Pump Up Chats with Dark Fantasy Author Benjamin Kane Ethridge

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BKE author photo Benjamin Kane Ethridge is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of the novel Black & Orange. He received a Masters of Art in English Composition from California State University, San Bernardino, and his thesis was entitled: “Causes of Unease: The Rhetoric of Horror Fiction and Film.” When he isn’t staring into a burning computer screen, Benjamin is defending California’s water supplies as an environmental compliance inspector. His official web presence is www.bkethridge.com and you can FaceBook him here, www.facebook.com/benjamin.kane.ethridge and Tweet him here, twitter.com/#!/bkethridge

Thank you for this interview, Benjamin. Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later? Do you remember your first published piece?

A: Oh I was a child. Probably only eight or nine years old. I remember writing a very violent story about a boy who gets endowed with magic powers from a leaf. With great inventiveness on my part, I entitled to piece, “LEAF BOY.” I still have a copy of it somewhere. Terrifying stuff.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

A: I can’t complain too much, but I would say that writers have to wear many different hats that I didn’t realize were necessary apparel. I’ve embraced my inner salesman. It hasn’t been a completely atrocious ordeal but it’s been a different experience than one expects from being a writer. As far as rewarding, I would say that there is no better feeling than when someone praises your work without having any ties to you personally. I have a couple of lifelong friends who really, really enjoyed my book, and I think that’s swell! But it’s so much more gratifying coming from an unbiased stranger a thousand miles away.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life? Do you have support?

A: I have a wife and a two year old daughter, with another child on the way. My wife supports me as much as she can. However, I find writing at home troublesome due to the noise and chaos my wonderful daughter produces. I’m not one of those who can write in distraction, not even with music playing. I need relative silence to gather my thoughts. It was easier before my daughter became interactive with the world and its various objects. I’ve gotten around this though. I write at nighttime and sometimes on my lunch breaks at work.

Can you tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it?

A: My latest published book? If so, that would be BLACK & ORANGE, which has recently won a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in First Novel. You know, I had a brainstorm one Easter about how the holiday didn’t really represent what we Americans have come to see it as, and then I had another thought about a different holiday, “what if Halloween wasn’t what we really thought it was?” No pagans, druids, Satanists, etc… what if Halloween was something that could make or break our world, our universe, if it didn’t go right? After that, I began piecing a story together.

Can you share an excerpt?

A: Certainly. Here’s the beginning of the prologue…

Where was Tony Nguyen? Where was the Heart of the Harvest?

Martin couldn’t answer that. He’d lost his gun, his mind could not conjure another mantle– he was powerless. The answers he desperately needed escaped him. He just ran. Teresa wove through a field of tall grass and he followed. The brittle blades swept across his face, snapping and hissing as they went. The children flooded into the field, their dark orange jaws snapping in concert with the disruption in the grass. Martin could hear Teresa wheezing. Her pace slowed. He had to match it; she wouldn’t be left behind, not like–

Where was Tony?

Thousand of little fiends chomped hollowly, hungry to fill that hollowness– instinctively Martin attempted to throw a mantle and dissect the crowd, but his brain had gone completely dry; he’d overdone it. There was no mental power left. He’d failed Tony. They both had. Now the Church of Midnight would have their sacrifice. The same realization flooded into Teresa’s cold face as she sprinted through the darkness ahead. He’d wasted his power, she was ill and the Church was too damned powerful now.

Chaplain Cloth was too damned powerful. And he took Tony. Somewhere along the line Martin and Teresa had lost the Heart of the Harvest, Tony Nguyen, that single soul that was theirs to protect from sacrifice.

The nightscape sloped. One of the children clamped onto Teresa’s leg with its serrated teeth and twisted its head to rip at the tendons there. Martin brought down a boot on its pumpkin shaped skull. The head trauma forced the jaws open. Martin jumped forward to crush it. The thing growled and jumped to meet him. Teresa swung around and stopped the creature mid-flight with the butt of her handgun. Her frayed jeans grew dark with blood but she ran on. The other children gained. Colorless trees flooded past, the open field turning into dense forest.

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

A: The only place really is my office, but any place silent would be ideal.

What is one thing about your book that makes it different from other books on the market?

A: It’s a fantasy take on Halloween myth. It isn’t traditional Halloween-horror, nor is it like “A Nightmare before Christmas.” If Halloween could be seen as a Rubik’s Cube of ancient history and folklore, BLACK & ORANGE is an attempt at using the pieces to make a Rubik’s Sphere. It’s a different paradigm, in other words.

Tables are turned…what is one thing you’d like to say to your audience who might buy your book one day?

A: The mumbling voices made me write it. Heh. No, I guess I would tell them thanks for taking a chance on a first author, and if they are over eighteen years old I’d congratulate them for choosing a Halloween book intended for grown-ups!

Thank you for this interview, Benjamin. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

A: Thank you too. I’m looking forward to the tour!

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Question of the Day

How do you make sales happen for you?

A lot of hard work! I sponsor a lot of on line parties, festivals and contests. Book sales don’t magically happen, believe me. An author has to work hard to earn her readers. And then she has to work hard to keep them by giving them something they’ll enjoy reading. I try hard to make my books worth a reader’s time.

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