the page, don't worry—I hated him, too. He was honestly one of my least favorite characters, but I think he made a good villain—for a spoiled brat.
Whelp. I think I have done enough writing for now. I hope you all enjoyed this book. It traveled away from the comedy of my previous three books, but I like to think that this didn't detract from this story.