nterview with Margaret Bikman of Take 5 Magazine. Bellingham, WA
M.B. How did this novel take shape in your mind? When did you start thinking about writing it? Did you base the characters on people you knew at Sehome or Bellingham, neighborhood folks, etc.?
M.J. Oh God, that's a question! The first time I had a concept of this book was when I was fourteen, I was at my great grandparents home in Lebam WA. I was there with my brother, aunt, and grandma. It just kinda came forth, I just saw this family of witches in danger on Christmas and the funny thing is that the family wasn't named Blackmoore, they were named Dianica, which as you know, is the rival witch family that is mentioned in the book. I had wanted to tackle it again but I had no idea how because I wasn't comfortable yet with writing from the queer point of view, and it was shortly after that that I had gotten into the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series by Anne Rice, and I thought "I wish I could read a book like this where the main character was gay." So in the end I just decided to do it myself, someone has to, and I decided that it would be me. Finally when I was almost twenty I had this vision of a little boy with dark red hair in a big old musty room in a trance doing some spirit writing, and that's where the ghost Jonathan Marker showed up, that's where it all showed up. I call my main characters my "literary Boys" to me it's like I'm a clarivoyant tapping into this other world and I get to record their stories, and next I saw this little boy he was seventeen and that's when I learned that his name was Trevor Blackmoore and then the great unravailing of this saga began. Um yes, there are some people from Bellingham High School and Sehome who popped up into this tale, obviously I can't share names, they might sue me... but let me just say some beautiful boys made their presences known, though they meld into one solid person, we as writers breathe the life of our history, over and over it seems until it kills us.
M.B. Music seems to have much to do with your creative process. Do you listen to music as you write? Do songs inspire you specifically to create scenes, characters or plot twists? Tell me a bit about which songs and artists have influenced you for this book.
M.J. I cannot write without music! I try but it doesn't come out, I need the songs to lure out my Boys, it's like the honey to the bee you know, its words that create images and feelings with melody and a well written book does the same thing, it goes together. I will listen to a song over and over again until I have a whole scene, or sometimes a whole chapter written. The thoughts and actions of characters can be completely dependent on the song that's playing, and each character has their own theme song, sometimes more than one, even down to the smallest character. I have thrown away or re-written whole scenes in a book because the songs send it into a different direction. I can't plot in any traditional way, I'm a very spontanious writer, I go where my Boys tell me to go, in this case Trevor and Braxton; my hunky and completely troubled musician. Aside from a select group of authors my influences are not other fiction writers but musicians, I can't really find a torch to follow with other writers because the worlds they tap into is so different from the one I jack into, but music is always about interpretation and as such it can travel anywhere. My Boys love music, anything that gives that kick to their step. I write songs often and I really feel like someone who by all means should have become a musician, joined a band etc. but instead picked up the pen instead of the electric guitar, but let's avoid guitars because nothing get's me grinning more. I was really influenced by the singer/songwriter/ piano Goddess Tori Amos; if it wasn't for her I might not even be alive; and I listen to her every day anyways, but a lot with Blackmoore, but especially "Sugar" which Trevor listens to in the car on the way to a friend's party. Um of course Black Lab's "Keep Myself Awake" which is mentioned also specifically in the novel at Trevor's surprise birthday party, also "Everything Will Be Alright" by the Killers, which for those who have read the book know exactly where and when that shows up, and if you've heard the song... oh boy get some kleenex ready. "The Red" by Chevelle, some Nine Inch Nails, Um God so many songs I would love to mention from some great artists that a lot of people may have never heard of. In the re-write I listened to "Addicted To You", "Twist Of Fate", and "Fly" by this amazing pop group called Starcrossed, They're also my best friends. Also this song "Sic" which was given to me as a birthday gift from this amazing guy who is so a living Braxton.
M.B. One of the themes in your book is about coming out as a high school student. I'm wondering how you personally, dealt with that and what of yourself you transferred to your main character, Trevor. Was the writing of this book therapeutic in some way?
M.J. Oh God my coming out process was not any easy one, especially in high school. From the taunting, to the getting beaten up a lot, I mean a-lot! There were the pills to quell the pain, and the addiction to cutting that started when I was twelve. Boys in school are not nice, and if any of the guys reading this went to school with me and think they were, well you weren't. Well the girls were great, but with a small exception of guys, the rest were vicious jerks, but they were also probably in the closet; "better the devil you know" as they say. What really transfered to Trevor was my lonlieness, my isolation, the fear of the boys in the hallways and in the classrooms, the constant knowledge that there was this world of normal boys that I couldn't penetrate, and would never penetrate. High school is a whole other world, with it's own rules and governing social orders. Was it theraputic? No. Well not entirely, it helped me get back to a familiar skin, and deal with those feelings, but as I said in the first question, writers breathe the life of their history over and over again until it kills us in one form or another. To quote Starcrossed "A boy like you will never say my name."
M.B. How did ghost stories and haunting tales influence your writing, specifically?
M.J. Well the Irish are morbid... Totally morbid and spending time in a funeral home when I was a kid only furthered the trend. But I grew up with stories of haunted Bellingham, my uncle Terry would tell them to me, and so every home, every street corner, every shop window in Bellingham has this whole other life. I mean great things about Wardner Castle, my Aunt's house which is also in South Hill, all of Fairhaven, I mean the great fact the the original fishing port is beneath the surface of this town, the ghost that haunted Bullies kitchen (now a shoe store) the trolley that is supposed to go up Harris Ave. on Christmas eve, the many shootings that are notated on the walk down to Marine Park. It's all in this city, Mt. Baker Theater, plus every freaking shop and the streets themselves. I've walked this city at the early morning when it's completely empty and you can just feel it in the streets, the thing that makes you glance over your shoulder and tempts you to look in darkened windows. The dead walk Bellingham, It's a city somewhat frozen in this mix of times, I just hope this city continues to honor and pay respect to its past, to its history and not mow it down for newer construction, it should be about preserving our past, not renovating it for a glossy future. It's our old homes, or our old buildings that make this town what it is and reminds us of those who have gone before us. If you think about it, this town's old buildings, no matter how run down some of them can appear to be have been touched by people over a hundred years ago, leaned against the same walls having a smoke, brushed them with their shoulders, creaked those same steps that we creak now. If it goes then the city goes with it. It's that simple.
M.B. What do you have planned for the rest of the series, (what's the series called)?
M.J. As soon as someone finishes the book that's the first thing I'm asked! well though it may change, right now its called The Legacy Series, but you'll just have to wait for book two, "Symphony for the Devil" to find out for sure, cus that'll say: book II in the (blank) series. As for what will happen, well people will die, and the surface has barely been scratched in the history of this family and the dark god of the old wood in Ireland that is gathering strength and coming for this family, namely for Trevor and Braxton, my chosen ones, my lambs for the slaughter so to speak. The agents of this great evil are coming, and Blackmoores will be taken over, they will be corrupted, and Trevor learns how alone he really is, and what it means to be an eighteen year old boy who is the chosen one, the IT person to save the Blackmoore line, perhaps even the whole world. And in the end J.K. Rowling may not have the guts or need to kill off Harry Potter, though we don't know for sure about that either, but I can tell you with definite certainty that though it will be sad, I have no problem axing Trevor, and the bloodier the better, I like gore, I'm a slasher film addict. But it may not happen, I'm just saying that if that's what needs to happen then it will. No questions asked and no complaining. But keep in mind that in these books those who die don't always remain dead.