Guest Post + Giveaway: JL Bryan, Fairy Blues and Fairy Metal Thunder

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming young adult author JL Bryan back to the blog to help celebrate his newest release in the Songs of Magic series! While I haven't started this series of yet, his Paranormals series is a favorite of mine for his ability to write beautifully layered and complex characters, and I've no doubt this series will be as equally impressive in that regard. Welcome back to Supernatural Snark JL!

ROCK & ROLL & FAIRIES

Many thanks to Jenny for having me on her blog to launch Fairy Blues, the second book in the Songs of Magic series! Here’s some background on these books...

In folklore, there has long been a deep association between fairies and music. Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, a collection edited by W. B. Yeats, includes a number of these stories.

“The Legend of Knockgrafton” tells of a gentle man named Lunsmore who is a social outcast because of a huge hump on his back. Walking home one night, Lunsmore hears fairy music and sings along. The fairies are so impressed by his singing that they remove his hump and give him a fine suit of clothes. Later, another man tries to get a free suit of clothes by singing along with the fairies, but he’s not such a good singer, and they punish him by putting Lunsmore’s hump on his back! Clearly, fairies take their music very seriously. John Cusack’s character in High Fidelity has nothing on the Folk.

Yeats has this to say about fairy music: “Many a poor girl has heard them, and pined away and died, for love of that singing. Plenty of the old beautiful tunes of Ireland are only their music, caught up by eavesdroppers...Carolan, the last of the Irish bards, slept on a rath, and ever after the fairy tunes ran in his head, and made him the great man he was.” (A rath is an old fort mound, the sort of place where fairies live.)

In The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore, gives more stories about fairy music:

“Any one straying near these (fairy mounds) on a fine summer's evening would probably hear delightful music; but he must take care, especially if he is a musician, not to linger lest he should be entrapped.”

He tells of a man crossing a river on a horse: “As he was in the middle of it he heard, or imagined he heard, the finest symphony, he would not say in the world, for nothing human ever came up to it. The horse was no less sensible of the harmony than himself, and kept in an immoveable posture all the time it lasted; which, he said could not, be less than three-quarters of an hour.”

Moore also writes: “I have heard many Manxmen protest they have been carried insensibly great distances from home, and without knowing how they came there, found themselves on the top of a mountain. One man had been led by invisible musicians for several miles together, and not being able to resist the harmony, followed, till it conducted him into a large common, where were a great number of little people sitting round a table, and eating and drinking in a very jovial manner.” The fairies try to trap the man by getting him to drink their wine – anyone who eats or drinks among fairies is trapped, like Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds in the realm of Hades.

These kinds of stories led me to create the Songs of Magic series, about a teenage garage band (the Assorted Zebras) who swipe steal instruments from fairies and become huge stars as their music enchants the crowds.

For this series, I’ve read dozens of rock biographies, which makes for fun research. There are countless stories of stars being mobbed by crazed fans, riots at music shows, swarms of groupies intent on getting close to their idols. A number of bands, like Nirvana, left a wake of destruction everywhere they went, as if the energy generated by the group couldn’t be contained as they passed through concert venues and hotels all over the world.

In Life, Keith Richards describes the strange relationship between rock music and politicians, as local politicians would either try to arrest the Rolling Stones or get a photo op with them. Politicians usually picked the latter, because arresting the musicians could lead to a huge riot at the concert venue and/or the local jail. Rock musicians would get arrested for hard drugs but released the same day to avoid potential riots. In the 1960s and 70s, rock groups were closely monitored by the US and UK governments. The Nixon administration considered them threats to national security.

In the Songs of Magic series, enchanting fairy music and volatile rock music are combined into something powerful, music that can enscorcel people but also unleash mass destruction. The band don’t really understand the powers in their instruments...but they have to learn fast, because stealing the instruments has made them some powerful enemies among the fae, including Queen Mab herself. They will have to grapple with the Queen’s bounty hunters and supernatural minions, as well as tricky record executives, mobs of crazed fans, and all the problems of sudden fame and fortune.

Thanks again to Jenny for having me on Supernatural Snark today! I like this place.

GIVEAWAY

JL is generously offering up a copy of Fairy Metal Thunder, book one in the series, to one lucky winner today! This giveaway is international (US residents will receive a paperback copy, international winners will receive an e-book) and will run through midnight EST on Friday, January 27th after which time a winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on the blog. To enter, please just name a rock song that you'd like to hear the Assorted Zebras play over their enchanted fairy gear and be sure to leave a valid email address or Twitter name so JL and I can contact you if you win. Good luck everyone!

J.L. Bryan is the author of The Paranormals series (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, Alexander Death) and other books. Fairy Metal Thunder is the first book in his new Songs of Magic series. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, his baby son John, and some dogs and cats.

Website
Blog
Twitter
Facebook

Buy Fairy Metal Thunder (just $.99)
Amazon
Nook
Apple

FAIRY METAL THUNDER (Songs of Magic #1)

The Assorted Zebras are a teenage garage band in Wisconsin with no fans and no gigs, until they steal four enchanted instruments from the fairy world. The new instruments make the band a huge overnight success, but they aren’t exactly ready for fame, fortune, or the supernatural creatures sent by the fairies to track them down.