Monday, August 11, 2014

#IndieSpotlight of Drako @drakosden Author of The Dragon Hunter Series

Name: 
Drako

The Title of Your Work or Group: 
The Dragon Hunters series, now five books in with a guidebook. Includes (in order) The Lost Dragon, The Dragon Witch, Fatal Healing, Heir of Mjolnir, and Relinquished Mercy.

Where are you from?
St. Louis, Missouri

In what genre do you write?
Paranormal romance, with some LGBT in there

In your own words, what is your book about? If you were not the author and trying to explain this awesome book you just read to a friend, what would you say about it? 
The series follows the descendants of Jarel, the Black Dragon God and embodiment of black fire. He's also considered the father of the paranormal, he's the oldest of gods, and his children are either Dragon Gods (other forms of fire) or dragons. The series follows the children as they fight the forces of darkness, from the Titans to Lucifer, and attempt to settle down with their soul mates. It starts with one of his oldest children, Andreas, who loses his soul mate early in life and lives for millenia without him.

What is your writing style? Do you follow all guides and rules? Synopsis, outline etc. or do you just sit down at the computer and type to see what happens. 
I despise the idea of writing outlines. I don't like planning. I like to let the ideas sit and simmer in my brain, and when inspiration hits, I sit and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, depending on where I am when the inspiration hits.

Have you ever written anything and thought; " The world has got to see this!" ?
Never in those exact words. But as I wrote book five in this series, Relinquished Mercy, i got really excited to release it. I felt like fans would enjoy finally seeing some of their favorite characters from the earlier books get their happily ever after. 

Do you have an editor and Cover Designer or do you do this yourself? 
I've had a few different editors. Only one has stuck around and been dependable. I have several people to help with cover design. The cover of the first book, The Lost Dragon, was done by a friend while another friend did the rest of the series. My writing partner designed the book that's set to release later this year.

Who is your favorite author. Not just someone that you read allot. I wanna know whose book you read that made you suddenly know that if you didn't do this for the rest of your life then you would never be happy. 
Anne Rice, without a doubt. I loved the Vampire Chronicles and the Witches of Mayfair series. She had several standalone novels that were also just amazing, such as Ramses the Damned and Violin. She was perhaps my biggest inspiration to keep with my writing.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Certain characters drive me insane. It is really difficult not to force characters to do what I intended when I started, as they often branch off and do their own thing

Do you write your characters or do they write themselves through you? 
they write themselves through me. Each of my books never goes exactly how I planned when I started writing it. Characters that I intend to be mated decide they don't find each other that attractive, new mates come around. Two characters in particular spent four books trying to get together. It was maddening.

Do you ever write yourself into the characters? 
yes. There's always at least one character in each book that is a sarcastic smartass and that's just me. Sometimes I make characters that look like me, but with a little of how I would desire to look.

Is writing your full time job or are you "Keeping your day job"? So to speak.
Writing is a full time job, but i have a day job and I'm still in college too, working on my bachelor's degree in psychology. 

If you could go back in time and meet one famous person or legend in history, who would it be? 
Alexander the Great. I would just find it interesting to have a conversation with him about his thought processes.

There are millions of new books released every year. What in your mind makes yours stand out from all those millions in your genre? 
Generally, paranormal romance authors either right strictly hetero or strictly LGBT stories. My characters are different. Some are straight, some are bi, some are gay. The characters tell me what they are and I write them the way they want to be seen.

In the world of Indie, marketing is very difficult, especially if you don't have the funds to pay for it. Have you found a great free way to market your work that you think other Indies will benefit from? 
bloggers are an indie author's best friend. generally, I get most of my marketing through facebook events and through bloggers. Often I exchange shares with a fellow author who blogs and we help each other market a bit.

Now give me your links so we can get people to your book sites! 

Twitter:@drakosden