Bloghopping: Alex Sumner talks about his forthcoming new work

I am participating in a blog hop of Visionary Fiction Authors. For more details, please see Sandy Nathan’s YOUR SHELF LIFE.

Anyway, here are my answers to some questions she’s posed:

“The Demon Detective” by Alex Sumner

1. What is the working title of your book or project?

“How To Cast A Love Spell” – a novella, in the series “The Demon Detective, and other stories.”

2. Where did the idea come from for the book or project?

A friend of mine said to me “Alex, why don’t you write a post on your website about how to cast a love spell?” After giving this some thought I decided to make it the theme of a new fictional story, instead of a blog post per se. I thought that discussing the issues involved – both how to cast a love spell, and why it is not necessarily a clever idea to do so – would sound a lot more fun and interesting if cast in the form of an adventure story, than if I were to just write something sententious and preachy about it.

3. What genre does it fall under, if any?

Dark fantasy, with a large dash of (cough) “Romance.”

Angelina Jolie

4. If applicable, who would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

Johnny Depp

Guy Shepardson, the lead-male character, would have to be someone with suave, dark, good-looks, perhaps like Johnny Depp. The lead-female character would have to be someone very beautiful and with a commanding screen presence – like Angelina Jolie.

Basically, my story is the one they should have adapted to film, instead of that god-awful mess “The Tourist.”

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your manuscript or project?

“Fifty Shades Of Satan.”

6. Will your book or story be self-published or represented by an agency?

Probably the former, unless something drastic happens in the next couple of months.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It’s still a WIP! I do find, though, that it’s going very quickly – probably because I myself enjoy the story so much.

8. What other book or stories would you compare this story to within the genre?

The nearest analogue I suppose would be the paranormal romance stories of Christine Feehan. This book will be nothing like Feehan’s though. I deliberately go in a different direction and follow my own path.

The Goetia of the Lesser Key of Solomon

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book or story?

Apart from my friend coming up with the original idea (see my answer to question 2), it is generally inspired by a demonic grimoire known as The Goetia. I should hasten to point out that demonic-magick is a complex matter. The issues raised are akin to Jungian notions of integrating the Shadow into the Self, rather than a straightforward Manichean good-vs-evil duality.

10. What else about the book or story might pique the reader’s interest?

Apart from a large number of scenes of extremely lusty wish-fulfillment on the part of the lead-female character, it does actually contain details of real magick in it!