In an effort to make this blog about more than just me schilling my book, I'm also planning to post more generally about the craft of writing and my experience with such a difficult process. I'll start off with the beginning of the process, and work my way through all the stages of trying to become an author. Let's start with, well, how I got started.
Writing Dawn's End was the hardest task I've ever taken on. This isn't to say it wasn't fun and one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, it was, but it's also a process full of hair-pulling frustration, crippling self-doubt, and long, exhausting nights.
I started Dawn's End in late 2002 (or as it was called then, Untitled) at the ripe old age of 28, not long after I got married. Years earlier, I made one of those foolish promises to myself that only young people make and set a deadline that I would complete my first novel before I turned 30. I'd kicked around many stories over the years, but none of them ever stuck. (My drawer in the bedroom has at least two abandoned, hand written novels that ran out steam.) I was full of delusional dreams of writing like Hemingway or Fitzgerald, convinced I could write a "serious literary" book about love and loss, maybe even a little bullfighting.
The problem was that deep down, none of that "literary" stuff truly interested me (I've never been to a bullfight, and really don't wanna go), and let's be honest, the only thing I have in common with Hemingway and Fitzgerald is a love of the sauce. Well, and a girlfriend or two that fall just shy of Zelda in the crazy department. When it comes to fiction, what I really loved was scary stories. I grew up on horror movies, thrillers, and action flicks. Stephen King was my hero. (He still is, although I'll freely admit he's lost a step in the last decade or so. But after about 1,000 books I'll cut the guy some slack.) There's a lot of garbage in those genres to be sure, but there's also a lot of pulse-pounding greatness. If it's done right. And that became my mission. To do the horror genre proud.
So, one day, after my latest failed "literary" short story (short stories are a bitch - anyone who can write a decent one has my utmost respect and admiration) I sat down and started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I always thought it looked stupid, but my friend Anna convinced me to give it a try and waddaya know, I got hooked like a fish. I can say with total conviction that it's the best television series ever made. (Singing it's praises will be fodder for a later blog.)
Shortly after that, an idea for a vampire tale lit up in my head, and I accepted my place as someone who could be a great "genre" writer.
I sat down at the computer and Dawn's End was born. Or sired, if you will.
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I was always impressed with the fact that Larry would read huge Stephen King books as a young teenager. He would read the book before a movie like "The Stand" was made. I was scared of this "genre" as a young person, but luckily I have grown out of it, so I can't wait to get my copy of "Dawn's End."
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