5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… John Darling, author of Into the Dark Desolate Night

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
John Darling, author of Into the Dark Desolate Night
(Kindle Direct Publishing)

Into the Dark Desolate Night is a string of 10 short stories about Detective Anderson. In it, he goes from being a small town homicide detective, with 20 years on the job, to owning the largest private detective agency in Miami.

The catalyst to his fame and fortune is when he solves the nationally known Prime Cut Killer case. A serial killer is shooting people between their eyes and then chopping off parts of their body. The only connection between all the victims is that they have no connection until Anderson finds the one that leads him to the shocking identity of the murderer.

The remainder of the stories add characters to Anderson’s life (including wife #3) who recur throughout the book, so it reads like a novel yet covers 10 distinct cases; everything from the hunt for the killer of a “mad scientist” to the search for a missing Notary Public.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write Into the Dark Desolate Night?

John Darling: I was sitting in a bar when a scantily clad, very inked, young lady sat down next to me and asked me if I wanted to see her “tats”. At first, I wanted to tell her that I could already see them, then I realized she used a different word than the one I heard, so I asked her what she meant. She proceeded to point out each of her “tats” and tell me the story behind each one.

Along the way, I drifted off and wondered what would happen if I did not like to see tats on people. What would I do? That set up the crime, now all I needed was a detective to solve it.

This inspired me to create Detective Anderson for Into the Dark Desolate Night, the gruff loner with a heart of gold that no one sees.

JP: What sets Into the Dark Desolate Night apart from other books in the same genre?

JD: The fact that you get to see Anderson’s success as if you were looking over his shoulder.

You see him solve the Prime Cut Killer case, then you go with him as he tries to out run his new-found, detested fame, then you stay with him as he finally decides to use the fame to his own ends.

As he does so, he adds people to his life circle like B.B., Detective Coombs, Nate Kubrick, Chauncey, Lt. Owens, and, of course, Beth, his new wife.

JP: As an author, what are the keys to your success that led to Into the Dark Desolate Night getting out to the public?

JD: Just putting Into the Dark Desolate Night out there. So far, I have built a book web page at http://www.detectiveanderson.com, sent out press releases, managed to get the book into a local library, made up fliers and Anderson Detective Agency “business cards” to hand out locally.

Social media is also key. Anderson has his own FaceBook, Twitter, and Tumblr sites.

JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take you to start and finish Into the Dark Desolate Night?

JD: Once I started writing it in earnest, Into the Dark Desolate Night only took about 3 months to complete, however, I had the idea for the first story in it, “Tat”, and had a beginning written for it (about 1400 words) for several years before I really got started. Why? I could not figure out how to get Anderson to solve the crime. Then one day, I saw something that showed me how he could do it, and I finished the story in a few days.

This was the first mystery story I had ever written. When the first publisher I sent it to wanted to buy it, I was very happy, but something the editor said in his acceptance letter kept me from letting him publish the work. He said “If you write anymore Anderson stories, send them to me, I would like to see them all.”

That gave me the idea to write more stories, some of which I had already been making notes on, and put them together in a book.

JP: What’s next for John Darling?

JD: The Detective Anderson Mysteries, Volume II.

I have one story, “The Mischievous Angel” written (that will also be included in an upcoming Poe themed anthology). Two more are in the works. They are “Amy Adams, Attorney at Law” and “The Talking Dead”. Amy is destined to become a recurring character in the series, but Nate has to fall for her then save her from a killer first…

http://www.detectiveanderson.com/

http://facebook.com/pages/Into-the-Dark-Desolate-Night/267104663301929

http://twitter.com/detanderson

http://detanderson.tumblr.com/

I’d be happy to hear from anyone on any subject!

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