R.A. Evans's Blog, page 14

Time & Place: The Importance of Setting

Never underestimate the importance of setting when writing your novel. Setting includes the place and the time that the story takes place. In some novels, setting is merely background, but in others, it is an integral part of the story. Some writers give it more prominence than others, and use it as a structure upon which to build. Setting can influence how a character thinks and feels and may further the plot, yet it must not overwhelm.

Place is the landscape where the story is set. It includes the country, the physical geography and the architecture. If the place appears real, the reader will find himself in the world of the story.

Time is an important aspect of setting and the author must decide if the novel takes place in this century, or is from some other period. In a historical novel, the setting is vastly different.  The reader needs sufficient detail, but does not want to be confused.

Imagine how different Stephen King's list of novels set in and around the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine would have been had they occurred in…Idaho, for example. Some things may translate regardless of where and when a story is set, but not the important elements that bring the richness and depth.

Take my novel Asylum Lake. Like the great Mr. King, I created a fictional small town right in my own backyard. Bedlam Falls, Michigan is loosely located between the cities of Grand Rapids and Traverse City (insert Google Earth link here).  It's the line on the map where urban meets rural and because the story in Asylum Lake is told over the span of fifty years readers experience the ways in which that small town has grown…in ways both good and bad. Bedlam Falls is both a time and a place of the overall setting in Asylum Lake.

One of the most enjoyable elements in creating the setting for Asylum Lake was having the abandoned psychiatric hospital looming out on the horizon. The tension builds and builds as readers wait for their first glimpse of what rests within the hospital's crumbling walls.These details are revealed through the eyes of various characters – all adding to the setting's detail of both place and time.

Setting is more than background. A good setting draws the reader in, helps to explain the characters, and moves the plot forward. How are you using setting to strengthen your story?

 

 

 

 

#pubwrite may just be the best kept secret on earth!

I'm dark and mysterious, just look at the Asylum Lake book jacket if you don't believe me. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement. The author platform I'm creating is one of darkness and mystery. In reality, I'm just a guy behind a keyboard who is still unconvinced I can actually make a go of this writing thing. But you know what – I have a secret weapon. I have my friends at #pubwrite!

If you're on twitter – and you should be – you can participate in #pubwrite. It's a collective of authors who, like me, enjoy writing, sharing ideas and frustrations, and the occasional adult beverage. You'll find us congregating out there on twitter most evenings. There's no rhyme or reason to what we talk about; mostly we just support one another.  It's all quite fun and harmless.

So check #pubwrite out tonight.  Just pop in and instead of saying HELLO, merely shout out Gabriel! It's an inside joke that you'll quickly become a part of. I should caution you, however, #pubwrite is highly addictive and can lead to inspiration, laughter, the sharing of beverages with keyboards, and sometimes even certain members falling down #frunk!

To all my fellow #pubwriters – I bid you a merry Gabriel!

Coming Up on 7 DEADLY QUESTIONS

There's a little something for everyone with the slew of authors poised to be interrogated for my 7 DEADLY QUESTIONS author interview series. To date, these interviews have received more than 6,200 views from visitors to my blog. Not only is it a great way for authors to promote their work, it's also a reader's inside track to authors and titles that may be flying under the radar.

I'll be grilling NY Times Bestselling author Daniel Levin about his thriller THE LAST EMBER. This page-turner deftly weaves politics, terrorism, and archaeology into its storyline. I couldn't help but think Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown while reading it.

Richard Jay Parker has also agreed to be "put to the question" and discuss his riveting novel STOP ME. I dare you to watch this BOOK TRAILER and not buy the book. 'STOP ME was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (NEW BLOOD) Dagger Award for 2010.

J.T. Ellison's award-winning Taylor Jackson series brings her to 7 DEADLY QUESTIONS where she'll be answering questions about her latest-release SO CLOSE THE HAND OF DEATH. Her knack for writing twisted thrillers that leave readers guessing till the very last page marked her as one of the best in the business.

For true horror fans I've lined-up author Thomas Scopel to talk about his soon-to-be-released novel TWITCH. Thomas has been published in numerous publications and anthology dedicated to the darkness of horror. I am giddy as a school-girl for this chance to shed some blood with Mr. Scopel.

These and many other talented authors are on the horizon.  If you have a suggested author that you believe should be put to my 7 Deadly Questions, please reach out to met on twitter @raevanswrites.

Author Morgan Gallagher Answers 7 DEADLY QUESTIONS About Her Debut Novel THE CHANGELING

Editor's Note: Thanks for stopping by a special Sunday edition of 7 Deadly Questions. Morgan Gallagher's debut novel THE CHANGELING drops today! It's a Bloody Good Read and I encourage all of you to check it out!

1. Most authors are happy writing one novel at a time. Not you. You up the ante by launching a trilogy. Tell me a bit about The Dreyfuss Trilogy and its inspiration.

Well, basically, it's one very long book.  No, not really. The reason why I know it's a trilogy, and why I'm launching it like that, is that my writing style is to see flashes of characters and scenes, and I then have to stitch it all together. There is a major section of the 'story' written, that I thought was the end of the novel. However, when I set in place all the other bits, leading up to it, it became clear it was two novels. And I'd written the end of the second one. I had the beginning pages of one novel, and the ending of another one entirely. And the ending of that novel, was not the end of the story. It was a climatic event that had been being built up too, over two books. So there had to be a third, to then resolve out the climatic event, and bring the narrative arc to a natural close.

It was quite a revelation, that there were two books in the pages in front of me, and a third to finish it off. But each segment is complete, and of itself. For instance, Changeling, the first novel, is a completely different type of novel to the other two. It's an intense interior space, with two characters battling against each other, for the entire novel. There is mention of others, but there are no other major characters in the novel. A few support people in places, but it is just down to Dreyfuss, and Joanne. Lucifer's Stepdaughter, book two, is filled to the gunnels with new people, places and stories. An entire vampire world opens up. Moonchild, book three, picks up the traces from the previous two books about what and where and when vampirism came into being, and unpicks the mythology of the vampires we've met, and is based on looking at human development and evolution. All interwoven with the character's stories.

So I had the middle, really. The beginning, and the middle. I was always writing from that start point, to the end of book two. I could never have written Changeling, without knowing why it had to be the shape it is. And I could not launch Changeling, without knowing exactly where Lucifer's Stepdaughter and Moonchild was going. There are integral to each other. I had to have the seeds of both, firmly planted in Changeling. Having all three set out as parts of a whole, it made sense to launch Changeling as part of the Trilogy.

Inspiration is a tricky one. I grew up in a very stark and impoverished Industrial working class area. A massive steel works, and a few scattered communities around it, with most people fighting to live elsewhere. But I grew up in a cosseted little pocket of it, as we had more money as we ran a couple of local shops, and I was both of that area, and kept out of it. I was shipped out to a private school every morning, and not allowed to mix with the people and children around me. That had been cemented when I returned to the house one day, as a very small child, after I'd been playing with other kids in the back yards, and it was discovered I had caught impetigo. All the local kids had caught it from the broken sewer pipe we were playing with. So local kids were not part of my childhood: I was raised in a house that locked the doors and cemented broken glass into the tops of the walls around our yard.

So I grew up with a view of two worlds, and the feeling I didn't belong in either. And one of those worlds, was very dark and violent. When I was very young, we couldn't sleep in the bedrooms on Friday and Saturday nights, as they had windows facing out into the street. And the running fights up and down the street, would sometimes result in objects coming in through the windows. So we'd bed down on the floor in the living room, as the window faced out into the back yard. That didn't last for very long, as the police took back control of the streets, but I remember it clearly. I saw someone stabbed to death in front of me, with his blood flowing out into the gutter, when I was 15. Children and women were beaten regularly in this world, and it was to the women's shame, if anyone knew about it. Men were beaten regularly too, but that was out in the open, with a crowd watching and taking bets.

But I also lived in the nice flowing world of privilege. I sat in a converted Victorian manse house in genteel Bothwell, for my school. I had every toy and book you could want. I had a horse, and spent my summers riding in green scented countryside, picking plums off the trees as I went. And my winters immune to the cold, galloping over the hard packed ground. I moved in and out of these two worlds constantly, and was always acutely aware of the dissonance.

As I grew up, I would sometimes notice that the nice girls in school with me, who were much posher than me, might flinch on occasion, and have a bruise on her arm that looked very much like another's hand had grabbed it tightly. The monsters were in the posh bits too: just not as obvious.

So I grew up in a land where monsters lurked. And sometimes the monsters were in plain view, and sometimes they were completely invisible. I also grew up in a land that was lyrical and beautiful and filled with magic. But all magic has darkness, and there are monsters everywhere. I'm not sure if that's inspiration, but it's definitely the context in which I wrote Changeling. Nothing changed about that violence, and the hiding of the effects of it, as I grew and moved on. Many more life experiences fed into the narrative, and into Joanne and what Dreyfuss tries to do with her. And it would be nice if I didn't understand that darkness as well as I do. But I do understand that darkness very well, and it has always informed my work.

2. Vampires seem to be everywhere these days. How do you make your story and characters unique enough to stand out in the crowd.

There is nothing new under the sun. We take the same stock of human experience and emotion, and recycle it all into different stories. My vampires have their own traits, which may or may not match others around at the moment. I made a conscious decision, some years back, to stop reading other vampire fiction. And in the main, I have. I have never seen, or read about, a twinkly vampire. (No offence to those who like twinkles. I'm sure if they'd been around when I was a teenager/young adult, I'd have adored them. And I still have the reams of poetry I wrote at the time, to prove that.) I do, on occasion, read other horror writers who have vampires. But it's their horror work I read, that may or may not have vamps. I reread my 'classic' print vampires, when I want a vampire fest, and I watch vampire movies or television. I read stuff that's interesting, but isn't horror, that has vamps, such as the Anita Blake novels. But a vampire does not make a horror story, and a horror story does make a vamp. You can have vamps in any genre of fiction – thriller, romance, comedy. Something some people appear to have trouble appreciating. The current trend for 'paranormal' being added to everything is something I wasn't expecting, and is a little disconcerting. I wonder if Stephen King was starting out today… would he be told that 'Carrie' was a paranormal thriller? I'm perfectly happy being a horror writer. There just happens to be vampires.

In terms of horror, I don't like body shock horror, either in print or on the screen. I prefer the dark psychological horror. The horror in the mind. Humans are the basis of all horror, for me. My vamps are humans with complications – horrific complications. They need to drink blood, and feed off life. But they all start out as humans, who live human lives, before they are given, or have forced upon them, the Dark Gift. How do you live a life, if that is part of your basic need? And how do you cope with all that living, given how much of the world is pain and death? Equally, how much joy and passion, could you build into a life, if you had the time and money? But at what price? These are essential human questions, that we all face every day. Vampirism allows up to amplify the signal, and make more urgent, and obvious, the answers. Would you kill, in order to live? The answer in human history is that yes, most of us would, but no, some of us would rather die. The reader has to face what they would do, in Joanne's place. She is truly trapped, and he traps her in her mind, and she cannot escape making a choice. What choice would you make?

In terms of difference, my essential difference is that Dreyfuss is a psychopath and there is no varnish to that. He was a psychopath as a human. There is nothing romantic or erotic or appealing about Dreyfuss. Whilst he may be intriguing, the reader will be repelled and sickened by his actions. The book is brutal, and it details violence graphically. He wants to tear her down to nothing, and rebuild her in his own image. You cannot understand the mind games, and the pathway Joanne takes, until you understand what it's like to be completely owned and possessed by someone who is stronger and more powerful than you, who holds all the cards, and who controls the world you live in. Who understands human needs, and uses them to get what he wants, no matter how he is opposed. People often say that women in abusive relationships stay as they like it. From the outside, you cannot understand what has gone on, to reduce someone to the point they cannot leave. The book details that process, and you have to see it, to understand it. You have to understand what she's rebelling against, to make sense of how her rebellion expresses itself. But there is no saving grace, no surprise twist about Dreyfuss: there is no dark vampire prince. No sudden discovery the nasty vampire is actually the Romantic Hero. Although there is… oh dear, I better stop now.

But I just will say, that if it wasn't for Harlan Ellison's 'The Whimper of Whipped Dogs' and Stephen King's 'Rose Madder' I probably wouldn't have had the courage to publish the book.

3. The reviews and blurbs for Changeling, the first book in the Dreyfuss Trilogy, have been amazing. Does that make it easier to sink your teeth into writing the rest of the trilogy (Lucifer's Stepdaughter and Moonchild) or merely place more pressure on you to keep the momentum going?

Both. The excruciating process of trying to boil down 152 000 words of complex interaction and storytelling, into one paragraph, or even a sentence! Argh. There have been times over the past few weeks when my brain has been bleeding out of my ears, and dripping onto the floor. I've had to explain, and at times, defend, the novel, to the point of nausea. Condense, condense, condense… and find the true vein of what is there. Agony. Total agony. But so very useful. I have a confidence about it now, I didn't have 8 weeks ago, when I decided to launch. In particular, the narrative itself. There is nothing that required change, no story edits, no redoing of sections. The closer I've got to expressing the essence of the narrative, the more confidence I've gained that the structure is sound. It survives the scrutiny, basically. And getting feedback from those who have read, and reviewed the book, that they have understood what I wanted to express… that's been amazing. And made me itch to get back to writing the other two.

The pressure 'tho. The pressure to perform again. Particularly since I know the other two are totally different in tone and structure. Very scary. We'll see. I have this nightmare that I'll be the writer who sold everyone a trilogy, and never finished it. And I also worry I'll rush the writing, and perhaps not spend the time ignoring the books between writing 'the end' and the final main edit. I left Changeling for 9 months, from the words 'the end' to firing it back up again to run the final author edit. Even if I finished Lucifer's Stepdaughter this year, it's not going out until mid through 2012, at the earliest. That's an immense pressure to hold fast, and stay calm, and do the work, not go for the print button as others are eagerly awaiting it. I already have people clamouring for it.

Although I do have some more to let free, before then. The week after launch, a new blurb for Lucifer's will go up on site, and I hope to have the cover image done and dusted, by the end of the year. I know exactly how it looks. After all, I do know exactly how it ends!

4. Is the horror/paranormal genre viewed differently in Scotland than here in the States? Is the mythology of the vampire different?

Not so much the mythology of vampires, as we are in Vampire Central in the UK. From Stoker, who was Irish in fact, writing Dracula in the Reading Room of the British Library, to Hammer Horror, the UK is central to the Western vampire mythology. Within the Scottish context, Scot's history and fiction has always been bloody. We've had a lot of body eating, body snatching grimness going on over the ages. The concept of immortals, with dark gifts and epic curses, is very common, and one I grew up with. Fairies in Scotland are not 'nice'. They are six feet tall, covered in armour, and will hack your eyes out for cutting down their favourite tree. It's a culture that's comfortable with supernatural forces being part of everyday life. Even now, I'll sometimes leave milk and honey out, to attract brownies to come and do my housework. (It does work, if you do it every night, it seems to make you more able to tackle the housework.) But it's always a two edged sword. They can give, but they can take back. The original tag line to Changeling was "Be careful what you wish for…" and that is a very Scottish take on the world. A wish can be granted, but you might not like what you'll get. There is always a price.

The vampire elements are very clear to see, within that whole bundle of beliefs, and they directly inform Changeling, as the Fair Folk often steal humans, entice them away. A human can stray into the mounds, spend the night, and leave to find 50 years have passed and their entire lives have gone, and they are sad and broken people, who belong nowhere. That's a strong theme in my work: isolation, and being cast out.

The Fair also steal human babies, and leave Changelings in the cradles. Whilst this might sound quite quaint, there is a horror to this that belies belief. If you had a baby that cried all day and all night, that could not be comforted, that wasn't thriving and was clearly 'not right'… you deemed it Changeling. So you could put the baby on a bonfire and that was that. You hadn't killed your baby, you had killed the Changeling, who had to be killed as it would only be a draw on the entire community. Somewhere, your human baby was living a good life, raised by the Fair. Cute.

That's before you get to banshees and bogarts and selkies and the lesser fay. So yes, I think I can safely say, that growing up Scottish, can make a difference to how you see supernatural elements. As both being very common, and knowable and 'normal' and also being both light and dark. We have a nice line in lyrical savagery.

Just don't do a 'Disney' Scotland on me, and make all our legends nice and cute and safe and whimsical. I'll eat your eyes. That's not to say you can't have nice whimsical otherworldness, look at JM Barrie. But even Peter Pan has darkness. How can it be real, if there is no dark? Barrie did a wonderful Changeling, actually. His play 'Mary Rose', will have the hackles on the back of your neck rising, as you shiver with the pain of it.

5. How would your Dreyfuss character hold up in a fight against some other famous vampires of literature? Could he take Ann Rice's Lestat in a street fight? Would Steve King's Straker be able to stand against your vampire?

Should he decide to soil his hands with a gothic melodramatic like Lestat, he'd knock his block off. I'm not so sure about Straker. Straker is a mind game, Dreyfuss may not be up to it. Dreyfuss likes to think he's a master psychologist, but he's really not that smart. I suspect Straker would out play him. Dreyfuss is a complete loner when it comes to other vampires. He never goes near the others, and kills anyone who strays near his territory, which is a low kill count, as none of them go near him. And like many of my older vamps he despises the gothic over tones of the newer ones. So Lestat would be booted out of touch. (Please note that the author's views are not reflected in those of her psychotic creations.)

6. If offered the chance for immortality by one of your ageless characters, would you take it? Why or why not?

Never. When we've worked out how to be humans for a hundred years or so, we can then work on living longer. Whilst I'm sure I'll maintain that my lifespan was too short, whatever it turns out to be, immortality is a curse I'd not carry well. As long as I live to see my son settled and happy in his own life, I'll be happy to move on when the time is right. Life is too hard, to keep doing this forever. And if I was the only one with the immortality, and therefore I was doomed to watch those I love, and care for, suffer and die… I'd rather jump off a cliff. I will rage against the dying of the light, but I'll look forward to seeing what happens next. Energy can be neither created, nor destroyed, it can only be transformed.

7. How can people learn more about you?

By reading my book.  Do note, I didn't say by buying it. You have to actually read it. I've told everyone I don't expect them all to read it, but I do expect them to buy it!

Otherwise, here's the now familiar set of links:

Buy This Book: Amazon UK Amazon USA Smashwords

Author Pages:   Ethics Trading Amazon UK Amazon USA

Contact Author:  Novel Blog Twitter: @DreyfussTrilogy      FaceBook

About Morgan

Morgan Gallagher is in her late 40s, and should know better, about spending her writing life with vampires. However, she has no choice, as they refuse to go away and leave her alone. She lives in the Scottish Borders, with her husband and their six year old son. A full time carer for her husband who is severely disabled, Morgan also works as a volunteer for several charities and is passionate about the rights of babies, children and mothers. She has campaigned vigorously against child detention during immigration procedures. She and her husband home educate their son and attempt to keep a never ending stream of cats under control. The North Sea pounds their fishing village every winter, and every major storm, the entire family are to be found in the car parked on the headland admiring the view. Apart from the cats, that is, who are at home dreaming of summer.

Out of the Dark: Guest Post by Katherine Reilly Mitchell

Invisible monsters will follow people for years, lurking silently in the shadows of the mind, and rearing ugly heads when they're least welcome.

As real as the humans they hunt, these beasts are much longer lasting.

Such a villain crept up when Alice was only 15, and for nearly a decade slunk behind her without even an audible breath.

His name was common, known and even taken for granted most of the time by most people. In fact, Death was desired and sought in that era of widespread depression and trendy gloom. It was the end of the century, and Alice was just another child looking for something to cling to. Death saw her desperation, and stretched out his delicate hand.

It began in the dark…

* * *

Alice was afraid of the dark, and drawn to the things she was afraid of. Dark bedrooms, dark school hallways, dark cemeteries… they were all so unsettlingly familiar. She inhabited these places with an odd satisfaction – a delight in the detachment from normal teenage life, which she couldn't understand anyway.

It had been fitting when Alice's father died that mid-February. December might be the darkest month, but February is when the bleakness catches up with people. The monster that had burdened the dead man since his own father's demise some 40 years earlier now needed a new home. How fortunate that this older daughter was such a willing partner.

Death liked following Alice. She was small, didn't make much noise and respected his obscure presence. She nurtured his ego through the books she read and the poems she wrote. Sometimes she could sense the silent entity that was already there, though at that time, he was a friend, an idea characterizing her adolescence. She attended him at the funerals of aged relatives, smiling quietly at the somberness of it all, until it was time to stand up and accept that life went on.

As life progressed, Alice continually returned to the comfort of Death's invisible influence. She loved the contradiction of the barbarism disguised by his formality – nothing so strange about it, but her first notion of such a facade. He'd come to her at a pivotal point, and she depended on him to know who she was.

She was his; Death's daughter.

For the first few years after her father's passing they went along together – she walking farther and farther from, but still hand in hand with, those days of loss and struggle, and he, waiting like a dormant virus for the right moment to manifest.

After a time, he let her find some happiness, at parties, with a boyfriend, in school. But if ever he suspected that her acceptance of him was waning, he'd taint her joy with his breath, like a fire burning the edges of a happy photo. It was in these instances that she began to see his shadow. And as the years went by, she caught him more and more often out of the corner of her eye.

When she was 25 and married, Alice tried to turn Death into a concept – a neat package she could wrap in a term paper and discuss in a context. She referred to him constantly, but as a past acquaintance, and she refused to look at him directly, aware that he waited around every dark corner.

Death knew this resistance, and pushed back with greater strength.

He forced himself upon her – in news stories about young mothers stricken with terminal illness, or when a former classmate dropped after a few dizzy spells – and she felt a rising hatred for the monster who had once been a companion. Suddenly he was all too real, this father who had replaced her own.

Death tormented Alice with visions of her own life. Any thought of the future he dampened with the knowledge that it would all end. At times she was so overwhelmed by his power that she couldn't recognize her home, couldn't talk to her husband. She could only think about how he would die, how she would die. Everything about them would die, and Death would go on to haunt their children.

And so the darkness returned to envelop her.

About Katherine

Katie is a mysterious writer from my own neck of the woods. I cam across her blog – Human Textuality – and instantly fell in love with her writing.

Here's everything you need to know about her:

She is a writer by trade.


She is a Midwesterner.


She is a blissful wife.


She is half Dutch, a quarter Irish, an eighth German and an eighth Welsh.


She has two cats and a very small, very old house.


She finds cooking and gardening very therapeutic, and does not like taking unnatural shortcuts in either.

Katie writes about health, food, sex, death culture, human progression in these areas, history, being Irish, budget and natural living, and myself.

7 Deadly Questions with author Sean Keefer

 

1. In your debut thriller THE TRUST, you tell the story of attorney Noah Parks and what seems to be the simple task to probate a will. Of course, nothing is ever as it seems and Parks' efforts lead to some very unsettling places and discoveries. Talk to me about your inspiration for THE TRUST.

I describe myself to people as a struggling writer who supports himself by practicing law.  I've been an attorney for 15 years and during that time I have seen a lot of bizarre situations into which people have worked themselves.

I've also learned in the practice of law nothing is ever simple.  There's always another side to the coin or another layer to the story.

I expect this as the norm and in my practice and everyday life I frequently find myself wondering, "What if…," or "How would things turn out were 'X' to happen…"

The Trust was basically a product of these random thoughts.  I found myself continually returning to the question of how an attorney would react if his name appeared in a will in a situation where he had never heard of the deceased maker of the will or otherwise knew nothing about the matter.

After a few months of thinking about this, I started writing and the story unfolded itself from there.

2. Blame it on John Grisham, but I've always assumed that the best legal thrillers must be written by attorneys.  How much did your profession help and/or hinder your writing process?

I'm a firm believer in the statement that you write what you know.  I'm an attorney so I felt it only natural to pull my inspiration from the legal field.  I would simply have not been able to write a book about sailing or art collecting.

I found my practice to be crucial to the writing process, but I also had to be very guarded to make sure I didn't let my training as a lawyer interfere too much.

For instance, there are several procedural points in the book such as the process one must go through to administer a will, proper courtroom procedure, the manner in which an arrest is made or in which a person's bail is decided, etc.

For me on all of these points it was pretty uncomplicated to write having had the experience previously.  I didn't have to do a great deal of research as I could draw from personal having handled a number of similar matters myself.

However, my professional experience was a bit of a burden at some points.  For example, I completely avoided the area of law in which I routinely practice.  I didn't want any of my clients remotely thinking I had taken any license with their actual case or cases.  As well, I had to keep in mind that it was okay for me to vary a bit from the norm in my dealing with a situation.

The lawyer in me didn't want to cut any corners even when the story really called for it.  It was also difficult for me to create certain situations in the book where I knew in real life as an attorney I would have actually avoided the situation or would have handled it differently.

All things considered though, I believe that being an attorney made the book easier for me to write as I felt I could spot potential problems or challenging situations before they became a problem.

3. Setting plays a vital role in THE TRUST. Talk to me about how the South Carolina setting for THE TRUST influenced your characters and the story.

I don't believe I could have set the book anywhere other than the South Carolina coast without it feeling awkward.  Now this is in no way meant to say this story could only have happened in Charleston, South Carolina.

Rather when I close my eyes and imagine a setting, in my mind's eye I picture the Charleston, South Carolina area.  Whether it is a courtroom or a street corner, a beach or a neighborhood, the area I know and am most comfortable writing about is l the South Carolina coast.

I've been fortunate in that I have traveled across not only my native South Carolina, but also across the entire North American continent.  Even with all of my travels, there are only a few places I felt I could have used as the primary setting for any book.

It is one thing for me to have visited a place a few times and be able to describe the look of the area, but for me I find I have to have a substantial connection with a locale to effectively write about it and for me, the place where I feel the strongest connection is the lowcountry of South Carolina.

If I had set the book elsewhere I don't believe the story would have been as effective.

4. Without giving too much away, the contents of a mysterious safe deposit box are central in THE TRUST.  If you could lock three things away only to be revealed after your death what would they be and why?

1 – The first draft of The Trust so I wouldn't have to worry about people seeing how much work it needed after I thought I had finished it.

2 – The recipe for my Asparagus Risotto.  I think everyone should have one secret recipe.

3 –  A treasure map.  I could only imagine how surprised everyone would be to find a treasurer map after I had passed on to the great beyond.  I'd leave something to be discovered, but what it would be would be my little secret.

5. How would Noah Park fare in a trial against other lawyers from literature?  Could he handle Jake Brigance from Grisham's A TIME TO KILL? What if he stood toe to toe with Perry Mason?

I like to think that if an attorney is prepared for his case he could go against any other attorney, but with those two attorneys from the world of fiction, you pick up a few qualities that are not always present in every attorney.

With Brigance, there was a sense to a higher calling beyond the mere guilt or innocence of his client.  He was tested at every level, personally, professionally, morally, and ethically.  He kept his focus and was able to navigate numerous pitfalls, anyone of which could have caused his downfall.

Perry Mason, through the numerous books in which he appeared and the television series of the same name introduced legions to the crime drama that is so much of a mainstay today.  Perry Mason's talent was in his exhaustive investigation and his uncanny ability to generally find new evidence and have a culprit confess to the benefit of Mason's client.

Both Brigance and Mason share a number of similar characteristics and I like to think Noah Parks is cut from the same vein.  However, I believe that the tests that were thrown Parks' way in The Trust pushed him close to his limit.  As well, Brigance and Mason had the lofty goals of serving justice or the law as their motivation.  I would be remise if I didn't point out that while Parks' clearly wanted justice to prevail, he was also motivated by the girl.

I think Parks could hold his ground against both of these attorneys but it would be a trial that would certainly draw a lot of attention.  Perhaps a modern day Inherit the Wind.

6. What's next? Another legal thriller? Any plans to venture into other genres?

Presently I'm working on a follow up to The Trust.  It deals with several of the main characters and picks up where they left off.  It too is another legal thriller.

That having been said, I've developed a non-legal thriller.  It will be straightforward mystery/suspense though I will, based on how I write, have to have some thriller elements included.

7. Where can readers learn more about you?

Readers can follow me on Twitter @thetrustnovel for up to the minute, or at least, up to the several times a day, reports of what is going on with me, the book, the follow up and my web site. They can also check out SeanKeefer.com where I have an excerpt from The Trust, my blog and a load of other information.

 

About Sean

After studying law in North Carolina, Sean settled in Charleston, South Carolina and instantly became enamored with the people as well as the city he chose to call his home. Of course this is no surprise, Charleston makes it easy for this to happen.

Inspired by a life long love of the written word, without planning, one day Sean began writing. A page became a chapter which ultimately became a book known as The Trust. Hopefully if you are reading this bio you either have, or soon will have, your own copy of his debut novel.

The experience of taking a novel from conceptualization to print has been one of frustration, reward, learning and old fashion hard work. It was an accomplishment just to have finished the novel. Each step from the first words hitting the page to the eve of the publication of The Trust has been a personal reward for Sean and, as this first novel comes to publication, at least one more is in the works.

When Sean is not writing he practices Family Law and works as a Domestic Mediator. Sean can frequently be found wandering the Lowcountry of South Carolina with his camera, playing guitar in assorted venues around Charleston or exploring the underwater world of the southeastern US.

Sean lives with his wife and two Australian Shepherds in Charleston, South Carolina.

First Look: Grave Undertakings, the chilling sequel to Asylum Lake

As the unremembered are raised from the murky depths of Asylum Lake, the search for answers intensifies. Who were these unfortunate souls and how did they come to rest on the rocky lake-bed. One man holds the answers and Brady Tanner, the one-time newspaper reporter, and his ragtag group of comrades set out to unearth the secrets of Dr. Wesley Clovis and his Grave Undertakings…

 

March 4, 1957

Lake View Asylum

 

The soiled rag did little to silence the screams echoing throughout the hospital's dank subterranean basement, but it did keep the young woman strapped to the examination table from biting through her own tongue. Small consolation, however; her sky-blue eyes had already been removed and tossed carelessly onto the morgue's green-tiled floor. Through her muffled cries, blood-filled tears streamed down her face and onto the cold metal table where they collected in a growing pinkish-colored puddle.

Tall and slender, with silver hair falling to his shoulders, Dr. Wesley Clovis stood at the table and surveyed his handiwork. The woman had been stripped naked, her head, wrists, and ankles secured to the table by soiled leather straps. With each spasm of pain her full breasts heaved and the restraints dug further into her cold flesh, causing the white-clad orderly standing at the foot of the table to squeal in obvious delight.

"Douglas, if you would be so kind," motioning toward a cluttered tray of instruments near the table, Clovis directed his assistant, "I've need of my scalpel."

"Indeed," the diminutive orderly responded, moving to the side of the table and the instrument tray. Douglas' unsettling grin widened beneath a pencil-thin mustache, revealing a jagged row of yellow teeth. "You gonna cut her?"

Clovis paused, recasting his gaze from the prone woman on the metal table to the impish man in white. "Yes, Douglas, her blood shall flow, he whispered tersely, and then continued, his voice filling with conviction. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood … for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul."

Twenty minutes later Dr. Wesley Clovis walked from the morgue, his starched-white shirt soaked with the life of the flesh. Although no closer to unlocking the secrets which separated the living from the dead, he took solace in the knowledge that an unlimited supply of subjects remained at his disposal.

As the sound of Clovis' thunderous footfalls echoed in retreat though the cavernous basement, Douglas Wyatt was left to care for what remained of young Debra Moored. Shrugging free from his pristine hospital uniform, the pony-tailed orderly climbed atop the table, eager to explore the woman's still-warm flesh before it grew cold.

EVERYWHERE MAY 2011

 

 

First Look: CRUELTY TO INNOCENTS by C.K. Webb & D.J. Weaver

Who's abducting children from 911 emergency scenes?

What if you were in your car, alone with your small child, when you came upon an emergency scene? Would you stop to help? What if, while you were trying to assist the victim of an accident or mugging, you left your young child alone in the car, thinking he or she would be safe? What if, instead of help, the call to 911 brought a terrifying, sinister result?

Someone's abducting children from 911 emergency scenes in Aberdeen Maryland, while their parents call for help and lend aid to accident victims. But, someone who's also listening in, is a monster; a vicious child abductor. In the midst of the chaos and confusion of the scene, that monster slips in and steals the innocent children, leaving behind no trace for authorities.

Sloanne Kelley is unprepared for what awaits in her home town as she travels back to Maryland. Her Goddaughter is one of the victims and the clock is ticking. Together with her best friend and a local fireman, Shawn Tyler, Sloanne will face the most evil of all criminals and fight to find the children before there is any more Cruelty To Innocents.

EVERYWHERE MAY 2011

 

Broken Vow: Widowmaker's Return (BLOVEL, continued…)

Welcome to the second installment of my new BLOVEL, Broken Vow: Widowmaker's Return. In the first installment I introduced Demorra, the story's antagonist. Today, I present the story's protagonist, Widowmaker. As always, I encourage your feedback.

He had broken his vow.

Five in all, armed men with ill intentions, lay bleeding and dying, casting pooling crimson shadows across the snow blanketing the King's Road – and he wept. As surely as his hand, and sword, had pierced their flesh, his tears and heart now grieved for their souls.

Once known simply as "Widowmaker", he had sold his sword to those seeking justice, revenge, and in many instances – murder. For lords and ladies, beggars and bandits, coin was coin and a life was an easy thing to buy, and for Widowmaker, an even easier thing to take. But Widowmaker was dead now, or at least buried, and for the first time in nearly a decade the darkness and pain from that life began to bubble to the surface. It burned as he swallowed it down.

His steely-eyed gaze swept the trees, searching for movement – searching for others. Sensing no one, he wiped the flat of his blade across his chest, leaving a smear of blood and gore on his gray traveling cloak and turned his attention to the carriage and the muffled sobs coming from inside. It was the sobbing that had initially drawn his attention, and, in turn, his sword.

He approached slowly, his footsteps soft as the falling snow. Three more bodies, unmoving and bloodied, littered the ground near the carriage. The horses, two if he read the tracks correctly, had bolted in the struggle.

The carriage door was open, nearly ripped from its hinge. Holding the sword loosely at his side, muscles coiled like a spring ready to launch, he peered inside. Lying amongst the cushions, dressed in silks the color of honey, he found the source of the sobbing. And, with tears falling from her eyes, she found his gaze.

"I beg of you, sir – have mercy." The sobs intensified as she clasped her hands at her bosom.

He looked again into the trees, unsure. What had he done? What was he doing? He turned his attention again to the young woman. The sword felt heavy in his hand, like an anchor, and he released his hold on it. It fell to the ground at his feet, and then he fell to his knees.

"Mercy," he whispered as tears came to his eyes.

He had broken his vow.

New deal with distributor means Asylum Lake is going global!

Have I mentioned how fortunate I am to be working with the great people at Schuler Books & Music on my self-published novels Asylum Lake and Grave Undertakings?  My titles are printed on their super-cool Espresso Book Machine. It's been a learning experience for all involved as Asylum Lake has surpassed all of our expectations – so much so that we've amended our agreement and signed on with a distributor to bring my thriller to an even wider audience.

The good people at Schuler Books are outsourcing the printing of Asylum Lake for mass-market distribution. They'll still be printing copies on the Espresso for local sales, but are turning the work over to a commercial printer to handle the mass market stuff.  What exactly does this mean? Well, for one it means that distribution channels will now be pitching my title to chain stores, libraries, and other retailers. It's definitely a beautiful day in my little neighborhood.

So let's celebrate together. I need to keep people talking about Asylum Lake – both to help with this new distribution partner, as well as launch the release of the sequel Grave Undertakings in May. So this is what I'm offering. Between now and April 30th, each Amazon sale for Kindle will receive a free download of Grave Undertakings when its released in May.  The same goes for Smashwords and its multiple e-book format offerings. And for those of you who prefer the traditional printed page, all print orders of Asylum Lake in April will receive an autographed copy, the official Asylum Lake bookmark, and be put on a list for the first run of Grave Undertakings – also autographed. With e-book pricing at $2.99 and the print version at $15.00 there's never been a better time to dive into the mysteries of Asylum Lake.

Thanks again for all of your support and encouragement. With the release of Grave Undertakings the tale that began with Asylum Lake will come to a close, but I'm already hard at work on my next dark thriller FLIGHT, and if I can brag for just a moment – it's going to be awesome!

U.S. Air Marshal Liz Downie thought she had lucked out with her assignment – a half-empty red eye from London to the states. The passengers – an odd assortment of State Department staffers freshly plucked from the embattled U.S. Embassy in Iraq. These arent your usual friendly skies, however. Tucked into the passenger jet's shadowy cargo hold hides a secret the U.S. Military will do anything to protect – and Liz Downie everything to stop.

Where do you run when you are 33,000 feet up?

Flight
The new novel from R. A. Evans
Scheduled for take-off soon

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