Virtual Book Tour w/Giveaway: Dark Communion by C.J. Perry

Dark Communion

by CJ Perry

GENRE: epic fantasy

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CJ Perry will be awarding a $10 and a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to two randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour. Please visit GoddessFish.com to follow the tour, remember the more you comment better your chances on winning.

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BLURB:

The minotaurs have kept Ayla and Deetra's people in chains for 200 years. With nothing left to live for, and a death sentence in her womb, Ayla trades her soul for a chance to break the curse which holds her people in slavery. Armed only with her faith, she and Deetra start a revolution, and bring about the return of the Goddess of Darkness.

PreOrder Link

Amazon

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Excerpt Two:

The minotaur caught up to Deetra and pushed her down into the sand. Deetra rolled away, but he stood over her, menacing and taunting her. She kicked out at his crotch but missed.

Ayla gave the heavy iron bars a futile shake. “Open this! Now! DEETRAA!”

Alex pried Ayla's hands off the gate and held them. “You can't save her! We have to go, now!”

Ayla snatched her hands away from him. Deetra screamed from the arena floor and the crowd cheered. Ayla turned to look but Alex grabbed her again, by the shoulders.

“We have time to run, but only if we leave now!”

“Get off of me!” Ayla slapped Alex in the mouth. He recoiled and held a hand where she hit him. Ayla pushed him by the chest and accused the other men in the ready room with her eyes.

“Open it.”

Butch pushed between the others and shoved Alex out of the way.

“You heard the Priestess.”

Ayla eyed him as he bent at the knees. He gripped the bottom bar of the portcullis and rolled his shoulders to ready himself.

“My people are still loyal to the Night Goddess.”

The other men lined up on either side of him.

Ayla gave Alex a stern look. “Are mine?”

He shook his head, defeated, and took his place next to Butch. “We’re gonna die.

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Q & A with C. J. Perry

What books/authors have influenced your writing?

Stephen King – I read Pet Cemetery when I was 12. There are different kinds of formative experiences in life, and that book was the kind that made me put a nightlight back in my room. My mother also died that year, so you can imagine the nightmares for years afterward. Those nightmares served as some of the inspiration for Dark Communion.

Margaret Weis – Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and later all of the Dragonlance Chronicles were my formal introduction to contemporary fantasy. I was fifteen or sixteen when I first read Autumn Twilight in the midst of a deep depression. I could have turned to drugs or alcohol, but instead I turned to fantasy. The world of Dragonlance saved me from myself.

CS Friedman

The darkness and honor of Gerald Tarrant from the Coldfire Trilogy makes him a favorite anti-hero of mine. He’s right up there with Raistlin Majere (Dragonlance).

Tell us something you hate doing. Why?

Folding laundry. Im a stay at home dad, but worked in retail for 15 years. Even as a manager, I still found myself folding shirts for hours a day. There are few things I hate more than folding clothes.

When you are in writer mode, music or no music? If music, do you have a playlist?

I cant write with music on, it’s too distracting. Although, I cant write without listening to music first or without taking breaks to listen. I had a playlist for Dark Communion that I listened to so much that my wife now hates every song on it. If the book had a soundtrack…

Take Me to Church – Hozier

Renegades – X Ambassadors

Desire – Meg Meyers

Centuries – Fall Out Boy

Give Me a Sign – Breaking Benjamin

Hurricane – 30 Seconds to Mars

Who was your favorite hero/heroine?

It’s a tossup between Raistlin Majere from Dragonlance, and Gerald Tarrant from the Coldfire Trilogy. I like dark anti-heroes. I think they more accurately reflect the internal conflicts of real people. Their inner conflict gives them more depth than your average hero.

Have you ever had one character you wanted to go one way with but after the book was done the character was totally different?

Before I wrote Dark Communion, I outlined the entire thing. But writing is more organic than outlining and the story evolved. No character ended up where I thought they would. I had to rework the outline after every couple of chapters. At first it was frustrating, but I learned to appreciate watching my characters evolve past what I had envisioned for them.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

My deep and abiding love of fantasy began when I was six when I first saw the 1981 film Dragonslayer on VHS with my father. He loved fantasy movies too, but didn’t have the courage to be a dork about it like I did. That movie was a gateway drug that led me straight to the hard stuff - CS Lewis. I was far too young for such potency but by the time I was ten I had read the whole series. That’s when I found my first Dungeons and Dragons group. When I started playing, my friends and I used pre-made campaign settings and published adventures, but I quickly grew restless with their limitations and trite story lines. I needed my own persistent world: something adaptable to my whim and that no one else owned.

Back in my day, there was no internet, so I took out every book about castles and medieval history from the school library and read them in Math class (I'm still terrible at math as a result). I came up with an entire world and brand new history. I read books on cartography and hand drew maps of my new world. I created a cosmology, a hierarchy of gods, and the tenets of their religions. I read the Dungeon Master's guide a dozen times, and every fantasy novel I could get my hands on.

Then, one day, I sat down and told my friends, "Hey guys, wanna try my story instead?"

Even 15 years after the original D&D campaigns ended, former players tell me that they share our incredible stories with their children. I'm honored to say that most of those players still have their original character sheets 16-20 years later, and a couple have even named their children after them.

Now, I'm 39 years old and a loving father of 2 girls, and I still play those games on occasion. My passion has evolved into putting those ideas and amazing stories on paper for the whole world to enjoy. My first novel took me and co-author DC Fergerson 10 years to write and topped out at 180,000 words. Being too long and too complex, I finally ended the project and took its lessons to heart.

I learned that Dungeons & Dragons did not translate well into a novel. D&D made for great times, but also for some meandering plot lines, pointless encounters, and poor character motivations. No matter how memorable some of the moments were, if I wanted anyone to read my story, I needed to learn a lot more about writing.

I threw myself into being a full time student of novel crafting. I read every book on writing by Dwight Swain I could find. I paid Chuck Sambuchino (Editor for Writer's Digest) to critique and edit my older work. I took James Patterson's Masterclass, went to college, and joined online writing communities. All the while, I read my favorite fantasy novels again, only this time with a mental highlighter. I reworked my stories, outlined them, and decided to start from the beginning.

Many, many years later, I am in the final edit and proofreading stage of Dark Communion, the first installment of the Shadowalker Chronicles. My role as a father of two girls heavily influenced the characters I’d known for over 20 years, shaping them into women that my own daughters could respect. My characters took on a depth and quality that brings them off the page and into the minds of readers, because they have become all too real. I was privileged enough to work on two careers at the same time to accomplish this feat - a fun-loving and involved stay-at-home dad, and a full time writer.

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