For those who follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my slight obsession with author Peter Dawes.  (Stalker is such an ugly word, don’t you think?)

I liked him instantly. His wit and sarcasm captured my heart, as well as his wicked fun sense of humor. 
After reading his first novel, Eyes of the Seer: Book One of The Vampire Flynn Trilogy  (My Review Can Be Found Here) I NEEDED to know more about the brilliant mind that brought the sexy Vampire Flynn to life.

Lucky for me, Dawes is very kind, and less apt to pursue a restraining order than most. 

He even agreed to answer some questions.

Sit back and enjoy his brilliant, fanciful, and truly wise answers.
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Thank you for considering me worthy of interviewing.~Peter Dawes

Don’t be silly, this interview made my week.! Now on to business good Sir…

Why did you choose to have your pen name the same as your main Character? (I know it has confused some people, and caused your book to be misplaced in the biography section of many libraries ;-)

Peter would argue this is where it belongs. I try to remind him he does not actually exist.

It started as an idea born from a very difficult time in my life. The writer desired more anonymity and got tangled up in the world of roleplaying. (For the uninitiated, roleplaying is where you pretend to be a character - either of a show or one of your own design - for the sake of fantasy storytelling or playing a game which requires you to ‘think like your character’.) I brought Peter into the roleplay and discovered how much I learned about him by forcing him to interact with people whose reactions I could not control. At that time, I had four of his manuscripts completed and was working on the fifth. The inspiration hit when I considered publishing them. Since all of them are written in the first person, why not have Peter be the author of his own stories?

Among the host of Supernatural beings, why did you choose to write about Vampires?

This will sound mad... But because Peter told me to. ;)

I had been tempted for a while. I grew up reading Anne Rice and Stephen King, and had become addicted to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show. At the time, I was working for an independent comic book studio as a script writer while penning superhero novels on the side. (Those will see the light of day eventually. When I have the time to shred them into editorial pieces.) I reached a point in the superhero books, though, where I could not work out the plot and it had me frustrated to no end.

Finally, one night I opened a blank document and stared at it. I said, “Whoever else is in there, start speaking now. I need inspiration.” Words began to fly onto the page before I knew it and what is now the first chapter of Eyes of the Seer appeared as though Peter had been calmly waiting the entire time to make his presence known. At the end of the chapter, he was captured by two vampires, one of which drained the life out of him and offered Peter her wrist.

I shrugged and said, “Well... I guess you are a vampire.”

What books grace your shelves?

My favorites ones:

The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Dark Half by Stephen King
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Of all your characters, who is your favorite to write? Who is the easiest?

When Peter took over, he did not relent. I can summon him in my sleep. (I nearly did for half a year while dating a fellow roleplayer who was an insomniac.) Besides him, though? Robin, especially when he and Flynn get to bantering. Flynn is my favorite to write when I am feeling in a devious mood. When I am not, I like to sneak out a set of histories I am penning for Robin and Sabrina and spend some time in Victorian era Ireland.

Would you agree to be turned into a Vampire?

If my partner joined me, then absolutely. I think we would make a devilishly wicked set of immortals.

Are any of your characters/relationships reminiscent of real people in your life?

You have not met my partner yet, but you shall someday. Robin is partially inspired by my younger brother, who has tolerated me through some very strange seasons of my life. I think each character I have penned has had some root in somebody I have known in real life, some less savory people than others. ;)

Do you have a writing process?

I always write with headphones on and music turned up to levels which shall probably give me hearing issues when I am older. I need something open like Twitter or someplace where I can fool around a bit when I hit a portion of the story which requires more time to think. Of course, then the trick is not to let it distract me to the point of not working at all.

Other than that, not so much. Not aside from ensuring I have a cup of coffee by my side and a browser window open if I need to stop and do research. My editor has called me a ‘discovery writer’ and I think that is appropriate. That often means very little in the way of notes.

Your writing ‘voice’ is incredibly unique. Very eloquent and some-what old fashioned.  Do you strive to imbibe Flynn with this style, or is it how you yourself speak?

I do not speak this way, truth be told. I sound more familiar while Peter would be more, “Good evening, my dear. How does the night find you?” I love his eloquent manner of speech, though, so I indulge it whenever the situation permits. He began speaking in my head like this, which was hilarious when it first started. Peter brought out words I had not used since high school English class. I am glad the voice has been well-received, though. He would not speak in any other manner even if I held a stake to his chest.

Yours was the first book I have ever read where I considered the main character both the protagonist and the antagonist.  Would you agree?

It depends on how you look at Stephen King’s The Dark Half. ;) I have always enjoyed stories which take your expectations and turn them upside-down, and I have a wicked obsession with antiheroes. Flynn is something of a metaphor for what exists inside all of us, albeit a very exaggerated metaphor. Give us the chance to lose ourselves inside decadence, without any consequence to our actions, and we will drown - sometimes so fast we do not notice it until we are fully submerged.

The question is, if a hand were outstretched to save us, could we make our way to the surface again? And who would we be on the other side?

How long did it take you to write Eyes of The Seer?

You will not believe me when I say this, but the first draft of 90,000 words was written in three weeks. Three weeks. My muse might have been a little... pent up. Now, what you read was draft five hundred thousand, give or take a few, and it has been chipped, poked, prodded, and revised over the span of five years. (Taking into consideration I did not touch it for a couple of years in-between.) This book series has been a labor of love.

Tell us more about the Sequel to Eyes of The Seer.


In Rebirth of the Seer, Flynn starts learning more about what his calling entails while dealing with the backlash of his bloody past. At the end of Eyes of the Seer, I showed how chilly his reception with the Supernatural Order was. In Rebirth, he and Monica face two new characters who are after Flynn, both for completely different reasons. And while he wrestles with himself and his new identity, he has to question the side he is on and why he continues fighting for it. I will tease that he is at least given one reason. It simply becomes a matter of which direction his loyalties will tip because of that reason.

I will also tease that I cannot wait to see the response to the very end of the book. But I cannot give any other hints than that. ;)
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Damn tease! That’s it my fellow Lords and Ladies.  I recommend Eyes of the Seer tremendously and if you have any questions for the author leave them below. 

As for me, there was one last question I forgot to pose to Peter Dawes.

Can I be High Priestess of the official Monica fan club?


Connect with Peter Dawes
5/21/2012 02:28:55 am

I think Monica would find it appropriate that the leader of her fan club would be called High Priestess. On that merit alone, you have it.

Thank you, once again, for allowing me to seduce your fine readers. It has been an honor. And might I add, if you are a stalker, then you are one of the best I have ever had, my friend. No restraining order necessary. ;)

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