The Mahogany Door Now Available at The Regulator Bookshop

August 15, 2011 (Durham, NC) – “The Mahogany Door,” a new fantasy-adventure novel for young and young adult readers by Durham-based author J. Mark Boliek, is now available at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham.

Published by Split Rail Books, “The Mahogany Door” is the first of a trilogy of books entitled The Bruindeur Narrative and it comes with an all-original-music soundtrack CD created by the author and other musicians.

“The Mahogany Door” tells the story of three 20-something friends, separated years earlier by a tragic event, who must reunite to return to the fantasy world of Bruindeur to fulfill a destiny before that world collapses. As they pass through the mahogany door in the basement of an old coastal mansion that leads to Bruindeur, they become children again and a series of fast-paced adventures begin.

Boliek worked on the book off and on for nearly 10 years. During that time he found California artist Lauren Gallegos, who provided the full-color cover illustrations and the black-and-white interior illustrations.

“The Mahogany Door” book and CD have been available on the author’s website, www.jmarkboliek.com since May. The e-book versions, both regular and enhanced with embedded music, were more recently released via a host of online sources. But The Regulator Bookshop is the first brick-and-mortar bookstore to carry it.

Boliek delivered the books and CDs to the store this week, along with a handcrafted, limited edition wooden box that contains the book, CD, and bookmarks behind a “mahogany door.”

The Regulator Bookshop is a 35-year-old independent bookstore, located at 720 Ninth Street in downtown Durham, that “contributes to the cultural life of our community by creating a space for authors -- from the Triangle, from North Carolina, from around the country and from around the world -- to meet with their readers,” according to the store’s website.

“This is a dream come true for me, as it would be for any first-time author,” Boliek said. “To actually see your book on the shelves of an actual bookstore is beyond exciting. I can’t thank the folks at the Regulator enough for giving me this opportunity.”

For more information on The Regulator Bookshop, go to www.regulatorbookshop.com.

For more information on “The Mahogany Door,” visit www.jmarkboliek.com or the book’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/JMarkBoliek.

All Alone, In the Afternoon, Here is My Anger, Here is My Pride

Hello All-

A few days until the The Mahogany Door, the first book in a series of fantasy-adventure books for young readers, is available at www.jmarkboliek.com. We are in the process of making it available at other outlets. But at the moment, if you order from my online store, you get a signed copy, the CD, and free shipping. I hope to be able to sign your copy.

"All Alone" and "In the Afternoon" are pretty special songs to me for the sole reason that I wrote them. It is a pretty cool thing to put something together that you never thought you could and it actually sounds pretty good. Of course I had a LOT of help. Jon Murray let me borrow his pipes by singing the two songs because I can promise that I would not have sounded up to the part. As my wife tells me, "Mark, you can sing, but you should never be recorded."

Scott Jackson lends his music ability on the guitar and my wife lends her voice for the backing vocals. Of course, without the skill of John Plymale's engineering and producing, well, none of it would have been good.

I picked "Here is My Anger, Here is My Pride," which Scott and Jon wrote for a former band they were in because the original song was very powerful.

What is so interesting is that I really liked the sound of its hard rock flare. But one day last year, Scott played it on his acoustic guitar, and I actually liked that sound better. So we started to fiddle around with another arrangement. Originally, the song was only vocals, acoustic guitar, and strings. But John Plymale felt that it needed balance so he added an R&B flare beat. I think it came out great, which proves that the song is so strong that it can work in different styles.

When I heard the finished arrangement, I felt it described my antagonist -- named Charlie -- exactly. I felt that the argument in the song the singer has with God not only speaks for Charlie, but it also speaks for me when I found myself in a very dark time in my own life some years ago. I almost felt that God had abandoned me. In reality though, it was I who abandoned God. My anger and pride got in the way of what is truly important in this life: my relationship with others and my relationship with God. I thought my way was the only way, and it got me in some pretty nasty trouble.

I hope you like these songs we'v inserted on the player. Jon Murray provides the vocals with a little help from my wife, Jill, on "All Alone" and "In the Afternoon." They will be up for a couple of days, then I will preview the entire album for you in context and order as we release the book.

OH YEAH! Another thing that makes "In the Afternoon" so satisfying is that Jill hated it when I first wrote it on an acoustic guitar. But now, with all the bells and whistles of production, it is one of her favorites. Nice!

As always, thanks for your support,

Mark



http://www.reverbnation.com/themahoganydoor

Picking Songs... "Goodbyes" and "Rear View Mirror"

I absolutely love some of the questions I have been getting lately. The biggest question is always, "How does the soundtrack fit with the book?" I still don't have a really good answer for that, so I'll go to another that I can answer without sounding too idiotic:

"How do you pick the songs for the soundtrack?"

That's tough to answer as well, but to tell you the truth, the songs kind of fell in my lap.

Over the years I've written many songs, and I wrote those songs as I was writing The Mahogany Door, the first book in a series of fantasy-adventure books for young readers. But I never had the idea of putting the soundtrack together until late in 2009. (That's right. We've been working on the CD since October of that year).

The first bit of music I put together for the actual book was a small piano riff that was playing for my under-construction website at the time. It was called "It's Our Time," I still like the song, but I've never completely finished it. Maybe later.

The idea to do a complete soundtrack for the book popped in my head while I was riding around Greenville, NC, one day with my brother-in-law, Scott. We both were pretty psyched about the idea, but then realized we had no idea what kind of music we would put on it. The idea started with a song per chapter - not a good plan as there are 29 chapters, which would means 29 songs. And really, the nine we will have on the final CD were hard enough to create as it was.

Enter Katie Basden. Katie is a former student of my wife's choral program. Through the years, while Katie was in high school, her mom, Anne, and my wife not only shared a common bond with Katie but a common bond with music. Anne helped my wife tremendously with the choral program by playing the piano at shows and doing all kinds of other things. Naturally, a friendship started between the two, which is not at all surprising considering the fact that, if you ever meet my wife, she'll know everything about you by the end of the conversation.

Some time before that, Katie decided she wanted to be a songwriter. Many of her heroes are not just good singers, but they are also great songwriters. I found this out.

Thirteen years ago, I wrote a song called, "Goodbyes" after some pretty bad things happened in my life. My sister is a natural poet, so, as the story goes, I snuck around her in diary and found this poem called, "Goodbyes." It was very emotional, and it captured everything I was feeling at that time. I'd bought an old guitar from a pawn shop some years before so I started fiddling around with some chords and finger picking. I think I put together a pretty good song. I really liked it but I never sang it to anyone.

One afternoon as I was deciding what songs to put on the soundtrack, I realized I really wanted to include "Goodbyes." It fits nicely with a scene at the end of the book. The problem: I can't sing. (Never let my wife try to convince you that I can. She had a Freudian slip one day and said, "Yes Mark, you can sing, but it should never be recorded." Thanks.)

So I needed a singer, and Katie was the first person I thought of. Her voice is something that has to be heard to be believed, and since she wants to be a country singer I thought she might like to sing "Goodbyes." She could add it to her catalog.

Nervously, I played -- and sang -- the song for her one afternoon. Lucky for me, she liked it and went home to practice it. The same afternoon, she played a song for me called "Rear View Mirror." I was blown away. Right then I asked if I could use it for The Mahogany Door soundtrack. She said yes. I was elated! The problem was, I didn't know if it would fit the book. I read through some chapters and found one scene that the song could possibly fit with, but I wasn't sure. So I changed the book to make the song would fit because I simply love the song. And it makes my story better.

So that's where picking the songs came into play. I pulled some old songs I had been messing around with out of my head and started putting some other stuff together. Then my brother-in-law Scott jumped into the fray and it went from there. He added to the music the only way he knows how.

When I woke up on Christmas morning in 2009, I discovered that my wife had bought me a beautiful Fender acoustic guitar. "If you are going to be playing around here writing songs, you need to throw that old guitar out," she said matter-of-factly. "It sounds like crap."

There are more stories like this for the other songs, and I will be posting those as we go along here and on the website at www.JMarkBoliek.com. (The website isn't quite completed, but hopefully will be ready soon.)

It's been pretty cool to have watched the songs progress from very rough to almost perfect polished. April 12th is the date it should all be mastered and ready to go. One pretty special thing about the soundtrack that I'm really appreciating is that it is a very eclectic mix of styles: country, pop, rock, and even a bit of classical thrown in.

Oh yeah - I do play the Fender on "Goodbyes" on the soundtrack f you were wondering. But you will never hear my voice.

Talk to you later!

Mark




Chapter 7 Illustration copyright Lauren Gallegos Illustrations 2011