Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) Blog Tour

 

 

 

Well hello there.

This time I come to you with a special guest post by Laurie Boyle, author of Blaze, in which she explains how she came up with Blaze and about her own love for comics:

Why My Character is “Comic Book Cool”

Blaze’s character showed up in my mind like Blam! Pow! “Tell my story!” She’s really into comics and is sort of stuck in her life as an outsider, but she isn't ashamed of being a geek. She displays her superhero buttons proudly and is constantly drawing and reading comics. I couldn't wait to write about her. Of course, working on a project where studying comic books counted as research was a bonus!

My step-father has this Ah-mazing! collection much like the one Blaze’s dad has in the book and I remember staying up late at night reading through stacks of them as a kid. I would try to tell my friends about these awesome characters like the Silver Surfer and Iron Man, and I’d even try to imitate Thor’s Norse God way of speaking. This was before the movies made these guys more mainstream and I was definitely on the fringe with my obsession, but when I’d find another comic book nerd we had an instant bond.

As I was writing, Blaze surprised me when she fought back against Mark the way she did and I knew at that point I could just allow her character to take over. Of course things don’t go as she plans, but no matter what tight spots she finds herself in, she uses comic books to guide and empower her. Readers who aren't into comic books will definitely still enjoy Blaze, but my hope is that she will inspire them to check out comics for themselves, too!

(And because Derry W., the publicity manager, is really awesome, he let me share with you these two interior art sketches courtesy of artist Anne Cain, aren't they awesome?!)

So don't forget to add Blaze to your to-read lists, and come back for my review on January 21st ;)




copyright: © 2012 Anne Cain http://annecain-art.com/