Oh, hi. It's been a while, hasn't it?

Truth be told I've been trying to write this blog post for two weeks, but trying to find a way to express what I wanted to say - and nailing down what it actually is I wanted to say - proved difficult. Trying to fit over a year of silence into one blog post, and trying to piece together a dream of the future... Oof. So maybe we'll get back to that someday. It's a lot to unpack.

For now, I just really want to get out some official news on my lately projects, what they're about, when you can expect them, and all that fun stuff. There's three major announcements, so it's going to get long. I apologize.

I have wanted to publish a collection of poetry for some time now, but never felt like I had enough in both quantity and quality. However, I have had a big bout of inspiration to write poetry lately, so there's a lot more to work with. There's enough here, at least, for me to announce the intentions of releasing a collection in the near future. I will release it as an e-book and paperback, and maybe an Amazon hardback (a poetry collection doesn't seem fancy enough to go to Ingram Spark to do a special dust jacket hardback).

I chose the name In the Deluge because 1) I've always been fascinated by the word "deluge" itself, as well as what it means both literally and in ancient history and 2) the collection is going to be broken down into sections whose titles will be named after bodies of water. This isn't to say that this is a poetry collection about water, or even nature. This collection is primarily based around emotion, and strong emotions at that, in part because being overwhelmed with powerful emotions is often when I write poetry. My first working title was "Drowning in the Deluge," or "Lost in the Flood," but all that sounded a little too dark (even for me), so In the Deluge it is! It still implies being over-your-head, but doesn't convey the sense of panic or hopelessness the other titles do. In the Deluge won't be all doom and gloom. There will be some hope and love, too. Think of it as a "flood of emotion."

Above is a mock book cover I whipped up. As a reminder, a mock cover is just a visual representation of the intended project, and the official release cover may end up looking differently (I'm not a graphic artist, but I do like dabbling by making mocks). I like having mock covers for projects because it makes them more real and tangible, and therefore makes it feel more attainable. Title may also change, who knows!

This is a strange project for me. I wouldn't call myself a sci-fi writer, since I often get tripped up in the science and technicalities. Unlike fantasy where you can just use the excuse "well, it's magic, that's why," sci-fi can get a little more nit-picky. It has to sound real, and ideally be grounded in (or at least based) on real science.

So why am I writing a sci-fi story? While it will be classified as science fiction, technically, this idea of mine is grounded more in wilderness survival than epic space battles, and the theme fits well with what I primarily write about: what does it mean to be human, or in this case, to be real?

An Angel Falls is about an alien robot with advanced artificial intelligence that crash lands his ship on a feral jungle planet. Alone and limited on supplies, he has to survive in this hostile world, fix his ship, and return home. With this story I hope to pose the question of why does this AI want to survive; because he has a programmed directive to complete, or because does he not want to die?

Also, the idea of a highly advanced robot crafting a primitive spear to protect itself from a giant alien jungle cat gave me a good chuckle. It's going to be a great "fish out of water" story. A sophisticated robot has no business being in dense, untamed nature. I think it's going to be a fun experiment, too, on making a very non-human character feel alive, even more so than my normal choice of monster characters. In fact, the entire story is going to be entirely alien – the robot, the planet, all of it, has never made contact with humankind. There will be no humans or human influences at all. Imagine that.

Why the title An Angel Falls? Right now it's mostly a placeholder title. To keep my inspiration focused, I defaulted to theming anything that needed to be named with my vast knowledge of angel mythology. I actually started out with Greek theming, but since I intend to have no human influence in the story, all these naming themes may change. But for now, the idea of an alien AI robot race being called Angels sounds amusing to me (note this is not implying Biblical angels are alien robots, however, that is a fantastic theory).  

An Angel Falls is planned to be a Kindle Vella creation, released in parts, and perhaps potentially also as a podcast. I've always wanted to write/produce a fiction podcast, and the way this story will be segmented into episodes seems like it would be a great candidate. I will release An Angel Falls as a physical book (probably as a "season" or "volume" of sorts) once I have enough content, and assuming I will have the right to. I still need to do some research on Kindle Vella and what exclusive rights they may have, if any. I assume they would have exclusive ebook rights, but print and audio would stay with me. But I'll check!

As with the poetry collection, here is a quick mock-up cover. This one is very basic general "oh look it's a sci-fi book" because the real cover I have in mind would feature a depiction of the robot himself (probably fighting that giant alien cat mentioned above), which I'll likely have to have commissioned (also didn't I mention I'm not a real graphic artist?).

Lastly, I want all of you to know I'll likely be releasing a hardback version of The Un-Life soon! As you may or may not know, Amazon has recently rolled out their first ever print-on-demand hardback covers. Their options are limited to only a hard art cover; so no fancy dust jackets. So here's the game plan:

This is the best of both worlds. An option for both kinds of readers.

I don't know for sure when that Amazon hardback will be released, but let's just count on soon! I will try to push for a Christmastime release. If not then, then early Spring.

In other Un-Life news, I have a free Amazon ebook giveaway scheduled from October 29 to November 2, 2021. Get you a free copy! Spread the word! In July we managed to give away over 800 free copies and placed #1 in two categories. We almost got in the Top 100 Free in the entire Kindle Store (that's amongst millions of books!). Let's do even better this time, shall we?

That was a lot of news. I'll keep the send-off brief.

Aside from the projects announced above, I am still working on the second Blood Knights book. I'm also working with the Hannibal Writers Guild to achieve non-profit status so we can publish anthologies, which I'll be included in. Short stories, poems, you name it.

And that's literally it. No more news from me. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging soon.

Thanks for sticking with me.

At my very first book signing, my table-neighbor, Jessica Mathews was wrapped up in a blanket because of the colder-than-a-witch's-you-know air conditioning. Most everyone else in the room had on long sleeves or jackets of some kind. Meanwhile, I was as comfortable as could be in a short-sleeve, knee-high dress.

I've always loved the cold. I'm one of those freaks that say winter is my favorite season. There's something so pure and clean about crisp, cold air. There's simple beauty in the world asleep, appearing dead in the depths of winter yet still being so alive. Some people may prefer the bright colors of springtime or the warm colors of autumn, but for me the silent, white world after a blizzard is the most beautiful scene of all.

That day, Jessica (jokingly) accused me of being a real vampire on account of how much I liked the cold. Of course, she was probably poking a little harmless fun at my book, which incidentally has a couple vampires in it. Sure, I think I look best in red and black, prefer not to get tanned if I can help it, and love the cold, but I'm not a vampire (that you know of, winkwink). But am I a vampire author?

It's true; my first book, The Un-Life of William Moore, centers around the un-life of one William Moore, who is, in fact, a vampire. The book I am currently querying, The Blood Knight, focuses on the adventures of Archer, a vampire hunter who gets turned into a vampire. Coincidence? The answer is yes!

At a glance, having 2 out of 2 of my published/announced projects being vampire books, one could probably make the assumption that that the pale undead is all I write about. Far from it!

I write urban fantasy, sometimes called magical realism or low fantasy, which I tell people basically means I write about fantasy occurring in the modern world.  Vampires surviving in the 21st century is one way to do urban fantasy, and a very popular one at that, but that's not all. Other popular urban fantasy books may feature werewolves, faries or fae, or witches. Sometimes all of the above!

​I'd even go so far as to say I write dark urban fantasy. You won't find many happily-ever-afters in my stories, and they'll often have dark themes. No fairy godmothers are going to save the day, heroes are flawed and complicated, and the villains can be  exceptionally wicked. I write the bitter, real struggles of the lives of those cursed or blessed (but mostly cursed) with supernatural power.

It's sort of an accident that my next book after The Un-Life was another vampire book. My next project was planned to be this little thing with the working title Inner Demons, which has, you guessed it, demons as main characters. However, I've been a little stuck on this book for a while. I am about 25k words in, and have a general middle and end planned out, but filling in the gaps between those events has proven difficult.

So when I hit a road bump in the demon story, I took up The Blood Knight again to be working on something. Incidentally, I was blessed by the Muses with idea after idea after idea for BK. The story that was only meant to be a backstory for Archer (a rather minor character in the grand scheme of things at the time) turned into Archer being the main character for the entire trilogy. The hero! The title character, even. But it didn't stop there. By the time I was done with first draft of book one,  I was dreaming up spin-offs of Blood Knights, which will all feature a different type of monster and their culture.

Unfortunately my preferred title, "Moon Knight," is taken (thanks, Marvel/Disney), but I have intentions of writing a spin-off about a werewolf hunter that turns into a werewolf! It will be similar to its predecessor, but also vastly different, possibly even taking place in a different country. 

I also have a pretty good grasp on a spin-off centered around demons (unrelated to Inner Demons). About a...wait for it...someone who gets possessed by a demon (you thought I want going to say "a demon hunter that gets turned into a demon," didntja?). All of these "Knight" stories will take place in the same universe. These numerous knights may end up meeting each other some day... (Epic crossover, anyone?)

Long story short, no, I'm not just a vampire author. Maybe a monster author, but that's not even a perfect title. I don't strictly only write urban fantasy. I have an emotional realistic fiction on the back burner, a sci-fi concept struggling to come to fruition, and a couple plain-ol' high fantasy novels cookin' (one of them is romance, ooooh). Speaking of romance, I've also been debating putting all these romantic thoughts in my head that I can't somehow vomit out to my crush into a book instead. Vanilla romance with no monsters involved. So weird, but I want to give it a try!

When the fiction Muses aren't with me, I dabble in poetry, and hope to have enough poetry to publish in a book someday. In fact, it's on my to-do list (which you might be noticing by now is a rather long list!).

So put away your pitchforks and wooden stakes. I'm just a beautifully flawed human being, just like you.

Stay tuned for an update on my upcoming audiobook release of The Un-Life of William Moore!


We're all a little mad here,

-Dana Lockhart

Welcome home! Thank you for following me to yet another platform. Wordpress wasn't doing it for me, and then Blogger just didn't feel like enough, but now I feel like I've made a good home on Weebly. Everything looks so nice and professional. What do you think?

I've been unhappy with my website for a while now. When I was younger, I thought blog-websites were so cool, so I formatted my author website as a blog. After all, I planned on doing lots of blogging and making the blog the centerpiece of the website. However, as time went on, I realized that most serious authors don't make their blog the first page you see. It's usually only a tab on the home row. I felt like my website looked unprofessional and childish, but didn't know what I could do - until now.

 With COVID-19 making book signings impossible (where most authors make the most money), I knew I had to adapt or stagnate. The logical solution was to create some way for me to sell my books online. I also, preferably, wanted to have my own online store. I didn't want to just sell on Amazon or Ebay, but wanted to have my own exclusive website that only sold my content. 

Then, Square emailed me the solution, advertising their free online store. I already use Square readers for credit card sales in person, so having another outlet to sell using Square seemed like a logical choice. ​It also turned out to be the right choice!

I haven't been blogging all that much because there's honestly not much to report. I'm still querying my baby, The Blood Knight, but haven't heard anything from agents or publishers yet. I have gotten back all my beta-reader feedback, though, and so far so good! 

However, with the announced release of Midnight Sun, an entry in the Twilight Saga, I'm not sure what the future holds for BK right now. It's either going to be really good if the market wants to publish vampire stories again, or it's going to be really bad if no one wants to publish a competing book. Time will tell if this is the perfect time for BK to be picked up, or the worst time.

In other news, things are personally looking up for me financially. My beautiful PC Divinity has been down for months, but I'm going to be able to buy a brand new beast of a machine within a few weeks. That means I'll have the power to do more live streams, only this time in ultra high quality!

I'll wrack my brain for more blog topics other than essential-updates in the near future. I'm going to be figuring out what I want to talk about, and what I need to talk about. They say you should blog about things related to the books you write, but I don't want to just prattle on about the undead all the time. I like sharing my knowledge and experience in writing, but the audience for my books are more likely to be readers than writers.

It's something I'll have to work out before I start blogging regularly again. Let me know what you want me to blog about in the comments! I'm open to suggestions.

I will be making my previous website available to view so you can check out my old blog posts, but I'm fighting with Google to make that happen because it's currently bugged out. If all else fails, I'll just re-post my most popular blog posts here, eventually.

Until next time..


-Dana Lockhart