Not So Normal Visitor... Did you say Vampire?

I would like to thank Raebeth for allowing me the chance to say hello. She already has done me the pleasure of reviewing Eyes of the Seer. To pull out the chair and invite me to visit is an extraordinary grace, one I hope not to presume upon by lingering too long. 

My name is Peter Dawes and I am the author of The Vampire Flynn Trilogy. This series has been a six year labor of love spanning across some rather difficult years of my life. It is remarkable how many things change in so short a period of time, and how much it affects what we pen as writers. Through it all, Flynn has been a constant companion.

Even if he has the tendency to get me into large amounts of trouble.

The series itself spans its own five year gap – 1983-1988 – and tells the story of an assassin and his evolution. When I first set out to write the book, I wanted to pen a story of redemption, but didn’t want it to fit the classic mold where the vampire protagonist becomes a brooding, miserable sap the more he realizes he has gone down a dark and dangerous path. Fortunately for me, Flynn revealed himself to be much brasher, more cunning, and much more the antihero than some of his contemporaries. The Black Rose Assassin manages to find a way of walking the line between unapologetic and contrite all at once.

I suppose I can sympathize, because this is the same type of creature I am. If you met me outside the pages of my book, you would find a person with both strident ideals and an open mind. I have written from an early age and shall probably not stop until my bones are old and dusty. This makes it almost as much of a passion as my partner, a distinction they do not mind sharing, fortunately. Often, when I am not writing, I am thinking of writing, which makes me easily distracted and extremely whimsical. It probably does not help that I am a Piscean.

The question, though, I get asked the most when it comes to my books is this: Why did you name your protagonist after yourself? I have to admit, it amuses me each time somebody points it out, because there is a riddle in this and a wink from the writer to the audience I enjoy indulging. It could be I am a tad touched, maybe even a little stuck inside my mental world and unwilling to wriggle my way out. I coined the Twitter hashtag #thevoicesarereal for a reason. Mine have provoked me to do everything from ordering drinks at Starbucks to buying certain items of clothing. Flynn even forced me once to buy a katana. No lie.

It could be I enjoy the bit of privacy afforded by a simple pseudonym, a luxury won after the first people who saw the first drafts of my manuscript had a hard time disassociating the writer from the prose. Flynn is bloody at his best, sadistic at his worst, and saner (read: non-literary) folks do not often know how to take a person whose subconscious creates a cold-blooded killer. The tale of good vs. evil – Flynn vs. Sabrina – takes a back seat when the entire focus is on the source of the story itself.

Or, it could very well be that I am what I purport to being. That I sit at my desk right now with a glass of Scotch, smiling as I think of you reading this and asking, “Surely he could not be alluding toward what we think he is?” I might lick my sharp, pointed teeth as though savoring your confusion, reliving countless conquests where my victims wasted their last precious seconds attempting to believe the unbelievable. I might even be imagining what your blood must taste like, and allowing you to live so I can sample it again.

It might very well be all three.

Either way, I hope you enjoy your time spent in my world, and shall envision you stealing a peek across your shoulder every now and then as you read Eyes of the Seer. Perhaps by the end of the book, you might believe you could trust yourself enough to shake my hand. I am not a cad. I would willingly offer it to you and smile as we shared that moment. But remember, wherever I am, Flynn is sure to be somewhere close by. And he can be quite the devil when he wants to be.