Duncan By: D.B. Reynolds.

Washington, D.C. … capital of an empire. Powerful. Exhilarating. Corrupt. And in the shadows … vampires far older than the nation itself.

A power unto himself, Duncan has served at Raphael’s side for nearly the entire two hundred years of his existence. But long laid plans have finally borne fruit, and the time has come for Duncan to leave Raphael and tackle the greatest challenge of his life. He will face treacherous vampires and murderous humans. He will rock the halls of human power if necessary. But Washington, D.C. will be his.

Emma Duquet cares nothing for vampire politics. She just wants to find her missing roommate and best friend, Lacey. But Lacey’s been playing with vampires of a particularly dangerous kind, and Emma will have to deal with the new vampire in town if she’s going to find her friend.

Battling powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets, Duncan and Emma will dig beneath the corruption and depravity that is Washington, D.C. and uncover the most heinous conspiracy of all …

Author Interview:

Please welcome D.B. Reynolds to the blog today :)

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

I guess the first time I was serious about writing was in high school. I was part of

an experimental program to improve feedback on student essays. It was a team

teaching thing, and we had these two kind of wacky female teachers who were

completely irreverent, but great teachers. I’d always found writing to be an easy

assignment, but this was the first time I thought about writing creatively and

actually trying to do it well. I knew then that I wanted to be a writer, but real life

came along and I didn’t have time to write seriously until just a few years ago.

Which authors influenced you before you became an author yourself?

I suppose the author I’d have to credit with motivating me to try to write a full-

length manuscript was the incomparable fantasy writer Andre Norton. She had a

contest quite a few years ago for fantasy writers. I wrote something, I polished it

and submitted it. Looking back on it, it pretty much sucked, but she was really kind

in her feedback and encouragement.

What do you do, if anything, to prepare yourself for writing. Do you have a solid

routine you like to follow?

I can write almost anywhere, but most of my serious writing is done in the middle

of the night after everyone in my house is asleep. I’ve always been a night owl (I got

that from my Dad) plus that’s about the only time I can grab several hours and get

lost in my story without interruption. I start about midnight, usually with a snack

of some sort that changes depending on the season. Right now it’s Smart Puffs (kind

of an organic version of baked Cheetos) and if I’m really tired I’ll drink a can of

diet Cherry coke for the caffeine. I eat my snack while I play a game of Internet

Spades, and then it’s solid, tune-out-the-world writing time until about 4:30 am. At

which time I try to turn off my brain enough to go to sleep for a few hours!

How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use a set formula?

No formula. The ideas just pop into my head when I’m doing something else, like

showering or cleaning the kitchen, or driving (yikes!) Pretty much anytime I’m on

auto-pilot and my brain can churn ideas out without me thinking about it. And then

once I have a basic plot idea, I write that down and try to thinking logically about

where to go with it and what will happen when. Sometimes, I place myself in thescene, close my eyes (not when I’m driving) and imagine what would happen next.

I do outline every book before I begin writing, though. And I use a standard three

act plotting device. Also, I don’t usually start writing until I have the outline and at

least 20-25 scenes sketched out on paper. I always know where the book will start

and where it will end before I begin writing.

In twitter fashion, use 140 characters or less, sum up the book Duncan for us.

Duncan becomes Vamp Lord only to find himself embroiled in the corruption &

betrayals of his dead enemy. Violence & love-ever-after ensue.

I must ask, if you could choose any actor to portray Duncan, who would you choose

and why?

Honestly, I never think of my characters as particular actors. I don’t watch much

TV, so I don’t know TV actors. I do see a lot of movies, so, maybe, if I had to

name someone, I could go with Chris Pine for Duncan. He’s the guy who played

James T. Kirk in the 2009 Star Trek movie. But, in reality, if the books ever made

it to television or movies, they’d probably cast someone completely different than

anything I could imagine. That’s what they do in Hollywood.

What influenced you the most when developing the character Emma?

Ah, Emma. The strongest influence was Duncan himself. What kind of woman

would Duncan be attracted to? She’d have to be strong enough to stand on her

own, but willing to let him take care of her, because Duncan has that strong Alpha

protective streak. She’d have to be intelligent enough to keep up with him, to

understand his wit and give it back in spades. But, and this was important, she had

to be someone who could drag him away from his tendency to sink into himself,

someone who could keep him connected to the small things in the real world. He’s a

very quiet and self-contained guy. Emma teases him, plays with him, so he’s not so

serious all the time.

What advice would you give to new and upcoming authors?

The most important thing you need to do is write, write, write! And then you need

to join a REAL writing group, one whose members provide critical feedback, not

just cheerleading. Your family or your best friend will tell you how wonderful

everything you write is. You don’t need that. You need critical input. What works

and, more importantly, what doesn’t. And you need to do the same for the other

writers in your group. First, because if you don’t they’ll kick you out. But, more

importantly, because you will learn by critique’ing others, just as you learn by

having others critique you. There are many, many writing groups out there,

especially on the Internet. You just have to find the one that works for you. And the

way to judge if it’s a good group or not is by the quality of the feedback. If you get

nothing but critiques that tell you how wonderful your chapter was, and how they

couldn’t find anything wrong at all … find yourself another group.

I love to hear what other authors are currently reading. Do you have a book that

you’re reading now or a book that you're waiting to devour?

I read several books in any given week, unless I’m really crushing on a deadline,

in which case it can take me two weeks to finish a single book! But typically I read

a lot. Right now, I’m going through my TBR pile and finding many enjoyable

books, but nothing I’d especially recommend to anyone else. The last really good

book I read was … well, I’ll give you two. Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh

was wonderful. Singh’s writing is lovely and lyrical, and her vampire Dmitri is

incredibly sexy, sensuous, powerful, and dangerous. My kind of bad boy. And the

other book I’d recommend is The Last Run by Greg Rucka, which I’m hoping

isn’t the last volume of his Queen and Country series. This is a non-paranormal,

suspense/thriller series. Very well done by a master of the craft. As for books I’m

waiting to devour … Kresley Cole’s Lothaire and Adrian Phoenix’s On Midnight

Wings. I can’t get a hold of those two fast enough!

I can't thank you enough for stopping by WVR today! It's been a lot of fun for me.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the interview!

Where to find D.B Reynolds:

Website:  http://dbreynolds.wordpress.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1670145900&sk=info

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/DBReynoldsWrite

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2898479

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