A warm welcome to author Andrew Demcak joining us today to talk about new release “Darkfeather”.
Getting to Darkfeather
As a student once asked me: “Why write – and especially, why write GLBTQ YA books?”
That is such a good question. When I began writing what is now The Elusive Spark series, A Little Bit Langston, Alpha Wave, Darkfeather and Twelve Heroes (work in progress), I had no idea where the story was going to go, or that there would be more than one book.
All I really knew was when I was a teenager, I had no such stories with GLBTQ characters. I had no Queer Sci-Fi. I had no superheroes. I was a child of the 1970s, obsessed with Escape to Witch Mountain, Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter, The Bionic Woman, Space 1999, In Search Of… But none of the stories every really spoke directly to me.
There were no boys who fell in love with other boys in the books I read. There were no shy, secret kissed between best friends in the films I watched. There were no disapproving parents on TV who worried what was going on between two teenage boys behind a locked door.
I really wanted to write a story about aliens, super powers, and gay teens – all the things I wanted to read about when I was a queer young adult. That’s how I started writing A Little Bit Langston. But I didn’t want to write something that centered on the main character struggling to deal with his sexuality. That’s so boring to me. I was never in the closet – I’m still a very effeminate person – I couldn’t hide who I was, not even to protect myself from bullies.
All of that really informed James, the lead character from A Little Bit Langston and Darkfeather. He’s out and proud. He’s got a boyfriend. It’s no big deal. But he also can manipulate energy, specifically electricity.
And in Darkfeather, we get to meet a rival for James’s affections: Prince Tutata Taara of the Saesq’ec people. There is so much adventure in this series, and in this new volume.
I still write GLBTQ YA for that teenager I was who was looking for members of his tribe in the popular media and never found them.
Blurb:
James, Keira, Lumen, and Paul—teens with special abilities granted by their alien DNA—bonded over hardship, becoming friends and sometimes more. But now they’re held in Fort Bragg and subjected to painful tests by the evil Dr. Albion, and those ties are coming loose just when they need them the most. Budding romances and family relationships are tested as each teen struggles to choose where to stand and who can be trusted.
Reunions with lost family members and the possibility of love with new allies strain already tense relationships, and not every heart will survive unscathed. But the Star Children are the only ones who can command an alien spaceship needed to intercept the Nibiru object—an unidentified celestial mass plummeting toward the planet. If they can’t work together, an unimaginable catastrophe will strike the earth, and they’re the only ones who can stop it.
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Andrew Demcak is an American poet and novelist, the author of five poetry collections and six Young Adult novels. His books have been featured by The American Library Association, Verse Daily, The Lambda Literary Foundation, The Best American Poetry, and Poets and Writers. He was a *FINALIST* for the prestigious Dorset Poetry Prize, the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, The Crazyhorse Poetry Award, and the Louise Bogan Award for Artistic Merit and Excellence in Poetry.
He has a new collection of flash fiction/prose poems coming out from Nomadic Press in 2019 titled Cryptopedia. His newest YA/Teen GLBTQ2-S novel is Darkfeather, The Elusive Spark series, Book 3, (Harmony Ink Press, 2019). He recently released two other YA/Teen GLBTQ2-S novels, How Do You Deal with a Dead Girl? (Big 23 Press, 2018) which Kirkus Reviews called “An eerily amusing horror tale that will have readers rooting for the characters,” and Alpha Wave, The Elusive Spark series, Book 2, (Harmony Ink Press, 2018). About his Teen GLBTQ Sci-Fi Coming-Out novel, A Little Bit Langston, The Elusive Spark series, Book 1, Kirkus Reviews raved “This book really … takes its place in the marginalized-will-lead-us genre, as popularized by The Matrix and the X-Men franchises.” His first Young Adult (YA) novel, Ghost Songs, was published March 13, 2014. His first literary novel, If There’s A Heaven Above, was published January 5, 2013 by JMS Books, and was nominated by The American Library Association as an “Outstanding” novel for older Teens (17+). His first play, The Inevitable Crunch Factor, won the Cal Arts’ New Playwrights Series and was cast and produced in a multi-week run. His fourth book of poetry, Night Chant, was published by Lethe Press. His other poetry books are: A Single Hurt Color, GOSS 183::Casa Menendez Press, 2010, Zero Summer, BlazeVOX [Books], NY, 2009 and his first poetry book, Catching Tigers in Red Weather, three candles press, 2007, which was selected by Joan Larkin to win the Three Candles Press Open Book Award.
Author website: www.andrewdemcak.org
Social media:
Twitter: @andrewdemcak
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewdemcak23/
MeWe: https://mewe.com/profile/5c1805905a3a0009d136d8b0
Facebook: Andrew Demcak,
Vero: Andrew D