Glen Lacock - To A Darker Brightness - Author Interview

Author Interview

1. Who is your favorite character?
Vitto, the main character of the book.

2. Why is he/she your favorite?
He's my favorite because, he goes through a change from the man that no one would want to be, to one everyone would want to be. He stands up for himself and follows his heart. He grows into the leader, that both worlds need, at the time when everything was at risk of being lost.

3. How did you come to create him/her?
I sat down and started writing, and he came to life. I get an idea for a story and will set down and see it in my mind and it just flows. He was the main character that I started with, and everything grew up around him.

4. When did he/she first enter your mind?
I was watching Twilight. When I got the idea of writing a book about vampires.

5. Where was he/she given life in the creative process?
At the start of the story; he is talking about himself. As he goes through the story, he changes into a different person.

6. What do you like the most about him/her and what do you dislike the most about him/her?
I like that fact that he is a good person, but sometimes I think he's too good.

Book Summary

This is the story of Vitto and how he saves the human and vampire worlds from being destroy by a very old evil that want to destroy all the worlds.

price: $1.50
genre: fantasy
publisher: self-published
release date: September 25, 2010
buy links: Barnes&Noble.com, Smashwords

Author Bio

Glen Lacock is a 41 year old writer and professional, who has bounced back so many times, his friends call him the "rubber band man." He has been a preacher, and finished Bible college in 1994. He also went into the graphic design field in 1996. He has worked with "at risk" children, and shown them that there is life after everything has fallen apart. He received his four year degree in Information Technology from University of Phoenix in 2011. As he was working and going to school, he wrote his first novel. He is the father of two children, whom he loves very much. He lives in Redlands, California.

Connect with Glen
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Morrigan Michele - Betrayed - Guest Post

My thanks to Morrigan Michele for stopping by The Character Connection and sharing a guest post during the blog tour for her book, Betrayed.

Guest Post

Hi Connie, Thanks for hosting me today.

My name is Morrigan Michele, and I am one of the authors of Betrayed. Before we begin, I would like to let everyone know that Betrayed got a new book cover! I am really excited about it. My husband Robert is the owner/operator of Eye Candy Studios and made the cover for me! So when you go on the links and look at Betrayed, don't be alarmed at the two different covers, they're in the process of swapping over.

Connie has asked me to talk a bit about my development of the characters in Betrayed. Character development, I think, is different for each author. In my particular case, the characters pretty much took on a life of their own; and in essence, they wrote the story themself. I know it sounds crazy, right? But, it's true. Each character has their own way of speaking, of doing things, and their own personality. So, when writing a story I cannot have someone do something that's out of character. Misty and I were talking about this just a few days ago. Some of our readers have asked us to have certain characters do something and we simply can't do it. When asked why we tell them that it's simply "out of character" for that particular character. I mean sure, as a writer we *could* have the Baptist preacher attend a Wiccan Sabbat; but it would not be in his character to do so. This particular preacher would rather chew off his left arm than attend such an event. Why? Because that's his character, it's just who he is.

When we thought up the characters, we created names, jobs, ages and their families/friends; it was like building a little community. We did think up certain personality traits for most of them, but some of the characters were "surprise" additions and came along towards the end of the story. These additional characters came because the original ones added them. It might not make sense to some of you, but that's just how it happens for me. I like to ensure that each character in my stories has the ability to be a "stand alone" character. In book 2 you will get an inside look at some of the other characters, and in the prequel to Betrayed titled Hunted which will be released in the Spring of 2012 you will get a closer look at Alexander and Tansey (Alexis' parents) as well as Giovanni and several others that you will hear about and see in Betrayed and Immortal Lineage.

When writing a certain character, I really have to get into their 'mind.' Sometimes, just like in acting, I have to spend the day in character so that when I sit down to write I am in character. Other times I simply just try and 'be' the character i.e. drinking what they drink, eat what they eat while I am writing. Once I get to know each character, it becomes easy to think, speak, and react as they do. So all in all, writing is a lot like acting-just on paper.

About the Book
Betrayed

Book Details:
Publisher: World Castle Publishing
Published: October 2011
Genre: YA Urban Paranormal Fantasy
Pages: 178
Format: paperback, ebook
Price: $8.99 paperback, $3.99 ebook

Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle

Blurb:
Love. Lies. Magick. Betrayal.

Alexis Allcroft is used to being different, but nothing could have prepared her for the buried secrets about to be revealed.

With her seventeenth birthday approaching the only thing on Alexis Allcroft's mind other than her birthday party is Sebastian Valto, the hot new guy in school.

Things suddenly take a strange twist, and in an effort to take the spotlight off herself, a spell backfires and her secrets are revealed as well; secrets she didn't know existed.

With her world quickly spinning out of control, Alexis realizes no one is what they appear to be, not even herself! Alexis will soon learn that family secrets run deep, blood deep....

About the Author
Morrigan Michele

Morrigan Michele lives in a small town in Texas with her husband, Robert, and their daughter Brianna.

Not only is she an author of YA Paranormal books, she also works as a marketing rep. and is one of the owners of For You P.R.

Morrigan enjoys writing, reading and spending time with family and friends.

Connect With Morrigan:
Web Site
Facebook (book)
Facebook (author)
Twitter

About the Tour

The Experience Tours

Jeff Horton - The Dark Age - Guest Post

My thanks to Jeff Horton for stopping by The Character Connection and sharing a guest post during the blog tour for his book, The Dark Age.

Guest Post

Have you watched, as I have, the many post-apocalyptic movies that have come out of Hollywood over the past several decades? During the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century, apocalyptic stories became increasingly popular, particularly at the box office. Movies like Mad Max, The Day After, Independence Day, Armageddon, Deep Impact, and 2012, just to name a few, have captured and held our imagination. I know that I've always been fascinated by apocalyptic thrillers, and I suppose many other people have as well. Apocalyptic stories in which the world is threatened and the unlikely hero finds himself in the right place at the right time to make a difference, and post-apocalyptic thrillers in which the protagonist is in a position to change the world for the better, have always inspired me, and helped me to realize how so very small many of my everyday concerns in life really are.

There have been a number of programs on television over the last few years, which examine possible outcomes should a specific global, catastrophic event occur, and how humanity might recover. There have also been experiments where people attempt to live as prehistoric man did, without the benefit of modern conveniences. While it certainly would be difficult to thrive or even survive under such conditions, one of the experiments I saw offered hope that humanity would be able to survive.

I didn't necessarily set out to write a post-apocalyptic thriller when I started writing The Dark Age, but it soon turned into one. As I did research for my first novel, The Great Collapse, and my second novel, The Dark Age, I was astonished to learn how vulnerable our national infrastructure and our civilization itself are to powerful electromagnetic pulses and solar flares. In 2008 a report requested by Congress and was completed by the EMP Commission. It confirmed that the threat of a single nuclear warhead detonated high in the atmosphere somewhere around Kansas was real, and that it could potentially take out the United States' national power grid.

In The Great Collapse, it is an EMP attack and a solar flare knock out power worldwide, causing civilization to collapse within months. Unlike an EMP generated by a nuclear detonation, however, the EMP attack and the solar flare renders it impossible for anyone anywhere on the planet to rebuild the technology so vital to our society. With most of humanity no longer possessing the know-how to safely live off of the land, it is a struggle just to survive. Now fast forward five-hundred years and you'll find yourself in The Dark Age, which is set in a world where humanity survives by the sword, the bow, and the arrow, while secretly hoping that a legend about the Great Oracle is true and that civilization will one day return to the Earth. The Dark Age is a story about self-discovery, perseverance, and self-sacrifice, all in an effort to save the world from a fate worse than death.

Hopefully, you will find as I did that The Dark Age paints a stark, yet intriguing and hopeful vision of the future, where heroes must work together in order to offer mankind a brighter tomorrow.

About the Book
The Dark Age

Book Details:
Publisher: World Castle Publishing
Published: June 2011
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Format: paperback & ebook
Price: $12.99 paperback, $5.49-$5.99 ebook

Buy Links: Amazon, Kindle, Nook

Blurb:
Suppose you learned that an ancient prophecy about an artifact, said to be powerful enough to dramatically change the world, was true. Would you risk everything to find it? It has been five-hundred years since the Pulse caused the Great Collapse, ending the Golden Age, and civilization on planet Earth. Humanity has waited ever since for a long-anticipated sign from God, which has finally appeared in the night sky. The time has come for Ferrell Young, the Warrior Clan, and the Church to risk everything in an effort to restore civilization, and bring hope to a world full of despair. Alex Montgomery is an archaeologist who has spent many years looking for a mysterious book on behalf of the Holy Christian Church. The book is said to contain the location of the Great Oracle which, according to legend, can endow the one who finds it with great power and wealth. Of much greater importance to the Clan and the Church however, is the fact that it may also enable the world to emerge from five centuries of darkness and suffering. When a powerful, intelligent, but sadistic barbarian leader named Kraken learns of the Oracle, he plans to destroy the Warrior Clan and the Church, take the Oracle for himself, and enslave the rest of humanity. Join Ferrell and his companions as they set out on a desperate journey to find the Great Oracle, and rescue humanity from The Dark Age.

About the Author
Jeff Horton

Jeff Horton was born in North Dakota, the youngest son of a career Air Force master sergeant, where he spent the first four years of his life before moving to North Carolina. A somewhat voracious reader growing up, he read everything from comic books to The Bible, including stories by many popular authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Jeff Horton's novel, The Great Collapse, a story about the coming of the pulse and the end of civilization, was published in 2010. He is a member of the North Carolina Writers Network.

When he's not penning his next novel, he enjoys reading, going to church, and spending time with his family.

Connect With Jeff:
Blog
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter

About the Tour

The Experience Tours

Tour Participants:

Oct. 9: Guest Post & Book Excerpt @ Beauty Brite and Giveaway @Bee's Knees Reviews
Oct. 10: Guest Post & Giveaway @ Letters Inside Out
Oct. 11: Giveaway & Guest Post @ Books & Other Creative Adventures
Oct. 12: Guest Post @ Mad Moose Mama
Oct. 13: Guest Post @ The Fairytale Nerd
Oct. 14: Review @ A Casual Reader's Blog
Oct. 15: Guest Post & Giveaway @ After the Book
Oct. 16: Guest Post @ YA Books Beyond the Cover
Oct. 17: Giveaway @ Mind Reader
Oct. 18: Giveaway @ Books Ahoy
Oct. 19: Giveaway, Author Interview, & Guest Post @ BookSpark
Oct. 20: Guest Post @ I'm A Book Shark
Oct. 21: Guest Post @ The Character Connection
Oct. 22: Giveaway @ Reviews By Molly