The author of The Song and the Pendant Magnus Von Black is tough to be described with few sentences. He says for himself that is a glitter spilling, noisy, well-spoken lunatic who can always be counted upon to be having wild, passionate romances with new ideas and tasteless color schemes. Let’s hear from Magnus about his novel and songs.

– What is your last book The Song and the Pendant about?
– The Song and the Pendant is the typical age-old tale of girl meets boy, boy is gay, space vortex almost kills them, girl goes to opera, boy and girl get sucked into interstellar time war, girl punches dinosaur, boy meets other boy, girl throws piano at super villain, Jesus discusses his favorite band, the creation of the universe is at least partially explained… you know, just your average, run of the mill science fiction romance time travel dragon karate super power nanotechnology love story about a girl who doesn’t get along with her dad.

It is the tale of Clara Edmonds, recent college graduate, and an independent, internally romantic young woman faced with a difficult choice between a career imagined for her by her parents, and the insistent dictates of her spirit. Her willingness to obey these mandates of passion and purpose will lead her on an adventure far beyond her intended destination of San Francisco, and even beyond our world. This is a tale of passion, of opera, of lost loves and strange wars which span vast chasms of space and time. It is a whirling, violent, and quietly beautiful poem through which we experience her deliciously naive feelings for an enigmatic pianist from another planet. It is at times a kaleidoscopic dirge in which we are stung by her anger and fear as she punches a dinosaur in the face, and hurls a grand piano at a well-mannered, super powered butler in the employ of a time traveling, psychopathic, warrior aristocrat. This is a triumphant ballad of human culture in which grown men fall in love, a flying priestess vaporizes a mansion with her eyeball lasers, portals to hell are opened, and two ageless masterminds engage in a ruthless shadow war of archaeology, religion, physics, and brute preternatural force. Most importantly, this is the origin story of the greatest and most powerful superhero in the history of human literature.

– How did you decide to write the story?
– I had always planned on one day being an author, but I had expected to wait until I was old and my rock music career had played itself out. However, in 2011 I became deathly ill due to an intestinal disorder, and I came within moments of death before a massive, last minute surgery saved my life. This made me deathly aware (pun!) that we don’t all get to get old. I decided to become an author right now, and I intend to be a furiously productive and passionate author until I do meet my ultimate end, a fate I no longer fear as I am actively accomplishing my purpose as a human being on a daily basis.
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– Patience. It takes a lot of patience to write a nine hundred page book. I had to avoid the temptation to merely finish the story quickly just because I was fatigued or impatient. I knew that the manuscript deserved my best effort, every day, every hour, for as long as it took to properly finish.
– Tell us something more about your main character? Is it close to someone from your real life?
– I think all of our fictional ideas, be they characters or otherwise, are synthesized from our life experiences. Clara Edmonds, the main character, is a passionate artist and so is my wife. Clara is courageous and gritty, and fights against social injustice, and these are traits to which I aspire; they are drawn directly from my own value system. She is a determined, thoughtful, and poetic soul, and these are traits that attract me to other people. I figured that if I was going to spend a couple of years writing and thinking about a person, it might as well be someone I admired and enjoyed.
– How much time you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– It took two years to conceive, outline, write, re-write, write, edit, and publish.
– Who are you?
– Please don’t ask me questions that will cause me to have an identity crisis. Just kidding! I am a passionate, determined, hopelessly romantic humorist whose great passions are to play guitar and write crazy, beautiful books. I fall in love too easily, get way too excited about everything, play my music too loudly, wear neon colors, cheer for the good guys, rail against injustice, and just generally live with my volume knob cranked all the way to eleven. There is so much disgusting, difficult, fearful crap in this world, but god damn do I love being alive! I shall forever persist in sharing my indomitable passions in the form of literature and rock music.
– What are your writing habits?
– When I have made the commitment to write a book, my only habit is to work ferociously hard all the time, with no distractions, until I have accomplished my goal. Nothing else matters. My office doesn’t matter, music doesn’t matter, noise doesn’t matter… nothing but my passionate drive to create something that I have decided to create. I just write words until all the words have been written.
– Are you satisfied by the sales of the book and do you plan another one?
– I am a completely unknown author with only a few friends. I have not sold very many copies. I hope one day that many people have a chance to experience my vast and exciting story! I definitely plan to write more books.
– What are you doing to promote by the best possible way your book?
– I make rock music videos and blog about stuff! Check it out!

https://magnusvonblack.wordpress.com/
You can be annoyed by me on Twitter @MagnusVonBlack
– You describe yourself as unreliable, guitar playing social menace. Why the music is so important to your life?
– Music is how I express all of my grief, joy, passion, humor, depravity, and raw excitement that is too intense to be contained in a story. It is everything to me, it has been my companion for most of my life, and it has become as valuable to me as breathing itself. Playing electric guitar and being a happy person have become, for me, beautifully inextricable.
– Describe the Top 3 of your favorite concert experiences?
1) Van Halen, 1998
2) Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Steve Vai on the G3 tour; circa 2003 maybe?
3) They Might Be Giants, circa 2001 I think.
– What are working and how it connects with your writings?
– For my day job, I work in the American space program. I am a modeling and simulation software engineer, currently working on spacecraft navigation. It inspires my science-fantasy flights of imagination.
– Ask yourself a question (And don’t forget to answer!)
– Question: Why should anyone bother reading your enormous book, The Song and the Pendant?
Answer: Because it is lovely, and interesting, and surprising, and because it is a uniquely uplifting science-fantasy story that I believe will have a positive impact on your life. I hope you will all give it a moment of your consideration. Thank you very much for inviting me to be interviewed.

To learn more about Magnus, check out his Blog

or his Twitter
Video Song 1 or 2

Take a look at his book
The Song and the Pendant