We’re so pleased to welcome author Jordan Castillo Price and the Devil Take Me anthology blog tour to The Novel Approach today! Jordan is touring the web with her fellow co-authors to tell readers about each of their own stories in the collection, so, without further ado, here’s Jordan to tell us a bit about Dark Favors.
Dark Favors
I was so stoked to be asked to contribute to Devil Take Me. I’ve never written a devil story before, and was tickled to have the opportunity to play in a new sandbox.
In Dark Favors, the story’s antihero, Johnny, sold his soul to the devil when he was too young and stupid to comprehend what he’d done. Now he’s the washed-up owner of a lousy dive bar with nothing to look forward to and nothing to prove.
And he likes it that way.
If Johnny is the past, Adam is the cusp of the 80s future: pagers and shoulder pads and MTV. Chemistry sparks between the two of them like wildfire. But they cross paths when Johnny’s on a mission that can’t possibly end well.
I remember 1980s dive bars and night clubs vividly. In fact, I recently revisited a hole-in-the-wall where I grew up and, other than the fact that no one was smoking cigarettes by the bar, it hadn’t much changed.
But there’s a place in Dark Favors that’s far different from the beer-drinking, jukebox-blaring, cigarette-bumming bars of my youth. It’s an elite club that knows no physical bounds, that allows unremarkable mortals to become one of the Devil’s elite: the Chosen. And the cover charge is your soul.
Everyday folks—known as sheep—are unaware of the Devil’s people among them, but the Chosen know each other on sight. They see the dark power swirling through one another’s shadowed eyes. Like you’d suspect in any other secret society worth its salt, the Chosen help each other out. But it’s not a simple “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” arrangement. There’s magic involved.
After all, the type of person who’d sell their soul to the Devil can’t be trusted to help out their fellow Chosen out of an innate sense of fairness. So they get an incentive. Doing a favor for a fellow Chosen doesn’t just rack up credit toward a favor of your own. Fulfilling those agreements feels incredibly good.
The Chosen come from all walks of life, from menial laborers to heads of state. When you have the power to get whatever you want by simply asking for a favor, money and status become meaningless paradigms. When it comes to the Chosen, a beggar can hold as much power as a king.
Rich or poor, influential or invisible, Johnny hates all his Chosen kindred. He’s found out the hard way just how unsatisfying it can be to get what you want, and now he inhabits a world where he can have anything—anything at all—but nothing gives him pleasure.
Until he crosses paths with Adam.
Adam is Johnny’s opposite, a member of the Chosen who basks in the ability to give and take in a gleeful, malevolent cycle of power and delight. He’s smooth where Johnny is ragged, amused where Johnny seethes with disgust. He may not have the power of dozens and dozens of banked favors behind him, not like Johnny does. He’s never seen the need to save for a rainy day—why bother, when you can simply dance beneath the downpour?
Then again, he never anticipated the source of his power would turn on him.
Johnny’s not surprised. He’s never once had a lucky break, so why should now be any different? The only way out is to double-cross the Devil himself. That would involve trusting Adam—a man as unapologetically amoral as he is smoking hot. The Devil might’ve thought Johnny was smarter than that, but what the Devil didn’t realize was that a man can be capable of anything when there’s nothing left to lose.
Dark Favors isn’t a feelgood story by any stretch, but it is thought-provoking, evocative, disturbing and hot. So if you’re in the mood to revel in the darkness, I hope you give it a whirl.
About the Book
Temptation lurks around every corner in worlds sometimes dark, sometimes lurid. Giving in is both dangerous and satisfying, though never in the ways one expects. While these enticements offer a vast range of benefits and boons, the cost is a soul and the devil expects his due. Sometimes suave and charming or calculating and cruel, these devils have schemes and desires of their own. They can be creatures to run away from… or toward.
Join the most unique and celebrated authors of LGBT urban fantasy and paranormal fiction for a fast-paced and unpredictable ride, from a city on the other side of reality, to a world suspended in dusk, to a twisted version of the 1960s and 70s.
Meet devils in top hats and waistcoats, a defrocked motorcycle-riding priest, and a genderfluid antihero—among many more. Full of humor, romance, horror, action, intrigue, and magic, these stories have one common element….
They’re one hell of a good time.
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Dark Favors Blurb
Most folks in the crumbling metropolis of Calvary are ignorant sheep, but not Johnny Lockheart. He’s Chosen. Half a lifetime ago, when he was young and stupid, he sold his soul to the Devil… and he’s been regretting that choice ever since.
Now the Devil is back with a new and improved offer. Kill a major TV personality and walk free with his soul. It should be simple, if not for the star’s bodyguard. Adam is Chosen, too, and he has no compunctions about using his powers. When the two of them rub up against each other, their raw chemistry ignites—but there’s no way he’d let Johnny go through with the murder. The only way out is to cut off the power at its source. Is their connection enough to rid Calvary of the Devil’s influence for good?
Purchase Links
| DSP Publications | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GooglePlay | iTunes | Kobo | Goodreads |
About the Author
Author and artist Jordan Castillo Price writes paranormal sci-fi thrillers colored by her time in the Midwest, from inner city Chicago, to various cities across southern Wisconsin. She’s settled in a 1910 Cape Cod near Lake Michigan with tons of character and a plethora of bizarre spiders. Any disembodied noises, she’s decided, will be blamed on the ice maker.
Jordan is best known as the author of the PsyCop series, an unfolding tale of paranormal mystery and suspense starring Victor Bayne, a gay medium who’s plagued by ghostly visitations.
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Follow the Tour
10/10/18 – My Fiction Nook: Jordan L. Hawk
10/11/18 – It’s About the Book: TA Moore
10/12/18 – Love Bytes Reviews: Ginn Hale
10/13/18 – Joyfully Jay Reviews: C.S. Poe
10/15/18 – Two Chicks Obsessed: Rhys Ford
10/16/18 – The Novel Approach Reviews: Jordan Castillo Price