Magic and Illusion followed me throughout my childhood, as I was quite entranced by what could not yet be seen within an act and how this particular suspension of what was known was dangerously wicked on the level of curiosity! Dangerous a bit too, I suppose because sometimes I think the magicians and illusionists would push their fate a bit with what they were attempting to conjure in front of us, but for acts like David Copperfield, magic intermixed with illusion had a special aura around it making it quite enjoyable to simply get caught up in ‘the show’!
Today I have the pleasure of welcoming to my blog, the author behind a Middle Grade novel Lucas Mackenzie: And the London Midnight Ghost Show! The name of this novel alone pulled me into it’s orbit, because when you combine three loves of mine: London, Ghosts, and Magic it’s quite hard to think I wouldn’t want to read the novel! I would have opted to read this one straight-off, however, as a host for Month9Books via Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours, only the electronic versions are given to reviewers; hence why I’ve decided to feature Month9Books authors through a variety of Guest Posts and Interviews, until the day arrives where I can gather the books themselves in print edition!
Lucas Mackenzie has got the best job of any 10 year old boy. He travels from city-to-city as part of the London Midnight Ghost Show, scaring unsuspecting show-goers year round. Performing comes naturally to Lucas and the rest of the troupe, who’ve been doing it for as long as Lucas can remember.
But there’s something Lucas doesn’t know.
Like the rest of Luca’s friends, he’s dead. And for some reason, Lucas can’t remember his former life, his parents or friends. Did he go to school? Have a dog? Brothers and sisters?
If only he could recall his former life, maybe even reach out to his parents, haunt them.
When a ghost hunter determines to shut the show down, Lucas realizes the life he has might soon be over. And without a connection to his family, he will have nothing. There’s little time and Lucas has much to do. Can he win the love of Columbine, the show’s enchanting fifteen-year-old mystic? Can he outwit the forces of life and death that thwart his efforts to find his family?
Keep the lights on! Lucas Mackenzie’s coming to town.
Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show by Steve Bryant
Published By: Month9Books (@Month9Books), on 24th February, 2015
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
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Mastery of Illusions & how Illusionary Fiction is wicked to create {back-story behind “Lucas Mackenzie & the London Midnight Ghost Show”}
by Steve Bryant
As you’re a master of illusions & magical arts, was it your personal history of how to entertain through this medium that gave you the impetus to create your debut novel?
My fascination with the spooky side of magic gave me the impetus for the environment of the novel. My first magic catalog, at age twelve, was from Nelson Enterprises, who supplied spirit mediums and ghost show workers such items as the Floating and Talking Spirit Face of Don Pedrito, the Phantom Ghost Projector, and a complete midnight ghost show. Although my cast of ghost show performers is fictional, all the other traveling ghost shows mentioned in the book were real. I tried to recreate the era of the midnight ghost shows as accurately as possible. Likewise, my cast interacts with the other spooky goings on of 1959, such as the year’s horror movies, the interest in Bridey Murphy, UFO scares, Charles Addams cartoons, and Forrest J Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland.
I was curious if the character came to you through a clue or piece of ordinary life in your field that broadened the depth of the story?
Some years ago, my wife and I lost our six-year-old child to heart disease, and in some ways that was the impetus for the novel. Although Lucas isn’t meant to be my son, it’s hard not to muse on the desire to reconnect with a lost loved one, even if it is only briefly and infrequently. But from there the story takes off on its own. If ghosts existed, what would they do? Visit tourist attractions? Watch movies? Attend dances? Go bowling? Moonlight? These were fun options to explore.
What was your favorite part of creating Lucas Mackenzie’s story?
Easy. My favorite part of any story is the love story. Lucas at ten (he’s been ten for years) is in love with the taller, fifteen-year-old Columbine (she’s been fifteen for centuries), and he sees no way around their differences. Young love has been central to any novel I’ve written. I don’t think anything makes you feel more alive than being freshly in love, even if you are a ghost!
Until I stumbled across this novel, I had forgotten to realise I hadn’t sorted out a way to read about magicians and illusionists in fiction! I often have found teleplays that deal with the magical arts (i.e. The Ghost Whisperer or Castle for instance) but I haven’t yet set down to discover writers who are bringing this curious part of my youth forward into their stories! It would have felt to be a natural step forward for me to do so long ago, however, too often I would find that the stories involving the magical arts were a bit bent on the extreme rather than the cosy or they would take the undercurrent of the novel’s tone into the waters of where darkness supersedes the light; never a way to win my reader’s heart!
With Mr Bryant’s novel, I felt an electric pulse of excitement, because who like the author said wouldn’t want to get behind a 10 year old kid whose fallen in love with a ghost!? I find this interaction fascinating, as everyone loves to speculate about how ghosts can interact with humans and vice versa, but in this novel, there is more going on than living-dead communications! The joy for me initially without reading the story, was the cover-art itself as I think the artist who rendered it was bang-on brilliant in their depiction on behalf of what we could hope to find inside! It looks exactly how you’d perceive a young illusionist might try to promote his artistry, don’t you think!?
My heart grieved the loss of the author’s son when I learnt that the impetus of the story was a bit of a nod back to the essence of who his son was and how to carry a bit of his legacy forward. I believe his son did inspire his connection to Lucas and gave him a window of a way to create a character whose spirit reminds me of his son but allowed him to move forward and through where the creativity behind Lucas led him to go next. It’s a testament of a father’s love and son’s bond that lasts far longer than most might believe but of which I truly understand.
I love how he rooted real-life events and experiences into the fabric of the story, because to me that helps anchour you into a particular era and curates a bit of a history of the magical arts you might not have known if they were not knitted into the novel! I can see now that as soon as I find this novel either through the ILL services at my library (nearly unlikely they tend to carry Month9Books in digital formats) or through one of the Indie book shoppes I enjoy finding books out of — I simply cannot wait to re-open the topic on this book as I read it’s contents!
I was happy to see a Middle Grade novel was written on these themes and exploring the character’s journey as it was perceived through the synopsis. Sometimes I think children need to have the allure of magic in their lives, the little bit of unexpectedness that will help give their imagination a bit of a nudge and a mirth of joy to alight in their lives when they might not have expected to find something that caught them unaware yet magically enthused by the possibilities! On this note, I’m thankful I stumbled across this novel and of course, as I’ve oft said previously, I am thankful to have found Month9Books!
This blog tour is courtesy of: Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours
Be sure to click-through to the ‘virtual road map’ in order to read reader reactions on behalf of the ebook copy of Lucas Mackenzie as much as to read other Guest Posts by the author! I was quite intrigued about the topics the other book bloggers selected, so I will be following along too!
My next upcoming blog tour hosting for:
Is going to be for The Journey of a Not-So-Innocuous Girl by Leigh Statham!
I am interviewing Ms Statham for her blog tour!
NOTE:
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Book Cover of “Lucas Mackenzie & the London Midnight Ghost Show”, the Chapter by Chapter blog tour badge, the Book Synopsis, Author Photograph of Steve Bryant, the Author Biography, and the blog tour banners (for Lucas Mackenzie & Innocuous Girl) were provided by Chapter by Chapter and used by permission. Guest Post Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Rainbow Digital Clip Art Washi Tape made by The Paper Pegasus. Purchased on Etsy by Jorie and used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2015.
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