Pump Up Your Book Chats with Christopher Cloud Author of Voices of the Locusts

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About Voices of the Locusts

Voices of the Locusts

Sixteen-year old Jack O’Brien has never known the bittersweet stint of love, and romance is the farthest thing from his mind as he and his family arrives at a remote U.S. Air Force outpost in Japan where Jack’s father is base commander. The year is 1948. Jack’s life changes after a chance encounter with Fujiko Kobaysi, a beautiful and enchanting 17-year-old Japanese girl. Jack is immediately smitten.

Fujiko’s traditional parents are overly protective and monitor her every move, and Jack and Fujiko meet secretly at her garden, located some distance from her village. There is a good reason why Fujiko’s parents are so protective and Jack is devastated when Fujiko tells him that her parents have promised her in marriage to an older man, a practice common throughout Asia at the time. The marriage is only a months away. Jack devises a cunning plan, one that will overshadow her arranged marriage and bring Fujiko and him together.

Playing against a backdrop of swirling post-War social change, Voices of the Locusts tells the story of three families – one black, one white, one Asian. Told in Jack’s voice in vivid and sometimes haunting detail, Jack and Fujiko are frustrated in their romantic quest by story characters coming to terms (often violently) with the emotional scars of World War II.

Book Excerpt

A flutter of panic races through my body. It is instantly replaced by a sweep of joy, and a strange, unnatural lucidity overcomes me.

Fujiko and I hesitate for what seems a small eternity, our eyes locked in a moment of mutual understanding. Finally, I lean in toward Fujiko and she leans in toward me. Our eyes close and our mouths touch in a whisper-soft kiss, a brief, gentle brush of lips.

I pull back slowly, my heart racing, my head alive with all manner of strange, warm images. This must all be a dream. A wonderful, glorious dream. I don’t want to ever wake up.

Interview with Christopher Cloud

Author Christopher Cloud

Q: When your first book was published, who published it and why did you choose them?

A: Sunstone Press, a regional press in Santa Fe, published my satirical novel Santa Fe Crazy. Sunstone liked the story because of it sassy politically incorrectness. That could not be said for other publishers, many of whom believed the story too racy.

Q: How did it make you feel to become published for the first time and how did you celebrate?

A: I attended many book signings throughout New Mexico. Upon returning to Albuquerque, where I was living at the time, I celebrated each signing with my friends at Silva’s Saloon in Bernallilo.

Q: What advice would you give to those who want to write in the young adult genre?

Discipline. You can’t write when you feel like it. You establish a schedule, perhaps daily, and stick to it. You write on those days when nothing in your story seems to work.

Read. A. Great. Deal. I’m always reading a book. There was a time, before I started writing, when I might be reading three or four books at once.

Pay attention to your surroundings. Try to memorize physical images that might serve you well in your novel. Same goes for dialogue. Especially, dialogue. Listen to how people talk (or kids or teenagers) and try to emulate that tone.

Q: Do you recommend authors getting publicists to help them promote their books? Do you have one?

A: Absolutely, and yes, I have one. A good publicist is worth his or her weight in gold. It’s all about having the right media contacts. Speaking for myself, I am swimming in uncharted waters. A good publicist can help me chart a more successful course. In the end, however, you must have a good story. A good story will always find a home.

About Chris Cloud

Chris Cloud began writing fiction full time after a long career in journalism and public relations. Voices of the Locusts is his fourth novel. A multi-genre author, Chris Cloud’s choice of novels to write is determined not by genre, but by the weight of the story. Cloud graduated from the University of Missouri in 1967 with a degree in journalism. He has worked as a reporter, editor, and columnist at newspapers in Texas, California, and Missouri. He was employed by a Fortune 100 company as a public relations executive, and later operated his own public relations agency. Cloud attended high school in Japan, and much of his Voices of the Locusts is based on personal experience. Cloud lives in Joplin, Missouri.

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