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Hello everybody!
I am very excited to share my interview with Darian Hart, author of The Wolf Inside us, a werewolf romance novel.
Darian Hart lives a busy life in Oxfordshire with a loving family a wise old dog who gives regular advice on writing and when it’s time for coffee and biscuit breaks.
Hart also writes science fiction under another name and is enjoying feeling mysterious for now!
I hope you will enjoy my interview with Darian!
Tell us your story. What inspired you to become an author?
I love to read. That’s not going to be an eye-opening revelation to any of your readers. Sometimes, I’d get so deep into certain books that I would feel like I was living in the world that the author had painted.
Even after I’d read the book, or breaks in between I felt I could hear the author’s voice in my head, their tone, turn of phrase. Was that echoes of the book or my own writing voice joining in the song?
I wrote my first sci-fi short story in about 1996 and it was like opening a door to a million worlds, all of my own creation.
Describe a typical writing day.
Slightly Frustrating. But not in the tortured creative soul kind of way.
I have a busy life, so any actual WRITING has to be done in the evening or weekends. So, when I’m actively working on a book I have to ignore or try to remember all the things that the characters are playing out in my head while I’m trying to do my day job.
Writing time involves me sat cross-legged on the couch, while my other half watches crime mysteries on TV and the dog snuggles any stray feet. I don’t need a ‘sacred space’ to write, I’m quite lucky in that respect, though towards the end of ‘Wolf, I spent several long mornings in Costa with my laptop and massive lattes to hammer out a couple of key scenes.
I could get used to that life!
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Please tell us more about this book in a couple of short sentences.
I hadn’t set out to write a paranormal romance. In fact, I’d never even considered it. One of the interns at sci-fi-cafe suggested that the genre would be a good seller and they set about writing one themselves – “The Threads which Bind us”. I was intrigued, so I thought I’d have a go at it. I was really put off by some of the… (maybe the word ‘sleazy’ is an unfair word), tiles that were out there.
I wanted to write something that would really tug at the heart-strings, and still be very relatable within a fantastic, magical world. I’m a huge dog-lover so the opportunity to write a kind of a buddy-story between Kat and the young dog that appears in her life was irresistible.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I’m an insufferable geek! When I’m not fixing something around the house or binging sci-fi on streaming TV, I like to get out in the open air… literally, taking to the skies with my FPV drones.
Swooping and diving around the open fields with my VR-style goggles is such an awe-inspiring and addictive hobby (cue clips from Never Ending Story and How to Train your Dragon).
What was the most challenging thing about writing this book?
There were some technical challenges here, which I was pleased with the outcome. Everyone knows that werewolves are governed by the moon, but I needed to adapt the lore a little for the story to keep the pace up. Thank goodness for online astronomical calculators! The one I used, saved my life.
Which part of the book is your favorite?
The whole book was something of a refreshing change for me. Usually, when you’re writing sci-fi you need to write about alien life or worlds so different to the one we know. It was great to be able to stretch my legs and write about the ‘ordinary’ things in life through these two characters as they drew together.
But I have to admit that the wolf and dog perspective sequences were a LOT of fun to write. I studied my own dog and the way he sees the world; I often envy him.
How do you develop your plot and characters?
At first, brutal utility. I might need a character to convey a part of the story or need to fit in a certain way, have certain characteristics. Then I just let the flesh and the skin grow on the bare skeletons as the story unfolds. Sometimes, I might adjust the story a little when I feel a character has grown in a certain way that I like.
In ‘Wolf, I really felt a massive connection to these two characters. After I’d set them up, I largely let them do their own thing along a general story arc. For the character of Jake, I wanted a male character who had vulnerabilities, issues that a lot of men won’t talk about.
What do you think makes a good story?
That’s the sixty four million dollar question isn’t it? I have to admit that I love a story with huge revelations in them, take the classic ending to “Planet of the Apes“, I like to be surprised.
But then, there are stories that don’t really have any big “ta-da!” endings, such as “The Book of Strange New Things” which, though set in an utterly alien environment simply takes you along and wraps you up in a comforting unfolding of events. I loved that book, it was just like a warm bath for the mind.
How do you do research for your books?
Any hard facts, Google is my friend. I watch a lot of science documentaries, so my sci-fi stuff is based on convenient interpretations of actual science. Though, of course I have to bend things a little to make them work for the story. In ‘Wolf, I really only had to research the moon cycle timings.
I did a cursory check to make sure I wasn’t treading on any corporate toes with the titles of Jake’s characters in his comics – but you’ll easily see where I was paying homage.
The locations are purely imaginary, but kind of based on a mish-mash of Oxford and Leamington Spa, two lovely English cities. I guess the beauty of writing paranormal or sci-fi is that you have a lot more scope for creating your own rules.
What are some tools you used to write this book from start to end?
This and my other books were written entirely in OneNote.
It’s an absolute winner for organizing notes for a book. I write the general story arc in one page, then shift things about so that everything makes sense for continuity and such.
Then, when I’m happy, I’ll start a page per chapter with two columns. One containing an expanded blow-by-blow outline of what happens in the chapter, then in the left-hand, I’ll write it out in full, crossing off the outline as I go.
That process might seem a little obsessive, but I’ve found that it saves a TON of time not having to rewrite stuff when things don’t add up. And, of course OneNote does all my spell-checking and syncs between my devices!
What authors inspired you into becoming an author yourself, if any?
Without a doubt the masters of sci-fi were a massive influence.
Clarke, Asimov, Niven, Banks (with or without the M). Nowadays, I’m spurred on when I see the other writers in the sci-fi-cafe stable putting out amazing content.
I wish I could write with the relentless intensity that Drew Bryenton does in his books – I mean, just listen to this section of the audiobook they’re making of one of his books.
I’m also exposed to an amazing wealth of sci-fi writers in my day job at Oxford eBooks; we see dozens each year from Rebellion / Solaris when we produce their eBooks. With such incredible diversity, I just can’t help but be inspired.
What are your future plans and where can our readers find you?
I’m most of the way through the story planning for a new novel in the same world as ‘Wolf. In fact, this is going to be number four in the current series, with a fifth brief on the cards from the SFC series editor.
Usually, figuring out the name of a book is one of the hardest things, but this time the name presented itself first – “The Calico Golem” is another paranormal book, heavy on the relationships theme though writing very outside my own comfort zone is proving to be an exciting challenge.
You’ll find any news about this and other books at sci-fi-cafe.com and through their twitter account @scificafedotcom
They have nearly 100 books in their catalogue, and they’re all available on Amazon. Most of them are on Kindle Unlimited, and plenty are also in paperback if that’s your thing.
Oh.. I’m also informed to let you know under pain of death that they also have some great old-school sci-fi audiobooks on Audible:
Greenways
The Seed Garden
The Tribe
Transplant
Have you enjoyed this Q&A with Darian? Let me know in the comments below! ❤️