LACKMOORE was a labor of love that took
two and a half years to write and another half of a year to edit and get it
published. As a result this novel and the Blackmoores themselves have become an
essential part of my life and to my very existence. I will talk more about
BLACKMOORE in a minute, but since this is a page about me I guess that's where
we should start, though I would much rather take a back seat to Trevor and the
rest of his family.
I was born in Bellingham WA. which is one of the main reasons that the story is set there. I spent most of my time in the infamous South Hill neighborhood which is central to BLACKMOORE though I have made it much more closed off and cliquish than it actually is. I was raised in a typical Irish home which meant a lot of ghost stories and tales about vampires and witches and other things that go bump in the night. Bellingham itself, like New Orleans, is littered with haunted sites and tales of terror. One of my most favorite legends is about a cable car that crashed on Christmas Eve night at the turn of the century on Harris Avenue in the fishing port of Fairhaven, since then every Christmas Eve night it is said that the cable car can be heard going up the street, always crashing. I use many ghost legends of my town in BLACKMOORE and I think that my growing up in Bellingham and with my family has really warped me, but in a good way.
I didn't start writing seriously until I was ten years old. I picked up a copy of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice and I was moved to tears. I wanted to write like that, to have an affect on people like that book had affected me. If it wasn't for Anne showing me my path I probably would have followed through with my original goal of becoming a chef and opening up a restaurant in downtown Seattle. one of the other things to further my creative path was the singer Tori Amos. I owe her a lot and I know she knows this, in fact she owns a copy of my first novel FOLLOWING THE KAEHEES.
Coming out was a hard process.
I wasn't sure how anyone would be with the fact that I'm gay. I was afraid of my
family's reaction and the reaction of friends. There is nothing more terrifying
for anyone, coming out and telling your loved ones that you're something unlike
them is scary and I was not surprised to find some of my relatives put off by
this fact, but it didn't matter to me. Mathew Shepard had just been killed when
I took this leap, and in honor of him and even in honor of myself I made the
choice to be honest about who I really was. It was probably the best thing I
ever did.
Now on to BLACKMOORE: just a short note really. BLACKMOORE is the first book in an eight book series about the family, and it is really important that all of you pay attention when reading it. Things that are mentioned in this book and might seem like nothing of importance at the moment may turn out to be essential in one of the later books. Yes I did this on purpose... I kick ass! I hope you love Trevor and Braxton as much as I do and I hope that you find Trevor's mother, the great Kathryn Blackmoore to be an invigorating and yet off-putting character. I hope that she rings true to the nature of a woman, especially a woman who has lost so much and feels that she has nothing left to give. Let's not forget that this is a family of witches and as such should be very entertaining.
There is also sex in this novel, in fact there is a message to it, though it's not out right explained, but hopefully you grand readers will understand it.
Other titles by Marcus James
Forth-coming:
BEST GAY LOVE STORIES: NYC EDITION edited by Joseph Pittman
ULTIMATE GAY EROTICA: 2007 edited by Jesse Grant