Black Dog blog tour!

I am so excited to be a part of the Black Dog blog tour. You have no idea. I may have been screaming into a pillow to vent my excitement. Maybe. I've been in love with Black Dog ever since I read it. The world, the characters, the diversity, the complex and unique magic and 'werewolves'. *swoons* Just read it already! 

So you can imagine how happy I am to be hosting Rachel Neumeier today as she talks about the music she listened to while writing Black Dog! 

GUEST POST

Thanks for inviting me to write a guest post, Saruuh – it’s a pleasure to be here at Syntax Reviews!

BLACK DOG is a little more intense and a little darker than I think any of my prior books have been, which is perhaps bound to happen if you create a world affected by actual demonic activity, with “werewolves” that are born with demonic “shadows.”  Ordinarily I listen to melodic, quiet music while writing – Loreena McKennitt, say, or Enya, or instrumental music such as Suzanne Ciani.  Like that.  While working on BLACK DOG, I actually found I preferred music with a slightly harder sound, though still without really obtrusive vocals.  Evanescence, for example.  And Enigma – Enigma was perfect, actually.  (It turns out I also like Enigma for driving in horrible traffic in unfamiliar cities in terrible storms, which luckily has only happened to me once.  Not sure what made Enigma work for me at that point, but I remember turning the music up really loud.)

Perhaps it was the faster, more driven soundtrack, but BLACK DOG was a faster, more driven story for me, too.  I tended to write it in chunks, action first and fiddly conversations sort of glossed over till later.  The ending was fairly intense, and I didn’t actually listen to anything at all while writing it; even instrumental music seemed too intrusive.

I really enjoyed developing my black dogs.  I think they have very intense lives.  Imagine how it might feel to live with a constant urge toward brutality and killing, what that would really be like.  My black dogs have to deal with that all the time.  If they’re lucky they are, like Alejandro, born into a family where they can be taught how to separate their own impulses from those that are demonically inspired.  But they are never going to be like ordinary people.  Their emotional lives are darker, stronger, more ferocious.  Enigma really works for black dogs – “I see love, I can see passion, I feel danger, I feel obsession.  Don’t play games with the ones who love you, ’cause I hear a voice who says, ‘I love you, I’ll kill you.’”

What a black dog really needs is to be born into a family that includes one or more of the Pure.  It’s the Pure that most reliably keep black dogs sane, so that they don’t play out the role their demonic shadows press on them.  

The Pure themselves exist mostly because of a line I tossed into the first chapter without knowing what it meant (“A girl Pure as the driven snow”).  Then I ran with the idea because it seemed to me that the demon-influenced black dogs could use a bit of help.  I also wanted to imply the existence of a divine power that was antithetical to demonic influence.  Because if there are demons active in our world, then that implies the whole wide sweep of the supernatural universe, doesn’t it?  So I gave the Pure all kinds of defensive magic (though sometimes an aggressively defensive magic, as Natividad points out); a magic involving light and protection against evil.

For the Pure, Enya really is a good choice.  I can imagine the Pure living with the soundtrack of “May It Be” playing behind them.  “May it be the shadow’s call will fly away; may it be you journey on to light the day.  When the night is overcome, may you rise to find the sun . . .”  The Pure have their own kind of strength.  It’s nothing like the terrifying deadly strength of the black dogs.  But black dogs need the Pure, in order to overcome their shadows and the dark.

Even now, as I close in on completing the second book, I’m not quite sure where Alejandro and Natividad will eventually wind up, as each of them influences the other with a tightening connection between light and shadow.  I hope you’ll look forward to continuing to explore their world through their eyes as much as I do!

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Black Dog | Rachel Neumeier

Released February 4th from Strange Chemistry 

Natividad is Pure, one of the rare girls born able to wield magic. Pure magic can protect humans against the supernatural evils they only half-acknowledge – the blood kin or the black dogs. In rare cases – like for Natividad’s father and older brother – Pure magic can help black dogs find the strength to control their dark powers.

But before Natividad’s mother can finish teaching her magic their enemies find them. Their entire village in the remote hills of Mexico is slaughtered by black dogs. Their parents die protecting them. Natividad and her brothers must flee across a strange country to the only possible shelter: the infamous black dogs of Dimilioc, who have sworn to protect the Pure.

In the snowy forests of Vermont they are discovered by Ezekiel Korte, despite his youth the strongest black dog at Dimilioc and the appointed pack executioner. Intrigued by Natividad he takes them to Dimilioc instead of killing them.

Now they must pass the tests of the Dimilioc Master. Alejandro must prove he can learn loyalty and control even without his sister’s Pure magic. Natividad’s twin Miguel must prove that an ordinary human can be more than a burden to be protected. And even at Dimilioc a Pure girl like Natividad cannot remain unclaimed to cause fighting and distraction. If she is to stay she must choose a black dog mate.

But, first, they must all survive the looming battle.

Inspired by Rachel's post, I created a fanmix for Black Dog. You can listen to it here/here!

Thanks to Strange Chemistry and Rachel Neumeier for letting me be a part of this tour!