Interview & Giveaway: Pelican Bay by Jesse Giles Christiansen

Pelican Bay

Pelican Bay
Jesse Giles Christiansen

Genre:
Publisher: Imajin Books

Date of Publication: July 20, 2013

Number of pages: 209

Cover Artist: Ryan Doan

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     BN

Some things are better left alone…

After Ethan Hodges discovers an undersea cemetery just off the beach of Pelican Bay, South Carolina, he seeks answers from a grandfatherly fisherman named Captain Shelby. The captain wants the past to remain buried, and he warns Ethan to stay away. But Ethan doesn't listen.

Ethan's best friend and secret love interest, Morgan Olinsworth, joins in the investigation, unearthing intriguing secrets about the mysterious fisherman. When Captain Shelby is suspected of murder and disappears, a manhunt ensues, revealing a truth that unnerves everyone in Pelican Bay.

Trailer: 

Interview: 
Today, we welcome Jesse Giles Christiansen to Musings and Ramblings. Let's all give him a big Geeky welcome!

I have some questions for you that are writer specific as well as some fun stuff so that we can really get to know the real you. *grin* Plus we will finish things off with round of Think Fast. Ready to begin?

Writing Specific
1. Tell us something about yourself that's not in your bio.

I’ve been writing songs since I was fifteen years old. In fact, I’m working on a song for PELICAN BAY which I hope to release early next year.

2. What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Read, read, oh, and did I say read? Too many books, never enough time! I’m also a part-time philosophy professor and singer/songwriter. My favorite modes of vegetation are movies, listening to live music, and anything having to do with nature.

3. How did you choose the genres you write in?

I don’t believe an author chooses a genre, I believe the genre choose him. I just write and my publisher calls it mystery suspense. Other genres that choose me are literary fiction and magical realism (it seems that everything I write ends up tinged in some way with magical realism).

4. Is there any particular author or book that has influenced you or your writing?

The novels that have most influenced PELICAN BAY are Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea” and “The Shipping News” by Annie Proulx. Ethan’s sympathetic love, his awe, and his adoration for Captain Shelby are akin to Manolin’s for the old fisherman, Santiago in Hemingway’s novel. Also, Santiago’s enigmatic bond with the sea was a significant influence on my casting of Captain Shelby’s character. The hauntingly beautiful, tattered song of Newfoundland that Proulx so wonderfully captured in “The Shipping News” descends into the world I created for Pelican Bay, from the old fisherman’s speak to a wistful longing for a forgotten era of the sea.

5. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

That my prose is beautiful and poignant, but my rough drafts have been known tend to tire the reader. Todd Barselow, my discerning, truth-telling editor, really helped me pare down PELICAN BAY, much like farming an oyster into a pearl. I managed to give up 4,000 unnecessary words in the final draft. I’ve always admired Hemingway for his athletic prose, but I’m not sure I’ll ever attain such literary leanness. Sometimes I wonder if I just have too much to express. What’s the reverse of writer’s block?! I’ve also been told that I’m exceptional at describing places one inescapably falls into. A good trait for a mystery writer, eh? 

Fun Stuff
6. If you could have dinner with anyone, past or present, fictional or real, who would it be and why?

I always answer Elvis Presley on this one. Not just because I’m a fan, but because I would like to explore his thoughts and feelings about his enormous, rocket-like fame. I would want to know how he processed going from a truck driver to the King. There’s a sweetly ironic hypocrisy in the A & E field that begs the disturbing question: why would you treat an artist differently just because he has amassed a following? What, if anything, has changed in the artist to justify that?

7. You are going to be stranded on a deserted island and bring 3 luxury items. What would they be?

Hmm, is a guitar a luxury item? A solar-powered Kindle with the capacity to hold every great book ever written. And a cutting-edge telescope, to watch the heavens at night for astronomical phenomena and maybe UFO’s. : )

8. Pick two celebrities to be your parents. Who are they and why?

Ann Margaret for my mother. She was rich and singular and goodly dark with a flair for the literary. Carlos Santana for my father. He was a prodigiously talented guitar player taken far before his time.

9. What would we find in your refrigerator right now?

Healthy boring stuff like chicken and salad and fruit and almond milk, etc. I know, yuck. But there is this drawer of chocolate from all over the world for certain celebrations

10. If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

Aster Man (Aster a very late-blooming yet beautiful flower).

Think Fast
Summer or Winter? Winter
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Cake or Pie? Chocolate Pie
Car or Truck? SUV
Print or Electronic? Print

Thanks for coming by and spending some time with us. Any final words of wisdom to pass along?

Be careful of the eWave of the 21st century. It is a rushing wave, riddled with iridescent sea life, but it can wash over one and make one forget the gentler call of literary life, a certain beauty that lives on the pages, beckons one with black charming recoiling fingers, bidding you to wait a moment for the story to bite. Modern stories with their prologues like PELICAN BAY bite you right away, but remember that many great classics want you to sit in their foyers for a little while. I think we’re too quick in this age to toss aside books that have a subtler way of getting to the plot. For example, Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” would likely be rejected outright by most literary agents and publishers today for its beginning deep description without explicit tension, and this should give us all some pause.

Giveaway: 

We have 1 Kindle copy of Pelican Bay to giveaway, courtesy of Jesse Giles Christiansen and Great Escapes Books Tours.

Entry-Form

Book Tour Info: 
Don't forget to check out the other stops on the Book Tour:

August 26:
readalot - Review & Giveaway

August 27:
fundinmental – Review & Giveaway

August 28:
Books4Tomorrow – Interview & Giveaway

August 29:
SavingFor6 – Review

August 30:
rantin’ ravin’ and reading – Review, Interview & Giveaway

August 31:
Kaisy Daisy’s Corner – Review & Giveaway

September 1:
Brooke Blogs – Review, Interview & Giveaway

September 2:
Must Read Faster – Review

September 3:
The Self-Taught Cook – Review

September 4:
Musings and Ramblings – Interview & Giveaway

September 5:
Shelley’s Book Case – Review & Giveaway

September 6:
Cozy Up With Kathy – Review & Interview


Author Bio:

Jesse Giles Christiansen is an American author who writes compelling literary fiction that weaves the real with the surreal. He attended Florida State University where he received his B.A. in English literature. His newest novel, “Pelican Bay,” focuses on a very old fisherman, Captain Shelby, and the mysterious happenings linked to him surrounding a nosy, sea-battered beach town (release date: July 20th, 2013, Imajin Books). One of his literary goals is to write at least fifty novels, and he reminds himself always of something that Ray Bradbury once said: “You fail only if you stop writing.”

To connect with the author online:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads