Interview with Sonya Lawson, Author of The Shadow of the Dark

What’s the story behind the story? What impressed you to put in writing The Shadow of the Dark?

It’s an enormous combine of issues. I lived in Columbus for a few years and miss it now that I’m out in the PNW. I like baking and needed to share that love with a personality. I additionally get pleasure from Lovecraft’s mythos however not the blatant racism, antisemitism, or xenophobia.

Lots of writers began subverting that over the previous decade or so, utilizing Lovecraft fable to create extra numerous tales. I needed to do one thing comparable, however make all of it a few snarky Midwestern, midsize baker who loves her job and her household and offers with Lovecraftian issues popping up in her life as they arrive alongside.

If you needed to decide theme songs for the fundamental characters of The Shadow of the Dark, what would they be?

I even have an entire Randy Carter playlist I hearken to as I write the sequence. Randy, my FMC, loves music, particularly industrial and different with a darker really feel. If I needed to decide one monitor from the playlist, I’d say Massive Attack’s “Voodoo in My Blood” matches Randy and The Shadow of the Dark finest.

What’s your favourite style to learn? Is it the similar as your favourite style to put in writing?

I do love city fantasy. Any kind of fantasy, actually. I additionally actually love romance. I’d say it’s a toss-up between fantasy and romance as my favourite genres. I learn broadly, although. I additionally typically learn horror novels and non-fiction. History, true crime, and pop science books fascinate me. Oddly sufficient, two in style astrophysics books helped me solidify how some of the time/house/cosmic magic would work in the sequence.

What books are in your TBR pile proper now?

I’m at present listening to the Helter Skelter audiobook and studying Grady Hendrix’s latest novel How to Sell a Haunted House. Up subsequent is Katee Robert’s Wicked Beauty. I’m behind on her Dark Olympus sequence and have to catch up! After that, who is aware of? I’m extra of a temper reader than a TBR planner.

What scene in your e book was your favourite to put in writing?

The Heatwave/first date scene. It comes about midway by the novel. I beloved writing it as a result of it was a major second between characters and it highlighted some cool magic and fable in my world. The massive draw, nevertheless, was utilizing Heatwave as a backdrop. It’s an precise month-to-month dance social gathering in Columbus I beloved to attend once I lived there. A great good friend DJs it. I even obtained permission for the creator to make use of it by title in the e book. It’s a cool little bit of precise Columbus I beloved and I used to be joyful to share it with my readers.

Do you’ve got any quirky writing habits? (fortunate mugs, cats on laps, and many others.)

I would like to put in writing earlier than I do the rest in the day. If I don’t write very first thing, it takes much more effort to get again into the story for some motive. Early morning writing works finest for me.

Do you’ve got a motto, quote, or philosophy you reside by?

Not one particularly. I’m a collector of well-known quotes. One I come again to many times is an Allen Ginsberg quote. It’s from his poem “Song” – “The weight of the world is love.” It’s stunning and heavy and correct.

If you possibly can select one factor for readers to recollect after studying your e book, what would it not be?

I hope they bear in mind all of us need assistance typically, and it’s okay to ask for it. In The Shadow of the Dark, most of the characters need assistance however aren’t too joyful asking for it. Things begin to fall into place once they cease ignoring points and as an alternative ask for assist. It’s one thing that interprets into regular, on a regular basis life. Asking for assist is important and necessary.