My book is called The Darkness of the Womb, and it’s about a pregnant mother who journeys into her unborn child’s subconscious to prevent him from miscarrying himself.

Tell us more.

Drawing by John Dylewski

My main character is Marigold Haunt. She’s always wanted a baby, but has had no success, having miscarriage after miscarriage. But when she finally gets her wish, the baby inside of her, who is destined to be a Messiah, decides that he doesn’t want to be born. After an accident lands Marigold in a coma, she finds this world that exists within all of us called the Internal Landscape. It’s here that both the recently dead and the unborn reside. It’s a dangerous place where one can die a second death. Marigold decides that she’ll do anything in her power to make sure that her baby chooses life, even if it means falling into a world of eternal darkness for all eternity. She’s pretty much Supermom.

What genre is it?
Modern fantasy/horror.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
People from 18-49, mostly, and both male and female.

Complete this sentence for us: if you like _________________, you’ll love my book.
If you like What Dreams May Come and the Dark Tower series, you’ll love my book.

Great title, by the way.
I got it from a professor named Lynn White, who, while commenting on the Dark Ages said, “If it was dark, then it was the darkness of the womb.” I thought that title was perfect
for my dark fantasy novel.

You said something about a dark landscape. Tell us about it.

The Internal Landscape. Drawing by by Scott LeFevre

As for the dark world you mentioned, Marigold goes to the Internal Landscape. In my story, the Internal Landscape exists within all of us. It’s where we mentally live while we’re in our mother’s wombs, and where we go right after we die. In the Internal Landscape, Imagination, Logic, Love, Instinct, and Purpose are not just ideas, but actual individuals, and they rule the landscape like gods. Lord Imagination has dreamed of Marigold’s child, Aiden, for centuries, and he’s pretty much summoned Marigold to the Landscape by causing an accident that puts her in a coma, which makes her brain dead, but not bodily dead. In the Landscape, past regrets manifest themselves into monsters. Like for example, when Marigold was just a teenager, her mother made her get an abortion. In the Landscape, the regret she has from that event manifests into an umbilical cord sea monster. The Landscape is full of perils and danger, and so there’s danger at every turn.

It is only in the Landscape where one can die the “true death”, which is an eternity of wandering around in wet darkness. To guide those from this true death though, is the archetype, Instinct, who protects recent arrivals and takes them to Purpose’s Castle at the center of the Landscape. Instinct will try to protect Marigold and get her to her child, but other factors are at play here, like the war between Logic and Imagination. The fate of the world of man is at stake, because if Marigold doesn’t convince her child to be born, then the world won’t have him as a Messiah in the future. Some of that is shown in the first chapter of the comics.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
I have written other books, but none that you should read next. They’re awful.

We don’t believe you. Tell us a bit about yourself. 
I teach seventh grade during the day, and write at night. Right now, it’s summertime, so I get to write all day if I want. The only drawback? I don’t get paid. Oh, well. Nobody said I wrote for the money.

Exactly. Tell us about your book’s website. It’s very interesting.
This is the website for it: http://thedarknessofthewomb.com/. There are comics!

Comics? Is this a comic book?

The umbilical cord sea monster by Michael Manomivibul

The comic is actually not for a comic book, but I love comics, and I thought a few of the chapters in comic form might intrigue people who might not have given my book a second look. A lot of people have since told me that they really dig the comics, so that’s good.

Do you have a blog?

http://knighttakesrook.blogspot.com/ is my blog. I post most of my stuff here

Do you use social media?
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=8836650&ref=tn_tnmn (Facebook)
@Riknight36 (Twitter)
Boomshakalaka!

What’s next?
I’m working on my next book, which is a YA book called A Boy and His Corpse.