Interview With Me

And another one.  Quite personal questions.  I talk about why I work with Mums & Babies, on Human Rights issues.

http://christopherbunn.com/?page_id=620

The connection Christopher is talking about, is very weird.  I had a Viking wedding, in the early ’80s, that Magnus Magnusson was a guest at, as it was the very first Largs Viking Festival.  He worked for Magnus’s daughter’s husband, some years later.  Magnus lived in Glasgow and was the star guest of honour at the weekend event.

I was also whipped quite dramatically, on the beach, at one point, IIRC.  In a set piece of drama.  Funniest part of that, was that ‘the women’ were sent on to the battlefield, to collect the swords and valuables from the dead.  As I, in costume and character, bent down to pick up a sword from a fallen warrior, a loud stage whisper of “Touch that sword and you’re dead meat.” emanated from the dead body.  I left it, and pillaged on…

Although my favourite memory, is that off two off-duty fireman, from different Viking groups, claiming they knew the best, and safest, way to set fire to the boat for the flaming funeral bit (which I don’t think they’ve ever allowed again).  Both of them arguing the other was dangerous, and they knew how best to safely douse a boat in petrol and set it alight on the beach whilst pointing out the other ‘eejit’ was a moron.  🙂

Radio Blog Interview

On launch day, I did this radio blog interview.  We did it on Skype, over two sessions, as internetz is unreliable at my end.

Enjoy.  🙂

http://unbridlededitor.com/interview-with-morgan-gallagher.html

Interview With Me

http://traceyalley.weebly.com/author-of-the-week.html

Tracey has a lovely site, that’s very well laid out and gives a really good showcase to her work.  It’s worth a good look round, especially if you have your own website and are looking for ideas on how well to do things.  I’ll have to work up to something that good.  🙂

Lucifer’s Stepdaughter & Moonchild – update

As Changeling is now live, and I can reveal more of the other two, these are the proposed new blurbs I’ll be putting up.  Please feel free to comment on the language etc.  Lucifer’s Stepdaughter is a very interwoven narrative, and I’ve tried to cut to the core, in order to give the right tone.  And blurb writing is such a new skill to me, I’m happy to have feedback and try to make it better.  🙂

Lucifer’s Stepdaughter

Cadiz, February 1991   Having spent months searching for Kin, Helene has found nothing and no one.  One afternoon she glances out of a cafe window and finds a young vampire gazing back at her.  Marron is everything Dreyfuss was not: weak, destitute, female.  They travel together until ghosts rise up and split them apart.  Helene carries on through Europe, using Marron’s introduction to meet others but it is clear that none trust Dreyfuss’s Changeling.  In Paris, Lucifer’s Stepdaughter welcomes her into the Vampire Caverns with open arms, but intrigue and artifice are everywhere.  Sensing danger Helene travels on, seeking out the Lord of the Rivers.  He supplies her with answers, but none are to her liking: she must make her own future, as do they all.  Despite everyone’s best attempts, the ghosts rise again, and once more she moves on, alone.  The call goes out, the vampire world put on alert: Dreyfuss is in Paris and he wants his Changeling back.  Under the rules of the Kin, she must return, but to what?  And why Paris?  

And who will help her resist, when to do so is to invite death?

Moonchild

Turin, July 1994  In the aftermath of the Moonchild ceremony, Helene is disappeared and the vampire world in flux.  No one knows quite what happened, and exactly what the cost was.   The dead have been buried and rumour and panic constantly sweep through the communities.  Everyone is confused and uneasy and the shadows whisper that she is gone and that nothing will stop the rise of the raging covens in the New World.  Paul Jordan holds Vincenze to him closely.  He has lost too many, too often, and he fears the darkness may finally swallow them all.   They live their lives in hope that she is alive, that all is not lost.  One summer’s evening, as they return to their parked car, they find a note.  They have only a few hours to get to Geneva to meet the one who wrote it.  They drive like the wind… 

Interview With Me

Oh, thanks for that everyone, that was great fun!  Almost as much fun as launch day.  One wonders how we’ll all develop using the online communities and spaces in order to connect over writing and writers.  I know Alan enjoyed it too and I do think it was a clever idea of his.  He just did it you know, without telling me, and I take that as a compliment.

His actual interview of me, is on his blog today.  Do check it out if you are interested in the process and techniques of writing. Very intelligent questions that caused me brain strain at points.  He gives a nice little round up review of Changeling at the end.

“This is a very smart, well-written novel. It delves deep into the psychology of both the abuser and the abused. It contains graphic scenes of physical, psychological and sexual abuse that will upset those made queasy by portrayals of torture. But as Morgan explains above, this isn’t splatterpunk. It’s purposeful. So if you can handle that, you won’t find a much better vampire tale than Changeling. My tastes lean a bit more towards minimalism than maximalism, but here’s the main thing: I think that fiction should both entertain and make you think. It’s surprisingly difficult to find novels that do both.Changeling does.”