I am absolutely thrilled to have author and poet, LaShane Arnett, here with me today for an interview and to share with us all the details of her new release, The Magic Man ( A Sadie Reed Story Book 2). After reading The Pain Eater, book 1 in the Sadie Reed series, I became an instant fan of LaShane’s and couldn’t wait for the next book to drop. I’ll be devouring this book shortly and will be sure to post a review, but in the meantime I wanted to help LaShane celebrate her new release! Here’s a brief summary of The Magic Man and a few words from the author.
The Magic Man Blurb:
Nature vs. Nurture
THE MAGIC MAN:
From the time he was little he knew he was different. He enjoyed pain. Inflicting it. Seeing it swim through the eyes of others. His mother suspected what he was, a sociopath, like his father. He loved hurting animals and never smiled. She did everything in her power to instill goodness in him. But would nurturing him with goodness be enough, when at his core he was pure evil? Only time would tell. Or, would time help him see that if he gave in to his true nature, he would grow to be something more powerful than even he knew possible?
THE PAIN EATER:
It’s been two years since Sadie found one of the Magic Man’s victims, Maxine Powell. With her growing abilities and her dad’s notes she believes finding the missing women is her destiny. When her health takes a dark turn, Adrian and Lupita urge her to take a step back. She reluctantly agrees. But after she starts receiving mental messages from one of the victim’s six-year-old son, she questions whether her hiatus is a good idea. If she answers his call will she find one more victim, or move closer to becoming a victim herself?
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This beautiful cover was digitally drawn by LaShane’s daughter Sami Arnett (@samiarnett_art )
LaShane, author of The Magic Man says:
“I was inspired by Austin Osman Spare’s artwork. The Magic Man can be anyone or anything and Spare had a proclivity toward portraying bodiless faces in his art. Although I told Sami what I wanted, I gave her creative reign, and a beautiful thing happens when you give artists space to venture. Interestingly, the magician tarot card plays a crucial role in this book and she, without even reading the book, created that vibe with the cover. I was blown away. She is an amazing artist. Her drawings always look like photos, that too blows my mind. Just watching it come to fruition, from concept sketch to the end result was a thing to behold. She created so many layers and so much depth, it encompasses who The Magic Man is in every aspect.”
The book follows the antagonist’s (The Magic Man) journey into power from acknowledging (at a very young age) he wants to do terrible things, to him actually doing terrible things. From learning he has magic, to understanding who and what he is because of the magic. It also follows Sadie in first person perspective as she continues her journey of self-discovery, and embraces all the ways her power can help those in need.
The Magic Man officially released on March 20th and is available on Amazon!!!
Interview with LaShane Arnett:
- Congratulations on releasing your new book, The Magic Man, book 2 in the Sadie Reed series! What is this book about, and how does it differ from the first book in the series?
Thank you so much Lanie. I am so excited to finally present The Magic Man to the world. The second book in my Sadie Reed Series follows the antagonist’s (The Magic Man’s) journey into power; from acknowledging (at a very young age) he wants to do terrible things, to him actually doing terrible things; from him learning he has magic, to understanding who and what he is because of the magic. This book takes an intense dive, (very intense as some of my ARC readers told me), into his psyche, and when some outside forces cause him to embrace his humanity, he struggles with his innate darkness.
On the other side we are two years into Sadie’s journey of self-discovery. In this book, our protagonist is coming to grips with being a Pain Eater and understanding exactly what that means. She carries a lot of guilt for not finishing what her dad started, finding all the missing women. When trying to get premonitions or anything pertinent to the notes he left, she comes up empty-handed. Her feelings of inadequacy cause her to overcompensate in her other duties and that gets her into some trouble. She then finds herself having to learn how to navigate her gift in order to stay sane.
- How do you create your characters and choose your character names?
As a creator I am sure you understand when I say most of my characters come to me and insist I write them. They are quite persistent. Ha ha. I’m sure to people who aren’t authors that may seem odd. But it’s no different than a tune reverberating in a musician’s head, or an image in the mind of an artist/painter. That’s how they come to me. I have lots of short stories that need to be finished because I must comply. But interestingly before I learn their personality and name them proper, Nyra is the default name for all my female characters. I don’t have a default name for my male characters, but Nyra, sometimes Nuyra, is my base name.
- What made you choose to write in the paranormal thriller genre?
I love the paranormal. I was exposed to it from a very young age. My mom was intuitive and so, naturally I was inclined to learn more about it. I have had plenty of experiences with the unknown and we as authors know, a lot of fiction is based in fact. I am drawn to writing thrillers because I have always been curious about this aspect of existence and it seems fitting to write my characters/ plots with that same sense of curiosity. In the first book, The Pain Eater, Sadie is gifted but had minimal knowledge of the paranormal. I feel like the whole book was a chilling exploration into what we otherwise keep hidden: our emotional angst, our gifts, our uniqueness, our experiences with the unknown. I am interested in expounding deeper into these truths and because there is this mystery surrounding it all, it will always come out as a thriller, or something that needs to be solved.
- How much research did you need to do to write this book?
Woah, honestly, at times the research got emotionally draining. The Magic Man is a magical serial killer, a trickster. I had to do quite a bit of research on sociopaths and psychopathy, which was very hard for me. I try to always be a conduit of positivity and love, and delving into the mindset of people who exist on the opposite side of the spectrum was quite challenging. I did research on the trickster archetype as well. There are some mythologies that portray the trickster as good and some portray it as bad. For The Magic Man, I chose to go the bad route and created him as this great manipulator. He’s quite despicable; someone I really can’t identify with, as were most of the psychopaths I researched. I absorbed what I could from books and interviews and then molded that into my own narrative.
- How many books do you have published and which one is your favourite?
I have three books published. Two in the Sadie Reed Series: The Pain Eater and The Magic Man and I also have a book of poetry, Go Ask LaShane: Decades of Ramblings. I actually love them all. My poetry book was a practice book. I put it together when I was learning the ins and outs of the self-publishing industry. I’ve been writing since the early 80s and had a lot of poems. So, I took them and created Go Ask LaShane: Decades of Ramblings. The poems in this book are all very dear to me. They explore my life and experiences, as well as my love affair with poetry, from age 13 to the present, which at the time I created the book was 2019. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be The Magic Man, only because I feel like The Pain Eater was my first novel and I wrote it from a sort of sophomoric stance. I was taking classes on novel writing and learning rules and whatnot so there is this timidness that I mirrored in Sadie and my writing. But, I kind of let loose with The Magic Man and took a more uninhibited approach to my writing and the story.
- What are you currently working on?
I am working on promotional stuff for The Magic Man. There will be a book tour in May. I am also currently formatting Go Ask LaShane 2 My Human Experience. And I have another novel that I have been going back and forth with, which is where my short story Mabeline’s Promise (which appears in Go Ask LaShane) was pulled from. It’s an epic story. Spans three decades, and is the story of Grandmother, Mother and daughter. Mabeline was actually the Grandmother as her story is told in the 60s. I am a pantser and have realized I need to start leaning towards the plotter side of writing. Because holy shnickey when your creative juices are flowing it’s hard to turn off all the story ideas and characters that want theirs to be told. That’s when you have to tell them all to get in line, so to speak. Ha ha. But be on the look out for Go Ask LaShane 2 My Human Experience. I am trying for a fall release, for this one. Fingers crossed.
Author Contact and Purchase Links:
Website: LaShane Writes
Instagram: @lashanewrites
Purchase links: The Magic Man, The Pain Eater, Go Ask LaShane: Decades of Ramblings
