Another Lincoln, Little Girl B-day and The Vampire of Rome

The Vampire of Rome is now with my editor, well most of it, there's still the wrap-up, okay the final battle and wrap-up I need to complete. And of course my Reserve Weekend was far to busy for me to get in any good writing time. Hopefully this weekend.

In family news, Little Girl, AKA Veronica turned three. I'm a bit in the dog house because when the candle was lit, she didn't know what to do. I told her, “Blow it out, like this,” and while I didn't mean to blow out the candle...yeah. Oh well, there's next year.

It's my Birthday and I'll eat pizza any way I want

Here's the Birthday Girl enjoying pre-cake pizza. Brunette Sonya was unimpressed with the evening. I think she was saving up her energy to stay awake all night as Bat-Girl, you know because there's a lot of crime in the 'burbs.

Enough of me let's talk about a real author, who is also named Lincoln, kinda. Meet real horror author, award winning author, J. Lincoln Fenn.



DEAD SOULS

What Kirkus has to say - “ An uninhibited thriller with a dash of social commentary where the devil is in the details.”

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/j-lincoln-fenn/fenn-dead-souls/

DEAD SOULS

Blurb:

When Fiona Dunn is approached in a bar by a man who calls himself Scratch and claims he’s the devil, she figures it’s just some kind of post-modern ironic pickup line. But since he offers to pick up the tab, what the hell. A few drinks in, Scratch offers something much stranger—a wish in exchange for her immortal soul. Fiona has been wondering if her boyfriend is having an affair. What if she could become invisible, see what he's really up to? It can be done, but for a price—in addition to her soul, Fiona must perform a special favor for Scratch whenever the time comes. Fiona finds the whole thing so hilarious that she agrees.
Bad idea. Not only does Fiona soon discover that she really was talking to the devil incarnate, but she’s now been initiated into a bizarre support group of similar “dead souls”—those who have exchanged their immortal spirits on a whim, and must spend their waking hours in absolute terror of that favor eventually being called in...and what exactly is required from each of them in order to give the devil his due.

DEAD SOULS

With Fenn’s “wicked raw and proudly untamed” talent (Bloody-Disgusting.com), Dead Souls is a terrifying venture to the dark side that will haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page.

http://www.jlincolnfenn.com/

https://twitter.com/JLincolnFenn

Main Character's motivations

Fiona's motivation is pretty simple - she wants to get out of her deal with the devil. She didn't mean to make the deal—she was a few drinks in at a bar, drowning her sorrows—and when a man approached and said he was the devil, she thought he was joking. Whoops. There's another, equally powerful motivation at work that I can't talk about because...spoilers. And there's a certain level of irony because she's a marketing manager—her job is to manipulate people for the company's profit. So in a certain kind of way they're in the same line of work.

What is her secret strengths/ weaknesses

Well she trades her soul for the power of invisibility so she can check up on her boyfriend and see if he's cheating on her. That was fun for me to play with in the novel—if you could be invisible and find out what people really say or think about you, would you want to know? As a character she has a tenacity that's admirable. Her weakness is her insecurity, and the way she projects her insecurity on her relationships.

Any philosophical issues in this story? If so how do you address them, how does Fiona live and over come them?

Fiona sees something, makes an assumption, and that assumption leads her to an act that undermines her life. There's a lot of assuming going on right now in our culture, especially in social media. We get a small nugget of information that may or may not be true, then we add our own assumptions, which creates divisiveness. I remember I saw a meme that quoted a governor which really upset me, and I was just about to share when I thought, 'I wonder if this is true?' So I googled the quote and found that Snopes had debunked it. If I hadn't taken the time to question that meme, I would have been part of it spreading, and maybe someone down the line would have acted on this bit of misinformation. Fiona desperately tries to undo the consequences of her act. You'll have to read DEAD SOULS to see if she's successful.

Any offbeat obscure or 80s references?

Well there's a bit in there about Sea Monkeys. Talk about your misleading marketing. Sheesh.

When did you start to write this one and why?

It started in 2014 with the first two paragraphs, then I added fifteen pages which I showed to my agent. At the time Gallery Books was reviewing my proposal for THE NIGHTMARCHERS, and I wondered if she thought it'd be worth pitching too. She got excited about the DEAD SOULS pages, and asked me to flesh it out with another proposal. Gallery ended up picking up both.

This seems to be my process. With POE I started out with the first few pages and a strong character, and no idea what the story was going to be. DEAD SOULS at least had an outline, but the themes reveal themselves in the writing as it goes. It's like developing pictures in the darkroom, where you're not sure what you have until the image slowly appears. Of course, I realize there's a whole generation reading this going, 'Darkroom? What's that?'.

What's next in this series or in your next book?

Next up is THE NIGHTMARCHERS, which is going to be creepy. Very, very creepy.

When will it be available?

DEAD SOULS is out September 20th, and then THE NIGHTMARCHERS is probably going to be 2017 or early 2018. Which reminds me, I need to get back to writing it.

DEAD SOULS

Go on pre-order DEAD SOULS , you know you want to. And comment if you'd like a chance at a free copy. I'll even try and get her to sign it for you.

While you wait for DEAD SOULS, perhaps you might want to check out -

 

Junior Inquisitor Book One  

Amazon - http://goo.gl/D6KrbX

Smashwords - http://goo.gl/XsGgAC

Inquisitor Series - http://goo.gl/mJtTf8

  

Soulless Monk Book Two  

 Smashwords - https://goo.gl/NXw3Gr

Amazon - http://goo.gl/p9fBn0

Inquisitor Series - http://goo.gl/5lCyaX

 
 The Witch’s Lair Book Three 

Amazon - http://goo.gl/ZRO6Jw

Smashwords - https://goo.gl/MokJnC 

 Inquisitor Series - http://goo.gl/mJtTf8