Horror Month Presents: J.C. Michael

I met James-aka J C Michael a year or so back when I first started showing my work to the crowd over on authonomy. We exchanged critiques with each other and swapped our Indie publishing stories etc.
Earlier this year, James submitted his book Discoredia to Books of the Dead Press when their submission doors opened, and Roy Daley, founder and owner of the publishing house snapped him up. (clever man that Roy Daley obviously)

Well, after months of cover redesigns and book editing, James is finally here to tell us more about his novel Discoredia. I'll be quite frank with you, Discoredia isn't just a thriller book, or just a horror book. Discoredia is quite honestly a twisted and brutal tale of horror AND thriller all rolled up into one messed uo crazy as hell ride. It will have you gasping, and have you glued to your chair until the very last page. This man has a seriously messed up--but very cool-- mind.

James is currently working on the sequel to Discoredia, and he's offering you a very unique opportunity. I'm actually going to copy and paste the message he sent me since it had me rolling over laughing (not literally, but I did laugh a lot.)

Claire, the sequel to Discoredia, Dark Designs, is currently  undergoing a re-write. The prize is to have five things, of your choice, embedded within the novel. It could be your name, an animal, your registration plate, the name of your business, an insult, anything. The idea is for it to be personal to you, rather than totally random. I reserve the right to trim back anything too detailed (a red elephant on a skateboard smoking crack while a one winged duck on its back sings Sign O' The Times may just end up as a skateboarding elephant). In order to enter people must 'like' my Facebook page www.facebook.com/discoredia and state which Tobe Hooper movie makes it into my horror Top Ten. The answers on my website www.discoredia.weebly.com winners to be picked out of the skull of an executed murderer (or my flat cap if that proves more practical). Message either myself or James on Facebook with your answers. https://www.facebook.com/events/151001158431798/?fref=ts#!/ClaireCRileyAuthor?fref=ts


J C Michael is the pen name of a bloke from Yorkshire whose dry sense of humour, inability to put up with fools, short arms, and deep pockets, make him an ideal fit for his regional stereotype. Although personally mellowed by fatherhood his writing remains brutal and uncompromising. Discoredia, his first novel, released in September 2013 with Books of the Dead Press.

Contact Details

www.discoredia.weebly.com
https://twitter.com/jcdiscoredia      
www.facebook.com/discoredia

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Discoredia Excerpt 

The girls behind the bar were going mad, dancing like they were possessed. The black guy was on the bar, walking back and forth. What was he doing? Then Warren realized. He had a bottle in each hand and he was pouring it over the girls. Once the bottles were empty he took a lighter out of his pocket, lit it, and paused.
As Warren realized what was coming, it happened––he set fire to three girls: Jo, Stacey and Liz. Warren felt the need to look away but couldn’t. He had the morbid fascination of a driver passing a car accident. What’s more, the image became enlarged, magnified before his very eyes. He blinked and the scene was at the far side of the room, but then it switched once more, came closer. The effect was similar to the eye test he had the previous week, with the changes in lenses altering his perception of how close things appeared to be. Better with, Mr. Charlton? Or without? Better with…or without?
The girls kept dancing, their hands in the air, pumping their fists as they burned. The degree of combustion was unnatural in its intensity.
Jo seemed so close he could make out the patterns painted on her nails, patterns that began to bubble and peel as the varnish became heated by the flames licking her arms. He wanted to reach out to her, shake some sense into her, but how could he? She was at the other side of the room.
His vision shifted once more, outwards this time, and he could see all three of them––skin blistering, hair on fire, their clothes ablaze. Still they danced and smiled, as though unaware of the conflagrations they had become. Beside them, the black bloke danced on, still waving the empty bottles in his hands.
Warren could see everything so clearly. It was horrific, and in an effort to save his sanity he concentrated on the cause of the mayhem, forcing the visual trick to work for him. He read the label on the Vodka bottle in the man’s hand in an attempt to take his mind off what was happening. He was the other side of the room, but the bottle seemed clear: Hammer and Sickle 100% Proof.,
His eyes tired and his field of vision widened to an impossible level of magnification. He could see all three girls, once more. Girls he had known for years, whose problems he listened to, whom he shared a drink with at the end of a busy night. There would be no more of that. They were being cremated alive, their hair was gone, their skin was black and their teeth were exposed as their lips crisped and peeled away from the openings of their mouths.
He was looking at Stacey with a close up view only a lover should expect. It was neither examination nor adoration, but an intimate torture; he watched her fillings melt, the enamel of her teeth crack, and her tongue burn from the tip into her throat, like a fuse running down her gut.
He blinked. The scene pulled away and shifted to where it belonged. He seemed to be the only person aware of what was happening. His breathing was laboured and his heart was pounding, but for a second he almost felt normal. The music played and the crowd danced, with three figures that were as black as the preserved body of a three thousand year old mummy. How could they be standing? They were little more than corpses.

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Discoredia Blurb & Cover

As the year draws to a close, the mysterious Hector Woodrose makes a proposition to club owner, Warren Charlton. It's a deal involving a new drug, Pandemonium, and with consequences far beyond those Charlton could ever imagine.

The drug may be free, but it comes at a price. Promising much, yet delivering far more. Euphoria and ecstasy. Death and depravity. All come together, at Discoredia.

Let's take the opportunity to get to know Michael a little better 

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Get To Know J.C. Michael

Five facts about you that people won’t know about you. Can you juggle? Ride a bike with no hands? Drink beer upside down? Something unusual… GO!

1. I have seen a U.F.O (I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was certainly an object, which was unidentified, and flying)

2. I used to hold a licence to drive a dumper.

3. If I could visit anywhere in the world it would be Machu Picchu.

4. My favourite biscuits are bourbons.

5. I find it difficult to think of five interesting and unusual facts about myself.

Five facts about your newest book that people won’t know. Some background history on one of your characters maybe? Maybe it was going to be called something completely different to start out with? Is it the same genre it started out as?...

1. The name H. B. Woodrose comes from the Hawaiian Baby Woodrose seed, a hallucinogenic seed containing a chemical similar to L.S.D.

2. Most of the D.J and M.C names are real.

3. If I could make music I’d love to make a track sampling the theme from The Great Escape. Since I can’t I made reference to such a track in Discoredia, in the hope that someone else will make one.

4. The hallucination where one of the characters sees a Predator-esque targeting triangle is based on a genuine hallucination experienced by a close friend of mine.

5. The first draft of the book opened with the scene where Warren and Steve are watching the news. The opening which is now in place was added later to give the book more of an initial impact, and, dare I say it, more bite?


Five facts about your next book… Name, genre, expected date of release… 


1. The working title is Discoredia II: Dark Designs.

2. It’s currently complete, but needs revising.

3. A lot of the characters from Discoredia make an appearance in the sequel, irrespective of whether or not they died in the first book.

4. It’s still a horror, but the fantasy elements of Discoredia are expanded upon.

5. Date of release? Depends how Discoredia does. The better that sells, the more likely I am to press on with revising the sequel as opposed to working on something new.

Three tips that you think might be useful for other authors… anything you want. It could be, to write a certain amount every day, only write after midnight and never get Gizmo wet (Sorry, that’s Gremlins not writers! My bad.) Maybe it’s some information that was given to you that has helped your process…

1. Have patience, don’t rush out a below par manuscript just because it’s easy to self publish.

2. Give Authonomy a try with a view to getting feedback on works in progress, but try to avoid getting drawn into the race for the desk.

3. Write for yourself, not just your potential audience. It results in a more authentic product.

Come back tomorrow to sample a short flash fiction story that James has prepared just for you, and don't forget to enter this really unique competition.

Happy Reading

Claire ♥