Mimi Jean Pamfiloff | The Question My Readers Are Afraid to Ask

I get a lot of funny questions from readers about my insane deities from the IMMORTAL MATCHMAKERS, INC., SERIES. But the one thing they don't ask is where the inspiration for my gods came from.

Why don't they ask?

Honestly, I think they're afraid of the answer. Were you on a crazy bender in Vegas, Mimi? Were you tripping on something illegal? Did your mother drop you on your head?

All fair hypotheses! Especially given Cimil, the Goddess of the Underworld—a
constant character throughout the series. She loves garage sales, hates clowns,
is afraid of bugs, and is constantly trying to blow us all up. Oh, and she has a
pet unicorn that no one but her can see.

But I'm sorry to say that the inspiration for this series wasn't induced by
illegal substances or a bop on the head.

The Immortal Matchmakers is a spinoff of my bestselling ACCIDENTALLY YOURS SERIES (seven works total). When I got to the end of that storyline, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these awesome characters, but I also wanted future stories to be standalones. The IMMORTAL MATCHMAKERS were born!

So where did the inspiration for the characters come from?

In a nutshell, when I was an exchange student in Mexico City, I had the
privilege of taking some really wonderful anthropology classes. Dear gods! Those
Mayan and Aztecs were so wacko! (And creative.) If you ever get to read about
their mythology, you'll see what I mean. It's like Greek mythology on steroids
in terms of weirdness and theories to explain how the universe came about.

Loved it.

So when I decided to dip my toe into writing, I naturally leaned toward
pre-Hispanic mythology for my paranormal themes.

Here's the fun part! When you take a good look at all of the gods in ancient
cultures (and even in some cultures today), you'll find that most everyone had
the same lineup of gods. There's the god of the sun, crops, rain, love, war,
death, moon, etc…

It's kind of fun to pick one and then see how each culture around the world has
depicted a particular deity. I recommend the God of Death. So many fun
interpretations ranging from the Grim Reaper to Crom Cruach.

Anyway, it was only a natural progression from there that my world of gods only
contained fourteen who just had a lot of titles and names around the world. From
there, it was a question of picking gods that would result in crazy love stories!

For example, the God of Wine and Intoxication? He sounds like a mess! And a
funny love story waiting to happen. (And Book #3 in my Immortal Matchmakers,
Inc., Series)

The Goddess of Forgetfulness? Well, I completely made her up because she was the
one deity I never saw on any of the lists and, well, if I were an ancient Mayan,
I'd sure as heck be wondering why I'm always forgetting things. Must be the gods
making me do it!

In any case, she is the heroine of book #4, and like you probably guessed…she's
a dating disaster, but ideal for a love story.

I hope you enjoy her quest to find true love and a man who remembers her.
Happy Reading!

Mimi