What is your writing environment?
Home office with two cats who like to block the screen when I’m editing.
What is your writing process?
Initially, hand-written with a fountain pen in black ink. Maybe a few sections rewritten this way, then everything transferred to computer. There must also be atmospheric music, and as it comes together repetitions of Brothers in Arms by Mark Knopfler. At the moment, the Strasbourg 2019 one is playing.
What authors have caught your interest lately and why?
Bob Van Laerhoven’s literary thriller with a social conscious point of view, R A Hutchins cozies that are a great escape (with pie), Bejamin X. Wretlind’s thriller that may have predicted our future.
What was your inspiration for this particular novel?
As part of the Celwyn series, I felt the overall story coming into its own as this came together. The emotions and motivations lead up to what happens in the forests of Turkey. The plot also pits the adventurers against each other for the first time, and Celwyn is not happy about it, even though he knows the automat is right.
What is your favorite scene in your new release?
When Nemo wakes up from an attack and finds Celwyn passed out on top of him.
What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be available?
Celwyn and his crew continue their adventurers. I’m working on book six now. They travel west to the Spanish coast and confront something that has bedeviled and terrorized Nemo for a long time. Mid 2023 after books 3, 4, and 5
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
It is more of avoiding what I don’t want to do that involves a snow shovel. At the moment, it is snowing, which I was told only happens once every five years when I moved to this part of the Pacific Northwest. It has snowed every year but two since 2006.
What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know?
That it doesn’t take much to scare me. Back when MacGyver and Charlies Angels would drive me out of the room. If you know what can scare you, and how to describe it (rational or not) I think it makes stronger writing.
Top 3 things on your bucket list?
The places in Europe, besides Ireland, that I haven’t been to yet.
Australia
Owning a treehouse, with wifi, to write in (solves the cat in front of my screen problem).
As the music dies, the magician Celwyn is mortally wounded. His darker, immortal brother Pelaez brings him back, barely, with his magic. The party of protagonists travel on the Nautilus to the Cape Verde Islands and the healer of immortals. During the journey, Professor Kang and Bartholomew can not tell if Pelaez will keep his brother alive. Captain Nemo is ready to evict Pelaez forcibly, and keeping Celwyn alive is the only thing that restrains him.
After Celwyn is saved, the healer requests payment for his services. This sends the adventurers to the catacombs in Capuchin where their experience is one they will not forget. Before it is over, several of the protagonists question why it seems everyone from warlocks and vampires to witches, seem to be congregating in their world. Before it is over, some of them become surprising allies, and a few of their allies turn against them.
In part II, work on the new flying machine begins in earnest bringing attention from the Mafioso and a cherub-like warlock called Duncan. After a final battle with Duncan, the flying machine is destroyed and everyone at their compound is murdered by one of their own.
Enjoy an Excerpt
Prelude
The rolling hills near Odessa, north of Constantinople 1867
With each step he took, Professor Xiau Kang sensed the intensity, and importance of what he would find. Above all, he felt the weight of his sadness. He had done his best to ignore that there was no guarantee Captain Nemo had located Thales, if Nemo failed to find him, Jonas Celwyn would be dead within a matter of days, perhaps hours.
A long time ago, on the Zelda, the magician had doubted a mechanical man could feel. Kang paused, swaying on his feet as he fought to regain his control; at this moment, the automat knew real despair, a wrenching grief that they would lose Jonas. He swallowed hard and walked faster, climbing to the top of the berm.
There she was! The long black submarine lay still in the water. A single sailor stood on patrol, and another perched in the cage on top with a spyglass.
Kang called, “I’ll get Mr. Celwyn. Please let the Captain know we’re here.”
Conductor Smith joined him as they ran back to the coach. The others had seen them and began unloading the magician onto the stretcher that Kang had fashioned for this moment. He skidded to a stop and grabbed Celwyn’s hand.
“The Nautilus is here. It isn’t far.”
In the distance, a low hum reached them; the sound sputtered and grew stronger.
The magician’s eyes opened slowly, like a thread from his memory raised his lids, impelling him to look. Everyone, including Jonas, gazed upward, as if they had already known what was to come.
The noise grew louder, and then a bright yellow flying machine crested the low hills and headed toward the estuary.
“Yes!” Kang shouted, raising his fist in triumph.
The plane swerved to the north, banked, and then flew toward them again in a wide arc.
“Oh, my God, it’s Bartholomew,” Elizabeth exclaimed.
Bartholomew wore a broad smile and his scarf fluttered in the breeze as he sailed over them. He waved. As he banked again, the engine revved and he turned, descending for another pass. Celwyn raised himself onto an elbow to wave back.
“Hurry,” Kang said. “Bartholomew is going to land. We have to get Jonas onto the ship.”
About the Author:
I’m one of those writers who doesn’t plan ahead, no outlines, no clue, and I sometimes write myself into a corner. Atmospheric music in the background helps. Black by Pearl Jam especially.
More information is available at LouKemp.com. I'd love to hear from you and what you think of Celwyn, Bartholomew, and Professor Xiau Kang.
Milestones:
2009 The anthology story Sherlock’s Opera appeared in Seattle Noir, edited by Curt Colbert, Akashic Books. Available through Amazon or Barnes and Noble online. Booklist published a favorable review of my contribution to the anthology.
2010 My story, In Memory of the Sibylline, was accepted into the best-selling MWA anthology Crimes by Moonlight, edited by Charlaine Harris. The immortal magician Celwyn makes his first appearance in print.
2018 The story, The Violins Played before Junstan is published in the MWA anthology Odd Partners, edited by Anne Perry. The Celwyn series begins. Present The full length prequel, The Violins Played before Junstan, to the Celwyn book series is published on Kindle. The companion book, Farm Hall is also published where Pelaez, another immortal magician and Celwyn's brother, makes his first appearance. The remaining books in the series are Music Shall Untune the Sky, The Raven and the Pig, The Pirate Danced and the Automat Died.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your interview and book details, The Raven and the Pig sounds like a great story and I am looking forward to reading it
ReplyDeleteI love the cover and think the book sounds great.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, I enjoyed the video and the excerpt, the cover is nice and the book sounds like a fascinating and entertaining read! Thanks for sharing it with me and have a wonderful day!
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