Dark Territory, by J. Gabriel Gates & Charlene Keel

Author: J. Gabriel Gates [W], Charlene Keel [W]
Publisher: HCI Teens [W]
Release Date: July 1, 2011
Format: Paperback; 504 pages
Series: The Tracks (Book 1)
Genre: YA, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Avg. Rating: ★★★★✩

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Star-Crossed Love, Martial Arts, and Supernatural Evil meet at the Abandoned Tracks in the Deceptively Quaint town of Middleburg...When Ignacio Torrez moved from the rough streets of Los Angeles to a small town dead smack in the middle of nowhere, he never expected to find himself in the midst of a gang war. But, he soon learns, these are no ordinary gangs. The wealthy, preppie Toppers on one side of the tracks and the working-class Flatliners on the other adhere to a strict code of honor and use their deadly martial arts skills, taught to them by the wise Master Chin, to battle one another for pride, territory, and survival. When Raphael, leader of the Flatliners, falls for Aimee, a Topper girl, the rival gangs prepare for a bloody, all-out war. The only hope for peace between them lies within the dark territory of the abandoned train tunnels where the tracks cross. Under the direction of the mysterious and frightening Magician, the awesome power within the crossing sends the rivals on a terrifying mystical quest to fight the malevolent force that threatens the existence of Middleburg.

I've read many, many books. And there have been many plots and elements in each and every one of those books. However, out of the plethora of books that I have read, I can honestly say that I have never in my life read a book involving martial arts. I thought that was something that would have to stay to the television screen or a real life event that I see with my own two eyes in order to really get into it and understand it. Boy, was I wrong! To be quite honest, the one thing that made me hesitate the most about this book was the one thing that hooked me to the book quite easily. 

It's not just the martial arts that made me fall for this book, though. It was every single element and detail in this book, especially the characters. Raphael was an amazing character with so much history and quality to him that he seemed to really jump out of the pages for me. With his back story and how he handles his life, it was easy to feel a connection with him. Aimee was also great and I couldn't help but cheer for her and Raphael to work out together. The chemistry between the two is endearing.

There's also a nice number of characters that I couldn't help but love to hate. I'd assume that comes along with the territory of getting involved with a story that deals with gangs. BUT, I didn't know that I would get so emotionally attached to the story that the "bad guys" would actually make me have a physical reaction on top of the emotion. I would say that type of influence that a book has on you is a pretty big deal - and it shows just how well developed and written this book really is.

If I had to say anything bad about the book, I guess it would be that some of the plot is a little unoriginal with the whole girl on the "right side" falling for the boy on the "wrong side." That didn't deter me from the book one bit though because that very insignificant detail is just that - insignificant. The unique spin that the book takes on that plot, along with all the action, drama and suspense, really puts this story in its very own category. I absolutely loved this book and look forward to catching up with the rest of the books in the series. 

 
Rating: ★★★★★
Source: Publisher

Blog Tour Author Interview: Tom Kepler

Tom Kepler
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Tom Kepler's Books
Love Ya Like A Sister [Buy] [My Review]
Bare Ruined Choirs [More Info]
The Stone Dragon [Read]

What inspired you to become a writer?
The desire to write really kicked in when I was about 14-15 years old. A young woman student teacher took over my English class when I was in the 9th grade. I thought she was beautiful and intelligent and . . . well, you get the idea. She had us write in journals every day--anything we wanted to write, just between student and teacher. Totally private. I started writing all these love poems. The ability to write out strong emotion--not a story or an event, just emotion--was a powerful experience. So there I was, sitting in class, a teenager who was gaga over the teacher and handing in these torrid, emotional out-pourings . . . And she was classy enough to let me write. She didn't laugh at me or tell me to stop being silly and get a life. She let me write. The result was that I experienced a truth--writing is a powerful inner and personal experience--something much more than just words on the page to share with others. It was good teaching. Being a creator is heady stuff, and I have been writing ever since.


Do you have a favorite scene from the book you can share with us?
A fun scene to write--you'll have to tell me how fun it is to read!--is the scene where the main male character, Randy, is sitting on the toilet and talking to his ex-girlfriend on the cellphone.

Randy answered the phone as he sat down on the toilet.
“Hello?”
“Oh, hi, Randy, this is Susie.”
“Yeah, I recognize your voice.”
“Sure. It’s good to hear yours. What ya doing?”
“Oh, just sitting around.”
“I thought maybe we should talk.”
“You mean shoot the shit?”
“No reason to be crude.”
“You’re right. You just caught me at an awkward time for baring my soul.”

The scene represents one of the ideas that I developed in the novel. Sometimes we assume we know what's going on with the other person, but we really have no idea. Even when we talk to someone face to face, we have to be careful that our assumptions aren't presumptuous. In this case, this part of the novel is just a funny extreme of that idea. Along with this idea is the another of how important it is--especially for teenagers--to tell friends about what happened, whatever it is that happened. So in the novel, sometimes readers will learn about events by having one character tell another about an event. I did this rather than just narrating the event. I even have one instance where a character is telling another character about having discussed something with a third character. This rings true for me--high school years are very social years.


Are any of the characters more close to you than others?
Randy, the main male character in the novel, was always close to me, especially in the first draft of the novel. There are experiences in the book that are like my teen experiences, and also experiences of my son--like his mother passing away. The experiences in the novel, though, are not autobiographical; rather, they are renderings of emotion--events and characters made up but emotions remembered, adapted, and expanded.

Then, in later drafts of the novel, I came more and more to appreciate and respect the female main characters. They are essential to the novel because their strengths provide Randy with motivation and inspiration. They grow and evolve, and their changing changes Randy. The two sisters in the novel are different, yet I grew to respect both for their fundamental goodness and acceptance of their own qualities. Gwen is brave and independent and really living on an emotional precipice for much of the book. Most of the characters are having growing pains--legitimate and worthy of compassion--but Gwen is struggling for survival, and in order to survive, has to keep much of her struggle private.

What would you say is one item you absolutely need in order to write?
Hmmmm . . . I don't really need any one thing, other than the obvious like a brain or oxygen. Something to write with and on certainly helps. Let me try to go beyond the obvious, though.

Having some order in my outer life helps me be more focused on my inner life. My first wife was very sick for eight years before she passed away (my son was ages 8-16 years during that time), and I wrote very little. I wrote parts of this novel, sometimes with months and probably even years between the writing sessions. Earlier in my life, when I was about 22, my idea was to get a very straightforward job--it was working in an organic apple juice cannery in a town called Paradise, actually--and just going to work every day and then coming home and writing. Carrying in my pocket a pencil and notebook. Having a job with no demands, just float through the job and then do the real stuff--writing.

It didn't work out like that, but the challenges and responsibilities of my life have given me more depth, I think. I don't regret my life as a person or as a writer. However, a little more time would be good . . .

What is one thing on your bucket list?
I had to do some research on this on to see what a "bucket list" is. It seems to be a list of things to do with our lives before the bucket get kicked over--and then we wake up dead.

Since I'm writing this as a novelist, I'm going to relate this question to my writing. As a school teacher, I get to write during summer vacations, weekends, and a little during the work week; however, a school teacher is never really away from the job. There's curriculum and lesson plans and enrichment and . . . I would really like to experience just being a writer, and not being a full-time teacher who also writes. I would like to have an idea, have a plan, and have the time to devote myself to that vision from start to finish without having to also earn money for the mortgage payment. I realize that something always comes up, and I realize that creative people make the time to create. I believe that and have experienced that. I'd just like the train to slow down so that when I jump off (or on!) I don't get so skinned up. Right now I am reading through the manuscript (D7) of my fantasy novel, The Stone Dragon. I have also written draft 1 of its sequel, Dragons of Blood and Stone. I have about four more novels of this series in my head. It would be great to be able to devote myself full-time to writing.

By way of a conclusion: if I had the choice of waking up dead or not, I'd much rather be dead and awake than dead and dead asleep. There's always something good to say about living a spiritual life.

Review: Darkness Becomes Her, by Kelly Keaton

Darkness Becomes Her
Kelly Keaton
Hardcover, 288 pages
Simon Pulse (February 22, 2011)
Source: S&S Galley Grab
Rating: (Avg 4.0)

Ari can’t help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is.

Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why she is being pursued.

She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.

Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.

Darkness Becomes Her went from a story that had me curious from just reading the synopsis … to having my full and undivided attention for turning into an unexpectedly fantastic read. I don't really know how to put into words for what I feel for this book without giving too much away. The plot just kept building into layers and layers of story from the very beginning, when we first meet Ari and find out about her mom. From there, we're taken to a familiar place that isn't so familiar anymore. It's been ravaged by the hurricanes, and has become a place that you'd only read about in folklore and myth. Everything in the story is weaved together perfectly – there are no stray hairs that leave you hanging. Well, of course, until you get to the end … then, there's a pretty big cliffhanger waiting for you, snaring you in its grasp and holding you hostage until the next book is released.

The characters in this book charmed me – every. single. one. I loved Ari, our heroine. She was strong, yet still vulnerable. The best part? She didn't act like a spoiled, whiny brat! The love interest, to me, is obvious from the very beginning. Sebastian is a truly swoon-worthy character, heritage or not, and I loved that he was so brave and fearless – even when he knew he wasn't invincible. I also love that Ari and Sebastian didn't go completely love-struck and just forget about the entire world around them. No, the tension was just a soft buzz. You knew it was there, but it never distracts you from the real story. The other characters, especially the house of “misfits”, was exceedingly charming and the other characters were well-fleshed out and never deviated from themselves – no matter how rotten I thought they were. Ha.

Like I said, there was a definite cliffhanger. Of course, it didn't take the cliffhanger for me to be hooked … the story pretty much had me from “hello” and I'm still not out of its trance even after I completely finished the story. One thing that caught me off-guard was the amount of offensive language in the book. I don't think it was completely necessary to the story at all, but it's there – so, if you have a younger child reading the book, you might want to take that into consideration. But it didn't make my interest in the novel stray any. This has to be one of my top most enjoyable reads so far this year. It's definitely a recommendation for paranormal lovers that may also have an interest in Greek mythology.

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