Category: Publishing

Where did you get your ideas for The Sanctum: The Boy? Is there a 3rd book coming?

Let’s start by answering the easy stuff first. Yes, there is a third and final book in The Sanctum Trilogy currently in the works. I published The Boy in mid May of this year and afterwards, took off a couple of weeks to read some other people’s work, blog and just kind of take a deep breath and exhale for a second. The Boy was emotionally taxing for me to write – so much of it makes me sad – so it was good to take a little time for myself and unwind a bit. But now I am back at it and hope to have the trilogy complete by the end of this year.

Now to tackle how I came up with the idea for The Sanctum Trilogy.

I started thinking about The Sanctum a few years ago.

I had been reading a lot of fantasy and paranormal fiction and although I loved every minute of it, I found myself oftentimes getting quite frustrated with the female characters. They possessed amazing powers and were many times expected to save the world, but consistently lacked self-awareness. Frustratingly, these same badass girls often had to learn of their capabilities from someone else, that someone else most often being a boy.

So I set about to create a girl who knew quite a lot about herself, at least when it came to her capabilities, and out came Dev.

Then Wyatt, and the rest is history.

I knew I wanted The Sanctum to be a trilogy as it seemed an ideal way to develop and explore the world I created. Book I would tell Dev’s story, Book II would tell Wyatt’s story and Book III would tell their story together.

The Girl introduced readers to the world of The Sanctum and Dev and I was hopeful it would transition smoothly into The Boy, which focuses more on Wyatt’s journey. At the time, I did not know all the details of his journey, but I knew the key aspect around which his life would evolve: The Ramyan.

The Ramyan are a mysterious sect of Magicals who traverse the worlds of both the living and the dead, remaining aloof and beholden to nothing but their own will and desire. They were briefly mentioned in Book I but knew they would play a significant role in Book II and Wyatt’s journey.

I tend to write from a very loose outline, and when I say loose, I mean loose. For book II, I basically noted how the book would begin, end, a few key points I wanted to cover in the story, and then just started writing. It’s not very organized but offers my imagination much freedom to run wild and create characters like Jedda and Pius, neither who were planned, but who play major roles in the plot line.

So I guess this is all a very long way of saying that my ideas for Book II: The Boy initially arose from a desire to create a very self-aware, badass girl and have blossomed, and exploded, from there.

Dev is the inspiration for it all and honestly, I find her to be so very worthy of the honor.

BLURB:

“Every now and again an excellent novel will come forth dealing with fantasy and magic that will just grab and hold my attention from beginning to end. That is exactly what THE GIRL did.” — OOSA Online Book Club

In THE GIRL, Madhuri Blaylock introduced readers to the world of The Sanctum, one corrupted by greed and savagery and hellbent on achieving a single goal: destroying the prophesied hybrid. When one of its most celebrated warriors questioned his allegiances, age-old secrets were unveiled and violence erupted. The journey becomes more perilous and intense as the trilogy surges forward with

THE BOY

Can you cross the plains of death, collect every piece of your soul and make it back to the land of the living?

And if you complete the journey, will your loved ones welcome your return?

The Ramyan have been answering such questions since the creation of The Sanctum. A mysterious sect of Magicals, haunting the blank spaces of time and memory, they serve no one but themselves and their higher purpose. They exist on a plane removed from earthly matters, shifting easily between the living and the dead, moving in time to the beat of their own drummer.

At least they did. Dev and Wyatt change all of that when the prophesied hybrid lands on the steps of Rinshun Palace, seeking help for the wounded Class A Warrior. That decision alters lives and sets old agendas back on course. But at what cost to Dev and Wyatt? And does that really even matter?

“The characters in Madhuri Blaylock’s novel…are well written and unique, and the story is just fantastic…I just loved every page of the story!” – Readers’ Favorite

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Madhuri is a Jersey City Heights girl via Snellville, Georgia, who writes paranormal fiction and is slightly infatuated with tattoos, four-inch heels, ice cream, Matt Damon, scotch, Doc Martens, Laini Taylor, photo booths and dancing like a fool.

She’s working on The Sanctum trilogy and hopes one day soon, everyone is walking around with copies of The Girl and The Boy in their pocket or on their Kindle.

She wants to get a goat and a burro, but since she lives in the city, will settle for some chickens.

To learn more about her, you can follow her blog at madhuriblaylock.wordpress.com, follow her on Twitter at @madhuriblaylock or like her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/thesanctumtr.

She’s totally chatty so drop her a line any time.

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Excerpt:

The clearing in the park still hummed with magic. Her magic. And her scent. It was why he kept coming back to the same spot every night, just for a whiff. Then he could go about his business, whatever that might be.

Darvin Lucius Jefferson was one hundred and ten, going on seventeen. He was a wealthy, bored teenager who became a wealthy, somewhat bored vampire. There were a few things in this life that brought him joy, piqued his interest: from the very first day he saw her, Jools Clayworth, and as of nine days ago, that stunning thing her brother was running around with before he died.

Of course, Darvin had no idea whether or not Wyatt perished subsequent to his ministrations, nor did he care. He simply assumed the too-good looking, sanctimonious warrior was dead, for his wound was hideous and he seemed to be breathing on borrowed time. Darvin had told the pretty thing as much that night, then he’d returned to his perch atop the Dakota and watched her strap the warrior to her back and escape into nothingness.

What a feat that had been.

One moment she was there, in all her stunning beauty and tortured agony, the next she was gone.

As if she’d never been there at all.

Darvin went to the spot that night, less to follow her than simply explore. It was glamoured to avoid human detection but he found it easily, having watched the warrior and his beautiful best friend, Ryker Morrison, comb the area many a time over the past year. But try as he might, Darvin could spot nothing to hint at an escape hatch or portal. Whatever the pretty thing had used to vanish into thin air, it was long gone, hidden from prying eyes. All that lingered was her scent, that hypnotizing, intoxicating essence of her that Darvin wished he could bottle and keep hidden in his pocket. Away from Darby.

Darby Winthrop.

The one and only.

The dark queen of New York.

The southern belle from hell.

His maker.