GIRL BLUE
Her spirit waited within the stone, ready to live again.
Renowned sculptor Jeremy Copper is determined that his latest work, Girl Blue, will be his masterpiece. He’s found the perfect stone for it, a rare block of blue granite from a quarry in Brazil. But this stone is special in more ways than one. The former owner of the great block was a woman named Franscesca, a witch in the 1920s who loved a talented young sculptor. He promised to carve her likeness, but when he betrayed her love she exacted a terrible vengeance and paid for it with her life.
Jeremy begins to fear for his sanity when he finds flakes of granite in his bedroom. Late at night, he hears strange noises coming from his locked studio. The sculpture continues to progress, even in his absence, a sinister form emerging beyond his control. But this frightening new version is not at all what Jeremy intended. Franscesca’s vengeful spirit lives on, and she’s more dangerous than ever.
Why GIRL BLUE? I’ve been asked this many times, mostly during the initial writing stages when that terrible first draft began to take shape: how in the hell did I come up with such a macabre concept as presented in this novel? Though on the surface the answer might seem readily apparent—I wanted to write a story about a haunted sculpture—in reality, the truth is far less straightforward and simplistic. And once the novel was complete, and I was into the final editing phase and reading what I’d written, whoa, I found myself asking did I really write this? Because no matter how many more novels I write, I know I will never write another one as bizarre as GIRL BLUE.
The initial idea for this story was very one dimensional—I was going to write about a man who becomes addicted to sex by frequenting erotic massage parlors. GIRL BLUE and the haunted rock weren’t even on the horizon. Only after I’d delved twenty per cent or so into the manuscript did I realize I could only write so much about a guy paying for massages that included “happy endings.” In essence the story had come (no pun intended) to a screeching halt. I needed more.
Enter a quote by the renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin, famous for The Thinker and many, many other sculptures. “How dazzling is the sight of a woman undressing.” I’d read an article about Rodin and when I saw this quote, a light blinked in my head. Suddenly my protagonist was going to be a sculptor and his specialty would be sculpting nude women in stone. The sex addiction quickly fell by the wayside—but not totally as the story will reveal. Without giving away any spoilers, the other aspects of the story naturally fell into place and like the sculpture in the novel, GIRL BLUE was created. I must admit this was a fun book to write though the research at times was daunting as I’d never taken an art class in my entire life. I harbor a new respect for artists in all endeavors—authors, painters, sculptors, actors, singers, photographers, I’d even include athletes in this list as some are truly artistic in their performances. There is one common denominator in all—striving for perfection. Nothing less than perfect is acceptable.
I have no idea how GIRL BLUE will be accepted by readers but I do know this. The story is so bizarre there will be pockets of individuals who will either love it or hate it. I can only hope the former predominate. But we’ll see. It arrives April 3rd, 2012.
Happy reading! And thank you, Erik, for having me on your blog.
Website: http://anayes.com/
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Samhain http://bit.ly/yrNhox
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