50 years ago, the dawn
did not come. Again. Everyone in Telthan knew it would happen. Monsters
roamed the land, killing virtually everyone in their path, laying waste to
anything in their way. Only a precious few survived to rebuild the wreckage of civilization,
just like last time. No one questions the Darkening. Not even the children.
That is, until four strangers set off in search of answers, braving a
forbidden city, a forgotten library, and foreboding mountains for the truth
that has to exist. But the past does not give up its secrets easily, and the
truth is far darker than the blackest night.
The teaser from my
friend, the talented D. Emery Bunn, whose debut novel Darkness Concealed launches in a few short days. He was kind
enough to stop by my blog for a visit. Enjoy!
Welcome to my blog. Thrilled to have you.
Before we introduce your book, let’s introduce you—who is D. Emery Bunn?
I could steal my
official bio, but that's boring. My day job is engineering, ironically civil
despite my degree being in electrical. I love it anyway. In my free time I play
video games, read, play tabletop, and of course, write. I also do editing for
folks on occasion. My current domicile is Clovis, New Mexico.
Writing a book is a monumental undertaking—congrats on
completing yours. Why did you write it?
Thank you! Originally,
I wrote it because I had come up with a cool setting for D&D...that ended
up not being very well-suited for actually playing through. There was an
awesome story, a very long arc, but I was too specific about what I wanted to
happen with the overall plot. For those who don't play D&D or similar,
that's very bad, because it means the players have no agency for deciding the
movement of the plot.
Thus was the first draft. But with the second draft, I realized that a lot of
things about my base assumptions on the world were wrong; they didn't jibe with
the overall arc. So I threw them out and went with a more philosophical angle
instead of a "let me tell you the horror." For sake of spoilers, I won't
say what they are, but suffice to say that it's all across the trilogy and not
just this first book.
Why about dark fantasy grips you?
Classic epic fantasy
is somewhat boring to me. It's good, sure, but the guarantee that the
characters will go through hell but still end up triumphant just by genre
association is a turn-off. Dark fantasy throws that presumption out the door,
and layers on extra amounts of hell as well. On top of that, epic fantasy is
almost always black vs. white morality. Dark fantasy has more play for gray
morality to come into the picture.
What is going to keep folks turning the pages
of Darkness Concealed?
Several things:
- Each of the characters has their own motivation for being in the group, and
very often those motivations clash. There will be fights, both amongst each
other and within themselves. This becomes clearer as what they find out starts
making them question everything they ever believed.
- The mystery of the Darkening and Telthan gets deeper as the story unfolds.
Every answer will raise more questions, making the truth seem further and
further away. Everything they discover fits into the bigger picture, and it is
possible (though very difficult) to deduce the truth ahead of time.
- Darkness Concealed is more properly a dark epic fantasy. I twist
a gargantuan pile of stock fantasy tropes, or call them out for laughs. Where
before the guy from a small town just knows he's meant to be a hero, my story
has him unable to wield a weapon (or magic) and so socially awkward he stutters
constantly. Oh, and he has zero self-confidence.
I think the Quotables Campaign is
pretty damn cool—tell us about that.
I love writing
dialogue, and my characters all have very clear voices. As a result, Darkness Concealed is positively overflowing with quotables.
Either cases where the characters are arguing with each other (which happens
often), or bold declarations of character, or witty observations about the
absurdity of what they're encountering.
“Which is to say, no one ever named it. Dibs! It’s called
Tealbride.”
“Wh-why?”
“It sounds cool.”
Liz.
Knowing all of that, I found it a no-brainer to dig through my text and pull
out several quotes that grab the reader and make them ask questions. I ended up
with a set of 8 that don't spoil anything and yet give a good picture of every
major character and some of the things they do.
“Creeps know no mercy. I won’t show any in return.”
Alexandra.
What aspects of your story were smoothest for you to write, and
what were most challenging? For example, I usually get on a pretty good roll
with dialogue, but can stumble with description a bit.
My smoothest was
dialogue. If I had the characters going at it, or working through the
explanation of what they're seeing, the word count flew. Even in the second
draft, where I didn't have a full grasp on their character, they still made it
easy to know what to say.
I dodge the description difficulty by deliberately being description-light. I
give enough to have a sense of the scene or appearance, and leave it at that. I
let the reader fill it in as much as they desire to.
My roughest was internal dialogue. A large amount of the impact of the story is
measured by what the characters think to themselves, and I made a style choice
to show that dialogue directly in italics instead of nestled
within description. Since I have dialogue, internal dialogue, and description
interleaving through the vast majority of the book, I needed to keep them all
clear. It takes some adjusting on the reader's part, but it makes perfect sense
after a chapter or two.
I admire dark fantasy scribes; one thing I’ve often wondered is
whether I could find that elusive balance of penning those great fantastical
and dark elements, but still building the tale on the strength of story and
character. How do you navigate that balance, or perhaps you view the whole
premise a bit differently?
I avoid that balance
problem with Darkness Concealed. Essentially, the dark is so obvious, so ever-present,
that if the characters do anything at all it's an act of heroism. Add in that
the dark seems to get deeper the more they shine a light on it, and their
willingness to keep going anyway speaks volumes.
But in the sequel, I'll have my work cut out for me. I'm not calling it Darkness Revealed for nothing. I'll have to strike several
different balances to have the characters' arcs believable, the philosophy
impactful without browbeating, and to pull off the absolute horror at the
center of all the secrets.
OK, although you are welcome to share what authors have inspired
you, I fear the entire readerly universe may have tired of that maudlin
inquiry; instead, what do you hope for most as a reader? What do you feel is
your most compelling offering as a writer?
What I hope for, and
what I hope to offer are one and the same. I love defying the existing
convention, taking stories in directions previously unexpected. A great example
for me is The Hunger Games. Whether or not one likes the end of the
series, she knew what the expected end was, and didn't do that.
And that's what I've aimed for with Darkness Concealed. I know the expected ends, the stock successes and failures. I
avoid those, and in some cases point out specifically that I'm avoiding them. I
want things to be fresh and unexpected, not just in the plotline, but in what
is being told.
What’s next for you? Is there a sequel in the offing? Other
projects?
Immediately next up is
the second draft of a novella entitled Nikolay I penned at the start
of the year, set in a cyberpunk dystopia/utopia where everyone is mandated to
be "normal" according to a computer algorithm and deliberate
deviations are punished. Nikolay is a teenager who decides that being normal,
even with all the supposed advantages (do whatever you want not against the
law, and have all your needs provided for), is not for him. He starts seeking
for a way to break out of the norm before his negative self-esteem destroys
him.
Darkness Concealed launches September 23. Very exciting: tell
us how to get the book, whether you are looking for reviewers, how they may
learn more and connect with you, and anything else you’d like folks to know.
I'm
releasing the book on Amazon [http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Concealed-Book-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00NLZ02YK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411321668&sr=8-1&keywords=Darkness+Concealed],
Google Books [https://play.google.com/store/books/details/D_Emery_Bunn_Darkness_Concealed?id=4PaHBAAAQBAJ],
and Kobo [http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/darkness-concealed].
I will also be releasing a PDF of the text on my site, for free, on release
day. I believe in free culture, and want to make it an option to people whether
they pay me for the story or not.
As for reviewers, I'm more than happy to keep on sending out ARCs (or as of tomorrow review copies), though
I ask that when you do review that you tell me where it is so I can link to it
in some way or another. I also ask that if you can put the review on one of the
retailers I'm using that you please do so.
I'm available most directly at www.DEmeryBunn.com,
where I blog about writing, editing, and whatever else comes to mind. I also
maintain an active Twitter presence as @DEmeryBunn.
Thanks for having me on your blog!
