Blog Tour: DeadGirl by B.C. Johnson (Author Interview)

Title: DeadGirl
Author: B.C. Johnson
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: November 6, 2014

Synopsis: Dead is such a strong word …

Lucy Day, 15 years old, is murdered on her very first date. Not one to take that kind of thing lying down, she awakens a day later with a seemingly human body and more than a little confusion. Lucy tries to return to her normal life, but the afterlife keeps getting in the way. 

Zack, her crush-maybe-boyfriend, isn’t exactly excited that she ditched him on their first date. Oh, and Abraham, Lucy’s personal Grim Reaper, begins hunting her, dead-set on righting the error that dropped her back into the spongy flesh of a living girl. Lucy must put her mangled life back together, escape re-death, and learn to control her burgeoning powers while staying one step ahead of Abraham.

But when she learns the devastating price of coming back from the dead, Lucy is forced to make the hardest decision of her re-life — can she really sacrifice her loved ones to stay out of the grave?

About the Author: Born in Southern California, B.C. Johnson has been writing since he realized it was one of the few socially acceptable ways to tell people a bunch of stuff you just made up off the top of your head. He attended Savanna High School in Anaheim, and an undisclosed amount of college before deciding that weird odd jobs were a far greater career path. This lead him to such exciting professions as: aluminum recovery machinist, lighting designer, construction demo, sound mixer, receptionist, theater stage hand, wedding security, high school custodian, museum events manager, webmaster, IT guy, copywriter, and one memorable night as the bouncer at a nightclub. He is trying very hard to add “vampire hunter” and “spaceship captain” to that list. He currently lives in Garden Grove with his supernal wife Gina, his half-corgi, half-muppet dog Luna, and his new half-grayhound, half-living-tornado-of-destruction Kaylee. He also spends time with his two brothers, his parents, and his close friends, whose primary pursuit are usually healthy debates about movie minutiea. When he’s not working or writing, he’s been to known to pursue all conceivable geeky avenues of interest including but not limited to video games, the sort of TV shows/movies Benedict Cumberbatch might star in, graphic novels, podcasts, funny gifs, the whole thing.   He’s also been known to apply his special brand of hyperbole and mania to pop-culture humor essays for various websites that can be found on his website. B.C. also has a high school noir short story called “The Lancer” available on Kindle. Deadgirl is his first novel.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Author Interview:

First off, I'd like to thank you for joining me on the blog today! 

1. Describe DeadGirl as a tweet (140 characters or less)! 
Lucy Day fights, jokes, and sasses her way out of death, into trouble, and semi-adjacent to romance. Dying is easy, high school is hard.

2. If you could re-title DeadGirl what would you call it and why? 
That’s a great question. I was always really happy with the title, because it uses a frequently powerless phrase (A dead girl was found on the side of the road) and re-appropriates it as a kind of superhero name (Deadgirl). Titles either jump immediately into my head or I have to agonize for months about them. So, instead of having this interview take months, I’ll just shoot out a (probably bad) answer - how about “Lucy Day of the Dead?”

3. What inspired you to start writing? 
Originally? My elementary school had a yearly “Authors and Artists” competition, and I was an overly confident 7-year-old. I’d never really written stories before that, but Mrs. Osegeda kind of pushed us all to either draw or write something. With the heavy help of my mom as stenographer (and co-writer, if not primary writer, let’s be honest) we created “The Penguins Go to Australia.” It won some part of the competition, and the praise quickly went to my head. I needed more praise, like an accolade-vampire, and I continued. So, I guess, thanks Mom and Mrs. O!

4. What kind of research, if any, did you do for DeadGirl? 
Deadgirl is set in my hometown of Anaheim, CA, so it severely reduced geographical research to essentially bubkis. I had to do some research on teenage girls via my wife’s old high school diaries - it’s cool, I asked her - which was an enlightening experience, to say the least. The biggest chunk of research actually got cut from the book. Originally there was a chapter that explored the history of a semi-immortal character, which encompassed a good chunk of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. All the events were based on real things - even the movie he goes and sees in San Francisco was playing at that theater, in that year, at that time. However, it got cut for a simple and good reason - it wasn’t about the actual story I’d been telling the whole book.

5. Do you have a specific place where you write?
Mostly in my upstairs office, at my computer, facing a plaque that says “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” It says it’s a Benjamin Franklin quote, but with quotes I’m always kind of squinty-eyed and leery. Oh, there’s also an Egon Spengler big-head doll from Ghostbusters standing on top of the plaque.

6. What are you reading right now?
“Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree” by S.A. Hunt. It’s about the death of a semi-famous author, and the pack of fans asking his estranged son to finish his father’s last book. Then it veers into a fantasy story as it turns out his father might not have been making it all up. It’s really dope so far. Do we still say dope? I’m saying dope . . .

This or That... 

Ebook or Real book? 
Arggggg. I guess e-book, because I read them way more. But I like both very much.

Twitter or Facebook? 
Twitter. More informative, less fluff, easier to tune to what you want.

Chocolate or Vanilla? 
Vanilla, because I became allergic to chocolate like six years back and it’s been trying to kill me ever since.

Past or Future? 
Future! The past will always be there whenever you want it.

And just for fun- What is the strangest thing on your desk right now?
Probably Gus the Gargoyle, my writing totem. Whenever I’m writing I turn him toward the monitor, and he silently judges whatever I’m writing. He reminds me that I’m not the only one who’s going to read this, and I should keep other eyes in mind.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog!

.

-Kristen ♥