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Books In My Belfry

~ A Writer's Life For Me

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Tag Archives: singers

News & an Updated Author Page

17 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Fun Stuff, Missives, News, Updates

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1888, 1894, 2003, 2013, 2016, 2017, about, author, barbed tongue, best friends, bibliophile, blog, bloggers, books, Books In My Belfry, changes, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, contact, corcitura, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, curious, dannese, dark fantasy, Eastern Europe, England, Eric Bradburry, exciting, Facebook, family saga, fantasy, female vampires, Fin de siècle, France, Friendship, Germany, Goodreads, gothic, gothic novel, Grand Tour, Greece, Greydanus, happenings, hiatus, historical fiction, hybrid vampires, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, inagural, Interview, Kindle, Leonora, Leonora Bianchetti, London, lux, Madelaine Bradburry, Madelaine Dennison, Manon Larue, Maurice Charpentier, melika, Melika Dannese Lux, Music, Mystery, Nadia Belododia, new series, news, novels, Prague, readers, readers of all ages, reading, redos, Romania, Sergei Rakmanovich, singers, Stefan Ratliff, supernatural, Twitter, updated, updates, Upyr, vampires, Venice, Vladec Salei, Vrykolakas, werewolf transformation, werewolves, writing, YA, Young Adult, young author, Zigmund Fertig

Hello!

Wow! Was the last time I posted really almost three years ago? I have a good reason for being away so long, actually, and, of course, it has to do with books!

I am happy to report that after almost 2 1/2 years of writing, my third book is nearly complete! I only have about four chapters left to finish the inaugural book in a series of four dark fantasy/mystery/supernatural/historical novels that serve as prequels to a fantasy trilogy I started writing back in 2003. I can’t wait to launch this first book in the series into the world! It is the best thing I’ve ever written. Can you tell I’m excited? 🙂

In other news, I updated my “About the Author” page to incorporate the changes in direction my writing has taken. I no longer write YA or NA novels, but now prefer to create stories that will appeal to everyone, regardless of their age or genre bracket. And as for Romance? I will have elements of it here and there in my novels, but it will no longer be anywhere near as plot-specific as it was in City of Lights. Regarding that book, and also Corcitura… In the coming months, there will be an exciting announcement about both of them and their radical new “looks.” And by looks, I’m not only talking about cover overhauls. Curious? Well, you will just have to sit tight until 2017 to find out what I’m hinting at. 😉 I can’t wait to share the news with you when the time is right, though!

As always, please feel free to contact me through this site. I love keeping in touch with my readers! 🙂

All the best,

Melika

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Corcitura visits Because Reading is Better Than Real Life!

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Author Spotlight, Book Spotlight, Corcitura Feature, Excerpts, Fun Stuff, News

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1888, 1894, 2013, ashes, author spotlight, backstage, balmy, barbed tongue, because reading is better than real life, beg to differ, belfry, bellowed, Belododia, best friends, blog, blog feature, Blog Tour, bloggers, book, book feature, book spotlight, books, Books In My Belfry, browish-grey wolves, brutal, cabaret, Carmilla, Cecil B DeMille, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, conversation with death, corcitura, creepy, crumble, damned soul, devil, diva, diva in the wings, diva of the paris stage, Dostoevsky, Dracula, draculaesque, drugged, Eastern Europe, England, Eric, Eric Bradburry, Erin Al-Mehairi, Excerpt, exclusive, eyes of a wolf, fall, fall reads, familiar, family conflict, family saga, fathers and sons, feature, female vampires, filmy residue, Fin de siècle, first person present tense, forest, France, francophile, Friendship, Gandalf, gaslit, Giverne, glowing, gone, good hunting, Goodreads, gothic, gothic novel, Grand Tour, Greece, green, grey wolves, Greydanus, halloween, Halloween reads, hand, historical fiction, historical romance, horror, husband, hybrid vampires, Ian McCarthy, if you love scary vampires, Ilyse Charpentier, impressionism, impressionist, impressionists, Kindle, kindle copy giveaway, kindle giveaway, King of Kings, La Perle de Paris, Le Fanu, leaves, Leonora, Leonora Bianchetti, London, lord of the rings, Love, Luc, maddie, Madelaine Bradburry, Madelaine Dennison, Manon Larue, Maurice Charpentier, Melika Dannese Lux, michelle parsons, Moulin Rouge, my son, mythology, news, novels, November feature, november reads, october 2013, october reads, Oh for the hook of a book, painters, Paris, Polidori, pov, Prague, professor fertig, rafflecopter, rafflecopter giveaway, rivalry, Romania, russian, scary vampires, Sergei, Sergei Rakmanovich, siblings, singers, Spooky, spout, staked, Stefan Ratliff, terrifying, Toulouse Lautrec, true love, Tyrian purple, updates, Upyr, vampire genre, vampire mythos, vampires, vamps, Vasily Markolovick, Venice, Vladec Salei, Vrykolakas, werewolf mythology, werewolf transformation, werewolves, wolf, wolf infestation, wolves, woman, woods, writing, YA, YA Lit, ya novel, Young Adult, young author, young female author, young love, young writer, Zigmund, Zigmund Fertig

Corcitura feature @ Because Reading is Better Than Real Life 12-2-13

Huge hugs and a big thank you to Michelle for having me back on her blog to chat about the origins of Corcitura! Think the vampire genre should have been staked long ago? Well, I beg to differ, and if you head on over to Michelle’s blog, you can read an article about how I wove werewolf & vampire mythology together to create an entirely new species of undead. And while you’re there, don’t forget to read a spooky teaser excerpt from the POV of Corcitura’s only female narrator!

Enjoy! 😀

All the best,

Me Sig!

 

 

 

 

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City of Lights Featured @ Because Reading is Better Than Real Life!

25 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Author Spotlight, Book Spotlight, Excerpts, Fun Stuff, News

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1894, 2013, author spotlight, backstage, balmy, because reading is better than real life, bellowed, best friends, blog feature, book feature, book spotlight, Books In My Belfry, cabaret, Cecil B DeMille, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, diva, diva in the wings, diva of the paris stage, Dostoevsky, England, Excerpt, family conflict, family saga, feature, Fin de siècle, France, francophile, Friendship, Gandalf, Giverne, Goodreads, historical fiction, historical romance, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, impressionism, impressionist, impressionists, King of Kings, La Perle de Paris, lord of the rings, Love, Manon Larue, Maurice Charpentier, Melika Dannese Lux, michelle parsons, Moulin Rouge, news, novels, November feature, painters, Paris, rivalry, russian, Sergei, Sergei Rakmanovich, siblings, singers, Toulouse Lautrec, true love, Tyrian purple, updates, Vasily Markolovick, writing, YA, YA Lit, ya novel, Young Adult, young author, young female author, young love, young writer

COL Feature @ Because Reading is Better Than Real Life 11-25-13

A colossal thank you to Michelle for featuring City of Lights on her wonderful blog! To find out how Ilyse’s story was born from a song, and to read a special “backstage” excerpt, just click on the screen capture above.

Enjoy! 😀

All the best,

Me Sig!

 

 

 

 

P. S. And don’t forget to keep in touch!

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City of Lights is an IBD Award Winner!!!!!

07 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Book Spotlight, Fun Stuff, News

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City of Lights IBD Award Winning Badge!!! :D

 

Wow, this is amazing! I’m so excited to announce that City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier has WON the Indie Book of the Day Award!!!!

Royal Certificates

Isn’t that awesome?! 😀

Please spread the word! 😀

Best wishes,

Melika

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Melika’s Top 10 & Corcitura Giveaway at I Read Indie!

22 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Author Spotlight, Corcitura Feature, Excerpts, Fun Stuff, Giveaway Announcement, News

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1888, 1894, 2005, 2013, Agatha Christie, As Time Goes By, barbed tongue, bbc, bbc detective and mystery shows, bbc sitcom, best friends, bird and baby, bleeding love, Books In My Belfry, C. S. Lewis, caesar's palace, campion, celine dion, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, children of light, chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies, City of Lights, classic, classic actors, classic actresses, classically trained, classics, computer, corcitura, danny kaye, David Copperfield, dwellers of darkness, eagle and child, Eastern Europe, England, epic music, Eric Bradburry, faith, fall, fantasy, fave season, fave singer, female vampires, Fin de siècle, Friendship, Gandalf, gandalf the grey, ghostly dinner party, Gladiator, God, gollum, Goodreads, grace kelly, Grand Tour, Greece, Greer Garson, gregory peck, guilty pleasure, halloween, Hanging by a moment, historical fiction, hobbit, Humphrey Bogart, hybrid vampires, I Read Indie, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, Indie Authors, inspector alleyn, inspector lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, jack, jack lewis, james cagney, jamie hathaway, jarlsberg cheese, JAWS, jeeves, joan hickson, Judi Dench, last of the mohicans, Lauren Bacall, Leona Lewis, Leonora Bianchetti, Lifehouse, London, long-hand, Lux Aeterna, macabre, Madelaine Bradburry, Madelaine Dennison, Master and Commander, maureen o'hara, Melika Dannese Lux, Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple, netflix, ngaio marsh, Oxford, Paris, pianist, Pic 'n Save, Prague, promentory, Robin Hood, Romania, Rosemary & Thyme, rue de rivoli, russell crowe, sea shanties, Shark Week, Sharks, singers, soprano, Stefan Ratliff, streaming, The Hobbit, the inklings, the legend of sleepy hollow, The Lord of the Rings, the turn of the screw, tollers, tommy & tuppence, Two Steps from Hell, tyrone power, uendelig, UK penguin, vampires, Venice, violinist, vivien leigh, Vladec Salei, Vrykolakas, w. h. smith english booksellers, werewolf transformation, werewolves, writing, young author, Zigmund Fertig

It’s time for some fun on this Monday morning! Today, my Top 10 is being featured on the fabulous blog, I Read Indie. Many thanks to the equally fabulous Mandy for letting me hop on over to her site and share a little bit about myself and Corcitura! It was great fun! 😀

As a bonus, I am also giving away two Kindle copies of Corcitura to US residents! Follow the link to enter in the next six days for your chance to win:

http://twimom101bookblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-fabulous-top-10-with-melika-dannese.html

And while you’re there, check out a rather sanguinary excerpt from Corcitura.

Cheers!

Melika

Top 10 Reposted!

1. Fav song/singer?

My favorite song is usually whatever I’m listening to while writing. Sometimes, a scene calls for absolute silence, while at others, it’s nice to have something pumping in the background to get the ideas flowing. For City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier, I listened to Lifehouse’s Hanging by A Moment. This song was a tremendous inspiration for me and became Ilyse and Ian’s anthem. For Corcitura, I listened mainly to Promentory from the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack when I was writing dramatic/conflict or chase scenes (the constant beat really helped focus my thoughts) and then Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis when I wrote a death scene for one of the vampires in the book. Given the sanguinary nature of the lyrics, I thought it was appropriate. 😉

For the dystopian/fantasy novel I began last year (and am still working on), I wrote the entire prologue while listening to Lux Aeterna (the version with LOTR-esque percussion and vocals). My gosh, that song is great background music when you’re writing about gargantuan beasts attacking in all their terrible grandeur! So fitting. For the other two chapters that I’ve written so far, I listened to the Gladiator soundtrack and other epic music compilations I discovered on YouTube.

Currently, for Uendelig (the first book in Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light, an eight part series of loosely connected novellas in which young adults battle against creatures and fantastical beings from the otherworld that have crossed the void and ended up in our own), I haven’t been listening to anything while writing the opening chapters, but when I get to the draugr scene toward the end of the book, I know I’ll be digging into my stockpile of epic music to find something worthy for battle. 😉

Celine Dion has been my favorite singer since I was eight years old. I was lucky enough to see her in concert at Caesar’s Palace in 2005. Some singers sound terrible live, but Celine sounded amazing, even better than she does on her CDs. She was also really interactive and did quite a bit of dancing and kept up an incredible energy and excitement level throughout the whole show. It was a tremendous experience, and one that I’ll never forget!

2. Fav season?

Definitely fall. Just the feel of it. You can almost sense that it’s time to break out The Turn of the Screw for a millionth reread. Or is that just me? 😉 I love the crispness in the air, the glorious burnt orange and golden hued leaves, the carte blanche you have to read all the scary/classic Halloweeney books (think The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, etc.) you want and classify them as “seasonal reading” without making all your Goodreads friends wonder if you’ve been bitten by a vampire and somehow developed strangely macabre reading tastes. 😉 Plus, fall also means I get to bake these delicious chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies that have become a tradition with me over the last few years.

3. Worst vacation?

I haven’t had one yet, thank goodness, although when I visited Paris in 2004, my hotel room was the size of a shoebox. There was also only ONE iron in the entire hotel, as we discovered when the concierge knocked on our door the second day we were there and asked for it back! But that’s beside the point. The important thing was, I was in Paris, and apart from the smallness of the hotel, the location was fantastic! I spent most of my time seeing the sights and wandering around the Rue de Rivoli, making daily stops at W. H. Smith English Booksellers. They were running a £2 for £5 and £3 for £10 sale, so I stocked up on all the UK Penguin editions of the Jeeves novels that weren’t available back home. I would go back to Paris just to shop there! 😉

4. Guilty pleasure?

British detective & mystery shows. I can’t get enough of them! Midsomer Murders was the show that launched me on this trajectory three and a half years ago, and I haven’t looked back since, moving on to Miss Marple (with Joan Hickson), Campion, Inspector Alleyn, Rosemary & Thyme, and, my most recent favorite (and probably most favorite of all) Inspector Lewis. As if visiting the haunts of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien weren’t incentive enough to go to Oxford, there is now the added chance that I might bump into Robbie Lewis and Jamie Hathaway while they are on a case. 😉 Thanks to Netflix (I love you streaming!), I’m currently time-warping back to the 1920s and enjoying Tommy & Tuppence. Such fun, and Tuppy’s hats are amazing!! 😀

5. Fav book and/or author?

David Copperfield. I read this book close to sixteen years ago and can still quote passages and remember scenes vividly. All the suffering and hardships this young 19th century Englishman endured and all the mistakes he made in love and in life transcended the ages and became so relevant to me, a preteen living in the United States in the 20th century. That is truly a testament to the genius of Charles Dickens. It is also what I think makes a book a classic—its timelessness.

My favorite author is Agatha Christie. I’ve read 40 of her books and plan to spend many happy years reading the rest of them. 😀

6. One item you cannot live without?

As a writer, this would definitely be…my computer!!! I cannot even imagine writing a book, let alone a 700 page novel like Corcitura, in longhand. My admiration for Charlotte Bronte and Dickens especially (who was not known for his brevity) has skyrocketed ever since I became a writer. How did they do it?!

7. Hobby?

I’m a classically trained violinist, pianist, and soprano and have been performing since I was three. I wouldn’t call this a hobby, but for something completely frivolous and unbookish, I can probably recite the entire script of Jaws, complete with dialects and sound effects, and enhanced by the singing of various sea shanties! You wouldn’t want to watch the movie with me. I can also do a pretty mean Gollum impersonation, precious.

8. Fav movie/actor/actress?

Jaws. No question. I started watching Shark Week the year it premiered and became fascinated with Jaws around the age of five when I went to Pic ‘n Save and saw the movie poster. I didn’t see the movie in full until I was 15, but I can’t remember a moment when I wasn’t aware of Jaws. It’s been a part of my life for years.

My other favorite movie is The Fellowship of the Ring. I love the whole trilogy, but The Fellowship (and Gandalf) had a direct bearing on my decision to become a writer, so it will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Favorite actor…hmm…how about we do a modern one and one from the past? Russell Crowe for modern (I love him in every movie I’ve seen him in, but am a huge fan of his historical epics  Gladiator, Robin Hood, and Master & Commander), and Danny Kaye, who has provided me with countless hours of laughter since I was a kid. There are also many classic actors I’m a fan of, including Humphrey Bogart, Tyrone Power, James Cagney, and Gregory Peck.

Favorite actress…Judi Dench. Love her! Her movies are great, but I’m a huge fan of her BBC sitcom As Time Goes By. I can watch that show over and over again, and have. I own the complete series (plus the reunion specials) on DVD, and am actually rewatching the final few seasons for what is probably the millionth time. It’s such a great show—like visiting with old friends. 😀

I also love a bevy of classic actresses, too, such as Greer Garson, Vivien Leigh, Lauren Bacall, Maureen O’Hara, and Grace Kelly, just to name a few.

9. Fav food?

Jarlsberg cheese! Give me a handful of Jarlsberg, and I can write for hours.

10. Who would you like to meet? (dead or alive?)

Can’t I invite them all over for a ghostly dinner party and count them as one? No? Ok, then, let me think. I’ll keep it in the authorial realm and settle on C. S. Lewis. Jack! The Chronicles of Narnia have been a constant source of inspiration across all areas of my life for many years. I’ve read and reread my copies of the books to ragged shreds. One of my favorite of Jack’s quotes is “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” I would love to hear him talking about his thought process when creating such magnificent stories that are relevant to both young people and adults, since that is something that I strive to do in my own writing. I would also love to have a deep conversation with him about faith, God, and, of course…The Inklings! Ideally, this chat would take place between us in the “Rabbit Room” at The Eagle and Child. Then Jack could give me a tour of Oxford, where we might just run into Professor Tolkien—and I would make Tollers read the “Riddles in the Dark” scene from the Hobbit in Gollum’s voice. As you can see, I’m determined to meet at least one other person from my phantasmal dinner party. 😉

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Melika’s Interview and City of Lights Giveaway at the Homeschool Authors Blog!

01 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Author Spotlight, Fun Stuff, News

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1888, 1894, 2013, author spotlight, barbed tongue, best friends, blog, Books In My Belfry, cabaret, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, corcitura, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, David Copperfield, Eastern Europe, England, Eric Bradburry, feature, female vampires, Fin de siècle, France, francophile, Friendship, Gandalf, God, Goodreads, Grand Tour, Greece, historical fiction, homeschool, homeschool authors blog, hybrid vampires, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, King of Kings, Leonora Bianchetti, lord of the rings, Madelaine Dennison, Manon Larue, Melika Dannese Lux, Paris, Pinterest, Romania, sarah holman, Sergei, Sergei Rakmanovich, set the world on fire, singers, st catherine of siena, Stefan Ratliff, Twitter, vampires, Vasily Markolovick, Vladec Salei, web site, werewolves, writing, Young Adult

I am so thrilled today to be featured on the Homeschool Authors Blog! Many thanks to Sarah Holman for letting me share a little bit about myself, City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier, and Corcitura on her wonderful site.

Please don’t forget to enter within the next ten days for your chance to win a Kindle copy (US residents only) of City of Lights!

http://homeschoolauthors.blogspot.com/2013/07/interview-with-melika-lux.html

And now…the interview!

Melika, Welcome to Homeschool Authors.  

Hi Sarah! It’s great to be here! 

Describe yourself in five words. 

God-loving. Loyal. Creative. Focused. Joyful. 

Tell us a little more about yourself. 

I have been an author since I was fourteen and write YA/NA historical fiction, suspense, supernatural thrillers, fantasy, sci-fi, short stories—you name it, I write it! I love to read just about anything and everything and am particularly fond of historical fiction, the classics, mysteries, epic fantasy, history, and non-fiction. I am also a classically trained soprano/violinist/pianist and have been performing since the age of three. Additionally, I hold a BA in Management and an MBA in Marketing.

If I had not decided to become a writer, I would have become a marine biologist, but after countless years spent watching Shark Week, I realized I am very attached to my arms and legs and would rather write sharks into my stories than get up close and personal with those toothy wonders. 

What was your favorite part of being homeschooled? 

I received so many blessings as a result of being homeschooled! I would not be the writer I am today if it had not been for my fantastic high school English curriculum, which could be defined as “classics, classics, classics!” Homeschooling instilled in me such a love and appreciation for these phenomenal works. Additionally, I believe reading classics from a young age molds your mind to appreciate fine literature. It’s like being classically trained in voice—if you have great training, you can sing anything. The same goes for reading. Even though I read a great variety of books from different genres, classics remain my favorites and are my “go-to” books.

Homeschooling also taught me the value of independent study and being self-sufficient. You certainly can’t blame your schoolmates for holding you back when you are the only one in the class! This self-reliance and discipline went on to help me a great deal in college, graduate school, and my post-academic life ever since.  

Who is your favorite literary character? 

I have to pick just one?! All right, it would have to be David Copperfield. I read this book close to sixteen years ago and can still quote passages and remember scenes vividly. All the suffering and hardships this young 19th century Englishman endured and all the mistakes he made in love and in life transcended the ages and became so relevant to me, a preteen living in the United States in the 20th century. That is truly a testament to the genius of Charles Dickens. It is also what I think makes a book a classic—its timelessness.

What caused you to start writing?

My love for writing grew out of an early love for reading.  I think what led me to this point, what essentially caused the inspiration to germinate, was that my mother started reading to me when I was in the womb, and my father told me wild, not-exactly-verifiable tall tales while I was still in the cradle.  I remember writing little stories and vignettes when I was a very young child and also staging my first play (an adaptation of King of Kings) when I was eight years old.  The budget was nonexistent, so my family was conscripted into the production, with my dad and mom playing six parts each.  I think that was when the writing bug first reared its head and bit me squarely on the heart. I felt a little like Cecil B. DeMille after that.  There is a VHS of the play floating around somewhere.  It is one of my first memories of writing.

One turning point I can recall was when I was about eleven or twelve.  I wrote a very short story along the lines of Jurassic Park.  It was about a brother and sister being chased to the edge of a cliff by a T-Rex.  The kids gave the Rex the old “one-two-jump!” fake out and the dinosaur tumbled over the cliff.  End of story—happily ever after for everyone except the Rex. But the point was that it was fun! I had actually finished something I’d set out to write! It was great, even though it was only six pages long! You have to start somewhere, right?

However, I had never considered turning writing into a career until I read Crime and Punishment when I was a senior in high school.  There was just something about that book and the way Dostoevsky painted with words that inspired me and made me seriously think about becoming a storyteller. But the real impetus behind my decision came in the winter of 2001 as I sat in a darkened theater and heard Gandalf the Grey speak the following line to Frodo Baggins:

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

That was it, and I haven’t looked back since. 🙂 

What inspired City of Lights? 

City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier

One night in December 2002, I was puttering around in my room when I suddenly started singing verses of a song I had made up in that moment.

“Tonight’s the last time that I’ll see your face, my love. This dreadful moment has finally come to be. Tonight the passion ends for you and me, my love. I’m traveling to a place where life will be hell for me…good-bye.”

My mind exploded with questions. Who was this girl? Why was she being forced to give up her love? Why would her life be so awful?

From that song, City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier was born. The song became Tonight, the lyrics directly inspiring the novel and making their way into a pivotal scene toward the end of the book. Now, the only thing remaining was a setting. I’m a singer, a Francophile, and a devotee of fin de siècle culture and literature, so the idea of Paris, forbidden love, and the added tension arising from my heroine being estranged from her brother (her only living relative) was too exciting not to pursue.

My grand plan all along was (and still is) for City of Lights to be a musical.  In addition to Tonight, I wrote eight other songs that inspired further chapters and the overall story arc, the lyrics of those songs also being adapted into dialogue and scenes. Even though the musical is still on the distant horizon, the spirit of the songs thread through the entire novel. And in case you were wondering, the recordings are securely stored in an undisclosed location, waiting for the day when they will see the light once again.  😉 

What is it about? 

City of Lights is first and foremost the story of Ilyse Charpentier, a young singer in 1894 Paris who has never experienced love because of the stranglehold her patron, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, has upon her life.  All that changes when she meets Ian McCarthy, a dashing, young English expatriate.  Needless to say, the Count is not at all pleased with this new obstacle.  As I mentioned before, Ilyse has also been estranged from her younger brother Maurice, who blames her for letting the Count drive them apart. Things are complicated further when the Count devises a way to use Maurice as leverage to get Ilyse to agree to his demands.  Without giving anything else away, Ilyse is forced to make a life-shattering choice that has the potential to destroy her hope of finding the love and freedom she has always been denied.  

Who will enjoy it?

I’ve had readers from 14 to 87 tell me how much they loved the story and how happy they were to read a clean, pure romance—with quite a bit of brother-sister conflict added to the mix. I wrote City of Lights at the age of 18, and it was always my intention to produce a novel that teens, parents, and readers of any age could enjoy. In my stories, I never shy away from showing evil for what it is, and more importantly showing how people triumph over it by determination, the help of allies, and the grace of God, but I don’t believe there is any need to get gratuitous in the content department. Doing so cheapens your work and turns off a whole swath of readers, myself included. If I wouldn’t read it, I certainly wouldn’t write it.

One of my favorite examples of how to convey an impactful statement without resorting to graphic descriptions comes from a movie that had a huge impact on my decision to become a writer—The Fellowship of the Ring: “Isildur, son of the king, took up his father’s sword.” There are so many implications in that little gem of restraint. Took up his father’s sword and did what? Cut the Ring, and consequently the fingers, off Sauron’s hand! There was no need to dwell on blood loss or gore to get the point across. There is a scene in my supernatural/historical thriller, Corcitura, where I describe a cadre of undead creatures descending on their victim. That could have turned into a terribly gory scene, but here is how I took a page from FOTR and held back for a more subtle (and I think consequently more horrifying) effect:

There was a shriek and then I heard a sickening crunch as Arabella’s cries died to a whimper. Something thumped against the ground as Augustin Boroi stepped back and drew his arm across his mouth.

The sleeve of his shirt had doubled as a napkin. It was no longer white when he pulled it away.

See? There is no need to slide into the mire of gratuitousness to be effective. More often than not, what is left up to the imagination is infinitely more scary, thought-provoking, and powerful than spelling out every aspect of a scene in bloody red letters.    

Do you plan to write more books? 

Definitely! In addition to Corcitura (which was published last November), I am completely rewriting my original first novel that I began at the age of fourteen, but abandoned for school, life, and other projects. I have been working on it since July of 2012 and have been totally transforming it into a dystopian epic set in a brutal and lawless world. The entire theme and outcome of the story have changed drastically, but all the exciting bits (mythical beasts, hidden identities, battles, political intrigue, and some truly horrifying and treacherous villains) are still part of the fabric of the story. With the passage of years, however, everything within the story seems to have more meaning and gravitas to me now. It is definitely not the same book I would have written as a fourteen-year-old, so I am very happy I put the novel on hold.

I am also mapping out and reworking my fantasy duology (which I’ve been writing since 2003) and am currently finishing up a collection of short comedy/fantasy/mythical stories set in Eastern and Northern Europe in the 1800s. It has been an exciting challenge to essentially create “Novels in Miniature” for this collection.    

Do you have any final thoughts?

One thing I always keep in mind is a quote from St. Catherine of Siena: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” In that spirit, I would strongly encourage all homeschoolers, especially those of you who are writers, to use the incredible opportunities God has given you to further your literary dreams and aspirations. Develop your talents, use the free time you have to broaden your horizons with additional reading and study of the genres you are drawn to, and write, write, write! A homeschool education is a blessing, so be a blessing to others by sharing your talents with the world.  God has given you this time for a reason…so now it’s up to you to decide what you are going to do with it. 🙂

Additionally, I would love to connect with other homeschool authors, readers, and parents. Please feel free to contact me on any or all of the following sites:

My web site: www.booksinmybelfry.com

My Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/950456.Melika_Dannese_Lux   

My Twitter: https://twitter.com/BooksInMyBelfry

My Pinterest:   http://pinterest.com/booksinmybelfry/

Thank you so much, Sarah, for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed! I’ve had a great time! 😀

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Last day of City of Lights Tour: Interview at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Fun Stuff, News

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1894, 2002, 2003, 2013, 25 of our 50 states, addiction, affinity for the islands, Agatha Christie, Air Jaws, Alexandre Dumas, Amy Bruno, and Hungary, and Sarah Rayne, Austria, background, Belgium, Blog Tour, bloggers, blood, Books In My Belfry, breaching, breaching great white, breaching sharks, brilliant, brutal and lawless world, C. S. Lewis, Cabarets, Camille, Can-Can, Caribbean islands, Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, Cecil B DeMille, Charlotte Bronte, children's performing group, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, classical, classically trained, Colette, corcitura, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, Creative, Currer Bell, dance of romance, Daphne Du Maurier, demimondaine, director, Discovery Channel, Downton Abbey, dystopian, email, England, entertaining, Eric Bradburry, Erin Al-Mehairi, Facebook, family saga, female vampires, Fin de siècle, first novel, Florida, forbidden love, fourteen, France, Friendship, Galop Infernal, genre hop, Georgette Heyer, Germany, Goodreads, Great White Sharks, Greece, Hanging by a moment, Hawaii, Hawaiian, Hawaiian blood, historical fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tour, Home Rule, Hotmail, hybrid vampires, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, Incisive, Insightful, inspiration, Interview, Ireland, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, JAWS, Jean Plaidy, Jurassic Park, King of Kings, life, life interruptions, Lifehouse, London, Louisa May Alcott, Magical, Manon Larue, marine biologist, marine biology, Maurice Charpentier, Meg Giry, Melika Dannese Lux, Mr. Whitey, Music, musical, Nigel Marvin, novels, obsessed, Oh for the hook of a book, operetta, original, Orpheus in the Underworld, P. G. Wodehouse, parents, Paris, personality, Phantom of the Opera, piano, Pic 'n Save, play, posters, POVs, Prague, pure magic, Quint, riveting novels of psychological suspense, Romania, Romanovs, Russia, Sea World, Sergei Rakmanovich, setting the scene, Shannon Hale, Shark Week, Sharks, shattered innocence, siblings, singers, soprano, South Africa, species name, St. Augustine FL, steel helms, Stefan Ratliff, stratified society, Switzerland, T-Rex, the Czech Republic, the inside story, The Painted Girls, Tollers and Jack, true love, Twitter, undead, unusual sharky abilities, Upyr, vampires, Venice, VHS, Victorian, Victorian literature, Violin, Vladec Salei, Vrykolakas, Wales, werewolves, wild card, Wilkie Collins, Wordsworth, writing, youth symphony orchestra, Zigmund Fertig

Morning Everyone!

Our whirlwind tour for City of Lights comes to an end today…with a bang! 😀 Many thanks to the multi-talented Erin Al-Mehairi of Oh, for the Hook of a Book! for featuring me and City of Lights on her blog, and for asking such incisive and awesome questions! 😀

Best wishes,

Melika

Exclusive and Magical Interview with Talented & Creative Melika Lux on Much More than Her City of Lights Novel

Today, we have a special treat because we have an exclusive interview with a very talented and sweet person, author Melika Lux. You can read my review of Melika’s book by clicking CITY OF LIGHTS. Our interview is VERY in-depth and you will marvel at Melika’s original personality, including how a trained stage soprano has such an addiction to Great White Sharks!!

I am pleased to have you stop by for a visit today, Melika! You sound like a fabulously creative person. How are you? Melika

Melika:  I am great, Erin, and thrilled to be here!  

Erin:  So happy!  Let’s move on and learn more about you and your writing! Q:  When did you first begin to write? What gave you the inspiration?

A:  My love for writing grew out of an early love for reading.  I think what led me to this point, what essentially caused the inspiration to germinate, was that my mother started reading to me when I was in the womb, and my father told me wild, not-exactly-verifiable tall tales while I was still in the cradle.  I remember writing little stories and vignettes when I was a very young child and also staging my first play (an adaptation of King of Kings) when I was eight years old.  The budget was nonexistent, so my family was conscripted into the production, with my dad and mom playing six parts each.  I think that was when the writing bug first reared its head and bit me squarely on the heart. I felt a little like Cecil B. DeMille after that.  There is a VHS of the play floating around somewhere.  It is one of my first memories of writing.

One turning point I can recall was when I was about eleven or twelve.  I wrote a very short story along the lines of Jurassic Park.  It was about a brother and sister being chased to the edge of a cliff by a T-Rex.  The kids gave the Rex the old “one-two-jump!” fake out and the dinosaur tumbled over the cliff.  End of story—happily ever after for everyone except the Rex. But the point was that it was fun! I had actually finished something I’d set out to write! It was great, even though it was only six pages long! You have to start somewhere, right?

Q:   What inspires you currently in your overall writing?

A: What began to stand out more and more to me as the years wore on, and what I think was the real reason I truly grew to love writing so much, was the freedom it gave me to be able to get lost in a different world.  I love creating characters and their individual stories.  Everything that a person experiences in his or her life affects the person they become and how they react to situations, so being able to explore this with my characters is something I am always eager to do—uncovering what motivates them, what drives their worldview, why they would make a decision in a particular situation, what makes them tick, etc.  It is thrilling when characters develop so fully that they essentially start to write the stories themselves.

Currently, I’m most interested and inspired by trying out different storytelling mediums and POVs. My preferred method of telling a story is first person, but in my latest works, I’m using third person limited and also third person omniscient, which presents a whole heap of challenges! I’m also experimenting with short stories. You would think this would be easier, but I’m finding it an exciting challenge to tell a complete and gripping story in 40 pages or less rather than having a broad canvas (my last novel, Corcitura, was 700 pages long) on which to paint, essentially, the characters’ lives.

My last two novels were primarily historical fiction, City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier being an historical fiction/family saga set in Paris in 1894, and Corcitura  being an historical fiction/supernatural thriller, complete with hybrid vampires, which takes place over the years 1888-1895 in locales across Europe and in Gilded Age New York. I have felt very comfortable writing in this era due to the fact that I read a tremendous amount of fantastic Victorian literature during my high school and college years and fell in love with the period. However, I am now transitioning into dystopian, horror, comedy, and fantasy. Talk about freeing! I no longer have to worry about when a word came into the vernacular! Huzzah! Besides that added bonus, I love to genre-hop and not confine myself to one particular time period. It keeps thinks exciting.

Q:  Did your musical background play any part in your writing? Also, explain your musical background for our readers.

A: Definitely. I’ve been surrounded by music since I was born and have been singing, dancing, and playing the violin and piano since I was three years old. I was part of a children’s performing group for most of my childhood and was also a member of a local youth symphony orchestra from the ages of 8-18. In addition to singing throughout my community and state, I also performed the role of Meg Giry in a college production of The Phantom of the Opera. What a blast!

In regards to my writing, I draw a lot of inspiration from certain pieces of music, especially movie soundtracks and instrumental numbers, which I love to have playing in the background as I write. Currently, for the dystopian/fantasy novel I’m writing, I keep epic music/soundtracks looping at a low volume in my ear buds. It really spurs my imagination and helps when trying to strike the right mood in battle and intense scenes, especially when there are “creatures” involved.

For City of Lights, Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse was a huge inspiration and a song I kept looping in the background as I wrote the novel:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESWjziG5B54

To me, this song epitomizes Ilyse and Ian’s love story, and remains a favorite of mine to this day.

Q:  Have you ever danced or been on the stage? If so, explain and if it helped in the writing of your book. What inspired you to write about a Parisian chanteuse in City of Lights?

A: Yes! As I mentioned above, I was part of a children’s performing group from the ages of 3-11. Additionally, I am a classically trained soprano. My most recent performance was in February 2012, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, FL. You can view the entire concert or excerpts of my solos by clicking on the following link: https://booksinmybelfry.com/music/

Music has always been inextricably linked to City of Lights. The entire novel was actually inspired by a song. One night in December 2002, I was puttering around in my room when I suddenly started singing verses of a song I had made up in that moment.

“Tonight’s the last time that I’ll see your face, my love. This dreadful moment has finally come to be. Tonight the passion ends for you and me, my love. I’m traveling to a place where life will be hell for me…good-bye.”

My mind exploded with questions. Who was this girl? Why was she being forced to give up her love? Why would her life be so awful?

From that song, City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier was born. The song became Tonight, the lyrics directly inspiring the novel and making their way into a pivotal scene toward the end of the book. Now, the only thing remaining was a setting. I’m a singer, a Francophile, and a devotee of fin de siècle culture and literature, so the idea of Paris, a cabaret, forbidden love, and the added tension arising from my heroine being estranged from her brother (her only living relative) was too exciting not to pursue.

My grand plan all along was (and still is) for City of Lights to be a musical.  In addition to Tonight, I wrote eight other songs that inspired further chapters and the overall story arc, the lyrics of those songs also being adapted into dialogue and scenes. Even though the musical is still on the distant horizon, the spirit of the songs thread through the entire novel. And in case you were wondering, the recordings are securely stored in an undisclosed location, waiting for the day when they will see the light once again. 

In May 2003, at the age of eighteen, I began writing Ilyse’s story. Eight months later, City of Lights was complete, and another four years later, it was published. Now, it has been given a new look and is being made available to an entirely new readership!

City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier

Q:  Myself, I love books and information on the late 1800s to early 1900s in Paris. The entire ballet scene and its behind the scenes drama can be an infuriating tale to tell. Apparently, women still endure the dealings of men pulling their strings so to speak. What interests you most about this time period? Any further thoughts on the performance industry?

A: I’ve been interested in the fin de siècle for as long as I can remember. I think I first became cognizant of how exciting this time period was when I was about 8 or 9 and had just learned to play Orpheus in the Underworld with my local youth symphony orchestra. The Galop Infernal in that operetta became, of course, the Can-Can theme. That piece stayed with me over the years and led me to do research when I got older. As I learned more about France and the culture surrounding the cabarets and dancehalls, I was hooked and became a confirmed Francophile. Since writing City of Lights, I have become increasingly interested in that whole milieu and have since read Camille (A brilliant and tragic novel about the lives of the demimondaine—highly recommended!) and a few novels by Colette. I’m always on the lookout for new reads from or about that fascinating time period when securing the right patron could either make you a star or confine you to the gilded cage, as was the case with Ilyse.  

As for the performance industry, the main facet that I culled and incorporated into City of Lights was favoritism. Ilyse, although she is talented and the best singer to have graced the Parisian stage in years, is Sergei’s favorite. He “plucked her from obscurity” (a fact he never lets her forget) and made her a star. Without him, she most probably would have starved or been forced into a life of squalor, but given how controlling and suffocating Sergei’s hold over her is, accepting his patronage is a choice Ilyse regrets almost immediately.

Q:  I read the biography on your website and laughed to myself because in high school I decided I was either going to school to be a writer or a marine biologist (same as you)!!! I decided I was not cut out enough for the math and just loved the ocean and animal cause, so I went to college for Journalism instead so I could write all about all the many things I love. I came away also with English and History degrees. That all said, besides being afraid of sharks, what really did pull you towards your creative pursuits as compared to science? How do you feel about your decision?

A: Haha, what a coincidence!!! I’ve been obsessed with sharks from a young age. I remember going to Sea World as a three-year-old and spouting off names of all the sharks in the little pond outside the Shark Encounter ride. I also literally started watching Shark Week at the age of two during its inaugural season 26 years ago (dating myself here ;) I still remember them flashing the poster of an enormous Great White shark with a Bermuda-shorted surfer inside its gaping mouth. Fun stuff! 😉     

Then came Jaws—the movie, not the book. Let’s not even go there in regards to the book. I’ve never been more disappointed with a reading experience in my life! But I digress… I became fascinated with Jaws around the age of five when I went to Pic ‘n Save and saw the movie poster. What is it with me and posters? Anyway, I now make it a point to watch the movie twice a year, once on my birthday and once on the last day of Shark Week.  You probably wouldn’t want to watch the movie with me because I know practically all the lines and usually say them in the same voices the characters use. My favorite, obviously, is Quint. “I’m talkin’ about sharkin’!” I sing his little sea shanties with him, too. 😉 

What made me consider a career change, however, probably had something to do with Nigel Marvin and the premiere of Air Jaws around the year 2000. The fact that sharks could rocket out of the water was a paradigm shift for me and sort of tilted my world off its axis. Breaching sharks! It was a literary goldmine! Not to mention that it scared the wits out of me to think that I could be quietly minding my own business in a nice safe boat when Mr. Whitey would suddenly decide to go airborne and take me along for the ride. So that was when I knew I’d have more fun writing sharks into my stories instead of sharing the water with them. Strangely enough, though, a small insane part of me would still love to go cage diving with them in South Africa. We’ll see…

As far as creative pursuits in comparison to science, I still love the minutiae of marine and ocean studies, but I now find it much more exciting to be able to do the research or incorporate what I know about sharks and their behavior into my writings. In the dystopian epic I’m working on, white sharks play a huge role as one of the main antagonists (technically, a race of antagonists, because there are a lot of them!) of the story. They have their own species name, stratified society, unusual sharky abilities, and rather wicked roles to play in the oppressive world I’m creating. They are the toothed enforcers of the realm and have a symbiotic relationship with the undead soldiers who train them. They also get to wear steel helms and are so fierce you honestly can’t help thinking they are just a little bit awesome, as all Great Whites generally are. If I say any more, I’ll be giving away the plot, but suffice it to say that sharks are fascinating in real life and in literature, so I’m having a tremendously fun time giving them their own personalities and storylines and writing about their undeniable appeal in the new book. By the way, I’m a bit of a shark snob, so pretty much the only species of shark I’ll ever write about are Great Whites—my favorites. I tend to view every other shark as a poser. 😉 

As a side note, I recently took the Discovery Channel’s shark personality quiz and was matched with, you guessed it, Carcharodon carcharias. I always had a feeling… 😉  

Q:  What do you feel was an interesting or important point in history in regards to women and women’s history?

A: I’ve often wondered how I would have fared as a woman writer if I had been born a few centuries ago. When I think about this, the person who always comes to mind in regards to the restrictions on women and how they were looked down upon for being writers (as were women who chose to go on the stage; the horror! Remember the scandal with Nell Gwyn?!) is Charlotte Bronte and how she originally signed her name to Jane Eyre as Currer Bell. I know the novel had been rejected many times and she was listening to the advice of Wordsworth and others, who claimed that “novel-writing wasn’t the proper pastime of a lady,” but it must have been infuriating to not be able to lay claim to your own work, especially a work as brilliant as Jane Eyre. It’s infuriating to me nearly two centuries later! In my own writing, particularly in the first book of my fantasy duology, I have a character who looks down on his fiancée because she reads too many novels. Can you imagine that kind of attitude today?! So, as far as women’s history goes, I believe that when we started to take charge of our writing careers and not care what men and other women (who could be just as spiteful and controlling, if not more so) or society thought of our chosen profession, this was a giant leap forward and an important advancement, at least to my thinking, for the suffragette movement and ensuring the right to vote.

Q:  Do you feel women should “schedule” time for themselves as writers? Do women sacrifice too much instead of pursuing the muse inside them?  How do you make time for writing?

A: I think it depends on your situation in life. If you’re single, of course you should have more time to write, or at least I would hope so! If you have family and job obligations, however, it becomes much more difficult to carve out pockets of time, but still not impossible. If you’re driven enough and passionate about your writing, though, you can find time to write in just about any instance, even if it’s only a few seconds to scribble down ideas on the corner of a napkin. I’m speaking from experience here. 😉 

I do think, however, that women should try to set aside some quiet time (easier said than done!) where they can be alone and just let inspiration flow onto the page. I have a friend who designates specific days during the week where she will not take any phone calls or make appointments and just dedicates those set times to writing, so you can make it work; you just have to be creative about it. I try to carve out writing time at least every day. Sometimes I’ll have a span of maybe four or five hours in the evening, and sometimes weekends are totally devoted to writing. It depends on family obligations and other things that are going on, those so-called “life interruptions” that can be so detrimental to letting the muse have its day!

Q:  Where are some grand places you’ve traveled, or would like to travel? And why?

A: To date, I’ve been to Switzerland, England, Wales, France, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic (visiting Prague was a great help in setting the scene for the latter part of Corcitura), Austria, and Hungary. In addition, I’ve been to several Caribbean islands and 25 of our 50 states, my favorite being Hawaii, which I had the opportunity to visit eleven years ago. I do not have an ounce of Hawaiian blood, but my first name is Hawaiian (it means Melissa), so I’ve always felt an affinity for the islands.

I would love to visit Ireland and also Russia one day—Ireland because my paternal grandmother’s family is from there and I’ve always been fascinated by the country (most recently by the entire Home Rule debate—thank you Downton Abbey! 😉, and Russia because I’ve been a Russophile since I saw the animated movie Anastasia when I was twelve. The viewing of that film also engendered in me a fascination with the Romanovs that continues to this day.

Q:  Do you have some favorite authors? Some authors who have mentored your thoughts?

A: Yes, several! Some of my particular favorites would have to be P. G. Wodehouse, Jean Plaidy, Georgette Heyer, Daphne Du Maurier, Agatha Christie (I can never get enough of her mysteries! So entertaining!), Alexandre Dumas, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, and Sarah Rayne for her riveting novels of psychological suspense! Wilkie Collins is my wild card in there, too, and I also love everything I’ve ever read by Shannon Hale. Her novels are pure magic. 

As far as mentoring, it would have to be Dumas for his amazing ability to write action scenes, Wodehouse for showing me the trick to making people laugh in fiction, Jane for the effortless way she writes the “dance of romance,” and Tollers and Jack (Tolkien and Lewis) for being the standard by which I measure all fantasy and motivating me to always be original.

Q: What other writings have you done? What’s next for you?

A: My latest novel, Corcitura, was published last year. Here is everything you need to know about the novel in a nutshell: Two vampires…one victim…endless trouble. Beginning in London in the year 1888, Corcitura tells the story of best friends Eric Bradburry and Stefan Ratliff, two eighteen-year-old Englishmen who are experiencing their first taste of freedom by setting out on a solo, grand tour of Europe. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime, quickly explodes into a twisted untangling of centuries-old secrets as our protagonists are forced to flee from people who turn out to be much older—and somehow possess alarming otherworldly powers—than they originally appear. I am talking, of course, about vampires, and the two progenitors of the Corcitura are the stuff of nightmare: a half-wolf, half-vampire Vrykolakas and a five-hundred-year-old Upyr with an uncontrollable desire to create a hybrid creature to use as his own personal agent of destruction.

But vampires are just one facet of this story. Not only are the vampires horrifying, and their trickery something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but they have fascinating backstories that are inextricably linked with one of the main protagonists and his family—especially his sisters, who have a crucial role to play in how this story works itself out. If you love seeing female vampire protagonists having a major role in the outcome of the story, then you will love the two in this book. Let’s hear it for the girls! They have enough history and chutzpah to fill volumes more—which is my intended plan. They also happen to be werewolves. And if that duality doesn’t intrigue you, I don’t know what will!

My current project is the book with the sharks that I was talking about before. It is a complete revamping and reworking of my original first novel that I began at the age of fourteen, but abandoned for school, life, and other projects. I have been working on it since July of 2012 and have been totally transforming it into a dystopian epic set in a brutal and lawless world. The entire theme and outcome of the story have changed drastically (the sharks were always there, although they are a much bigger part of the story now), but all the exciting bits (mythical beasts, hidden identities, battles, political intrigue, and some truly horrifying and treacherous villains) are still part of the fabric of the story. With the passage of years, however, everything within the story seems to have more meaning and gravitas to me now. It is definitely not the same book I would have written as a fourteen-year-old, so I am very happy I put the novel on hold.

Additionally, I am mapping out and reworking my fantasy duology (which I’ve also been writing since 2003—that was my banner year for creative ideas, it seems!) and am currently finishing up a collection of short comedy/fantasy/horror stories set in Eastern and Northern Europe in the 1800s. It has been an exciting challenge to essentially create mini-novels in 40 pages or less for this collection.   

Q:  How can readers connect with you?

A: I would love for readers to connect with me on any or all of the following sites:

My website:  http://www.booksinmybelfry.com/

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/950456.Melika_Dannese_Lux

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/BooksInMyBelfry 

And if you want to contact me directly, here is my email: booksinmybelfry@hotmail.com

Erin:  Thank you so very much for sitting down and talking with me today. We wish you much continued success in all your creative pursuits!  It was so nice to get to learn more about you.

Melika:  This has been so much fun, Erin! Thanks for letting me share a bit of myself and my work with you and your readers! 

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City of Lights Tour Day #3: Review at Oh, For The Hook of a Book!

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Fun Stuff, News

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A Bookish Affair, Amy Bruno, April, bloggers, Book Tours, cabaret in 1800s France, Cabarets, City of Lights, City of Lights by melika lux, City of Lights Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, Denise, Erin Al-Mehairi, Fin de siècle, France, Friendship, Germany, giveaways, Goodreads, Guest post, historical fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tour, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, Interview, Let Them Read Books, Manon Larue, Mary L. Simonsen, Maurice Charpentier, Meg, Melika Dannese Lux, Melika Lux, Music, novels, Oh for the hook of a book, Paris, Phantom of the Opera, post-revolution France, promotion, Review, romance novels set in historic France, Sergei, Sergei Rakmanovich, shattered innocence, siblings, singers, So many books so little time, The Maiden's Court, The Painted Girls, Tours, true love, turn of the century France, Unabridged Chick, Vasily Markolovick 1894, villains, women writers 2013, writing C. W. Gortner

Hi Everyone!

What a fantastic way to start the day! 😀 Please stop by at Oh, For The Hook of a Book! to read Erin’s review of City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs Ilyse Charpentier.

http://hookofabook.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/city-of-lights-by-melika-lux-sets-the-stage-for-intrigue-drama-love-and-triumphs-in-historical-france/

Best wishes,

Melika

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City of Lights Tour Day #2: Author Interview and Giveaway at A Bookish Affair and Review at So Many Books, So Little Time

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Fun Stuff, News

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2013, A Bookish Affair, Amy Bruno, April, bloggers, Book Tours, Cabarets, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, Denise, Fin de siècle, France, Friendship, Germany, giveaways, Goodreads, Guest post, historical fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tour, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours, Ian McCarthy, Ilyse Charpentier, Interview, Let Them Read Books, Manon Larue, Maurice Charpentier, Meg, Melika Dannese Lux, Music, novels, Oh for the hook of a book, Paris, promotion, Review, Sergei, Sergei Rakmanovich, shattered innocence, siblings, singers, So many books so little time, The Maiden's Court, Tours, true love, Unabridged Chick psycho, Vasily Markolovick 1894, villains, writing

Greetings Everyone!

Exciting things are happening on day two of the City of Lights tour! Visit A Bookish Affair today for a chance to win a signed copy of the novel and also to read a guest post about what inspired me to become a writer and how that led me to the creation of City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier.

http://abookishaffair.blogspot.com/2013/04/hf-virtual-book-tours-guest-post-and.html

Then, stop by So Many Books, So Little Time to read Denise’s review of City of Lights!

http://somanybookssolittletimeblog.blogspot.com/

Finally! Someone who appreciates Sergei for the lovable little psycho he is! 😉

See you tomorrow! 😀

Best wishes,

Melika

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City of Lights Tour Day #1: Review at A Bookish Affair

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Melika Dannese Hick in Fun Stuff, News

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2013, A Bookish Affair, Amy Bruno, April, bloggers, Book Tours, Cabarets, City of Lights, city of lights: the trials and triumphs of ilyse charpentier, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, Fin de siècle, France, Friendship, Germany, giveaways, Goodreads, Guest post, historical fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tour, Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours, Ilyse Charpentier, Interview, Let Them Read Books, Manon Larue, Maurice Charpentier, Meg, Melika Dannese Lux, Music, novels, Oh for the hook of a book, Paris, promotion, Review, Sergei Rakmanovich, shattered innocence, siblings, singers, So many books so little time, The Maiden's Court, Tours, true love, Unabridged Chick, Vasily Markolovick 1894, writing

Hi Everyone,

Today kicks off the virtual tour for City of Lights: The Trials and Triumphs of Ilyse Charpentier. Head on over to A Bookish Affair to read Meg’s review of COL!

http://abookishaffair.blogspot.com/2013/04/hf-virtual-book-tour-review-city-of.html

See you tomorrow at our next stop! 😀

Best wishes,

Melika

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City of Lights is an IBD Award Winner!!

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