Welcome Author Dylan J. Morgan to the Blog today!
Tell us a bit about yourself:
Do you work another job when you are not writing? Yes, I do. I am the manager of a warehouse not too far from where I live. We sell everything from plug sockets to garden furniture, kitchen appliances to Christmas decorations. It’s quite a varied range of stock.
What is your favorite thing to do when you aren’t writing?
Spending time with my family is very important to me. I have a beautiful girlfriend and two wonderful daughters, so spending time with them watching movies or comedy shows is always special. I read a lot, too. I have also been known to play the guitar occasionally, and kick ass on video games such as Skyrim and Rage.
What is your favorite color? Why?
Red is my favorite color, and I like black, too. Why? Being
a horror writer I could say I like red because it’s the color of blood, and
black because it’s dark and horrific, but to be honest I don’t know why I like
those colors. I just do.
What is your favorite season? Why? The summer is by far my most favorite season. I love the sunshine, warmth, the chance to go to the beach and relax, vacations in Spain where all you do for two weeks is lounge around in the sun, swim a bit, and eat unhealthy food and drink beer. Summer is a time of life and fun. Fall is second best, I’d say: the month of October and the build up to Halloween is an exciting time.
If you could live anyplace on earth, where would it be? Why? I’m happy living where I am, but I have always wanted to travel to Canada. Coming from New Zealand I am very much into scenic views and the wilderness, and Canada (from what I’ve seen) is blessed with the great outdoors. I would like to move back to the UK and live there again, but just not yet.
If you could have any car, what would it be? Ha, I’ve always wanted a Lamborghini. Some dreams, hey . . .
Tell us about your writing: How long have your been writing? Was it a dream, a goal or is it just a hobby? I have been writing seriously for about the last 10 years. I’ve always looked at it as a hobby, even now. I don’t earn enough from it to consider it being my job and maybe that’ll always be the case, but if I do start making some serious coin from this gig I hope it still feels like a hobby.
How many hours a day do you devote to writing? Do you have a set routine or do you write when the mood strikes? I don’t have a set time limit, or time period, for how long I write, I usually just write until the flow and emotion is exhausted. As for a routine: I usually get into the office at home between 8 and 9 pm and go through edits before starting to write on my fiction. I continue with that until the flow is gone, then it’ll be onto other things connected with writing, like further edits, or answering emails, scheduling tweets, etc.
Is there some place special you like to be when you write? My office at home. I have a desk with a monitor, a laptop, drawer next to me with my Kingston memory sticks containing my stories, a space for my drinks, a heater in the winter, some training equipment, and my guitar. It has everything in there I need for developing the disturbing worlds I create. It’s a bit of a mess in there, but it’s my mess.
Do you listen to music or do you need a quiet place to write? I used to prefer quiet when I wrote but not anymore. I can’t deal with the sounds of everyday life from within the household though (TV noise, kids talking, etc.) so I always listen to music on my iPod. I have an extensive collect of hard rock and heavy metal songs, so I just select shuffle and let the songs keep me company. They become background noise, drowning out the distractions in my house while I delve into my fictional world.
Tell us about your book: What is the name of it and is it part of a series or a stand alone novel? My latest novel is entitled Blood War. It’s a standalone novel, although I do have a tie-in chapbook available called Bloodlines, which introduces characters from the novel.
Where did the idea
come from?
The idea originally came from a vision I had of a young girl
arriving home with her family during a violent thunderstorm. As they’re driving
through town to their house, the girl is looking out of the car window at dark
shadows loping through the streets, trailing the car towards its destination.
This was going to be a short story and the dark, threatening creatures were to
be some form of bogeymen. The bogeymen became vampires, and then morphed into
something else entirely, and the short story became a chapter in the novel. The
young girl, Deanna, became a grown woman and also one of the key characters in
Blood War.
How long did it take to write? From the introduction of that above vision in my mind to the completion of the book, probably a year and a half. But, the time it took to actually write the novel itself took about eight months to a year. The novel spans a long time period, beginning in the year 1287 AD until the present day, and is set in cities like London, Paris and Rome, so I needed to do a lot of research which protracted the time it took to complete the book.
What is it about? Blood War tells the story of a six hundred year old war between vampires and werewolves. Four hundred years ago, the bloodlines were crossed in unholy unions between vampire and werewolf, and hybrids were created – a vicious mixture of the two supernatural species. A cull was carried out to try and eradicate these children, but most of the hybrid babies survived. This new species joins the fight two hundred years later, and the novel climaxes with the three immortal races battling each other for supremacy.
As stated above, the novel takes place on a global scale. The book begins in Romania, moves to Hungary, Austria, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand. It travels to England, Russia, Hong Kong, America and back to Italy. The characters are detailed and varied; there are werewolves, vampires, hybrids and even humans, all playing a part. There is violence, love, honor, betrayal, and some unexpected twists. Any fan of monster horror should get a kick out of this book.
Your other work: Do you have any upcoming projects in the works or other books that have been published? In 2013 I plan to release two books. I aim to give out a collection of my short stories, both published and unpublished. As most of my published work is no longer available (due to the venues now being defunct) this collection of published works will probably feel like all new stories for most people. I also plan to release a novel, FLESH, sometime in the second half of the year. This was actually the second full length novel I’ve ever written, so I’m excited to get it out to the public and see what their reaction will be. Currently, in addition to Blood War, I have another novel and a novella available. Both can be purchased through Amazon on Kindle (either a hand-held Kindle or the desktop application). Hosts is my debut novel, a gore-fest book about a mutated form of parasite that infects a ski community isolated by the worst snowstorm in living memory. Your typical horror scene, really! The novella is called October Rain, and is a dark Sci-Fi book focusing on Steele, a bounty hunter on Mars during the final era of mankind’s existence. It’s a brooding book, emotional, with a heavy twist in its tail.
Where can readers connect with you? Website: www.dylanjmorgan.com
Blog: http://dylanjmorgan.wordpress.com/category/crap-from-the-crypt/ Twitter: @dylanjmorgan
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3156560.Dylan_J_Morgan
Where can we buy your books? Website http://dylanjmorgan.wordpress.com/category/books/ Amazon All Books: http://www.amazon.com/Dylan-J.-Morgan/e/B008B42H5S
