Author Interview: Declan Finn

Blurb: Merlin “Merle” Kraft has been fighting the darkness for months. He left San Francisco in the capable hands of Marco Catalano and his anti-vampire team to defend them against vampires. With a special operators at his command, Kraft has been killing every vampire he can find in the Middle East. After clearing out a nest in Tora Bora, he is finally brought back to New York, and the investigation that led him to vampires in the first place.Marco is starting to spiral. He knows it. His team knows it. Everyone around him can see that he’s just a bomb waiting to explode. The only woman who can bring him back from the brink might be the only woman who can bring him back from the edge is also the woman who lit his fuse. Ever since the demon Asmodeus tried to murder Marco, Amanda Colt has been hunting down every lead to find the one ultimately behind the attempt. After months of investigation, she learns that something in the dark is colder than the dark. It is a vampire assassin that Amanda has faced once before, and Amanda lost. This assassin is stronger than anything they’ve face before, and it isn’t alone. With Marco ready to self-destruct, and the armies of Hell ready to descend, the three of them must come together and stop a thousand-year-old assassin that has has never been stopped, and has never failed to kill her target.

Declan Finn lives in a part of New York City unreachable by bus or subway. Who's Who has no record of him, his family, or his education. He has been trained in hand to hand combat and weapons at the most elite schools in Long Island, and figured out nine ways to kill with a pen when he was only fifteen. He escaped a free man from a PhD program in history, and has been on the run ever since. There was a brief incident where he was branded a terrorist, but only a court order can unseal those records, and really, why would you want to know? He is currently hard at work on the sequel to his vampire novel "Honor At Stake." His ramblings can be found over at The Catholic Geeks, while his rantings on writing can be found at apiusman.blogspot.com. For him to really rant and rave, check out his interview show at The Catholic Geek, over at Blog Talk Radio.

Now that you know a little about the book and the author, here's the interview:

1. What authors did you dislike at first, but grew into?

What is this “grew into”? Mostly, when I can't stand an author, I can't get into the rest of the body of work. Most authors I've experienced have had the ability to get lazy, drift away from what made the series good, and become trash. The first dozen Alex Cross novels by James Patterson were solid thrillers. Now they look like barely assembled outlines. Laurell K Hamilton had some marvelous world building, now her character has become a Mary Sue, and her novels read more like porn than thrillers.

It's hard to grow into an author when I can't get past the first few hundred pages.

2. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

Kenneth Brannaugh's Hamlet. Damn that was an awesome performance.

3. What's your favorite underappreciated novel?

Vertical Run, by Joseph Garber. It was a perfect thriller that barely slowed down, yet it had action, character, and a happy ending that no one saw coming.

4. As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

Irish wolfhound. I like getting along with people, and the first person who decides that I make an easy target … well, let's just say that I do some nice fisks.

5. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

I'm actually counting as I type this out, so bare with me.

Too Secret Service

Dances with Werewolves

Echoes of Darkness

Impossible Missions Fund, book 1 (okay, that's a partial novel)

Love at First Bite, book 4

My space opera series, Tales of White Ops (a long story) …. 13 books.

So, about 18 books. I may have missed one or two.

6. What's the best way to market your books?

When I find out, I'll let you know. My current business model is a shotgun approach. The best model I can suggest right now is start a blog. Write daily – either build up to it, or post daily if you can. Make sure someone cares about you by the end of it. If you find something that works, stick with it.

7. Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?

Not really. It only occurs on days when I delve into the spiritual life of my characters. Otherwise, I'm blocking fight scenes, or working out plot details. After all, God doesn't care about ammunition caliber.

8. How do you select the names of your characters?

Sometimes, they mean something. Sometimes, they're a combination of whatever book I'm reading, whatever books or articles are around me at the time, and sometimes, whoever is online. I proceed to cobble together names. Sometimes, the name gives me a background I didn't have ten seconds before.

9. Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with good or bad ones?

I read the good ones, take encouragement from them, and move on. I ignore the bad ones. They will only serve to piss me off, and do nothing for me.

Note of advice: DO NOT REPLY TO REVIEWS. Ever.

10. What was your hardest scene to write?

Openings. I suck at opening a novel. Mostly because I'm trying to balance character and action. I usually want to open with explosions and mayhem, but I don't want to turn it into an action film.

It's not like John Wick. In book terms, the visuals of the movie carried about thirty pages worth of material. To start a novel like that, I can imagine most authors taking twenty or thirty pages about this man who has lost his wife, is angry at the world, depressed, possibly suicidal, and then forms an attachment to a dog. No one would guess the mayhem that would follow.

True, the opening shot of Wick seemingly mortally wounded would make for a prologue, and go into “one week earlier” in chapter one…but I'm sorry, I'm at a point when in media res has become overused. There was a point where every TV show was doing it, and it drove me nuts.

11. What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?

100 pounds.

Right now, I can't think of what I haven't given up to be a writer. I'm single. I put myself under constant pressure. The only thing I have left to give up are my faith, my IQ, and my sanity, and I'm not 100% certain about my sanity.

12. What is your favorite childhood book?

Vertical Run or Les Miserables. But Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy was also awesome.

...Yes, I had a very strange childhood reading list.

13. Does your family support your career as a writer?

In more ways than one.

14. How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Three months. Sometimes less. My original book for The Pius Trilogy was one, 800-page novel that I pounded out in four months. It was a process to break them all up into pieces.

15. Share one little known fact about yourself.

I was once accused of being a terrorist.

After reading all this, you know you're interested in the book. Check it out here: http://amzn.to/2joJ71p