Title: Dark Genesis
Series: The Darkling Trilogy
Author: A. D. Koboah
Genre:
Historical Paranormal Romance
Publisher:
Twenty Four Publishing
Cover Artist: www.idobookcovers.com
BLURB supplied by Bewitching Blog Tours
Life for a female slave is one of
hardship and unspeakable sorrow, something Luna knows only too well. But not
even she could have foreseen the terror that would befall her one sultry
Mississippi evening in the summer of 1807.
On her way back from a visit to see the
African woman, a witch who has the herbs Luna needs to rid her of her abusive
master’s child, she attracts the attention of a deadly being that lusts for
blood. Forcibly removed from everything she knows by this tormented
otherworldly creature, she is sure she will be dead by sunrise.
Dark Genesis is a love story set against
the savage world of slavery in which a young woman who has been dehumanized by
its horrors finds the courage to love, and in doing so, reclaims her humanity.
PURCHASE LINKS
EXCERPT
There
were rare moments when the full horror of a female slave’s life fell on me and
I felt that now when I glanced up at the woods and the path I would take back
to the house. An all-encompassing despair rocked me from head to toe. I didn’t
want to go back to a life of bondage. I didn’t want to go back to my quarters
and drink the evil concoction which would hunt down and kill the innocent in my
womb. I didn’t want to go back to a life where I saw evil practiced with ease
and nonchalance, a life in which evens my body was not mine to own.
Master
John had been away for the past week but when I got back to my cabin tonight
and fell asleep, would I find myself jolted awake by him, his form looming over
me in the pale light of the moon streaming through the open window, his male
tool already awake and straining against the cotton of his trousers?
The
mere thought caused me to double over with my arms wrapped around my waist, my
face close to the water and the rocks beneath its surface.
The
cause of most of my problems lay in the face that was almost lost in the watery
surface now that the light was gone. I reached my hand into the stream and
pulled out a large black rock. It looked as if it had split in two and the
split end was as sharp as the blade of a knife. I held that rock up above my
face and thought about Mama Akosua being brought to a strange land against her
will at the age of fifteen. I thought about how lost and frightened she must
have felt being so far from everything she knew and loved, and the strength and
fearlessness she displayed when she took a blade to her own face and cut those
marks into her skin. In doing so, she had honored and held onto the customs of
her people, people she would never see again. Those scars that I had previously
been repulsed by and seen as part of the savage ways of her past, had given her
strength. They had been a way to take ownership of at least one part of her
body and keep it forever hers.
I
would do the same thing. I would take control of at least one aspect of my life
and destroy the face that drew men like Master John to me like predators to the
scent of fresh blood. I would use this rock to take away the pleasure he found
in looking at this face and keep him out of my bed forever.
I
brought the sharpest point of the rock down to rest in the middle of my
forehead and closed my eyes. I began to apply pressure until I felt it break
the skin, a point no bigger than the tip of my fingernail, and felt a warm
release of blood. Strangely, I felt no pain, only exhilaration that I could
finally do something to stop the terror inflicted on me by my Master.
I was
about to bring the rock down my forehead, across my nose and down my cheek,
when something, some force, stayed my hand. All at once I grew cold and it felt
as if the air around my wrist was alive and humming softly in tune to some
sinister beat, making goose bumps spring up along my forearm.
I
pushed down with all my might but miraculously this force increased and when I
felt my hand begin to move away from my face, I opened my eyes.
I was
still facing the woods and for a moment I thought I saw something amongst the
trees, a sliver of something that was an almost translucent white. At the same
moment I experienced a wave of dizziness that made me feel as if my mind and
body had turned to water. I quickly shut my eyes but the dizziness increased
and I felt myself swaying, my thoughts and emotions a confusing melee, and I heard
a voice in my head. Or was it my own voice?
That
will not stop him, it said.
My
eyes snapped open when I heard a sharp crack to my right. I whirled around to
trace the sound, a sharp streak of fear leaping and twisting within me. It was
only when I noticed that my hand was now empty and clenched into a fist that I
realized that what I had heard was the sound of the rock I had just been
holding hitting one of the trees on my right. The distance to that tree was a
good seven or eight meters away. Had I really thrown it that far?
I got
to my feet uneasily, knowing that I needed to get away from the chapel
immediately. Something was very wrong here. The light was nearly gone now and
there was something here with me. I could feel it now, an immense power unfolding
and drawing strength as the last of the light seeped out of the sky.
Terror
beat furiously within me, radiating to my very core. Mama Akosua had been
right. I shouldn’t have come here. I was in danger, I...
Intoxicating
dizziness washed over me again and although I tried to fight against its pull
it drew me in, causing me to close my eyes and sway in time to its suffocating
rhythm...
And
then I was standing at the kitchen door of the main house, having walked
through the woods from the chapel and back to the house with no memory of the
journey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I was fascinated
by the ways in which people are able to dehumanize others, the impact it has on
the psyche and whether it is possible for people to find their way back from
being dehumanized.
This led me to a
slave called Luna and the ruins of a haunted chapel deep in the heart of
Mississippi.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is your name, where were you born
and where do you live now?
My name is A. D. Koboah. I was born in
London, but spent the first few years of my life in Ghana, West Africa, before
I moved back to London. This is where I have lived ever since.
Did you always want to be a writer? If
not what did you want to be?
I wanted to be an Air Hostess at one
point as I love air travel. I love the atmosphere in airports and being on
planes. In one of my English lessons at Secondary school we had to write about
what we wanted to be and I put that I wanted to be an Air Hostess. My English
teacher was so mortified she actually took the time out to sit me down and try
and talk me out of becoming an Air Hostess. It is so nice to know that even
then she knew I had talent as a writer and believed in my talent enough to do
what she did.
When did you first consider yourself as
a "writer"?
Romancing the Stone is one of my
favourite films. I especially love it because the main character is a writer
and I used to watch it and imagine myself living her life as an author. I
watched that film again shortly after I published my second novel and that’s
when it hit me that I was actually living my dream. That was when I began to
call myself a writer.
Which of your books were easier/harder
to write than the others?
Dark Genesis was so easy to write. The
setting and the characters came to me so vividly and easily and the plot just
flowed from pen and onto paper as if the book was writing itself. The last book
in The Darkling Trilogy, on the other hand, has been sheer hell to write and
I’ve had to change the focus of the novel a few times. It is the last book in
the series so I have to ensure it is a fitting end to the trilogy.
Do you have a favourite out of the books
you have written? If so why is it your favourite?
Dark Genesis as it seemed to write
itself.
Do you read all the reviews of your
book/books?
Yes, I do. I really appreciate every
single review I get—even the negative ones. Reviews make writing so enjoyable
and there is nothing better than reading a review and it’s obvious the reader
gets exactly what you were trying to achieve.
What was the toughest/best review you
have ever had?
The best reviews are the ones in which
people say they’ve stayed up until the early hours reading because they could
not put my book down. I get so excited when I read reviews like that because
it’s the kind of thing I’ve done—and still do—when I get so engrossed in a
novel that I just have to read one more chapter, and then another, and then
another... And you get my point:-)
The worst reviews are the ones which
don’t give an explanation as to why they didn’t like the novel as bad reviews
help you learn what your weaknesses are and how to improve as a writer.
Would you ever ask a reviewer to change
their review if it was not all positive about your book/books?
Never. I appreciate all my reviews and
they help me to know what I’m doing right, but also what I’m getting wrong so I
can hopefully improve as a writer. Some reviews have also helped me iron out a
few things whilst working on the other books in The Darkling trilogy. For
example when I started the trilogy, I intended for it to go in a completely
different direction and when I introduced Julia, the horse, I intended for her
to feature a great deal in the sequel to Dark Genesis. When I made the decision
that the series would be three books instead of two, the plot I had for the
horse kind of fizzled out. One of my reviewers, who gave the novel 3 stars,
picked up on the fact that it appeared as if the horse was going to be a bigger
part of the novel when it was introduced, but then nothing came of it. This
made me think about a way to resurrect the original plot I had in mind for the
horse and I have found a way to do so—I just hope my readers like it.
How do you come up with the Title and
Cover Designs for your book/books?Who designed the Cover of your books?
I find titles quite difficult and I
usually come up with the title of a novel whilst working on it. I had another
title in mind for Dark Genesis but had to change it as there was another
vampire novel out there with that title. The male lead of that other novel also
had the same name I had originally given Avery. So I had to change the title
and find a new name for Avery. But I am actually quite happy about that as
Avery is a much better name than the one I originally gave him.
Simon from www.Idobookcovers.com designs
the cover of my books. I knew I had to work with Simon when I found out his
surname is Avery. I saw it as a sign that he was the right cover artist for me,
and I’m sure you’ll agree he has done a fantastic job.
Are there any hidden messages or morals
contained in your books? (Morals as in like Aesops Fables type of "The
moral of this story is..")
No morals or hidden messages, although
dehumanisation is a subject I explored whilst writing this novel—the ways in
which people dehumanise others and whether or not it is possible for people to
come back from being dehumanised. I believe some people are able to come back
from dehumanising experiences, unfortunately others are not. This subject
matter is explored in the novel in different ways.
Did you have a favourite author as a
child?
Yes, Margaret Mahy. I first read The
Changeover in school and I still re-read it from time to time.
Where can readers follow you?
Your website ?
www.adkoboah.com
Your facebook page?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/AD-Koboah/172747466249709
Your Goodreads author page?
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5807160.A_D_Koboah?from_search=true
Your Twitter details?
www.twitter.com/adkoboah
And any other information you wish to
supply?
Only that Dark Genesis is absolutely
FREE to download
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