Dean Andersson's novels and stories have been published by Harper Collins, Warner Books, Kensington, White Wolf, Crossroad Press, and Alpha-Kniga. He received a Bram Stoker finalist award from the Horror Writers Association for his Cemetery Dance story about a close encounter on a lonely highway with the Death Goddess Hel, "The Death Wagon Rolls On By."
Dean,
Welcome
back to Up Around the Corner!
(For
those who are interested, here’s the link to Dean’s first interview: First Interview with C. Dean Andersson)
It
has been almost seven years since you last spoke with us. Since then, has your
writing career progressed as anticipated?
Yes. I am happy with how it has progressed.
Through
what book or series would readers most likely know you? For those who may not
be familiar with it, could you share a little about the book (or series)?
I Am
Dracula is my best known
novel in the horror genre. It is Dracula’s Secret History told by Dracula
himself. Crossroad Press recently published a new print edition and a first edition
ebook.
Warrior
Witch of Hel, Book 1 in the Hel
Trilogy, is my best known novel in the fantasy genre. It is the sword and
sorcery saga of a barbarian warrior woman named Bloodsong. Warrior Witch of Hel follows Bloodsong’s fight against a sadistic
sorcerer to rescue her daughter. “Warrior Witch of Hel” is now also a song on the
band Smoulder’s new album, Dream Quest
Ends. The song does Bloodsong proud.
Here’s
a little challenge: What five words might best describe I Am Dracula?
Lies, Love, Satan, Resurrection, Revenge.
Okay,
beyond those five words, why do you think readers would be interested in I Am Dracula?
I read Bram Stokers novel, Dracula, for the first time when I was
twelve. It fascinated and frightened me, but it left me wanting to know how and
why Dracula became a Vampire. Years later, when I was writing, these words came
to me: “I became a vampire for lies and for love. I remain one for revenge.” Those
words spawned I Am Dracula, the story
of a mortal man, a national hero, who becomes a Vampire King.
I know readers who re-read the novel each
year. The intense relationship between Dracula and Tzigane, a Witch who falls
in love with him, is a love story some treasure. Others tell me the book’s portrayal
of evil made them question their beliefs. A reader from the historical Dracula’s
homeland thanked me for showing the mortal Prince Vlad Dracula, as a warrior who
protected his country and defeated invading hordes. All in all, bottom line,
for many readers, I Am Dracula has a strong
effect.
Your
Hel Trilogy had a foreign translation. How did that happen, and what did you
find interesting about the experience?
A Russian publisher, Alpha-Kniga, asked to
publish the books. I had nothing to do with the translations. They did
everything, and that is the most interesting thing, that it just happened. But unexpected
things often happen with the Bloodsong books. For example, the song by Smoulder
that I already mentioned. The Russian editions are hardbacks with wraparound
cover art by Russian artist Ilya Voronin, and they are beautiful. I heard from
Russian readers who enjoyed the books.
When
not writing, what do you enjoy doing? And what is a place that you would like
to visit?
I enjoy astronomy. One night when I was rather
young, I asked my dad to show me the Big
Dipper in the night sky. An article on navigating by the stars in the back of a
comic book claimed the Big Dipper pointed to the North Star, and that you could
navigate by the North Star because unlike other stars, it never moved. So, dad
showed me where to look, and sure enough, extending a line connecting the two
stars at the dipper’s end pointed to the North Star. Eventually, I took classes
in astronomy in college, and I now read Sky
and Telescope magazine each month to keep up with the latest discoveries. Then
too, now and then, just for fun, I use a small telescope of my own.
As for a place to visit, Scandinavia is
first on my list. My Hel Trilogy takes place there, and I would like to see the
land of the Vikings.
You
have been involved in this author gig for a number of years. What are three
changes that you have observed over the years? Would you identify them as
positive, neutral, or negative changes?
Changes in the methods available for
writing, changes in the methods of research, and changes in the way books are
published. If writers do not want to go the traditional route of finding a
publisher, there are now resources such as Amazon available for self-publishing.
And for me, computers, word processing software, and doing research online, at
least as a starting point, are far superior to the typewriter on which I used
to work and hours in libraries looking for the right research book. So I feel these
changes are weighted heavily on the positive side of the scale.
But the most basic thing has not changed.
A writer must still invest time and energy creating a story, and to the person doing
the writing, the other things should matter as little as possible during the
creative process. The story, setting, plot, and characters should be all important
when creating a tale. Life goes on outside that creative bubble, but that
bubble should be, as much as possible, like a force field repelling everything
else, psychologically at least if not physically. Easier said than done, of
course, but it is a goal.
What
might readers expect from you next?
Nine of my novels are now available as
ebooks because I spent over a year editing them, revising and rewriting as I
felt was needed, then expanding some sections and writing new ones here and
there to make them better books. Experience made me a better writer, and
Crossroad Press provided the opportunity to revisit and improve my novels. I
recommend the ebooks as ‘author’s cuts.’ The new printed edition of I Am Dracula is taken from its ebook
edition, by the way. A reader recently told me she liked the new edition of I Am Dracula better than the original,
which said to me that my work on the ebooks had been the right thing to do.
But now I am concentrating on my works in
progress again. There is a new Bloodsong novel I am anxious to finish, Valkyries of Hel, in which Bloodsong is
transported by sorcery to a world similar to our modern one and must fight her
way through strange dangers to get back to her own world. In the process, she
befriends a group of endangered young women in a Korean Pop band and discovers
unexpected connections between them and friends in her own world.
And I also want to finish I Am Dracula II: Dracula’s Witch. It is told
from the Witch Tzigane’s viewpoint. She has been quite literally to Hell and
back, and her account has revealed surprises I had never guessed. It’s fun when
a good character takes over and surprises the writer.
Plus, I have a new novel of Horror in the
works, something more akin to my Texas Horror Trilogy, which is contemporary
horror, the trilogy being Torture Tomb,
Raw Pain Max, and Fiend. Torture Tomb
tells of a kidnapped young woman and a group of modern Witches who fight physical
and supernatural evil to rescue her. Raw
Pain Max is a tale of the infamous mass murderess, the Blood Countess,
Elizabeth Bathory in the modern world. And Fiend
follows events at a comic book convention when an ancient Witch, Medea from
Greek Myths, attends the convention to stop a serial killer of children. The
myths say Medea killed her own children, but it turns out she was framed and
has been searching down through the centuries for the real killer. In the
process, Medea has become a protector and avenger of abused or murdered children.
As
we’re closing in on the end of this interview, is there anything you want to
add or share with the readers?
I have been told by readers that my novels
are fun to read, which is one of the reasons I write, to entertain myself and my
readers. I can’t help it. Thanks to my stage Mom, I grew up from age three
performing before audiences, following the old showbiz rule, give the people
what they want. Readers are my audience now. But I never know how what I write
will affect them.
When film director Amy Hesketh placed a
copy of I Am Dracula on the Vampire’s
dressing table in her vampire film, Olalla,
she told me it was because she read the book when a young girl, and its effect
stayed with her.
Another innovative film director, Jac Avila,
made Maleficarum, the scariest, most
realistic and relentless horror film about the Inquisition I have seen. Jac has
become a friend and once told me that my novel, Torture Tomb, was a favorite.
So the time I spend writing has produced positive
effects, and reactions from readers encourages me to keep writing. To readers I
therefore say thank you. I will continue to tell stories. And the show will go
on.
Once
again, Dean, thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
You’re very welcome. It was a pleasure.
Below
are Links were you can find C. Dean Andersson online and learn more about his
novels:
Facebook
link-- https://www.facebook.com/modgudsbones/
Wikipedia
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Dean_Andersson
Website— www.cdeanandersson.com
