DevinHarnois.com

The d20 has spoken, and the winner is Mar! I’ll contact you via email.

Congratulations!

I read Keith Melton’s Blood Vice, and it is awesome. Vampires and mafia wars make for a lovely combination, and lots of violence. Fighting, shooting, explosions, fire … yeah, it was great. And Keith’s vampires take it back to the old school – they’re undead, hurt by holy objects and react very badly to silver. There was also a sweet love story between Karl Vance and Maria Ricardi. That’s right, all that fun plus romance too.

I loved it so much I want to share it. So, I’m giving away a copy! All you have to do is comment and tell me who your favorite vampire is, and why. (If you say Edward, automatic DQ! Maybe that’s mean, but hey, this is my blog ) You have until Friday (5/28) to enter, and then I will pick a random winner.

The blurb for Darkness at Dawn is finally up on the Samhain website. It’s about 70% different from the one I sent them. I’m not complaining, though. I worked hard on my version, but blurbs are definitely not my strong point. The new version is an improvement. Some of the lines are from the synopsis, which is nice because I worked hard on that, too.

I got some promo bookmarks designed last week, and they have the old blurb version on them. Ah, well. The bookmark is still pretty!

The warning is exactly the same as I wrote it, though. And oh, man was that fun to write.

I got my ARC yesterday and need to check it over for mistakes. I’m glad I like this story, otherwise I would be so sick of it by now! (You’d think I’d like it because I wrote it, but that isn’t always the case) It’s getting down to the wire now. Less than six weeks until release day.

I got news this week that a coworker (I only know her in passing) got the Cancer Death Sentence. She’s around my age. It made me step back for a moment and remember how short life is. Depressing stuff. But it also made me realize that I’m finally on the right path.

Often, when I thought about my own death, I got a deep sense of sadness that I hadn’t done much in my life, particularly when it came to writing. This time, I thought that at least my life was headed in the right direction. Sure, I wish I was getting more done, and that I was further along in my career. But at least now I’m on the right path. My first book is coming out in June. I’m writing a new (novelette/novella/novel) something. I’m editing a book and mustering the courage to submit it. Another book – or two or three – is waiting in the wings to be written. Other books are waiting for a second or third draft. I’m not just spinning my wheels, I’m moving forward.

I leave you today with a quote:

“I was once being interviewed by Barbara Walters…In between two of the segments she asked me…’But what would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?’ I said, ‘Type faster.’”

–Isaac Asimov

I’ve gone through two rounds of edits on Darkness at Dawn. The process was a lot less difficult than I feared it would be. If any aspiring writers are reading this, please remember that the editor is not your enemy. Their job is to make your story stronger. My editor Heidi Moore caught a few things that would have been embarrassing if they’d been published. Nothing major, just a few oops moments I’m glad no one else will see.

Next up is final line edits.

(excuse me while I fanboy all over this show)

This all started with a free preview of Showtime. Over the course of four days, I watched 10 episodes of Dexter season 4. The damn preview ended a day earlier than I thought it did, so I missed the last two episodes. I don’t know what happens with Trinity, and it looks like I have to wait til August (at a guess) to find out. Waaahhhh! The weekend after I got cut off, I went to the video store and rented the first disc of season 1. I didn’t even finish it before I realized I HAD to OWN this show.

OMG, I love Dexter! The premise of the show, the dark humor, the excellent writing and acting, everything about this show is covered in awesomesauce. I wonder what my neighbors think when I yell, “Get ‘em, Dexter! Get ‘em!” I know I have no problem rooting for him to catch and kill murderers, but it’s a testament to the quality of the show that much nicer people than me are Dexter fans.

Dexter himself, of course, is the highlight of the show. For those not familiar with it, Dexter is a serial killer, but his step father instilled in him a Code. Dex only kills murderers that will kill again. He prevents more murders by these people while satisfying his own need to kill. His job as a blood spatter analyst for the police department comes in very handy for this. He must be sure of his victims before he kills them, and many of those he kills have escaped legal justice for one reason or another. Dexter tries to lead a “normal” life in order to stay safe, and this forced veneer often conflicts with his true dark nature. His interior comments have made me laugh so hard on a few occasions I was almost in tears. The supporting characters are well developed, like his sister Deb.  Growing up with a father that paid more attention to Dexter, for reasons she’ll probably never know, and with her brother emotionally distant, she craves attention and love but hides behind a tough exterior. Dexter’s girlfriend Rita is emotionally damaged. He encourages her to be strong, and she coaxes some emotion out of him. Her two kids are adorable. Dexter’s coworkers are fun, too, from the suspicious Doakes to the pervy-in-a-funny-way Masuka.

The show is also providing a lot of inspiration for Crossbreed, my vampire/werewolf novel that is due for a complete rewrite. For a long time I’ve wanted to explore the idea that Crossbreed is killer, and not just for the blood. He needs to kill. That urge is a part of who he is, and all he can do is control who and what he kills. See the parallels? When I rewatch Dexter, it might be smart to have a notebook handy to write down some of the ideas it sparks.

Then there’s the outsider aspect, lying and hiding one’s true nature in order to “pass” in normal society. Crossbreed does have a few friends he can be himself with, but for the most part even among his own kind he’s an outcast. When he spends time with regular humans, he has to become someone else. At times he longs to be like them, to be a normal person, to be free of his dark nature.

Crossbreed needs two — well, three — things to make it be a public worthy book. 1. better writing, and I know I’ve gotten better in the last few years 2. more research to ground it in the time periods it’s set in, and 3. going deeper into emotions and psychology. Dexter is certainly giving me ideas for the latter.

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s even prettier than the draft I saw! I love this cover. Love, love, love!

Here’s the book’s page, which should be updated with a blurb soon: Darkness at Dawn

Sometimes I start seeing a pattern in blog posts, articles, things people say to me, and so on. A theme, a subject that keeps coming up, and eventually I realize the universe is sending me a message.

Recently, the message has been that I should trust myself, along with other closely related messages like “follow your heart” and “don’t stop yourself”. So I’m listening — or trying to, anyway. I need to write the stories that set my imagination on fire, and not worry about repeating myself or whether they fit into a particular market or not. The story will never be perfect, but I can trust that if it excites me, someone, somewhere will also like it. Maybe an editor or agent, if I’m lucky. But if I don’t trust myself, if I don’t follow the stories that burn in me, how can I expect someone else to love my work?

I get this question all the time from family, friends, coworkers and acquaintances. My response is: “Which book?” Often I can’t remember what book I mentioned the last time I talked to them. Some people are talking about the due-to-be-published Darkness at Dawn. Some remember one of my NaNo novels, some remember Marked, or Crossbreed. A few even remember *shudder* the terrible fantasy I wrote in my early teens. My aunt brought that one up this weekend. She asked me if I was going to try to get that published and I said no. Then she tried to convince me that it might be worth looking at again and trying to fix. Um, no. Really. It’s bad. She kept trying to say that maybe if I changed some things, spent some time editing it, it might end up better than I thought. No. Really, NO. It’s not worth wasting my time on. I have other, much better novels that might actually be worth publishing.

People kind of boggle at me when I have to start counting on my fingers to remember how many novels I’ve written. I think a lot of people think you write one book, then you ride that horse all the way to publication before you do anything else. How depressing would that be? Doing nothing but sitting and waiting as you shop the book around to agents (and/or editors) … no thanks. The best distraction is moving on to the next thing.

Maybe next time someone asks, I’ll list off each book and what stage it’s in. (and watch their eyes glaze over)