It’s the second day of the Something Wicked Tour with the Story Empire authors. Today I’m happy to host C. S. Boyack. Make sure to visit the Story Empire schedule for today so you can enjoy all the stops. Additionally, please re-blog these posts or share them on your social media accounts. Take it away, Craig!

I’m really enjoying the Something Wicked tour, and we’re all out at once right now. P.H is over at Harmony’s place today, so don’t miss that.

I’m promoting “Viral Blues” this week. This one is a paranormal story with dark humor. Seems like perfect Halloween reading to me.

It all started out as a sequel for “The Hat.” Then it dawned on me that many of my characters could occupy the same world. I’d been asked for subsequent tales for a lot of characters, so this percolated for a while, then I decided, why not?

The popular characters include:

• Lizzie St. Laurent & The Hat
• Clovis
• Jason Fogg
• Lisa Burton
• Gina Greybill and her assistant, Gupta

There were some logistics to work out, and a younger self might have given up. I have a human thug with no special powers at all. There is a woman who is infected by a parasite that allows her to see across the veil. I have a man who had a science fiction accident that allows him to turn into fog. One of them is a robot girl. Then there are Lizzie & The Hat who have a symbiotic relationship that allows them to fight monsters.

There are science fiction characters, regular humans, and supernatural characters. How the heck is this going to happen?

The idea wouldn’t let go, and time provided some resolutions. I figured out (eventually) that Marvel did the same thing. The Avengers have a witch, a science fiction accident, and a few normal humans. It doesn’t seem like a failed experiment to me, and sold a lot of movie tickets. I know they got my money.

Rather than waste too much time working out semantics, I just started writing. These characters all had origin stories elsewhere, so I couldn’t do that. By just stepping back into these characters, the story flowed.

Editing revealed the need for a bit of backstory, but surprisingly little. Most authors don’t realize how little backstory you actually need. Even in prior stories, Lisa simply booted up and had no backstory. Jason Fogg lost all of his memories in the accident, including what his real name is.

The mix of personalities was a pleasure to play with. Combine a street smart thug with a naive robot girl and it’s magic. Take the snarkiness of Lizzie & The hat, let them point that at the others, and it became a lot of fun.

I want to point out that while this really is a sequel for Lizzie & The Hat, it also provides a curtain call for some other popular characters. Even then, I designed it so there is no prerequisite reading required. You can pick up Viral Blues, even if you’ve never read one of my books before, and enjoy it without missing a beat.

If you think you might enjoy a paranormal story with a bit of dark humor for your Halloween reading, I’d be honored for you to check it out.