Holiday
Author Questionnaire
**Please tell us a little about
yourself...
Thanks for
having me. Happy holidays and Merry Christmas!
I’m a middle
school English teacher, perpetual storyteller, and avid reader. I enjoy horror
and fantasy tales, usually set in perfectly normal little suburbs. Put-upon
characters that find their strength in the face of conflicts beyond the normal
human experience are my bread and butter.
**What is your favorite childhood
Christmas memory?
Every single
Christmas between ages five and twelve. Waking up to my mom’s cinnamon buns,
trying to get my parents awake and downstairs—even cleaning up after presents.
Putting the batteries in. All of it.
**Do you like to decorate your
house? Anything special that you do for
your decorating?
Shazam the
cat only lets me go so far. Most of the things I decorate with come from my
students at school. Frilly stuff and fragile ornaments—oh, no. The cat’s having
none of that.
**Do you have any special tradition
that your family celebrates for the Christmas Holiday?
It’s usually
me, my brothers, my mom, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews. I’m generally the
guy who gets nominated for the family grace, oddly enough. After we’ve done the
presents and before the big dinner, the guys usually go outside and shoot BB
guns.
**Are you the holiday cook or do you
let someone else do the cooking?
I’m the only
Italian boy I know who does not cook. But Mom always makes this great Christmas
spread—breaded chicken, stuffed shells, lasagna. It’s incredible.
**Do you like to be where there is
snow for the holidays or are you (or want to be) a snowbird that likes to fly
south for the winter?
I live in
Virginia. You can never predict the Mid-Atlantic. Sometimes we get nothing,
sometimes we get completely hammered in snow. There’s nowhere I’d rather be,
either way.
**As a reader, do you like to read
Christmas stories?
I don’t seek
them out, per se. When I used to work retail around the holidays, I kind of
overdosed on all that. But I don’t rule them out, either.
**As a writer, do you like to write
Christmas stories?
DEVILS IN
THE DARK and TEETH: THE FOREVER SHOW BOOK 2 both happen around Christmas.
There’s a Christmas scene in DEVILS IN THE DARK. Do ghosts and vampires count?
**Do you give the gift of reading for
Christmas?
Sure—for my
friends who read.
**For fun, I have a few personal
questions,
Your Favorite 5
1) Favorite Christmas song – U2’s “Baby,
Please Come Home.”
2) Favorite Christmas movie-SCROOGED
3) Favorite Christmas story –A Christmas
Carol
4) Favorite Christmas color-red
5) Favorite Christmas food – Mom’s pasta
stuffed with breaded chicken. Oh. My. God.
I’m hungry
now.
**And for a bonus, if you were given
the gift of travel to anywhere for the holidays, where would you want to go???
Anywhere? Really?
Middle
Earth. Hogwarts, if Middle Earth’s booked.
**Where can our readers find you??
Email: marcusdamanda1@comcast.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcusDamanda
Website/blog: www.marcusdamanda.com
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Marcus-Damanda/e/B002BLL6WC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
**Tell us about your current or upcoming release and where can we find it?
I’m very
proud to let everyone know about the second in THE DEVIL IN MISS DRAKE’S CLASS
series, A DEVIL IN DAYLIGHT. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to
high school …
a Rafflecopter giveaway
A Devil in Daylight
The Devil in Miss Drake’s Class, Book Two
Marcus Damanda
Evernight Teen, 163 pages
Horror/romantic elements
16+ due to violence and adult situations
“You will account for what you did to Audrey.”
After three months in the suicide prevention wing of St.
George’s, Audrey Bales is finally coming home. Enrolled at a new school, she
plans to reinvent herself with a new look, new friends, and a second chance to
be just like everyone else. But the kids who drove her over the edge aren’t
through with her yet.
And one of her new friends has an agenda all his own.
“You, and all the others.”
During the day, the halls of Battlefield High will
echo with their screams.
“It will never stop.”
And at night, their screams will be silenced.
“Until one of you ends it.”
Buy Links: Evernight
Teen Amazon
Excerpt:
Audrey watched the knife go in. Alex’s Swiss Army knife,
from Scouts.
That’s right, sis, Alex’s ghost said. You’re
doing it. Good girl.
Blood welled up from her wrist, at first in bubbles and
droplets, then in a line.
Ignore the pain. Block it out. Deny it, like it’s not
even there.
And it wasn’t. Weird. This was supposed to hurt.
Her reflection in the computer screen showed black hair.
And that, too, was weird. She hadn’t had black hair in months. Not since her
first days in the hospital.
Nor was she supposed to be seeing him. She’d
beaten him—banished him.
She had to saw to break the vein. A small, red jet
squirted over her keyboard.
On the screen, Val—her one-time best friend—was reaching
out to her. Audrey? Audrey, don’t be dumb. Come on.
Alex stopped talking, stopped coaching. From behind, he
held on to her shoulders and squeezed.
She still had the strength to use the knife again, going
down from the wrist. There was no pain, after all. She had the strength for
that and for one more thing.
She set down the knife in a puddle of her own blood, then
picked up her cell phone and took a picture, even as her wrist squirted again.
She hooked the phone to a USB cable and to the
computer. She posted the picture, unhooked it, and let it drop. It clattered
off the side of the desk and onto the floor, but Audrey didn’t even notice.
She tried to put her chin in her right hand. She wanted
to watch the responses. See what Val thought. See
what Maggie thought.
Maggie, who had started all of this. Maggie, who had
ruined Audrey’s life because she’d thought Audrey had been ogling her in the
locker room at school. Spoiled, rich little Maggie Lassiter, with the angel
earrings—it had been those Audrey had been staring at—and the
countless followers that Maggie called her friends. But it hadn’t been enough.
No, she had to steal Audrey’s friend, Valerie Mills. Her only friend….
Putting her chin in her hand didn’t quite work out. Her
elbow slipped in the blood on her desk. She felt her face hit the hard wooden
corner of the desk on her way to the floor.
****
But instead of hitting the floor, Audrey sat up in her
own bed, awake and breathing hard and holding her left wrist with her right
hand.
She looked… scarred, but whole.
Her parents had purged her bedroom nearly to emptiness,
but her computer was still there, a shadow near the window.
Audrey kicked her legs over the side of the bed and went
to it, powered on, and thumbed the monitor. And, amazingly, she yawned, even as
her heart began to settle back toward its normal speed and rhythm.
She found her water bottle and Geodon, and checked her
clock as the computer slowly hummed to life. Yep, close enough. She took her
pill.
Taking a breath, she tried to access her Twitter account.
Blocked.
Instagram, next.
Blocked.
Facebook.
Blocked.
She smiled, rather sleepily. Everything was still normal.
She’d just had to be sure.
Sunlight began to peek tentatively through her window.
Audrey set her chin in her right hand and waited for it.
Daylight could not come soon enough.
****
Alastair Hutchinson lay flat on his back on top of his
perfectly made bed, but he did not sleep. Had not slept.
Never slept.
He watched the sunrise.
We should be looking, said one of the voices that lived
inside of him. We’re wasting time.
“Why look?” he asked. “There’s an unsettled account at
the school we’ll be attending. I’ve found everything we need.”
Audrey is not an unsettled account, the voices
protested. She’s alive.
“I’m not talking about her,” Alastair said. “You haven’t
been paying attention. There’s another.” He laughed, softly. “Three days from
now, we’ll be sitting in her first period class.”
But not as Alastair Hutchinson, he thought. No. As a
name she’ll recognize.
The host stirred. We need to move the line, said
another voice. This isn’t helping.
“I’ve got that covered too,” said Alastair. “You won’t
have to wait long. Trust me.”
About the Author:
Marcus Damanda lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with his
cat, Shazam. At various times throughout his life, he played bass guitar for
the garage heavy metal band
Mother’s Day, wrote for The Dale City Messenger,
and published editorials in The Potomac News and The Freelance Star.
Currently, while not plotting his next foray into fictitious suburban mayhem,
he spoils his nieces and nephews and teaches middle school English.
Find Marcus Damanda here:
Website: http://www.marcusdamanda.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcusDamanda
Giveaway
$10 Evernight Teen Gift Card
Thanks again so much for having me!
ReplyDeleteAwesome interview! I don't think I've seen a holiday-themed author interview before...great idea!
ReplyDeleteHi, Shari! Thanks--it was a lot of fun doing it!
ReplyDelete