Today it’s my pleasure to welcome over lazarusInfinity, author of Exodus: A Requiem for Jacob Forlorn, a Dark Fantasy.
ISBN: 978-1482537932
ASIN: B00BF25U02
Number of pages: 208
Word Count: 79,210
Cover Artist: Ryan
Doan Illustration & Photography
GIVEAWAY! Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter after this post for a chance to win an eCopy of Exodus: A Requiem for Jacob Forlorn.
Book Description
Welcome to the dark side of love...
A dark fantasy filled with interracial romance, lust,
betrayal and vengeance. What happens when everything you've worked for and
sacrificed for is suddenly taken away from you? What happens when the greatest
love you've ever known isn't what it seems? What happens when your most loyal
childhood friends and family pass away? What happens when one man takes a
fateful journey between love and hate, light and darkness...Heaven and Hell?
Jacob Forlorn is a beleaguered everyman escaping from the
shadows of a bitter and broken past to find his place in life when he meets
Miranda, a beautiful and mysterious woman with a past of her own. Drawn by love
at first sight, a whirlwind interracial romance brimming with intense passion
ensues, culminating in the birth of a beautiful child. But all is not well in paradise. Against the
remains of a hidden past, something dark and deadly emerges, threatening to
either warn Jacob or rob him of both his heart and his sanity. Jealousy,
resentment and deception emerge, soon forming a deadly web of intrigue, lust
and secrecy which all have repercussions far beyond anything he ever imagined.
As dark visions and nightmares haunt him repeatedly, Jacob soon
begins to walk a very fine line between right and wrong, against a backdrop of
misery and death that pushes him to the limits of his faith in God.
Someone...or something is after him. The secrets of the past begin to destroy
him both physically and spiritually, forcing him to make a dangerous choice.
Love. Lust. Betrayal. Vengeance. It all comes to an end and
something has to give. The journey to Hell and back has now begun in this
brooding and haunting dark fantasy.
**The sequel to EXODUS, REVELATION: THE RETURN OF JACOB
FORLORN is also now available at all major retailers.
Let's Interview!
What inspired you to write this book?
Exodus: A Requiem for Jacob Forlorn was
basically a character study from years of either witnessing or hearing about
relationship horror stories from friends of mine. We’ve all heard one bad relationship scenario
or another and the focus is always the same: the bad things that men do. So many movies and books are made about women
who suffer broken hearts and fall into fits of despair and I thought it was
time for a change. I wanted to go
against the grain and write a story about a guy whose greatest enemy is his own
heart and mind. Jacob Forlorn is a guy
who tries to do the right things with the wrong women, and eventually it costs
him far more than he ever imagined.
How did
you come up with the title?
I never
brainstorm titles when I’m working on a story.
As weird as it may sound, whenever I get the general idea for a story in
my head, the title is always the next thing that comes along. I have no clue why that happens, but it
always does. Most of the time I don’t
even know where a lot of the things I write come from. Hemingway once said something to the effect
of: “All an author needs to do is I sit at the typewriter and bleed.” I don’t compare myself to Hemingway in any shape
or form but he was right.
What made
you choose the main setting for your book?
The story
is set in New Orleans, which is where I was born and raised. It’s a city that’s rich in history, culture,
legends and folklore, not to mention being one of the greatest cities in the
world. To grow up around so much
inspiration to draw from and not set a book here is not something I could ever
fathom. I didn’t understand that growing
up, and it didn’t start to make sense to me until after Hurricane Katrina
struck the city. That was definitely one
of the darkest times our city has ever faced.
The beautiful thing that came out of it was a stronger sense of
community pride and general love for the city.
There are still problems here but there’s just no place like New
Orleans.
Tell us a little bit
about the conflict in your story.
Jacob
Forlorn is your basic everyman who walks with a weary heart that he wears on
his sleeve. Struggling to find his place
in life in the aftermath of a relationship gone sour, he soon meets a very
beautiful and alluring woman who is seemingly the one he’s been searching for
all his life. Throwing caution to the
wind, he immerses himself in a whirlwind romance filled with intense passion
and mystery. As usual with relationships
that are seemingly too good to be true, skeletons from his lover’s past coupled
with supernatural visions and nightmares begin to destroy him both mentally and
spiritually. Not all is what it seems,
and Jacob soon finds this out the hard way as he spirals down a very dark and
destructive path that leads to the unthinkable.
The story is a dark and tragic tale in the vein of OTHELLO meets ANGEL HEART.
Are you
currently working on another story? If so, we’d love some details.
I am
currently working on another novel entitled PORN AGAIN, which is loosely based
on my years of working in an adult retail store in none other than New Orleans.
SYNOPSIS:
“What’s
it like working in a sex store?”
That’s a
question that Harper ‘Happy’ Downman will soon learn the meaning of…in more
ways than one.
The
poster child for middle-class America, Happy is your typical button-down,
conservative Christian American with a quaint home, a lovely wife and a dull
sex life. At the height of the Great Recession, a drastic turn of events
in both his personal and professional life rocks Happy’s world to its very
core. All seems lost…that is until his lecherous older brother comes to
the rescue with a ‘stimulating’ solution that’s sure to raise more than just
eyebrows within his eccentric family.
Relocating
to the decadent, hedonistic streets of New Orleans, he soon finds that he’s way
out of his league. In a world of porn, sex toys and interesting
characters, Happy takes a memorable journey down a road of sex, love and
relationships that he will never forget.
Porn
Again is a funny and insightful romp proving that it’s not always the people
who work in a sex store that you have to worry about. Sometimes it’s the
people who shop there.
Read it with
someone you ****…
A lot of
stories on the market deal with the ups and downs of romance, but very few
venture inside the doors of a sex store and expose all the hilarious and crazy
things that take place. If you can
imagine working in a sex store in New Orleans on Bourbon St., you know that
anything can and will happen. The book
will be released in mid April to all major retailers. Be on the lookout for preorders soon! For more info on updates, feel free to sign
up for my newsletter at www.lazarusinfinity.net.
The other
project that I’m in the middle of is a screenplay based on a short story I
published entitled OCCUPATION. The story
centers around a zombie apocalypse taking place in New Orleans during the year
that the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras coincide.
Tell us
about your book cover and how it relates to your story.
The book
cover much like the title was something that came to mind immediately after I
got the general idea in my head. Growing
up with a love of cinema, I’ve always been a fan of movie poster design and
wanted to somehow incorporate that into the cover. Everything in the cover serves as a motif for
what happens in the story. Jacob Forlorn
is a man walking down a very rugged and dangerous road in his life, overshadowed
by a beautiful and mysterious woman. The
mask she wears is a metaphor for how often we can be deceived and possibly ruined
by the very people we choose to lay down with and give our hearts to. As for the crows, that’s a secret…
Tell us
about your favorite writing environment. Is it indoors, outdoors, a special
room, etc.
My
favorite place to write is a locally owned business in New Orleans known as The
Reservoir Café. I love Starbucks just as
much as anyone else, but I also believe in supporting local businesses. The Reservoir Café is a very cool, hip and
eclectic environment on Magazine St. where I can just come in with my laptop
and really disappear into the work. It’s
come to the point where some days I practically live there.
Are your book/books available in audio?
In other languages? If so, give us more details about where we can get them and
what languages they’re in.
At the moment, my books are not
available in audio format or other languages.
It is something that I’m seriously considering for the future as I build
my catalogue. As of right now, readers can
find my work on Amazon.com, Smashwords, iBooks, Barnes & Noble and other
major retailers.
How long have you been writing? How long
have you been published?
I have been writing since I was eight
years old and only published for about two years now. My first love has always been acting and I
grew up on greats like Sidney Poitier, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney and Yul
Brynner. Once I got to high school, I
started studying acting seriously and Denzel Washington became my idol. Writing was something that was just always
there, but I never took it seriously. I
was always one of those kids who would finish their work first in class and had
nothing else to do, so I would write. My
third grade teacher caught wind of what I was doing and always encouraged me to
“Just keep writing.” As I got to college
and continued studying theatre, I started writing plays and that later turned
into writing screenplays. Even still, my
mother was the one who always said that I would one day publish a book. Since I didn’t finish college and knew less
than nothing about publishing, I always laughed at her. As far as writing goes, I grew up on Stephen
King, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and Truman Capote. In my mind, those were authors, and I could never fit into that class of
talent. I still feel that way to this
day. I never dreamed in a million years
that I’d actually be a published author now working on my third novel.
What genre/genres do you prefer to
write? Are there other genres you’d like to write in the future?
For me, this is all
experimentation-trial and error. Growing
up on Hitchcock and horror films, I’ve always been a fan of mystery and
suspense. Anything dealing with
supernatural themes are also a focus. I
did grow up in New Orleans after all.
I’d love to try my hand at Sci-Fi or a romance in the future. Some may classify PORN AGAIN as a romance
when it comes out. I tend to look at it
as being more of a hybrid between a character study and a RomCom. I’m still very passionate about writing
screenplays and ultimately fulfilling my dream of one day resuming actor’s
training and getting back up on the stage.
About the Author
"Just keep writing." Out of those simple words
grew a dream that would instill a profound sense of purpose within a young kid
born and raised in New Orleans, LA. With only his dreams along with an
insatiable drive to be the best he could be, this writer would grow from
penning children's literature in the 3rd grade to later writing stageplays and
screenplays in college. Heavily influenced by a who's who of incredible writers
from Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Ralph Ellison all the way to August
Wilson, Arthur Miller and Aaron Sorkin, lazarusInfinity has continued to
stretch his creative boundaries to encompass all forms of writing. In addition
to writing contemporary fiction and children's stories, he is currently at work
on several screenplays along with another novel.
Visit lazarusInfinity
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1 comment:
Thanks for the promotion-I appreciate it!
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