Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween is here!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, folks! I'll be scaring kiddies in my Frankenstein outfit tonight, handing out chips and chocolates. Then I'll treat myself to a double bill of vintage '70s horror classics: "Tales from the Crypt" (1972) followed by "Vault of Horror" (1973). And tomorrow it's an all-out horror movie marathon all-day with a delicious pizza and red wine dinner. What will YOU be doing to celebrate?

I'm currently on a well-deserved writing break after being quite prolific these past three years, having written four novels and two novellas. I plan on resuming fiction writing sometime early in 2015, once I've recharged my creative battery. But in the meantime, I'll be starting a long-term non-fiction collaborative project. I won't divulge anything about it for now apart from saying that it will be an ongoing project that will most likely take over a year to achieve, resulting in a wonderful book. I'll tease you a little more about this in the coming months.

Again, have a happy Halloween, be safe trick or treating if you have kids, and enjoy those horror movie marathons; 'tis the season, after all!




Monday, June 23, 2014

Reviews and interviews...

I'm really bad at making updates. Another three months went by and I haven't updated my blog. In the course of that time, I received a handful of reviews and did two interviews. Here is the link that will direct you to the interview I did for BloodBorn Magazine and the great review they did of Nocturnal Offerings.


I was also interviewed by Readers Lane and they provided a glowing review of Nocturnal Offerings as well.


On the writing front, I'm about three weeks away from finishing the first draft of Oblique, my man-on-the-run thriller. This one is quite the mind-fuck, ladies and gents. I think you'll have a lot of fun reading about all its twists and turns. That's it for now. Have a great summer and don't forget to bring an Alan Draven book with you if you're going to the beach or camping; they're good summer reads!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

First update of 2014!

Well, spring is here ... technically, anyways, since it's snowing hard outside and there's already a significant accumulation on the ground. Did I ever mention I hate winter? Yeah, with a passion. I don't do winter sports, heck, I'm even more of a recluse in the winter, only venturing outside when I absolutely have to (to buy food and to go watch live wrestling PPVs at the local theatre, amongst other things). Anyhow, I can't wait for the real spring to finally arrive. The smell of nature being reborn, longer hours of sunshine, barbecues on our terrace, taking long walks with my sweetie, going for drinks outside at the local pub; good times!

I've been busy all winter finishing up the first draft of the first book of my Sci-Fi/Steampunk/Fantasy book series titled Atlantia which will span seven books and cover a period of 400 hundred years. It's my most ambitious project to date and it was quite gruesome at times to write, taking its creative toll on me. I often felt very much out of my element. A challenging book to write, but I did it and I think it's a very good one at that. After seven long months, I finished the first draft and after another two solid months of rewrites, the second draft is now done. Soon I will send it to my editor then I'll set it aside until January 2015 at which point I'll go over the manuscript for a final third draft and I'll begin writing Book II. After that, it'll be going out to literary agents in the hopes of landing a major publishing deal. I'm very excited at the prospect of what lies ahead at this juncture in my career.

In the meantime, I've just begun writing what I like to call a man-on-the-run type thriller under a brand new pseudonym which I won't reveal for the time being. This book is titled Oblique and after two weeks, I've already written 41 pages and several chapters are outlined in great detail; not bad for a part-time writer! This will be the first manuscript I submit to literary agents, sometime later this summer. This is a brand new phase in my career that I like to refer to as Phase II. It took me eight years to get to where I'm at and I've done pretty good for myself, with half a dozen books published in the Horror and Dark Suspense genres. Now I need to crack open the bigger doors that will one day permit me to write for a living. That's always been my dream and my goal. I can feel that I'm getting closer and closer, and I'm more focused than ever in doing everything in my power to ensure that I accomplish what I set out to do.

I'll keep you posted on my progress and various happenings from time to time. There are no new books from me planned in the near future; my two most recent ones were published last fall and are available everywhere online in print and ebook formats, so pick up a copy if you haven't already done so: Nocturnal Offerings, which I consider to be my Horror masterpiece, and Heroes of the North: October Dawn which I wrote for the Heroes of the North web-series/comic book franchise. Until next time, stay safe and keep reading!