Today, I am excited to welcome Marcus Pelegrimas, author of the Vampire Uprising, the newest addition to his Skinners series.
A legendary Skinner has passed. Among the articles he left behind are runes, potions, and powerful weapons to aid in the ongoing war against the unspeakable creatures that prowl the shadows outside normal human consciousness. But there is something else: the remains of a terrifying beast no other Skinner has ever encountered. And it isn’t dead.
Skinners, partners, lovers, Cole Warnecki and Paige Strobel are well armed with the tools the late Jonah Lancroft provided. But even his best weapons may not be enough to defeat the monstrosity they now face. A new terror has risen up to infect them both with its virulent malevolence, even as Paige confronts the secrets of her astonishing past. The purest evil walks the world again—the First Deceiver, humankind’s darkest nightmare, the self-proclaimed King of the Full Bloods.
Make sure you stick around to the end. We’ll be giving away five signed copies of Vampire Uprising.
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Kicking the Blocks Over
It’s no big revelation to hear a writer say that crafting their stories is like building a structure of some kind. Insert whatever imagery you want here, be it a tower, a house or the ever-popular castle in the sky. I’ve been carefully building my structures since I was a little kid instructing other kids on their motivations when we were playing monsters in preschool. Oftentimes, it’s very easy to see the structure in someone’s works. A mystery is a perfect example and when it’s done correctly, you can step back to marvel at the glorious hedge maze the author created for you.
I’m a horror writer. We love building those structures as well, but take even more delight in knocking them down. You like that character we introduced? Isn’t that a nice, slightly flawed family? BAM! Send in the wolves. Glorious. Simply glorious. One part of my brain delights in building a good structure, but the other part wrings its hands super-villain style when I get to come along and unleash an unholy terror that’s been brewing in the back of my mind since high school. It’s a rush unlike any other, but it doesn’t just apply to my stories.
Another basic structure we all create as writers is our style and genre choices. Obviously, I started out as a horror / fantasy aficionado. There just wasn’t anything else I wanted to write. After years of toiling through short story submissions and working my way through the Writer’s Market Guide to Agents back in whatever year that was, I got a chance to do a professional ghostwriting gig. “Hey,” my savior asked, “can you write westerns?” I hadn’t read any westerns, but enjoyed Clint Eastwood movies and the occasional episode of Have Gun Will Travel, so I immediately answered, “Why yes! I love writing westerns!” BAM!! My finely-crafted life as a struggling writer gets knocked over.
I was panicked. Sure it’s an awesome break, but what if I screwed it up because I took a job I had no business attempting? Turns out that job led to lots of other ghostwriting gigs as well as two western series under a pseudonym (Marcus Galloway) that I absolutely loved doing. And when one of my editors was taken off my series, I approached him to see where he’d landed. He was moved into the Dark Fantasy and Horror division. “Have I got a proposal for you!”
And now, in Book 4 of my Horror series, my characters are not only in a predicament that threatens to upend their lives but I’ve set things into motion that will turn the world I’d carefully stitched together over the last three books on its ear. Werewolves running through the streets? Mass hysteria? Sure. It’s been a tough year and it feels good to unleash a little hell of my own.
One time, someone asked what kind of superpowers I would like. I said I’d prefer to be a giant fire-breathing creature along the lines of Godzilla or in the cockpit of a massive, horribly beweaponed robot. My best advice to you if that happens? Run.
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Marcus Pelegrimas has been writing since around the age of 9 and has done so professionally for approximately 11 years. When he’s not sitting with a video game controller in his hands or haunting comic book stores, he’s writing the SKINNERS series which consists of Blood Blade, Howling Legion, Teeth of Beasts and the recently released Vampire Uprising. Other works include THE MAN FROM BOOT HILL and ACCOMPLICE, two western series written by his mild-mannered alter ego, Marcus Galloway.
Contact Info
Website: www.marcuspelegrimas.com
Blog: http://digitaldreamersinc.blogspot.com
Skinners
- Blood Blade at Amazon or the Book Depository
- Howling Legion at Amazon or the Book Depository
- Teeth of Beasts at Amazon or the Book Depository
- Vampire Uprising at Amazon or the Book Depository
- The Breaking (2011) at Amazon or the Book Depository
Man from Boot Hill (writing as Marcus Galloway)
- The Man from Boot Hill at Amazon or the Book Depository
- Burying the Past at Amazon
- Dead Man’s Promise at Amazon or the Book Depository
- No Angels for Outlaws at Amazon or the Book Depository
- Reaper’s Fee at Amazon or the Book Depository
Accomplice (writing as Marcus Galloway)
- The Accomplice at Amazon or the Book Depository
- Bucking the Tiger at Amazon or the Book Depository
- The Silent Partner at Amazon or the Book Depository
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Thank you Marcus for visiting Literary Escapism.
Contest Time! Marcus has graciously offered to give away five signed copies of Vampire Uprising. All you have to do is answer this one question: What stories have you enjoyed that have had their worlds ripped completely apart? Or simply ask Marcus a question.
As always, there’s more ways of getting your name in the hat (remember, these aren’t mandatory to enter, just extra entries):
- +1 for each place you post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it, share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your answer.
- +1 to any review you comment on, however, comments must be meaningful. Just give me the title of the review and I’ll be able to figure it out from there.
- +1 If you are a follower of Literary Escapism on Facebook and/or Twitter
- +10 Purchase any of Macus’ novels (listed above) or any novel through LE’s Amazon store or the Book Depository sometime during this contest and send a copy of the receipt VIA email for your purchase to: jackie AT literaryescapism DOT com. Each purchase is worth ten entries.
One thing I do add to my contests…the winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.
The contest will stay open until November 23rd, at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the Research Randomizer and the List Randomizer.
I saw the first Skinner book about a year ago in the store and it caught my attention and has been on my list since. I had no idea there were so many now! After reading this interview I think it is time to start this series. I love dark/horror UF with some romance thrown in . I just finished the Catching Fire and all I can say is WTF? Talk about destroying someone and their world. The Zodiac Series by Vicki Pettersson is like that too. It is like the author is sitting at their computers rubbing their hands together and laughing maniacally at what they can do to the characters next . Would love to win this book!
2 points for me!
The stories where someone’s world is ripped apart that I liked was The Hunger Games trilogy.
Facebook follower
Anne Bishop’s Ephemera doulogy has a world of shifting geography as a result of defeating the bad guys. I scoffed at the premise at first so was very surprised to get a very convincing world building. I thought that, not a lot of authors can pull that off. But by god, Bishop has! Damn good “author’s voice”! …I haven’t read anything by Marcus Pelegrimas though, but, it seems that his “author’s voice” is as good as Bishop’s (reading from his post here)…
I’m a follower at Facebook. My FB name is Cherry Mischivous.
Re-posted your contest at: http://contests-freebies.blogspot.com/2010/11/win-vampire-uprising-at-literary.html
Dugg it: http://digg.com/news/entertainment/guest_author_marcus_pelegrimas_literary_escapism
FB: http://www.facebook.com/cherrymischievous#!/cherrymischievous/posts/171843922840521
Twitted: http://twitter.com/#!/cherrymischivus/status/4550999423328256
Cherry Mischievous
I agree with SandyG that was my very first thought as well. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
+1 Tweeted http://twitter.com/#!/StacyMaynard
+1 Im a follower @stacymaynard
Chllybrd(at)gmail(dot)com
Hi :)
Thank you for the excellent post.
I love The Wheel of Time series for complete world cataclysm.
(I Follow via Google Reader)
All the best,
RKCharron
I think your spam filter ate my comment :(
I’ve re-posted your contest, facebook it, twitted, and dugg it. But if I put the url addresses here, your spam filter will eat my comment again… If you want the URLs, I can email it to you if you want.
I follow LE at Facebook. My FB name is Cherry Mischivous.
I follow LE at Twitter. My Twitter name is @cherrymischivus.
Cherry Mischievous
cherrymischif-warrior [at] yahoo [dot] com
Anne Bishop’s Ephemera doulogy has a world of shifting geography as a result of defeating the bad guys. I scoffed at the premise at first so was very surprised to get a very convincing world building. I thought that, not a lot of authors can pull that off. But by god, Bishop has! Damn good “author’s voice”! …I haven’t read anything by Marcus Pelegrimas though, but, it seems that his “author’s voice” is as good as Bishop’s (reading from his post here)…
Cherry Mischievous
cherrymischif-warrior [at] yahoo [dot] com
I don’t know how I missed this series, but I’m going to have to rectify that very soon. The Skinners series sounds really great and I’m looking forward to getting started on it.
Ann Aguirre’s Sirantha Jax series – Jax has had her world ripped completely apart several times, and she always picks herself up and keeps going.
Barbed1951(at)aol(dot)com
The Choas Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness has the world ripped apart at the end of each book with everything changing and teh stakes raising each time. It’s such a fantastic trilogy with some of the best character development I’ve ever read.
Facebook Follower as well!
notanotherbookblog(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk
oh my, how is it possible I missed those books? the series sounds really interesting – I don’t think it’s possible to start with book #4, therefore I will buy book #1 on my next shopping trip and start reading :)
the first book which came to my mind was Jory Strongs Ghostland – the whole world turned upside down and you have to explore it all over again.
Melanie S.
Marcus is a new author for me; I look forward in reading his works.
I’m sure, I’m too late to ask a question but here goes…
Marcus, what is your opinion on book trailers? Do you think they help in book sales? Thanks.
+1 Posted on Twitter http://twitter.com/bl0226/status/6338864415252481
+1 I follow on both FB and Twitter (@bl0226)
I’m not sure if ripped apart would be the right word for the books I’ve read but The Eragon series by christopher paolini had me submerged into a crazy world. Renee Wildes series was pretty awesome too. I have been reading a lot of paranormal romance lately and this book would be a nice change for me, yet still be Paranormal =) Thanks for the contest!
+1 Follow you on twitter as @Tanya1224
+1 twittered at http://www.twitter.com/Tanya1224
+1 commented on Adrian Phoenix’s review (not sure if that was to far out or not) I’m pretty sure I’ve commented elsewhere but don’t remember =) I have gotten new reads from your reviews though. Great blog.
Thanks for the chance to win one of these awesome books!
The Hunger Games are definitely a good example for book where a world is ripped apart. I´m normally more of an Urban Fantasy girl, but this YA series really blew me away.
+1 If you are a follower of Literary Escapism on Facebook and/or Twitter
Christine
I hate to be unoriginal but I have to agree with everyone who’s mentioned the Hunger Games since I just finished reading Mockingjay.
+1 FB follower
Thanks for running this contest!