Category Archives: Lucid

Brightest Kind of Darkness/Lucid Print Book Giveaway (US & International)

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to my readers all over the globe! I appreciate you talking about BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS and LUCID to all your reader friends, posting reviews and book covers, and in general being the best fans ever! So as a thank you, I’m giving away two signed print copies of BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS or LUCID. Enter via the RaffleCopter form below. I will pick two winners and the winner can choose which book he/she wants. And YES, this contest is open to everyone!  Have fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Lucid

All about Parkour (featured in LUCID)

Here’s the next guest post I did for the BKoD blog tour. This one features parkour!

PARKOUR IN LUCID

LucidIn the second book in my BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS series, LUCID, the main character, Nara, meets a guy named Drystan and soon discovers among other things that he has a unique talent. He’s really good at parkour.  What is parkour?

Here’s how Drystan explains it to Nara…

“Parkour is perceived as constant movement using natural motion. The technique is very physical, but it’s a way of evaluating and perceiving your environment around you in a strategic way, where you don’t let your mind or physical barriers stop you.”  ~ Drystan in LUCID

When Nara asks Drystan why he wants to teach her parkour, he says that it’s all part of him helping her learn self-defense.

“…Defensively, if you can think at least two steps ahead of your pursuer, then your chances of getting away are much greater.” ~ Drystan in LUCID

And just like Drystan tells Nara that showing her parkour would be far easier than explaining it, I thought I’d share some visual examples with you.

PARKOUR

You know that opening chase scene in the 2006 remake of Casino Royale (with Daniel Craig)? See here: (it starts at 5.02  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJubOZLpp4A . That’s parkour being used in the movies.

Here’s a very well known traceur (the term for a parkour practitioner) in action, Damien Walters, doing all his great moves. Check them out and be entertained with his amazing flexibility!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMsdCsNz7L4

SLACKLINE

In LUCID, Drystan takes Nara up on the slackline to teach her to learn to control her balance, since learning parkour starts with controlling one’s balance.  Do you remember the guy in the white toga/dress doing crazy bounces on a thin piece of line on stage during Madonna’s Super Bowl performance this past year? That was Andy Lewis on a slackline. He’s the world champion in his unusual sport.  Here are a couple examples of tricklining (tricks/flips) done on a slackline.

Mike Payton on the slackline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ycT_RBZ0tg&feature=player_embedded

Andy Lewis, Mike Payton and others on the Conan show doing the slackline:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hxC_T9UnmA

THE HISTORY OF PARKOUR

If you’re curious about the history of parkour (where it came from and how it has evolved over time), here are a couple of links with all the deets! https://www.parkourgenerations.com/article/parkour-history and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

I hope you found learning a bit more about parkour and slacklining interesting and that it has made you curious about LUCID! 🙂

Ten Little Known Facts about BKoD and LUCID!

For those who didn’t get a chance to see the guest posts I did for the BKoD blog tour, I’ll be posting them here and on my FB page. I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about the BKoD world! 🙂

1) LUCID – 95% of LUCID was written in a B&N cafe.

2) LUCID – Ravens really do hold funerals for their dead.

3) LUCID – When I first began brainstorming LUCID’s storyline, I thought it would be a novella. Haha, it turned into a 100K (328 page) novel! Needless to say I added a LOT more depth to the story. 🙂

4) LUCID – Freddie/Erik and Cordelia are family names.
5) BKoD – My best friend pierced my ears the same way Lainey pierced Nara’s.
6) BKoD – Farmville REALLY is a town in Virginia. So is Barboursville.
7) BKoD – Nara and Ethan’s hometown is modeled after Charlottesville, Virginia.

8) BKoD/LUCID – Nara’s name is pronounced Nara (like car), and yes, her name came from the character Inara from Joss Whedon’s awesome show Firefly.

9) BKoD – The original working title of BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS was FATE, which I decided to change to a title that had many layers of meaning related to the story.
10) BKoD – I was told that I should shelve BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS and write another book. I’m so glad I trusted my gut and didn’t give up on publishing it!