Interview Sons of Darkness Author Gail Z. Martin
Happy holiday to all! Give a warm welcome to Gail Z. Martin, author of Sons of Darkness” A Night Vigil!
Have a seat and grab an insulated mug. I’ve got hot chocolate, hot cider and coffee. Choose your pot, they’re labeled. Pick your choice of a Snicker-doodle, Chocolate Chip or Peanut butter cookie from the plate. Yep, I baked them myself. Lets see find out a little about Gail and her Sons of Darkness. Thanks for joining us! Psst… Don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post.
Q: What inspired this particular story?
A: Sons of Darkness: A Night Vigil Novel is set in Pittsburgh, PA. We lived in Pittsburgh for 10 years and it remains very dear to my heart. Pittsburgh is an old city, and it and the surrounding area have a lot of wonderful legends, lore, and ghost stories that are fantastic fodder for an urban fantasy book like this. As for specific inspiration, I got thinking about all the mining disasters and miles of tunnels beneath Pennsylvania, and that got me wondering about demons in the mines, and it just went from there.
All of the Night Vigil books will be set in and around the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania area.
This is the third series I’ve written or co-written set in the Pittsburgh area. Iron & Blood, co-written with my husband Larry N. Martin, is an alternate history adventure set in 1898 Pittsburgh, as are the tie-in Storm & Fury Adventures. We also co-write the Mark Wojcik monster hunter series, Spells Salt and Steel, anchored north of Pittsburgh. And the characters in Sons of Darkness make significant appearances in two of my urban fantasy MM paranormal romance books (written under my Morgan Brice pen name), Dark Rivers and Lucky Town.
Q: Did you tell friends and family that you were writing a book? Or did it take a while to come out and tell friends and family you were a writer?
A: I was working on a book when I married my husband 31 years ago, so books kind of came with the package. My kids always considered the main character in my Chronicles of the Necromancer series, Tris Drayke, to be an invisible older brother because they heard about him from the time they could remember. Now, writing is sort of a family industry. The (now adult) kids have accompanied us on research tours, ghost tours and book tours, wandered graveyards, catacombs and ruins in search of book material, and introduced our books to their friends, teachers/professors and librarians. Larry is a full-time partner in writing and producing the books, and from time to time, the kids help with beta reading.
Q: Do you see yourself in your characters?
A: Not directly, although I certainly pull from personal experience and observation, like every writer. None of the characters ‘are’ me, but there are splinters of me in all of them, if you know where to look.
Q: What do you want your readers to take away from your books?
A: I want to give my readers an escape from the stresses of real life. Books have always been a haven for me, and I want to whisk my readers away to somewhere outside of their worries and cares, and give them a rousing adventure. If I can ease someone’s stress or lift their mood with a good story, I’m very happy.
Q: Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down?
A: Sometimes! Story ideas pop up everywhere. I’ll see something or hear something and think, “Oh, there’s a story in that.” Or “I can use that!” I’m constantly writing notes to myself.
Q: Do you find it easier to write from a male or female point of view? Why?
A: I have some female point-of-view characters that I’m very proud of, but in general I default to a male POV. Maybe it’s just the way I think. That’s how the characters show up.
Q: Why do you write what you write? Ie. Contemporary, paranormal, suspense, etc.
A: I’ll think of a story, and want to write it, regardless of the genre. Or I’ll read a lot in a certain genre, and then decide I want to get in on the fun, too. Right now, I write epic fantasy, urban fantasy, alternate history/steampunk, comedic horror, post-apocalyptic, and as Morgan Brice, urban fantasy MM paranormal romance! It’s fun to switch things up
Q: If writing is your first passion, what is your second?
A: Reading! I love to lose myself in a book that I don’t have to proofread!
Q: What do you like to do when you are not writing?
A: I really enjoy cooking—trying new recipes, going to cooking classes with Larry, experimenting with new foods. And I love to travel and explore new places.
Q: You’ve got a time machine, a cloak of invisibility, and one hour. Where would you go, and what eavesdropping would you do?
A: I’d love to be in the corner at the Oxford pub when the Inklings, a group of writers in the 1930s that included JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, met to discuss their works in progress…books that included The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings!
Sneak Peek Between the pages of Sons of Darkness: A Night Vigil.
The abandoned warehouse squatted next to a rusting railway spur, the faded paint of its sign almost unreadable against the old brick walls. Too sturdy to knock down, too expensive to gentrify, the decaying building smelled of mold and dust, rats…and blood.
Travis Dominick moved silently through the shadows, intent on his prey. Moonlight and the distant glow of streetlights filtered through the dirty windows and skylights, giving barely enough illumination for him to make his way.
He knew his quarry had gone to ground here. The ghosts told him so, and the vision that woke him in a cold sweat showed him where to look. Travis blended in with the darkness, with raven-dark hair and black clothing that let him melt into the shadows.
There. He saw the creature’s matted brown coat as it eased around one of the pillars supporting the roof. In its beast form, the monster was the size of a large wolf, or even a mastiff. But that’s where the likeness to any normal canine ended. The nachzehrer was a vampire-shifter, a plague-carrier, and it had murdered—and eaten—an entire family. Travis had come to put an end to its killing spree.
He pulled a silver knife from the bandolier across his chest and hurled it. It flew silently, and sunk hilt-deep into the creature’s hindquarters. The beast gave a howl, not from the injury—which Travis knew wouldn’t be lethal—but from the shift the silver forced.
Sinew and slick muscle glistened as the dirty pelt stripped away into bloody ribbons, and the body reshaped itself when bones broke and knit with a disturbing snap and crunch. The monster hunched, no longer on all fours but not yet standing upright.
A burst of gunfire cut into the creature and pockmarked the pillar behind it. Fast shots from an automatic weapon. The beast bellowed, bloodied but not seriously hurt.
Then the bullets weren’t silver. Fuck. There’s a newbie out there who thinks he’s Van Helsing.
Travis peered out from where he’d retreated with his back to one of the pillars. The creature shook off the last gory remnants of its fur. In the half-light, Travis could make out the thing that had once been human, before it brought plague to its family and stripped their bones clean with the knife-sharp teeth of its changed form.
More shots tore into the monster’s head and body, but the creature did not collapse, needing more than steel to slay it. Then, with a burst of speed, it leaped into the shadows, intent on bringing down its assailant.
“Shit,” Travis muttered, taking off at a run. I could have done this the easy way, but no…some Buffy wanna-be has to fuck it all up.
Travis held a coiled silver whip in his left hand, and a Glock with silver bullets in his right. Silver and steel knives of varying sizes filled the bandolier and hung from sheathes strapped to his belt. He had come prepared to destroy the monster. Now, he had to save the idiot who had gone looking for trouble—and found it.
The creature moved fast, leaping for its attacker with its teeth bared and its sharp claws out. A man cursed, and the beast yowled in pain. Travis closed in on the scene, to find a powerfully built blond man going after the monster with a K-bar in each hand. Every time Travis moved to line up a shot with the Glock, the combatants pivoted, putting the man squarely in his sights. As annoyed as he was at the interloper, Travis couldn’t justify shooting him.
The beast stood half a head taller than its opponent, but whoever the dipshit was who had blundered into Travis’s hunt, the guy knew how to fight. Travis might have answered to a different authority for his own training, but he’d learned from some of the best, and he recognized the close-quarters moves as elite military, maybe special ops. So perhaps the fight was not as uneven as he had first suspected.
Travis circled, looking for an opening, figuring he and the mystery man could double-team the creature.
“Stay back! I’ve got this!” The blond man growled, slashing with the knife in his right hand and thrusting with the blade in his left.
Unless those knives were edged with blessed silver, Travis knew the other man could harry the creature all day without ever bringing it down.
“Get out of the way, and I’ll finish it,” Travis called back. He lashed out with the silver whip, flaying open a deep gash in the monster’s back. The beast jerked and turned, recognizing a second threat, but shifted its stance before Travis could get off a shot with the Glock, putting the man between them.
“I told you, I’ve got—” The reply broke off as the creature put on a press of speed, swiping its powerful clawed hand across the man’s shoulder and tossing him effortlessly through the air. The stranger hit one of the support pillars hard, but he staggered to his feet, ready for another round.
“Of all the stupid, asinine, fucking idiots,” Travis muttered as he tried to flank the creature, but although the beast remained intent on its injured quarry, it was clever enough not to expose its back to Travis.
The stranger didn’t wait for the beast to attack again. He came at the creature with kicks and punches in a flurry of expertly trained movement that would have had a human opponent down in seconds. The two long knives sank deep into the monster’s body, and the thing howled in fury and pain. It lunged, and claws tore into the fighter’s shoulder as the beast opened its maw and bared its fangs, lowering its head toward the struggling man’s throat.
Intent on fresh blood, the creature made a mistake. Travis dodged into position. He didn’t dare shoot into the back of the beast for fear the bullets went through and hit the man. But three side shots would do nicely—head, chest, and hip.
The monster roared and tossed the man aside. This time, he did not get up. Travis faced the beast, putting a silver bullet between the creature’s eyes and through its heart. It fell to its knees, covered in its own blood and that of its would-be attacker, and leveled a baleful glare.
Angry red blisters criss-crossed the monster’s pale skin as the blessed silver worked its poison, fighting against the unholy energies that animated the beast. Travis reached for a flask on his belt and sloshed a measure of salted holy water into the creature’s ravaged face.
Travis raised a hand in blessing. “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let there be extinguished in you all power of the devil,” he intoned, making the sign of the cross. “Through this holy unction may the Lord pardon thee whatever sins or faults thou hast committed.”
The nachzeher that had once been a man named Rick Kohrs collapsed in a bloody heap on the floor.
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Sons of Darkness!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Dark Urban Fantasy, Gail Z. Martin, Sons of Darkness, The Night Vigil by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.
