Roland agreed to meet me at his haunted jazz club, Meilori's. I wore black so I could blend in with the background of shadows. I've heard stories. . .
Here's Roland to tell his version of the interview:
The atmosphere in Meilori’s was somber
tonight. Too much death too soon does
that to this club.
Melody Gardot was singing “Your Heart Is As
Black As Night” as the twin palms by my table swayed to the beat of the music,
their leaves hissing through the shadows like claws through sand.
***
***
D.G. Hudson was sitting opposite me at my table, her eyes round as she saw F. Scott Fitzgerald slowly dancing with his wife, Zelda, not two feet from us.
She cleared her throat, “Why did you decide
to do audio books at this time, Roland?”
I smiled.
“Millions of eBooks on Amazon.
Two hundred thousand audio books on Audible. Easier to stand out in the crowd in a small
one.”
D.G. started as Fitzgerald winked at her as
he danced by our table. “Um, why did you
choose New Orleans for the location of many of your novels?”
I said, “Ever since I moved to Louisiana
from Detroit, New Orleans captivated me. Since my high school class toured the
city, it has captured my imagination. Spending harrowing days on its streets
after Katrina with my blood van broken down in the city let me see the
underbelly of the city and the terrible hopelessness and unimaginable
corruption and incompetence of the rescue efforts or lack of them.
The roving gangs of drug addicts without
access to their drugs. The helicopters with supplies turning away as looters
shot at them in the sky. Finding an enclave that could be secured from looters,
gangsters, and addicts without their fix.
D.G. shivered. “That would have been scary.”
 |
| Rites of Passage by Roland Yeomans |
I nodded. “It was. I also saw everyday men and women become heroes against all odds. The Salvation Army won my heart as, with their own homes in ruins, the local officers attended the hurting and homeless.”
D.G. took a sip of her drink and said, "Hubs' Dad and grandparents belong to the Salvation Army in Winnipeg, something more common in the forties and fifties."
"And what happened to you after that, Roland?"
"And what happened to you after that, Roland?"
I looked off into the shadows. “Surviving that stint, I stayed in Baton
Rouge, working again as a blood courier and had access to research materials in
the local B and N, where I spent a few hours after each day's work. My days off
in Baton Rouge, I volunteered for church groups or individuals who needed
someone familiar with the devastated streets of New Orleans.”
 |
| The Legend of Victor Standish by Roland Yeomans |
Alice Wentworth giggled as Victor whispered
in her ear as they danced by Melody and D.G. asked, “How is Alice Wentworth
different from other paranormal characters?”
I smiled sadly, “Alice is a ghoul ... not a
zombie. She has the curse of remembering each of her victims whom she has
eaten. Alice was raised with Victorian sensibilities and so is appalled by what
she has become.
But have you ever been starving so that
your fingers, your very hands shook, that your entire stomach seemed to be a
burning hollow inside you? So hungry that all you can think about is what you
can eat and how fast can you eat it? Alice can only go so long without eating
human flesh.
Victor's mother was instrumental in
salvaging her from the ruin that her own mother ineptly voodoo cast her. She
gave Alice a time of hibernation between each deep feeding so as to save her
sanity.
Unlike vampires, she can go out in the
daytime. Unlike vampires, her ashen face, her sunken eyes cannot be mistaken
for a normal human's. She is forever apart, forever cursed to be alone ...
until Victor, who sees in her a fellow outcast and the beauty residing inside
her tortured heart. Since he has been living on the knife's edge all his life,
Alice's curse is just a thorn to a beautiful rose.
And since he has eaten out of garbage dumps
all his life, kissing the lips of a hauntingly beautiful ghoul is no stretch.
And since she has been bathed in the waterfall of Eden, Alice's breath and body
smell of apricots. Before then, Victor only cared that she seemed to care for
him. Odors he could live with if only he was with someone he loved who loved
him back.
Alice has conversed with Carl Jung, Ernest
Hemingway, and William Faulkner when they visited New Orleans. She has read
widely and is highly intelligent -- no mindless shambling zombie her. Only her
wit sparks -- not her body!”
D.G. nodded, saying, “I feel like I know
her better now. Apricot is a better smell, I agree.”
 |
| The Bear with Two Shadows by Roland Yeomans |
As Victor led Alice into the shadows, D.G. said low, “Who was your inspiration for Victor?”
I felt the darkness bleed into my chest. “When I was six, my father abandoned me on the street in Detroit Mother called Skid Row. He did it to punish Mother for beginning divorce proceedings against him for his untreated alcoholism. I spent six terrible weeks on those streets. A derelict named Maude and her little dog, Tufts, adopted me. She had a paranoid fear of uniforms so it took me coming down with pneumonia before she could bring herself to take me to the Salvation Army.”
D.G. slowly shook her head. “That's
terrible, Roland, when parents use their kids as bargaining tools. I never got
along with my dad, who wanted a son first, and a stubborn little daughter
arrived. But mothers save the day. Now I understand more about some of
your characters.”
I smiled sadly, “I wish I could tell you I
was just like Victor -- but I wasn't. I wanted to be though! As the idea of THE
LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH occured to me from remembering my times on Skid Row,
I thought what a teenage Robert Downey, Jr. would be like on those rough
streets. I smiled wide at the thought of a teenaged Tony Stark surviving like
Ulysses on mean city streets ... and so Victor Standish was born.
Paladin of HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL was the
inspiration for Samuel McCord, a haunted man with a past, a classical
education, and deadly fighting skills. I just made him a supernatural Paladin!
So the Lone Ranger was not my model for Sam. As Sam was the Merlin for Victor,
I knew he needed a Merlin himself, so Elu, the Apache diyi, was born as well.
So Merlin, not Tonto, was Elu's stepping stone!”
D.G. murmured, “I like the role models
you've picked for Victor and for Sam. I like Paladin, he was smart
and had a cultured manner.”
She stiffened as Samuel tipped his Stetson
to her as he led Meilori to the dance floor.
“This club gives me the shivers, Roland.”
“You should be here when DayStar visits,” I
replied.
(Thanks, Roland. Now where's that cab?)
***
Have you considered having some of your writing available in audio format? Do you know Roland's blog? Don't forget to check out his other titles.
Please share in the comments if you know Roland, read his books, or if you like the paranormal element in your reading.
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References:
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.ca/ Roland's Blog, Writing in the Crosshairs
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.ca/2013/04/k-is-for-key-as-in-audio-books-could-be.html Roland's blogpost about audio book format
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