The humidity outside is a killer today. Mel and I are grateful that the large club has super awesome air-conditioning, working overtime.
“Hi.” A sweet, plump, bright red-haired girl greets us. “You’re here for the Luke Jones / BookBaybZ interview?”
Mel and I nod as we peer around the large dark entrance as the girls toddles off to find our interviewee. The bar, which sits down the back of the club, is decorated in a myriad of different shaped bottles containing a variety of alcohols. The black tiled floor is dotted with tables and chairs, with an open space, I assume is the dance floor, which stands between the tables and a large stage with a silver sequenced curtain draped across it.
“Hi.” A sultry voice ripples across the stale beer infused air.
“Hi.” We turn and both hold out our hand. A cheeky grin spreads across his handsome face as he reaches out and shakes both our hands simultaneously.
“This is Mel,” I wave toward my partner in crime. “And you can call me Mich.”
“Luke. Let’s sit.” He waves us toward an alcove with plush red leather seats.
“Mike!” He calls out to the barman.
“The usual?” A tall lanky built man, with hair I doubt has ever seen a comb, calls back.
“Yeah… What would you girls like?”
What a smile. The old cliché of melting panties with a smile, is no lie.
“Water.”
“Soda.”
Our voices echo in unison across the open club.
Mel takes out her iPad and keyboard as I fold open my sheet of paper and questions.
“Shall we get started?” Mel pushes back the spectacles slipping down he nose.
“Yeah.” Luke drapes himself over the chair.
Q. When and why did you start playing, and what was your first instrument?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t play. There are photos of me from a very young age struggling to pluck away at a guitar that was bigger than me. My dad taught me, as he did all of his four boys. It was kind of this special skill and interest that brought us closer as a family, and especially as father and son.
We’d sit around and sing and play, just jamming out whatever came into our minds. Or we’d do it jukebox style. Our mom would yell out a song and if us kids didn’t know it, Dad would call out the keys and cords and we’d jam it that way.
Q. Which instruments do you play?
Guitar is really where it’s at for me, although I hold my own on keys. I also know my way a drum kit, but I sound like a proper drummer after they’ve been hit by a truck, and are forced to play with their arms in traction.
I sing too, so I guess you could say I can play my vocal chords.
Q. Which famous musicians have you learned from?
I’m lucky enough that I get to play with some of the most talented musicians on the planet, and I learn from them every day. Don’t get me wrong, I have my favorites and idols – Hendrix, Santana, John Mayer, to name a few. But cheesy as it sounds, my bandmates inspire me more in real life as I’ve witnessed what it’s taken to get as far as they have. That even goes for my brother. Bahahaha!
Q.Have you ever written a song, and if so, what inspired it.
Arlo writes most of the songs for the band, but I’ve actually written and recorded a whole album, which I will be releasing as a solo artist next year. The thought is both exciting and terrifying.
In terms of what inspired it, it was a number of things, but the most influential by far was an epiphany. I guess you could call me a late bloomer, but it just recently occurred to me that we only get one shot at this crazy thing called life. There are no do-overs. Therefore we owe it to ourselves and to the people we love to make the best we can of it every single day. Until I am to that realization, I wasn’t doing that. In fact, I was getting in my own way, and blocking my own path to happiness.
This album is about the events that lead me to that clarity of thought, and how every day I’m determined to repay the happiness debt I owe, both to myself, and to my love.
Luke Jones is the central character of MV Ellis’ rock star romance Finding Marnie, released February 12th 2019. He also features heavily in the rest of the Heartless Few series, of which Finding Marnie is book four.
Finding Marnie
Their love is a legacy of broken hearts and shattered dreams. Can they find each other without losing themselves?
He is everything I want but know I can never have.
Every fiber of my being has ached for Luke from the very first moment we met. However, with my parents’ legacy of toxic obsession woven into my DNA, I know love is pain and should be avoided at all costs. I’m unloved and unlovable. Still, in moments of weakness, I allow myself to imagine what it would be like if I was the kind of woman who deserved the love of a man like him.
She is hiding in plain sight, waiting for me to find her.
Marnie has had my heart from day one, and always will. It’s just a shame I couldn’t muster the words to tell her so when we first locked eyes. It’s a failing I will live to regret for years to come. However, I’m determined to make things right, even if it takes me a lifetime. I need her to know she is enough. In fact, she is more than that. She is everything.
They’re hiding in plain sight. Can they find each other without losing themselves?
Kindle Unlimited
MV Ellis
MV ELLIS knows what it’s like to fall head over heels in love with a badass musician. She followed her heart halfway around the world to be with one. She moved from London to Sydney after a steamy holiday romance with a sexy bass player in sultry Brazil.
Fourteen years, two children and a dog later, and she’s still smitten. All this with a guy she sat next to on a bus for 36 hours! She has toured internationally as a ‘WAG’, and her experiences inspire her writing.
Ellis’ love of romance began when she was 11 years old, after a summer spent secretly reading her auntie’s books. She’s been a sucker for an alpha hero and strong heroine ever since.
Why do you write romance?
