OK, I may be on holiday but I’ve tried to be ultra organised and get a few posts sorted. Last Tuesday I interview Michael Brookes, a video game developer on the UK who has a passion for writing horror novels. This week I took some time out to talk to Dragon Hunter series author, Drako.
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Tell us about yourself? Do you write for a living? If not, what’s your day job?
Writing is my second job. For my day job, I work in call centres. Gives me exposure to a lot of people and gives me a lot of time to develop characters.
Favourite food, place, colour and writing zone, please.
Favourite food is steak. Seriously, this is my first request for birthday presents/dinners. Favourite place is wherever I call home (I move a lot). Favourite colours are blue and black. And I don’t really have a writing zone. I write wherever I can whenever the mood comes over me.
You write in the fantasy/supernatural genre….who’s been your inspiration? Favourite books? Movies? TV Shows?
Anne Rice is my all time favourite author. My eighth grade English teacher got me hooked on her and I have been ever since. I am also a huge fan of Sherilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, and JR Ward. All four are a big inspiration to me. Anne Rice because she is such a spirited and open minded woman. Sherilyn Kenyon because she is so kind hearted despite a bit of a dark past of her own. And the other two are just great writers that I don’t see as much of publicly but I can’t get enough of their work.
Who’s your favourite all time fictional character?
This is hard to choose, but I’d have to go with the Vampire Lestat. Lestat is so complex. He’s wonderfully bad and charming, intelligent but makes grievous errors, and he’s just hilarious. If he were real, I’d definitely want to be his friend.
Who’s your favourite character in your own work?
I don’t really have a favourite, but I’m closest to my character Jarel and his brother Zarel. They’re awfully sarcastic and honestly they surprise even me sometimes. All of my characters really write themselves, but these two find ways to make me laugh at points where I should be frustrated with the book. Perhaps it is because they are twins and they’re gods, yet they have traits that some would think are human traits.
Let’s talk superpowers….there’s no denying we’d all love one. What would be your choice, and why?
Telekinesis without question. The ability to manipulate things with my mind would just be awesome. First, because I’d never have to get up to find the remote. Also, I could pull so many practical jokes on people. Man that would be fun. That particular power I gave to one of my characters, Brandon, in the first book
Inspiration’s a funny thing. Where do you find yours? Is there one particular moment that stands out?
Inspiration hits randomly. Sometimes I just hear something and it hits. Music also helps a lot. Watching an action scene in a movie occasionally motivates me to write on my own books.
Writers have very different approaches to completing our works. Are you a heavy plotter? Jump back and forth between scenes? Sit down, start at the beginning and just write?
Generally, I just sit down and start writing. I sometimes sit down and write out descriptions of the characters just to look back on. Mainly physical and general personality traits. But honestly my characters just take off from the moment I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
What’s fresh about your books? Quirky and different? Likely to entice readers and keep them coming back for more?
Well, there is a heavy basis on Greek Mythology, but I add my own twists. I added some additional gods of my own creation, as well as back stories to some favourite paranormal beings such as vampires, werewolves, demons, and angels. I’ve also told I have a more masculine style of writing, somewhat different to those that are used to reading female authors’ works. Each character is different, and there’s more than just the main character of each book’s story to get into. They are family, and they’re far from a normal family, so readers kind of pick their favourites.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on several books. There are two books out in the series now, The Lost Dragon
How can readers connect with you?
You can contact me on my website, Facebook, Twitter or my wordpress blog.
If you’d like to find out more about Drako’s work, then feel free to use the following links:
The Dragon Hunter’s Guide: The Dragon Hunter’s Guide
Geoff Wakeling 