Interview with Martha J Allard author of Black Light

Can you tell our readings what 

(and we don't want you to give away the whole story)

Black Light is about?

Black Light is a rock band in L.A., in 1983 and a psychic vampire. It’s also about 

that feeling of being in love for the first time, and coming to terms with who you really are.

  

What does nail polish represent to you in Black Light?

Blue nail polish, to be exact. It was a way to get back into the story, for one thing. 1983 was a long time ago, but I remember my first bottle off blue nail polish, from the drugstore in Ann Arbor. In Black Light, it’s Trace’s color. He wears it instead of the black you would expect. Asia has a memory of Trace, chipping it off his nails while they talk about how to make ends meet. Asia remembers watching ants converge on the flakes of sky blue and carry them off. Trace doesn’t even notice that he’s become like a god in their world.  Asia feels the same way; that his feeling for Trace are just as inconsequential. Blue nail polish means memory and connection for me.

Music seems to flow abundantly in this story. Why do you feel that was important to showcase with this story?

I love music, and I always write with it. I make soundtracks for all the characters I write for, in fact. I couldn’t have told the story silently. Trace puts everything he feels into the songs he writes, and then he gives them away. I wanted to show him in the action of doing both those things. And I wanted to try to write about performing. That turned out to be the hardest part of the book.

Why the 1980's?

There’s a short answer and a long answer to that. The short one is simply, David Bowie. While all the Bowie influences in Black Light are from the seventies, 1983 was my introduction to him. The long answer is that the eighties was my twenties. It was a decade that was full of promise turning to disappointment, all hidden behind a mask of neon. The characters in Black Light would have been far different people if they had been set in another time period.

What kind of person do you feel Trace is and how important was that to portray in Black Light?

What a surprisingly hard question to answer. I think Trace is hungry. He’s hungry for fame, for the feel of an audience. He’s willing to go to any extreme to get that. He’s also a trickster, hiding his intentions behind a sharp smile. Asia misjudges him often, and Trace lets him, because it’s easier, on both of them, than pushing Asia into seeing the truth. It’s important to the story because it makes him as guilty of silence as Asia in the end.

People say that writing can sometimes help our confusion, heal our thoughts. How do you feel about that?

I agree. I believe we write our way through the damage, and by putting it on paper, we can give it away. By putting into the hands of other people, I think we can pass the healing along in the words.

Where can our readers buy Black Light?

At both Amazon.com and bn.com

Can you tell the readers about any future projects coming out for you?

I am working on a Neo-Victorian novel that is called, at the moment, The Night Was Not. 

I also have a few short stories involving the characters from Black Light in the works.

Where can readers find you?

marthajallard.blogspot.com

Guest post Author Georgia Jones

I would like to start by saying “Thank You” for having me as a guest on your blog.  I appreciate the opportunity.

My basic story is not that of rags to riches, that would just be too easy.  I have written my entire life.  I have always enjoyed jotting things down and I recall spending an entire day, at a family gathering many years ago, using a paper plate as my easel to paint a picture with words. I created a story where everyone present had a part, some good and some bad.  I have just always written things down, usually in some form of fantasy. 

When I first began to think of Legends of Darkness, the first book in the series, I didn’t see it as a series.  I saw it as a single book with an unusual story. I wanted to create something different from everything else I was reading.  I wanted to incorporate different things into the storyline.  I remember thinking how awesome it would be to have a book that incorporated a little history, legend, and myth all wrapped up in a storyline that would be unique and unusual.  That was my goal, to create something different. I had the book brewing in my mind for a year or so before I ever wrote the first word.  I couldn’t find my beginning.  Finally, the beginning of the book presented itself to me and I began to write.  I’m one of those weird old fashioned people that have a computer, but actually enjoy the act of writing on paper with an actual pencil.  (Yes, I really said pencil.  That’s what I use for my original manuscripts.)  I was about halfway through the storyline when I pulled out another notebook and started keeping notes in it also.  There was just so much more to the story that wouldn’t fit in the story of one book.  My characters began to take shape along with other creatures that I knew I could use later.  So, at that point I had two notebooks with scribbles that nobody, and I do mean nobody, could ever understand.  In my mind it was taking shape as a series though.  I would wake up in the middle of the night with an idea and pull out my notebook to jot a reminder.  By the time I was done with Legends of Darkness, I had the whole series drafted to be a five book series. I have since shortened that to a trilogy.

I have been asked if the series stays on course with my outline, as I write each book…the answer to that is “Not completely.”  As I write, things change.  Sometimes they are small details, and sometimes entire characters die, for one reason or another, but the actual plots of the other books have remained the same.  So far the biggest changes have been in the worlds that I’m creating.  As they grow and my world building talents evolve, so does the future of the books in those particular locations.  By the way, I love the world building aspect. 

I write my first draft on paper then for the second draft I transfer it to the computer.  On my first novel I did so many drafts that I lost count, probably somewhere around ten.  On the second book, I did six rewrites.  I have heard authors say that they don’t like doing the edits and rewrites, but I really don’t mind it.  I like adding and taking away from the story where it is necessary.

I’m currently working on the third book in the Remnants of Life Trilogy as well as several other projects.

If you would like to know more about me or my writing please visit

WWW.WORDSMITHGLJONES.COM

OR FIND ME ON FACEBOOK AT

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Georgia-L-Jones/153669898006729

Book Review of Keepers of the Dead by Bob Freeman

"THE VAMPIRE MACGREGOR LIVES... 

_"Foolish pup," MacGregor chided the werewolf, "you don't get it. 
Laddie, if water were evil I'd be but a drop. What lurks below is an 
ocean."_ 

From the haunted halls of Cairnwood Manor to the bowels of Rosslyn 
Chapel, Bob Freeman hurls you into the very heart of the eternal 
conflict between the forces of darkness and the forces of light. 

It's fang versus claw, spell versus steel, and love versus death in an 
epic battle of blood and thunder. 

When a sinister cabal converges to unleash the ultimate evil against an 
unsuspecting world, only the combined strength of the Wolves of 
Cairnwood Manor and the Circle of Nine Skulls offers up a glimmer of 
hope as werewolves, vampires, witches, immortal warriors, and an army of the undead collide in a battle of epic bloodshed." - From the Editors at Seventh Star Press

When reading Freeman's Keepers of the Dead, I was amazed how much I fell in love with the characters and story line. It was not impossible for one to fall deep into the characters such as Michael who is fierce and loyal. The idea of this loyalty causes him at times turmoil on how to protect his family, his house. 

What was really amazing is the artwork that added to this story. Each illustration caused me a pause and I was able to experience the story as if I was really there.

It would be a shame to miss this story that has so much suspense, so much action and so much emotions on what it means to be a family of any kind and what you would do to protect it.

Available at Amazon and where are books are sold.