Blog Tour: Author Interview & Book Giveaway - In Blackness by

Welcome to Author U.L. Harper
Bio:

U.L. Harper is an after-school program Site Director in Long Beach, California. Over one hundred students attend his program. He previously worked as a corporate manager, and a journalist for a now defunct news agency in Los Alamitos, California. Newspapers are part of his writing background but he also dabbled in poetry. His poetry is published in The Body Politic chapbooks. He is the author of In Blackness, The Flesh Statue and the short story book Guidelines for Rejects. 

You can visit U.L. at http://ulharper.com/

Interview:
If you were stranded on a desert island what 3 things would you want with you? 
A boat, whiskey, and an electronic reading device filled with books.

What is one book everyone should read? 
Imajica

Night owl, or early bird? 
Night Owl

Please tell us in one sentence only, why we should read your book. 
The characters, the readers and even the author are surprised at the happenings in this novel.

What inspired you to want to become a writer? 
Seriously? You don’t choose to become a writer. Most writers understand this.

If you could choose only one time period and place to live, when and where would you live and why?

What is your favorite Quote? 
I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you "grew up"? 
I wanted to be a professional tetherball player. Or play tetherball in the olympics.

How did you know you should become an author? 
My first sign was that I wrote a book.

Who are your favorite authors of all time? 
Clive Barker, Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov, Joyce Carrol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk

Can you see yourself in any of your characters? 
All of them.

What's the craziest writing idea you've had? 
In Blackness is pretty friggin bonkers.

What's the best advice anyone has ever given you? 
Someone told me to understand that when you’re writing you’re really meditating.

What movie and/or book are you looking forward to this year? 
The latest installment of Abarat.

What was your favorite children's book? 
Ferdinand.

Nickname? 
Number One Big Arne Dog Number One

If you were a super hero what would your kryptonite be? 
People in general.

You have won one million dollars what is the first thing that you would buy? 
A 3-D TV

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? 
U.L. (bleepin) Harper

What is your guilty pleasure? 
I’m not guilty

Finish the sentence- one book I wish I had written is....
Cat’s Cradle.

In Blackness:

As children, Lenny’s and Saline’s parents brought them to Southern California to escape the nightmares. But after their parents die in a horrible car accident, their adoption by longtime family friend, Busek, proves nightmarish in its own right. Busek is abusive to his son, Dustin, and does very little to hold the young family together. The trio of kids become friends and grow up as a family. Outwardly, they are unruffled by life’s events, yet as teens the emotional aftermath of Saline and Lenny’s parents’ deaths lingers and eventually catapults Lenny and Saline on individual journeys back to their old hometown.
Saline journeys with a small church group which has regular excursions to her old hometown in Lowery, Washington. She discovers the group is protecting a powerful secret that will change her life.
Lenny, on the other hand, becomes stranded in King City. There, he meets someone who unexpectedly and unknowingly guides him to a place in Washington where something might be waiting for him. Impulsively, he makes his way there and discovers that the simple world he has been living in is vastly different from what he could have ever imagined

Meanwhile, Dustin remains in Southern California and meets a group of youth who stumble upon the city's plan to replace the local library with a jail. In the process of this discovery they learn of one of the largest secrets society has ever kept, a secret waiting for them underground, in blackness.

For all the tour stops please visit Pump Up Your Book.


Giveaway Details:
2 winners will each receive a copy of In Blackness
Open to US only
Ends 9/30/11

To Enter just leave a comment on this post with a way to contact you if you win.