Please help me welcome author Joseph Spencer to Full Moon Bites today with an interview, excerpt and giveaway! Read on below for more. :)
Holly: Would
you tell us a little about yourself?
Joseph Spencer: I’m
the equivalent of a literary gym rat. I
worked for ten years at regional daily newspapers where the deadlines and the
pressure to produce compelling content on an everyday basis became a challenge
I relished. I covered mainly high school sports, and the turnaround time of a
game ending and writing the story for the paper the next day would blow your
mind. I switched careers about four years ago because digital media is making
things in daily print newsrooms pretty scary. Now, I’m a supervisor in an
emergency 9-1-1 call center in central Illinois Paris
Holly: What
do you do when you’re not writing?
Joseph Spencer:My
wife and I enjoy movies a great deal. My gift to her this Christmas was an
autographed poster from the cast of Princess Bride, which is an all-time favorite
movie for her. There are several movies we enjoy watching all the time from
comedies like Bridesmaids and Office Space to thrillers like Seven. I’m also a big Batman and Sherlock Holmes
nut, so I enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and both of the
latest Sherlock adaptations from the BBC and CBS. I love to read as well. Over
the past year, I’ve read YA books like Beautiful Creatures, Hunger Games, and
the Mortal Instruments series. I’ve also read every bit of George R.R. Martin’s
Songs of Fire and Ice series, and I’m currently reading my friend Eric Miller’s
anthology Hell Comes to Hollywood
Holly: Do
you write an outline before starting a book or just write?
Joseph Spencer:Honestly,
I didn’t do a lot of prep work in the form of outlines and character sketches
for the first two books in my Sons of Darkness series. Grim and Wrage, which will come out later this
year, started with a few small concepts and I grew them from there. However, I
recently began a project where I asked my wife, Amy, who is an avid reader, to
join with me in planning a book. We are developing a novel using Randy
Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method at www.advancedfictionwriting.com.
I’m toying with working on our idea as a brief break from my series. For those
who liked Grim, I’m planning for seven Sons of Darkness. I hope there’s
interest enough from readers to make it quite a series.
Holly: Can
you tell us in your words a little bit about the book?
Joseph Spencer:Grim
is a tragedy. There’s a man who has no idea who his family is, who grew up with
no sense of identity and no parental figures, and who loses everyone who truly
mattered to him in his life. He’s felt like he’s had to prove himself his
entire life, and the only way he knows how is to make a deal with a
supernatural being. His deal forces him to hunt down killers and fiends to
avenge the souls of victims who can’t move on in the afterlife. The being
convinces this desperate man that what he’s doing is just, even though he’s
becoming as despicable as the men he hunts. To justify his own actions, he
seeks out a virtuous heroic figure, and attempts to engineer his fall from
grace in that man’s time of need. His thinking is if this man, who has
symbolized justice for so long, becomes a man like him then maybe he’s a heroic
figure, too, rather than a monster.
Holly: Which
came first for you the characters or the plot?
Joseph Spencer:Grim
started with the character Heath Grim. He was inspired and named after Heath
Ledger. Ledger’s performance as the Joker in Dark Knight was nothing short of
brilliant in my opinion. I wanted to create a character which created chaos
like the Joker character, but had more of a sympathetic story. I’ve always
loved gritty, edgy characters which are morally gray. I wanted to take my
readers down a more chaotic path than what was explored in the Dark Knight. I
get tired of the hero always wins somehow story, so I wrote something a little
different.
Holly: Where
can we purchase this book?
Joseph Spencer:I
like promoting my publisher, Damnation Books, as best I can. They have ebook
formats to fit the Kindle, the Nook, or other devices. Damnation’s link is: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615727520.
If you enter coupon code - 289snake, you get 25 percent off all Damnation
purchases. I’m also available in both ebook and print at amazon.com and
barnesandnoble.com if you search Grim by Joseph Spencer. There are several
4-star reviews which are posted at each site to give you an idea of what others
think of my novel.
Holly: Can
we expect more novels from you in 2013?
Joseph Spencer:Yes,
the second book in my Sons of Darkness series, Wrage, will come out later this
year, possibly in September like Grim did last year. Wrage picks up where the
action leaves off. It tells the tale of Jeff Wrage, whose wife was brutally
murdered in Grim. He’s seeking revenge against the killer. We also learn a lot
more about Detective Adam White’s colleague, Anna Duke.
Holly: Are
you working on anything right now?
Joseph Spencer:I
am in the planning stages of my third Sons of Darkness novel, which will be
titled Malice. It will feature a rock star named Malice Madsen which is styled
somewhat in the vein of Marilyn Manson in that he’s controversial and receives
a lot of scrutiny for the message portrayed by his songs. Like Heath Grim, he’s
made a deal with a spiritual entity, but it’s a different entity than Grim’s
partner in crime. As mentioned above, I’m also working on an
as-yet-to-be-titled project with my wife and here’s the blurb we’ve developed:
The
search for a missing girl leads police to a playground where her body is posed
with a toy. Days from retirement, Detective Jack Carpenter reluctantly accepts
the case and recognizes the calling card of the Toy Box Killer, who has eluded
capture for over twenty years. When Carpenter’s investigation takes a tragic
turn, homicide division rookie Aarika Williams must aid in exposing the killer
before he strikes again. Nobody knows
Williams, hungry for her first collar, harbors her own secret, which she’ll
develop with Carpenter’s help in order to identify the killer from a pack of
child predators. The detectives race
against time to unravel the mystery before the enigmatic murderer disappears
again.
Holly: Do you have anything you would like to say to your readers?
Joseph Spencer:I’d first like to thank everyone who has read my book. Whether you liked it or didn’t like it, I’m honored that you gave a rookie writer a chance to entertain you. When I started writing Grim, I missed writing terribly. I worked on the project to prove to myself I could do it. I’d never taken a creative writing class or wrote fiction in my life. I know a lot of people think writing a novel is easy, but it’s not. There were a lot of people along the way who rejected it, and some had scathing criticism. Yet, it’s something I accomplished which will always make me proud. I didn’t do it for fame or for money. I did it out of love. I love to write, to tell stories, and to entertain people. If I’ve entertained you, then you’ve given me one of the greatest honors of my life.
Holly: What
is your favorite part of writing?
Joseph Spencer:For
me, writing is freedom. There are so many things in your life that you do
because of duty or responsibility for your job, for your family, for your bill
collectors, etc. I write because I love to write and I want to write. There’s a
story in my heart to tell, and the thrill of figuring out how to tell it the
best way possible is a rush which is hard to recreate in any other way. It’s
like creating your own world and having complete control over it.
Title: Grim
Series:
Sons of Darkness Series, Book 1
Author:
Joseph Spencer
Genre:
Crime, Dark, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Thriller,
Publisher:
Damnation Books
Paperback/Ebook
Words:
93,000
Purchase: Damnation
Books | Amazon
(Kindle) | Amazon
(Print) | B&N
|
Book Description:
When everything is taken
from him, Detective Adam White must choose what's most important. Does he stick
to the heroic ideals which made him a famed paragon of justice and take down a
murderous madman? Or does he give in to his vigilante impulses, avenge his
wife's murder, and become the type of killer he's hunted for so many years?
Adam heard a few sounds of
Velcro peeling from its straps. Suddenly, Black Mask shed the mystery and
ambiguity of his head gear. He became another mystery altogether. What happened to this guy? He looked
like he’d seen hell, escaped, and doctored his face to give everyone else on
Earth a preview.
Black Mask obviously
suffered from rosacea because his skin was inflamed, swollen, and the angriest
shade of red Adam had ever seen. A jagged circular scar similar to a clock face
ran from Black Mask’s forehead down his cheeks to his chin. A vertical scar ran
straight down the middle of his forehead and along the bridge of his nose. Two
horizontal scars extended from the side of his nose and curved upward toward
the temples. Two additional scars extended outward at angles from just under
his nose, across his lips and ended on either side of his chin. All of the
scars connected to the outer circular one like spokes to resemble a starfish
shape. Adam struggled not to have any reaction, but failed to keep the corner
of his mouth from inching up into a grimace.
Black Mask smirked and put
his right hand up to his face. He pretended to be admiring himself in the
mirror. “It’s okay, Detective. Your reaction is fairly common and a lot more
subdued than most. Of course, I bet you’ve seen a lot of horrors in your line
of work.
“So, you want to know the
tale of Heath Grim, do you?”
INTRO
Joseph Spencer is the author
of the Sons of Darkness series launched by his debut novel, Grim, on September 1, 2012 . Work on his second book of the series, Wrage, is
already underway and is expected to be released some time in 2013.
THE ROAD HERE
The Sons of Darkness is a series of paranormal crime thrillers following investigations into mysterious deaths in the centralIllinois Prairieville Marino State Hospital
The Sons of Darkness is a series of paranormal crime thrillers following investigations into mysterious deaths in the central
THE STORYTELLER’S STORY
As a boy, Joseph Spencer
immersed himself in the deductive logic of Sherlock Holmes, the heroic crime
fighting of Batman and Spider-Man, and a taste for the tragic with dramas from
poets like Shakespeare and Homer.
Before Joseph took to
spinning his own tales, he pursued a career in print sports journalism,
graduating with honors from Clinton (IL) High School in 1996 and summa cum
laude from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2000. He covered such
events as NASCAR’s Subway 500 race in Martinsville Midwest . Now, he works as an emergency telecommunications
specialist with an Illinois
Joseph was married Dr. Amy
(Waggoner) Spencer, an accomplished veterinary doctor, on March 14, 2012 . He received word his debut novel was accepted by
his publisher, Damnation Books, the next day. Joseph and Amy look forward to
their honeymoon in Paris
Enter below for a chance to win a eBook
copy of Grim!
Thanks for all the great feedback to those who posted comments.
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