Dark Fantasy Authors II

[June 2023] - BlairDarnell

Welcome to our interview for this month! We are with this talented author, BlairDarnell, who penned the story, Harm and Harmony.

What was the most difficult part of writing your story? What was the easiest?

The most difficult part of the story, for sure, is any of the action and fight scenes, especially when there are multiple characters involved in battles. It requires a lot more thought into where everyone is and the pacing. I have resorted to making battle maps for the fight scenes with lists of everyone's movements that I can refer to. Later on in the series, there are fights that are on larger scales which can be difficult to describe at first, but if you break it down into smaller and confined moments of importance, such as if a certain character gets injured or one side makes a significant headway over the other team, it can get easier to write.

In comparison, I find dialogue the easiest to write as, most of the time, it can write itself as if I am acting out all of the characters myself on paper, all of it flowing as quickly as an actual conversation would do. Normally, I tend to write it almost like a script, focusing on the speech and who is saying what before adding any body language or descriptions.

What do you think are your story's strengths? Why should people read it?

Readers have commented that they liked how, despite the overall story being about survival in such a harsh and dangerous world, there are still moments of joy and happiness that break up that bleakness. It gives the message that despite the struggle, there is always hope and a light in that darkness.

Another thing I have been told is that I take the slow-burn romance tag seriously, and that the development feels very real and natural with its pacing.

You should read it because it's gay.

When you write, what comes first? The plot or the characters?

I think of the main premise first, which is generally the selling point and could be either the plot or the characters. For Harm and Harmony, it was the character Harmony, as I wanted to write a Beauty and the Beast story with a female monster since they always tended to male or female monsters that were highly sexualised and not at all scary. From there, I branched out from this idea and thought what else I could do differently from the normal Beauty and the Beast story, also taking inspiration from the Hades and Persephone myth.

With the cosmic horror duology that I am currently writing (first book- I Have Been Chosen) it was the plot I came up with first, the cosmic horror entity/ event that the story centred around. I then thought about what characters would be interesting/ appropriate to have fight against and deal with the cosmic horror.

How would you describe your main protagonist(s) in one word and why?

If I could only describe Corinna in one word, it would be stalwart. She is incredibly hardworking to a fault where she overworks herself as she tries to make everything better for her friends and family, forgetting her own needs most of the time. Never does she slack off, and feels guilty if she does not meet her own high expectations and ambition. And then there is her fierce loyalty; she is the mum friend of the group, and assumes the leadership role naturally with her nagging and need for control and having everything the way she wants, which can lead to conflict.

What drew you to Dark Fantasy? What about this genre attracted you the most?

I would consider myself perhaps a diet fan of the horror genre. I only like certain sub-genres where the horror elements are not set in the real world, for example, the movies Alien and The Thing are science fiction with the gore and suspense of horror or any zombie or monster movie. Any horror stories that involve things that can actually happen in real life to a certain degree I cannot handle, like the Final Destination movies, or I just don't find them particularly interesting, like ones involving serial killers. I am also a fan of any period piece with gothic elements like Jane Eyre.