Approaching an Anniversary

On October 31st, 2003, I began work on what would soon become my 1st published novel and begin what I hoped to be a sucsessful writing career. In May of 2003, "Dancing with the Moon" debuted on my grandmother's birthday- my first novel. The debut party at Fuji's Sushi Resteraunt in West Hartford, Connecticut. Me and several close friends toasted what I hoped to be the begining of a lifelong dream come true. In that year I sold maybe 80+ copies of my first book and made about $1,200.

It is now October 30th, 2007. I've since added 4 more published works, 1 short story feature in a fan magazine, Dark Thoughts, and 1 published interview in Dark Presses issue #4. All my books have been reviewed with acclaim. My books are featured in an on-line writing course taught in California. My books have recorded a sale or two in the U.K.

I have sold a total of 130+ copies of my books. Not what I hoped for or expected of myself or my works. I can say some years I sold absolutely nothing and maybe saw only 6 hits on my book websites. As a self-published author, I am constantly frustrated with the business side of my work but so passionate about writing. The stories I try to present are what I hold to be some of my best work at the time of publication. Yet they go unseen, unrecognized, and very much un-read.

It is even more frustrating to be an unknown, struggling author on a shoestring budget unable to make appearences or book tours. Publicity is either through creative blogging, live journaling, or just plain word of mouth.

I suppose what hurts me most is the fact that as much as I try and innovate and improve upon a genre of writing, I am percieved to be "just another vampire writer" or "another wanna-be Stephen King or Anne Rice". I don't mind being compared to the greats, if they feel my work might measure up to their standards for great literature... but to say I want to be them is kind of stupid. What aspiring writer wouldn't want that instant recognition and fame? Who wouldn't want even a pinch of their talent? But as far as considering me a wanna-be or carbon copy, if you bother to read my works, you'll see my style and my characters are uniquely my own (for better or worse).

The intention is not to be Stephen King or Anne Rice- only to be David Conlin McLeod. I work for my sucsesses as well as my failures as did they. In the end, it is my name on my books and my heart and soul in my stories- bottom line. I may write in the stylings of King or Rice or Hamilton or Dickens even... but style is not the same thing as substance. The substance is all me 100%. Otherwise, it isn't my work and it isn't honest. You can compare all you want so long as it is understood- I do not want to be anything more or less than the best David Conlin McLeod. King doesn't need my help and neither does Rice or James Patterson or H.P Lovecraft or anyone else. I do not need their help either to build a story- only the inspiration that they have already provided from their own hard work and sacrifices. I only need to know that they have paved the way for others to follow their footsteps and general directions. Once I am on their road, there comes a time for me to start paving my own.

Maybe early on, I really wanted to be the next Stephen King. Now that I have a few books under my belt, I feel this way: It is better to be the first David Conlin McLeod than the next of someone else. I want to pioneer something and pave a way for others to follor so that they too can be inspired to explore similar roads and paths.

Similar roads and paths- its not the same as wanting to become or emmulate that which inspired you. It's taking what you see and making it your own with your own imagination and creativity.
I could never be Stephen King or Anne Rice. Sooner or later my own voice would emerge from the mimicry and masquerade. Peering through the copy of King or Rice, my voice and my charaters would emerge. It would not be the same.

Anyway- yes there are times I wish I had what they had- but I never wish to write anything less than pure David Conlin McLeod. The fans I do have deserve nothing less of me. And they are smart enough to know that if they want a wanna-be, they are better served by seeking the real deal.

"Running from the Sun" - Thoughts

I know usually I post about works in the horror/vampire genre but there is a project and novel I am working on currently that I think deserves some serious attention and hopefully an audience.

The next book I am uncovering, is a serious dramatic work of historical signficance. It is the story of a Japanese-American girl and her family as they experience life in Japanese-American internment.

During March of 1942 through late fall of 1945 just months after V-J Day, 120,000 Japanese-Americans (2/3rds born in the U.S. and citizens) were forcefully removed and rellocated from their homes on the West Coast to concentration camps called "relocation centers" or "evacuation centers" for the duration of the war years. They were not charged with any crime, they were not given any due process other than 6 days notice to take what they could carry, and were not afforded their rights as citizens.

They were prisoners of their own adoptive country. They were segregated from the rest of society for their enthnicity, lineage, and appearence. Though born here in this country, the Nisei (2nd generation Japanese-Americans) were considered as much the enemy as the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy as were their parents, the Isei generation who had immigrated to America to escape the turmoils and hardships they hoped to avoid in Japan.

Had the Isei or Nisei generations returned to Japan, the men would have been likely conscripted into the armed services and families would have struggled to survive in a country that would not have fully accepted them. In either country, their loyalties were questioned.

The story I wish to present will be a story of a fictional family wrapped in the very real story of Japanese-American internment, racism, war, chaos, confusion, and betrayal. However, I wish to also present how despite these hardships, families have survived and have endured. A whole community has endured and re-built. Voices that were once silenced out of fear have begun to speak, shout, cry out, and in some cases finally voice their angers. My novel hopes to tap into these voices and bring them to our attention- through the eyes of a girl who in 1942-1945 was considered a threat to national security simply because of her appearence and lineage.

If a country is going to herd innocent women, children, and men into a camp surrounded by barbed wires and guard towers, it must not have taken much for the government to conjure their reasons. We say they did it out of blatant hysteria, paranoia, and fear. We say it was for the safety of Japanese-Americans. We say we did it because we couldn't trust them enough. What reasons did they have to send 122,000 people to the ten concentration camps that were scattered in the most remote and hostile enviornments in the U.S.? What morality was behind the decision to commit to acts that blatantly violated the rights of citizens?

If there was an incident that sparked Executive Order 9066, was it justification enough to incarcerate children along with their mothers and fathers? If there were acts of sabotage against the United States by members of the Japanese-American community, what made the U.S. government think it needed to respond to such acts with wholesale removal and rellocation of some 122,000 people?

While some say that what the U.S. did to the Japanese-American community paled in comparison to what the Japanese soldiers were doing to U.S. POWs and soldiers... let's be clear and frank about something. The Japanese-Americans who were interned were not soldiers, they were civilians. They were not involved in combat action against their neighbors or fellow Americans. They were farmers, shop owners, laborers, ordinary people like their neighbors around them. The actions of the Japanese Army and Navy were independent of the Japanese-American community. And the United States had no right to stoop so low as to employ POW tactics on civilians. The United States had no right to lump the actions or non-actions of the Japanese-American community with the heinous and gruesome acts of the Japanese Imperial Army or Navy.

Why a book about Japanese-American internment?

Think about it- how far is the U.S. government right now from commiting similar acts against the Muslim/Arab-American community right now? How close were they to commiting another Executive Order 9066 against the Muslim-American community after the events of September 11th, 2001? How angered and emotional we all were on that day that we might very well have green lighted such a proposal to ship every Muslim and Arab-American to some camp-like facillity without due process, charges, trials, or legal respresentation. What if, God forbid, another terrorist attack occured, would that be the straw that breaks the camel's back so to speak were we drop morality in favor of some percieved notion of added security or safety?

And as it stands, the U.S. doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to giving its own citizens equal rights and dignities under its Constitution. I don't have to remind you of the mistreatment and racism agaist the African-American community... Native American community... Irish-American community... Chinese-American community... etc. I don't have to remind you of places like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... or Abu-Grahib, Iraq either.

I think now more than ever we start looking at ourselves and start taking a serious look at how American we are and how we see what being American is. When do we start accepting Americans for who they are and not by what they look like or what God they worship or where their ancestry comes from? Why can't we accept Americans for being Americans? Why not accept the diversity?

"Dragons of Mirov" - Update and Teaser

Book Three of the Dragon's Tear Chronicle is in its final editting stage. It is possibly the strongest piece of work I have written to date- barring my new project "Running from the Sun" about the Japanese-American internment experiences of 1942-1945.

This climactic installment will reach you in places you have never felt before- I guarentee it. If you have yet to read any of my work- my sincerest hope is that you look into "Chasing Shadows: Tales of East River" or "Dancing with the Moon" and get started on the journey. Either of those books will grab you and never let go. They resonate and echo with emotion, heart, and will open your eyes to a whole different world of what horror and fear can be. "While the Wolves Cry", the latest installment- Book Two of the series- will take you beyond reality and dreams and nightmares and thrust you headlong into an epic struggle between innocense and evil- between hope and eternal despair.

"Dragons of Mirov" pits young Amy and her companions against an ancient bloodline bent on crushing the world in its taloned grasp. Ancient beings desperate for power ascend states of godhood. Fueled by demonic lusts for power and revenge, they seek and destroy everything in their path. And the one source of light in the world rests upon the shoulders of a young girl and her dream.

Amy is stronger, now aware of the secrets surrounding her. Empowered by an inner strength that only the truly innocent can find, Amy must finally face the source of her darkest nightmares and rise where no other dares to tread.

In the end- only the strongest can survive.

Now On Sale at Eastern!

At last my books will be sold at the Eastern Conn. State University Bookstore (Barnes and Noble). By month's end, copies of all my books will be made available at a decent discount, all signed by me, and ready for the reading!
My 5th and most recent book, the second book in the "Dragon's Tear Chroncle" series, "While the Wolves Cry" hits shelves today.

If you can't come out to Willimantic and the Eastern campus, have no fear!
You can always order my books at any major book retailer or on-line at www.trafford.com - direct from the publisher! Or you can look some of them up on www.amazon.com

Just plug my name : David Conlin McLeod in the author search and you should see my available books.

"Dancing with the Moon" - Book One
"While the Wolves Cry" - Book Two
"Chasing Shadows: Tales of East River" - Prequel

"The Audition"
"Two Past Twilight"