Addicted to Heroines: An Interview with Isabella George

Thanks everyone for joining us on our first day of the Addicted to Heroines Blog Tour. To kick it all off, my fellow authors and I are interviewing the heroines of our fantasy books. Today I’ll be chatting with Isabella George, the protagonist of The Tower’s Alchemist.

For those of you new to my blog and my books, Isabella is a wizard. And a spy. We have a problem with the Nazis making pacts with warlocks and using them to wreak havoc on the Allies. However we’re fighting back with wizards from the Gray Tower, and that’s where our Apprentice Alchemist, Isabella, comes in.

How long have you been spying?

A little over a year, but don’t let that fool you. In this line of work, that counts as a few lifetimes. When you work for SOE (Special Operations Executive), your expected lifespan is 2 or 3 months. That’s how dangerous it is.

And I hear it’s mostly women doing this (SOE). Why?

Hell if I know another girl’s reason. I had a colleague who joined because the Nazis killed her husband, so she wanted to do everything she could as a means of revenge. I’m doing it because I didn’t want to just sit at home worrying or collecting scrap metal.

Winston Churchill called you ladies THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE. What order did he give you when he created SOE?

He said to fight dirty, and set Europe ablaze–and let me tell you, sister, I’ve done it dozens of times!

So how does being an alchemist trained by the Gray Tower help you?

I won’t lie, it’s gotten me out of few tight spots. I can create explosions, whip up potions, and send people away in whirlwinds. However the disadvantage is that my innate magical abilities can be sensed by warlocks, especially Cruenti warlocks.

And explain to those of us new to this world what a Cruenti is?

You call them vampires. Wizards call them a pain in the you-know-what. A Cruenti would gladly drain my blood and steal my powers. I have a kill-on-sight policy when I run into them.

I have the same policy with spiders. I’ll have to share with you about the time I killed a black widow with a can of RAID and my husband’s karate sword. True story.

Ha! Talk about overkill…

Er…so…do you ever get tired? Do you have any plans for a life after spying?

I want to eventually settle down and raise a family–preferably with a guy that doesn’t mind that I can create explosions and induce heart attacks. But first, I have a lot of work to do.

Since the whole theme of this blog tour is heroines, I think it’s fitting to ask you this question: who’s your heroine?

A woman named Renée. She lost her entire family because of her work with the Resistance, but she still helped us when we needed it. She helped me. She was a very strong woman.

Thank you, Isabella. Tell us again where we can find you.

If not under cover in occupied France, then Finley’s Pub in London. Damn, that bar tender knows how to make a martini.

No, I mean where can we find you? Do the book plug, like I told you.

You can find me in The Tower’s Alchemist and Dark Rift. They’re awesome reads.

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Readers, don’t make this interview your last stop 🙂 Check out the heroine interviews with the other participating authors in the Heroines tour:

Samantha LaFantasie – Heart Song

Cecilia Robert – Reaper’s Novice

Francene Stanley – Still Rock Water

Devorah Fox – The Lost King