Character Profile: Seth Ryan

Another entry for Man In The Clubhouse.

The drunken block captain, Seth Ryan known for his drunken escapades which usually end up in bar brawls. If he’s not visiting a bar to get drunk, he probably is on his way to a flophouse to have a good time with a hussy. The reputation he has never has helped him that much with getting ahead in the Peter McCune Association. Being drunk and falling out at flophouses has probably done more harm than good. Seth is not known for his political drive and ambition. He would be perfectly satisfied with a beer in one hand a loose woman  under his arm. Seth is interested in having a good old time.

But for our main character, Eddy O’Brien, Seth Ryan is a mentor. Seth mentors Eddy as he learns the ins and outs of politics. Time will tell how useful is Seth’s wisdom to Eddy. Is it all about drunkenness and prostitution? Or does Eddy learn about how to better the lives of people in Hell’s Kitchen?

Please look for more updates and character profiles for Man In The Clubhouse.

DJ

Character Profile: Wolf Finnegan

Another entry to the Man In The Clubhouse character profiles.

Wolf Finnegan, the great political mind from the John Cushing Clubhouse. Wolf is a many of the angles, he sees them all. He sees both sides of the story and knows the conclusion before it happens. Wolf knows it all but keeps it to himself. He never  fails to reach his hand out to build alliances with the English, the Italians, the Polish, and Chinese unlike many of his colleagues. Is a he a great believer in diversity Or does he just knows where the wind blows and who to strike a deal with?

Wolf Finnegan is known for a sense of strong self-discipline, quietness, and an everlasting patience.

Keep following the blog to learn more about the upcoming Man In The Clubhouse  book.

DJ

Character Profile: Richard O’Brien

If you have read one of my previous posts, you may be familiar with the book I have been working on Man In The Clubhouse. The book about Eddy O’Brien’s rise in Hell’s Kitchen’s rough house politics. Today, I will give a short review of the character, Richard O’Brien.

Richard O’Brien is the ambitious roughneck brother of Eddy. Richard is a man always with a sense of resolve. He isn’t the most nicest of people but he isn’t outright mean either. Richard styles himself as the man who is willing to make tough decisions whether they are right or wrong. Ultimately, he plays a great role in Eddy getting involved in clubhouse politics.

Richard’s influence has a heavy role on Eddy as he progresses into manhood and as he climbs the political ladder. Look for more information about my upcoming book Man In The Clubhouse.

DJ

The Forgotten: Escape Farmsville

The Journal of Austin Sommers is probably my most well known work thus far(I promise to deliver something 10x better and more famous, GUARANTEED). The interesting part about it was that my first book that I had planned was not going to be The Journal of Austin Sommers. The plan was for something more elaborate and unique.

My first book was supposed to be Escape From Farmsville. How generic, unadventurous, and plain. The book was in the same vein as The Journal of Austin Sommers and the upcoming books in the Mason City. But it still was different. Escape From Farmsville was supposed to be a two or three hundred page choice style book. The objective of the book was to escape Farmsville alive while the city is overwhelmed by a zombie outbreak. The book was going to take place over several days. There were going to be plenty of chances to die.

Over time, I slowly transitioned out of the original planned format of Escape From Farmsville. The first big change was to remove the vagueness of a choose your own adventure. To do this I needed to get rid of the obtuseness of an open ended main character and avoid the prevalence of inconsequential major decisions. There were a number of ways that I could of did this including offering more options and more character details(my work, more time exhausted).

Personally, I feel that most books that are choose your own adventure style tend not to be very intimate and personal. From my experience, most choose your own adventure style authors seem to try to maintain an ambiguous main character with little to any character development(there are exceptions). Or other authors project there morals and views into forcing the reader into a certain behavior or view.

I chose to resolve the ambiguity issue by allowing the read to choose between three characters. The book wouldn’t be a choose your own adventure novel but it still would be a choice book. One would be limited to the choices that the character would make. A nice guy would have options that a nice guy would make. A selfish character would have options that would be suitable to him. Since it was three characters I came up with the idea and possibility that they would come across each other in the book. An interesting concept that will eventually happen in the Mason City series.

The next great change that I made was that the book should be more detailed about what happens throughout the day since it was now three characters instead of one. This lead me to coming to the conclusion of separating the book into several books. Each book would be one day.

As I worked on the book even more I came to a simple yet obvious solution. Can I do better than Escape From Farmsville? I did, I came up with the Mason City series. The name sounds a lot more epic. Eventually around the same time, I came up with the idea of companion books. Smaller books which would introduce characters that would show up in the next day. This is how I came up with the Xavi Jones story(I will rewrite it sometime soon, PATIENCE) and the three Mason City Day 1 companion books. As such I came to the conclusion, why not do a prequel? A prequel that explains where the zombie outbreak originates. This lead to The Journal of Austin Sommers.

As you can see as I worked on Escape From Farmsville more and more, it slowly became a universe of its’ own that I created. I think it has been a little over two years since I thought about writing Escape From Farmsville. Now it is entirely something different. Recognizable but different nevertheless.

Well, as you can see this great project has a lot of ambition. It has been very taxing and overwhelming for me. I tend to believe my editors enjoy it and so have my readers. I hope it is all worth it in the end.

I just can’t wait to release the long awaited Mason City Day 1 book and the other three books. Stay tuned for more information.

Man in the Clubhouse Update

I’m currently working on Man In The Clubhouse as I previously mentioned. Let’s go into more details with this post. The story revolves around Eddy O’Brien’s rise in Hell’s Kitchen’s rough clubhouse politics. It is an entirely different style of book from the Mason City series. The book shifts from past to present. The setting is a lecture hall in 1962 where Eddy O’Brien recalls his rise and fall in New York politics. The first flashback is to an Orange celebration 1902.

O’Brien learns to work the polls, work with power brokers, and take care of the community he lives in. At the same time the world is a great period of change with plenty of notable mentions. World War I breaks out in 1914. Women’s suffrage picks up more momentum around the same time period. The New Democratic Party and the Federalist Party clash for power in New York City. Greater battles are being waged for control of the state legislature up in Albany. Not to forget the inter-party struggles that are happening within both parties.

The book takes place between 1902 and ends in 1921. I expect to write three or four books in the series ideally. There will be more information about Man In The Clubhouse in the coming weeks. Expect to read some character profiles about characters in the series.

My Current Projects

I have several book projects ongoing currently. One of my editors likes to constantly chirp about “bite size” pieces. I DISAGREE! That would be putting it mildly. I just need to work harder. Take a look below.

Man in the Clubhouse. The story takes place in the early 1900s about the rise of Eddy O’Brien, an Irish politician in Hell’s Kitchen. Eddy learns about the problems and struggles of his neighborhood as he works his way up through the political ladder. Starting from a mere grunt for a block captain slowly working his way up to run for political office. As he progresses up the ladder we learn more about the political conflicts and compromises that are part of New York political life. We learn not only about his political life in Hell’s Kitchen but also his social life. There are gangsters, political bosses, prostitutes, civic minded citizens, the Catholic Church, the Average Joes next door, and plenty more! I intend on taking this book to a literary agent and hope to get it published.

Mason City Day 1 Series. Of course the long awaited sequel of The Journal of Austin Sommers that everyone has been asking about. This is a four book installment about the first day of the zombie breakout in Mason City. All the events in the four books that take place throughout the same day in the same city.

One book is about a former pilot named Tobias Bedford and his struggle to return home from prison. He looks forward to seeing his family and friends but he isn’t too sure if he is prepared for it.

The next book is about a soldier named Victor Cardozo from San Pedro who has came to Mason City to track the whereabouts of Austin Sommers and learn what happened in the tent city back in San Pedro. Why did everyone die? Was there foul play?

The third book is about a young upstart female pro wrestler named Lydia Portman who is rash and a bit rowdy at times. She gets caught up in the vibrant spirit that takes place on the eve of the zombie breakout.

The fourth book is a choose your own adventure style book. Not so much as one chooses a character. But this book is made up of three main characters. A bank manager, John Stanton; a college student, Leigh Bartlowe; and a janitor, Micah Roland. You choose to read as any of the three characters as they go throughout the first day of the zombie breakout in Mason City.

I aim to deliver all four books at once so look forward to them being published on Amazon.

Edge of the Galaxy. A slight change in name from On The Omegala. A young woman graduates from The Dolinger Space Warfare Institute. She is given the offer to join a colony ship named The Omegala that will venture to some unknown planet on an expedition. The Omegela has many internal problems as the crew struggles with each other as well as attacks from pirates. Will the crew make it to their destination or will they fail miserably?

I hope to publish this on a few free sites as well as here on my blog. I intend to offer an entry sometime this week. Stay tuned!

Honorable Mentions: I will discuss more about the following books later. These works I have started but are on hiatus. When the Heroes Act!The Red Hat: Easterly Conundrum. Secrets of the Crimson Fortress. Valor of The Blood Hunt.

Notes: I intend on re-writing the Xavi Jones story. I will publish it for free online in a few places aside from here.

I will continue to keep the blog updated as I work on these books. Thanks for your patience. I look forward to posting more.

DJ

Blog Update

Hello,

Thank you for following me here at Dead Romantics. I apologize for the lack of posts. I intend on writing here and my other blog every day. Starting today.

I’m not exactly sure what I will blog about exactly but I will. You can expect to read about updates on the books that I am currently working on here. Over at The Gentlemen’s Corner you can read about random posts, reviews, and my goals.

Thanks for your patience and stay tuned.

DJ Hart

 

Character Profile: Austin Sommers

Austin Sommers is a quiet young man going through the rough and tumble in life. He is not only quiet but often scared and cowardly. To put it kindly, Austin Sommers is socially inept. His adventure through San Pedro in order to cure Rubinsky’s Disease is heart attack in wait for him.

There is only a few people he can trust. Oliver, a good friend that seems to be cool and out going. Then you have his girlfriend Caitlyn who seems to be reliable. Aside from those two, there are no others that close to Austin. Then again, he always want to make his parents proud.

Austin Sommers’ adventures in The Journal of Austin Sommers is merely a start to the oncoming zombie apocalypse in Mason City.

My First Book Published!

 

It took over a year and a half but I’m finally here with my first book on Amazon, The Journal of Austin Sommers. The Journal of Austin Sommers is about how Austin Sommers joins a team of scientists in an effort to cure a disease in the San Pedro region in South America.

While disease may be potent, Austin has problems of his own. He finds himself weak and helpless in many of the situations he finds himself in. Austin is not only in a struggle with himself and a vicious infectious disease, but with other people. Can he survive?

The Journal of Austin Sommers is the first book in the Mason City Series. The story takes place a years before a zombie outbreak reaches the United States and strangles Mason City with chaos. Please read, enjoy, share, and review.