UFI welcomes James Garcia Jr. Author of Seeing Ghosts. Thanks for Joining us!!
Thank you
for having me, Stacy. I really appreciate you hosting me, and giving me this
opportunity to share a bit of what I do. And what better place than Urban
Fantasy Investigations to discuss just how it is that a guy who grew up in the
eighties, listening to heavy metal music and reading horror novels, came around
to write a paranormal romance.
Well, first
of all, let’s set the record straight right now. After penning two crossover
vampire novels, Seeing Ghosts is
really just a paranormal with a dose of romance. A liberal pinch of the stuff,
if you will. Still, let’s see how we could have gotten to this point.
The horror
films that I grew up with might have been the likes of Friday the 13th, Halloween
and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but
today I lean more toward The Silence of
the Lambs, Let Me In and The Woman in
Black. I grew reading The Exorcist,
The Amityville Horror and all things Stephen King and Clive Barker, but
today find myself reading more Patricia Cornwell, Dan Brown and indie writers
everywhere. I don’t mind the dark, but I really love the suspense of it all.
Perhaps
music is the most telling. Although I was immediately drawn toward heavy metal
and hard rock, during the lonely times of those teenage years, I found myself
caught up with each and every one of those power ballads. You see, there has
always been a romantic part of me that was yearning to love and be loved. In
fact, these days you are more likely to find me curled up on the couch,
watching a romantic comedy than a horror film.
After I
finished promoting my second crossover vampire novel, I began to turn my
attention toward a haunted house story. I love those and had always wanted to
try my hand at one. I found myself also wanting to express more of the human
emotions that always touched me in those films, books and songs – moments of
heartbreak and searching for a love that might outlive us. Seeing Ghosts is that book. Is it a romance? No. Does it have
moments of romance in it and is it a story about lost love? Yes, it definitely
is that. I hope it moves readers the same way that it moved me in its creation.
I am very happy with it.
You see, I
started reading and writing horror, but I have a heart for drama that tugs on
the heartstrings. If you put all of these elements together, I think you really
have something fantastic – something paranormal.
Thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate
it.
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James
Garcia Jr. was born in the Central California town of Hanford. He moved up the
road to Kingsburg with his family as a child. After graduating KHS, he attended
Reedley College where he met his wife. They, along with their teenage sons,
still make their home in Kingsburg which is also the setting of James’ vampire
series. Dance on Fire was published
in 2010 and its sequel Flash Point
was published Halloween 2012. His third book entitled, Seeing Ghosts, a stand-alone paranormal romance is set for a June
2013 release.
James is
an Administrative Supervisor for Sun-Maid Growers of California.
Seeing Ghosts Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son.
While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-story house that he will soon discover holds many secrets.
Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity.
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