Author Guest Post with Larissa Soehn, The Defender

A woman battling depression and anxiety finds herself trapped in her own life, but when an alien device rips her away from Earth, she is forced to fulfill an impossible role and save the galaxies from destruction.

Welcome to one of the February 2nd stops on the blog tour for The Defender by Larissa Soehn with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, author guest posts & interviews, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Guest Post

Alexia Harmon… How She Helped Me Through Depression

In March of 2021 I entered a severe episode of depression. I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder nearly 3 years ago. I always knew that depression was a potential, especially considering that it was in my history. Never did I imagine that it would be something that would nearly take my life in 2021.

But this post isn’t about my story of loss, that will come at another time, this blog is about how I survived it, thanks to the help of an amazing character, Alexia Harmon. She is the main heroin in my novel, The Defender and she came at my time of greatest need.

At the time, I was reading a series by Peirce Brown, called the Red Rising series. It was a wonderful read. It was thought provoking, aspirational, and had amazing character development. It featured a male lead that was faced with the challenges of a dominate race of humans and he had to rise out of his submissive place in life and join the enemy as one of them. I won’t spoil the series for you, but I do highly recommend it.

The only downside for me was that I really needed someone to relate to, and while the main character certainly had to overcome some difficulties (that’s a bit of an understatement), he was always strong. I needed a character that was weak. I needed a character that spoke to me from a spot of desperation and mental incapacity. That’s where Alexia came in.

Her name came first, derived from the Greek Alexein (to defend, to help). She was to be my defender; she was to help me overcome my own weakness.

Woah, lets back up a second, depression is not a weakness, not in any way shape or form. Surviving depression takes a huge amount of strength and bravery. When you are depressed, it’s not as easy as getting up and working through all the things on your checklist, like someone without depression may do. A productive day when you are depressed might be as simple as taking a shower. Being depressed is awful, but it can turn into some beautiful things, like a character that is relatable and realistic.

Alexia came to me when I googled the word ‘defender’. I wanted someone who had a strong name with a bit of meaning, but that was it. I didn’t want her to come across as overly confident, a natural born leader, or even a woman who had her life together. She needed to be a hot mess, like me!

When Alexia first enters the readers mind, she is introduced as a woman who has the seemingly perfect life, but she is crippled by anxiety and depression. Queue the relatability factor. There are things about her that are straight out of my book of life, so to speak. She runs to battle depression, she has a beautiful family which only makes her feel even guiltier about being depressed, she has a boring office job that offers little in the way of satisfaction. She was me.

Now I couldn’t realistically base her character entirely off of myself, I just wasn’t willing to dig that deep into my own character flaws quite yet. Despite not being able to dig up all my own dirt, I made her mind work like mine, twisting everything she does and says into something nasty, making her believe things that aren’t real. That is me, to a tee.

Let’s not forget about her unwavering love for her family. Being pulled away from Earth is no easy thing, but leaving all of your friends and family behind is another. Can you imagine being suddenly ripped away from everything you know and love? Talk about trauma. That’s how it was for Alexia to, even after she learns her family is stuck in a (itsy bitsy spoiler) giant time freeze she still yearned for them. That is the mother in her, the nurturing part of her existence.

But just like any good character, she grows and learns. She is given new tools and coping mechanisms (thank you therapy for that now overly used phrase in my life) to deal with the wide variety of challenges that are thrown her way.

She was me. She was the character I needed at the time, and she grew into the character that I wanted to be. I wanted to be strong like her, I wanted to be resilient in the face of change. Writing her forced me to grow with her, I had to ask, “How would I handle this scenario?” When that answer was usually ‘lie down and cry’ I had to ask again, “How should I handle this scenario?” This forced me to grow into who I wanted be, instead of being stuck in who I was.

In summary, Alexia Harmon is more than just a character in a book, she is a life saver to me.

About the Book

The Defender
by Larissa Soehn

Published 12 November 2021
Tellwell Talent

Genre: Science Fantasy
Page Count: 317
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

A woman battling depression and anxiety finds herself trapped in her own life, but when an alien device rips her away from Earth, she is forced to fulfill an impossible role and save the galaxies from destruction.

On Earth, Alexia Harmon is a mother and wife, but in a foreign galaxy, she is so much more. Torn away from her family, Alex is in an epic battle to escape from Gatlin and return to Earth. But little does Alex know, Gatlin is on the verge of destruction. The galaxy faces annihilation; a prophetic doom that was set in motion thousands of years ago.

Alex struggles to stay alive as she fights against an alien government that is trying to kill her, a species of genetically engineered creatures that are hell bent on her destruction, and the demons of her own mind that threaten to overthrow her. Join Alexia Harmon as she works to fulfill her role as THE DEFENDER.

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Excerpt

With Stellie’s last words still hanging in the air, the lights go out and Alex is slammed into darkness. Immediately, her mind begins to race, and she can feel the panic rising in her stomach, starting to choke her throat. Darkness has always been a weak point for her. It’s the moment where she is left alone with only her thoughts to keep her company. With a strangled feeling in her chest, she manages a breath, and then another.

The darkness stretches on for longer than Alex thought possible. There is no noise from the aliens in the crowd; there is only black. The darkness begins to press in on her as if she is being compressed, her breathing becomes more rapid, and she begins to feel sweat bead on her forehead. She can feel a panic attack coming on, something she frequently experiences, but they still have the ability to leave her paralyzed, unable to make decisions or do anything to help herself.

Breathe, Alex, just breathe, she says to herself. She crouches down to place her hands on the ground and puts her head between her knees. She can feel the ground beneath her vibrate lightly, but she knows enough not to trust her senses right now. Panic attacks allow her mind to play tricks on her, altering the way her surroundings look and feel, taking everything that is real and skewing it into something negative, something scary. Her steady breathing starts to return, and the panic attack is narrowly avoided. What is going on? Has something gone wrong with the test? Alex thinks to herself.

Just as the thought enters her mind, a very faint light starts to appear in the far corner of the room. She stares at the light, unsure if her mind is playing tricks on her. As she stares, the light grows brighter, illuminating one of the tables she saw when she first entered the room. With a curiosity that she cannot control, she moves to a standing position and starts to take a tentative step forward.

About the Author

Larissa Soehn is a budding new author from the cozy city of Red Deer, Alberta, where she lives with her husband, daughter, two cats and a dog. She started this journey as a recovery method for severe depression. She found that creative writing helped her process her emotions and work through the struggles of depression. As a child, Larissa enjoyed writing and telling stories, a passion that has recently reignited inside of her. Currently she is working to finalize the Gatlin Series, as well as publish a series of children’s books to help families discuss the importance of mental health, amongst other social issues facing children today. Larissa is an advocate for mental health and uses her personal experiences to help others work through their struggles. She uses social media platforms to help spread her message and give people permission to speak up and speak out.

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Giveaway Alert!

Larissa Soehn will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.