Q: Do the books have to be read in order?
A: Absolutely not. As with all my series, they have recurring characters and do refer to events in past books, but each one is written with new readers in mind. So if you pick up in the middl ...
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Q: Do the books have to be read in order?
A: Absolutely not. As with all my series, they have recurring characters and do refer to events in past books, but each one is written with new readers in mind. So if you pick up in the middle of the series or skip around, you won't miss anything.
Q: Have you ever thought of making the Dark-Hunters a movie or TV show?
A: Absolutely, but unfortunately I'm not a personal friend of Sam Raimi or Michael Bay :( Hollywood hasn't come knocking... yet and they haven't answered our knocks so for now we're holding. I know, I know. I hear all of you and it baffles me too, but if and when that changes, I will let everyone know.
Q:Will Simi have a book?
A:Absolutely. I just don't know when yet.
Q:Who reads Dark-Hunter?
A:In short, everyone. The beauty of the Dark-Hunter universe is that it reaches out to the entire world. Our fans come from all walks of life, religions, and age groups. They are male and female, and as diverse as the world we live in. We have toddlers and teenagers who come to signings dressed as characters and the oldest fan we know of is 103. Approximately 40% of our US fans are male (we have more in the UK) and we draw our readers from truck drivers, teachers, lawyers, producers, musicians, students, stay at home moms, soldiers, doctors, police officers, shamans, clerks, CEOs, office workers, gamers, ministers, bikers, accountants, wait staff, stylists, computer techs, reporters, construction workers, writers and you. Thank you for reading and for being part of our worldwide fan base. Kenyon Minions -- a million strong and growing.
Q:What is coming up for the Dark-Hunters?
A:As far as the series goes, we are currently in stage 1 of it and Acheron will launch us into part 2. I see the entire series as one large, ongoing story that has 4 major parts.
The first part is Acheron.
Part 2 will be Jaden
Parts 3 will be Savitar
and 4 involves a character the readers aren't yet familiar with.
Q:I've read lots of mythology in the past and Artemis is always portrayed as a virgin goddess. Why isn't she like that in your books?
A:Artemis was and has always been portrayed as a goddess of extreme contradictions. What most people don't realize is that the typical mythology we are taught in schools and what we generally read are taken from either Bulfinch or Edith Hamilton. While both works are wonderful introductions into the ancient myths, they are both very cursory and are only the tip of the iceberg. Further Artemis (yes, the Artemis we know and love or in some cases hate) was just a Greek goddess. She was adopted by other cultures in Asia Minor and Africa. She was a minor deity in Greece, but a major goddess in other realms. Ancient writers wrote many, many stories about her. And while some portray her as a virgin (some claim that the asked Zeus for eternal virginity when she was three years old), others portray her quite differently. Most people know the version of her with Orion (similar to the tale of Actaeon) that when he tried to rape her, she turned him into a bear and depending on the legend either had him stung by a scorpion or she killed him herself. But another common variation of this story was that she was to marry him (and they had been very friendly beforehand, if you catch my meaning). When Apollo learned of this, he tricked her into accidentally shooting her lover and that Artemis placed him in the sky to always remember him. This is one of dozens of stories in the ancient realm where Artemis was known to take lovers. In fact, many ancient writers have her as a known lover of her promiscuous twin brother Apollo. Not to mention that her cult followers were never required to stay virgins. It was a common ceremony that whenever a cult member wanted to leave, all she had to do was go to Artemis's temple and place a lock of hair with their toys and other objects of their childhood on her altar and then they were free to go marry (which Artemis didn't object to). This dichotomy is something that I have played on in my series. It's not a lack of research on my part. Like the ancient writers before me, I have taken the Greek legends and have added my own interpretation while doing my best to be respectful and as true to the ancient ways as my thirty plus years of research and scholarship will allow :) But please remember that the Dark-Hunter realm is a world of fiction and as such I do take some liberties with it.
Q:I have found a typo in one of your books or I have missing or repeated pages. What should I do?
A:I really wish that each book could go out without a single error in it. Unfortunately that doesn't always happen and often we don't even realize that typos are in the final book since neither Brynna nor I ever read my books after they're published. Ironically, Brynna once bought one of my Kinley MacGregor books and didn't realize it had missing pages until a reader wrote in asking about her own copy. Sure enough, Brynna checked and the copy that she'd owned for more than a month had the same error in it.
If a book you purchased is defective, please return it to the store where you bought it and they will gladly exchange it for you. If they are out of copies, please contact the publisher immediately and they will replace the copy. Likewise, please email me to let me know that there is a defective book on the loose so that I can check and see if anyone else is having that problem and notify my publisher. Replacement of defective copies is always handled by the bookstores and the publishers, not by the author. Like you, the reader, I have to purchase all the copies I have of my books too.
As for typos, I can assure you that each and every book is very carefully read by me, Kim (who is an English Special Ed teacher), and my editors as well as several other readers. I take their suggestions and corrections and incorporate them into the book. The book is then given to a line editor who goes through and checks for typos as well as a copy editor who checks for facts and consistency. The manuscript is then returned to me where Kim and I read it again. It's returned to my editor who reads it, then hands it off to the production team who typesets it. On occasion these typesetters will make mistakes. Because of this, the typeset pages are sent to me and Kim who again read every page very carefully to make any last minute corrections and then it is sent to a proofreader.
Now you would think with all that, that every single mistake would be caught, but unfortunately, we are all human and sometimes things sneak past us or sometimes corrections aren't entered correctly (and let's face it, my handwriting stinks and I'm sure they can't always make out my scribbles. Not to mention, I am SEVERELY dyslexic which is why I make poor Kim reread everything behind me). And to let you know how easy mistakes can happen here's an interesting example of how the human mind works...
"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe."
We try our very best to make each book perfect, but should you find a typo that has escaped us, please email Kim under the blooper section and let her know the name of the book and the page it occurred on so that we can enter the correction in future editions of the book. Thanks!
Q: Where did you get the idea for the Dark-Hunters?
A: I grew up reading myths and horror. My mother was the world's BIGGEST horror fan. So vamps were like another extension of my family, and I'm innately curious. So pretty much from the cradle I knew the vampire legends, and as I got older, I researched a lot more. I used to write columns every Halloween for local papers on the origins of Halloween customs and creatures. One thing that I have always found intriguing is that most vamp/were/etc. legends go back to ancient Greece. Of course most of our literature does too, so it only makes sense. And the historian in me believes one thing: every ancient story has a degree of truth to it. Ergo Atlantis, Troy, etc., all happened. But what really happened then?
You take the pieces and construct a story around it. In my case, I tied vampirism to Atlantis -- not original in and of itself, but I brought in the Atlantean and Greek pantheons and peoples vying for power, and used their war to fuel my own myth. Okay, so I had to make up my whole entire Atlantean pantheon and myths, but hey, that was fun! I've spent so much of my life inundated with medieval and ancient stories. I have always been fascinated with the way the Greeks portrayed their gods and how the gods changed to fit whatever story they wanted to tell.
I would never have been able to do what I've done with the Dark-Hunters had I not been well versed in Thucydides, Homer, Plato, Hesiod, Herodotus, Sophocles, Aristotle, Aeschylus, etc.
The basic idea of the series came in the mid 1980s when I was working for a small press SF/F magazine called Cutting Edge. My boss wanted a long running serial to boost sales and charged me with coming up with it. I'd been working with a lot of the original characters, Acheron, Talon, Kyrian, etc for years in other worlds and decided to bring them together into one series. I wanted a series of heroes who came from a wide historical background that would allow me to expand the series and grow it without feeling hemmed in. I also wanted to be able to add more characters and such so that neither I nor the reader would grow bored. And I've been working on the series ever since. It's always a work in progress.
Q: Why are some of your books hardback, some trade paperback and some regular paperbacks? I don't understand why some of your books cost more than others?
A: Most readers assume that it is the author who sets the format and price of a book. Sadly it isn't. We honestly have no control over any of that. The publisher chooses the format and sets the price without any input from the author. Case in point, I had absolutely no idea that What Dreams May Come would be a trade paperback until I had been sent the cover from my editor. I never know the price of a book until it is on the shelves. Likewise I have no control over my covers. All I can do is make suggestions.
