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GIVEAWAY!! Blog Tour – Spotlight: Lost in the Light by Mary Castillo with a guest post by the author
Lost in the Light
written by Mary Castillo
published by Reina Books
find it here: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Goodreads
About the book – from Goodreads: One October morning in 1932, Vicente Sorolla entered the white house on the hill and was never seen again .
Now, Detective Dori Orihuela helplessly witnesses his brutal murder in her nightmares.
Settling into a 120 year-old Edwardian mansion, Dori restores her dream home while recovering from a bullet wound and waiting to go back on duty.
But then one afternoon, Vicente materializes out of her butler’s pantry and asks her to find a woman named Anna. Dori wonders if she’s not only about to lose her badge, but also her sanity.
Dori and Vicente’s unlikely friendship takes us back to the waning days of Prohibition in San Diego and the dusty barrio of National City. Mary Castillo’s new novel, featuring the wild Orihuela family that first delighted readers in Names I Call My Sister, weaves romance, history and a mystery into a humorous, touching and unforgettable story.
Every Free Chance Book Reviews would like to welcome Mary Castillo, author of Lost in the Light, to the blog today! She is touring the blogosphere with CLP Blog Tours and has written the following guest post for all of you.
The early 1920s was a time in history that was at complete odds with itself. Prohibition probably encouraged more people to drink and made millionaires out of criminals than it had intended. Movie stars like Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentine stirred libidos, while Aimee Semple McPherson led an intense Evangelical Christian movement by preaching on the radio and opening the nation’s first super church in of all places, Hollywood, California. Communism and the First World War instilled a fierce distrust of foreigners and yet, the country needed immigrants from Mexico, Asia and Europe to fuel its growing industrial economy.
When I was considering Lost in the Light, the story of a skeptical woman who befriends a ghost, I knew this ghost would be from the turbulent 20s. But I wanted to take Prohibition out of Chicago and New York, where it is typically set in books and movies, and see what it was like out here in California. It turned out that folks misbehaved just as much out here as they did on the East Coast.
Along the U.S. Mexican border, there was a great battle of one-up-manship between smugglers and federal agents. There are photos of cars modified to hide Caribbean spirits and Tecate beer. Women and children were often recruited by smugglers to look like a nice American family who had spent the weekend in Tijuana, when on their person they had thousands of dollars worth of illegal hooch. Smugglers took to the air and sea; there were floating liquor stores off the California coastline where boaters could legally purchase alcohol. But bringing it back was the hard part. The Coast Guard deployed a fleet of more powerful boats armed with machine guns, while the U.S. Border Patrol teamed up with Treasury Agents when they wised up to the schemes of smugglers.
This world came to life through the character of Vicente Sorolla, who haunts Dori’s house. During his lifetime, Vicente grew up from scrubbing the floors of electric cars, to becoming the second-in-command of a smuggling empire that ranged from Mexico up to Santa Barbara. However, his boss remained a nameless shadow through two drafts because I didn’t have the proof that these men existed in San Diego. For two drafts, I wrote from instinct until I researched the online archives of the Los Angeles Times where I found the following headline: “Rum Smuggler to Start Term.” Sure enough a man like Vicente’s boss did exist. On February 13, 1933, the Times reported that a big shot liquor smuggler was sentenced to a three-year prison term at the McNeil Island Prison. Through Ancestry.com, I traced his address, marriage certificate and his intake record at McNeil Island. This faceless character became James McClemmy who appears in Dori’s first nightmare of what happened to the man haunting her house. While I wrote Vicente’s flashbacks, I followed him as an orphaned boy in clothes that he’d long grown out of; to a man at the height of his power when he strutted about in handmade shoes and hung out with John Gilbert and Douglas Fairbanks. Getting past the image Vicente put on with Dori and later, the mysterious Anna, was the fun part of writing this book.
Like his time period, Vicente is a man at odds with himself. His regrets, his cruelty and his moments of kindness are the anchors that keep him trapped between life and death. Through his friendship with Dori – who has a few regrets of her own – he’s forced to accept himself and all of his flaws. I won’t say more. You’ll have to read the book.
About the author: Mary Castillo can remember the exact moment when her destiny to write smart, sexy stories for women began. (And no, it was not the day this photo was taken!) Her Grandma Margie gave her a copy of Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor (banned in 14 states and then when it was made into a movie starring Linda Darnell, condemned by the Hays Office, which controlled decency in movies) and said, “If you have any questions about what they’re doing in that book, just ask me!”
While Forever Amber is hardly a book for a high school freshman (frankly the heroine makes Scarlett a model of propriety and modesty in comparison), Mary was fascinated by a character that seized life with no apologies … and looked doing it.
After a few minor distractions (poor dating choices and pre-med studies), Mary committed herself to writing on February 10, 1994 and then sold her debut to Harper Collins Avon A in 2004. Hot Tamara was selected by Cosmopolitan magazine as the Red Hot Read of April 2005. The book wasn’t banned but Grandma was proud!
A lifelong professional writer, including a stint as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times Community News (second best job in the world), Mary is the proud author of three novels (Switchcraft, In Between Men and Hot Tamara) and three novellas featured in the anthologies, Orange County Noir, Names I Call My Sister and Friday Night Chicas. Her latest book, a paranormal that goes back and forth between modern day and Prohibition, Lost in the Light is now available.
Latina magazine called Mary “an author to look out for” and selected In Between Men and Names I Call My Sister for the Top 10 Summers Reads in July 2009. OC Metro magazine named Mary one of the hottest 25 people in the O.C. (the first but certainly not the last time her hotness has been publicly confirmed). She has also been profiled in Orange County Register, Coast, The Arizona Republic and San Diego Union Tribune.
Mary grew up in a haunted house in National City, CA. She cries every time she sees the movies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Casablanca, and feels that Joan Collins is by far the preeminent TV villain (which is why Joan plays such an pivotal role in the novel, In Between Men).
A graduate of USC, Mary lives in The O.C. with her family.
Also, she may have a mild addiction to Pinterest.
Find Ms. Castillo here: web, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads
And now for the GIVEAWAY!!! Mary Castillo is offering 3 ebook copies of Lost in the Light to our readers today! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win.
Happy reading wherever you are and whenever you get a free chance!!!
6 Comments
by Samantha
Thanks for featuring Mary and Lost in the Light!
by The Every Free Chance Reader
No problem!
by Kar
I’m getting a really good feeling about this book. Love the idea. Thanks for hosting the guess post. Can’t wait to read it 🙂
by The Every Free Chance Reader
Hi Kar! Thank you for following my blog and entering this giveaway! Good luck. =)
by Jennifer
Thanks for the giveaway chance. Wow…great work on your reading challenge! Almost to your goal!!
by The Every Free Chance Reader
You’re welcome! Good luck!!! And that is the 3 reset of my goal…I started at 85. LOL
=)