Six of the Best with David Youngquist, and the release of Black Jack

For those of you who don't know, David Younquist is one of the masterminds behind Dark Continents Publishing, but he's also an author, and he's got many stories to tell. Earlier this year I worked with him on Black Jack, a novel he's had sitting on the backburner for a while. I loved working on the novel with him because it's one of those solid, dependable fantasies that whisk you away to another world – and literally so, if your name is Jack. ;-)

So, David, tell us a little more about Black Jack. You've taken one of the classic fantasy tropes: a human finds his way into a world of magic. What fresh spin did you put on your setting.

I've tried to do a few new things with Gwennolin. I've always been fascinated by the thought of different dimensions of reality side by side. Gwennolin is kind of one step to the side of ours. It's a world where magic rather than science reigns. That's not really so different. What is different is that the magic itself has affected the humans that step over from our side. The Alshura, the river of magic that flows through Gwennolin can be tapped by mages. I also froze time in the Medieval time frame. Also not really different, but the residents of the world come in all shapes and sizes. Not only did I make the humans kind of a UN of the world, with white Europeans, Spaniards, Africans and American First Nations people with their traditions and customs, but I threw in every mythical creature I could find. And of course Jack's new kingdom of cat people. I also had a little fun with Illinois politics by including King Richard and his consort Prince Rod.

Earthlings (human and animal) who find their way into your setting gradually either get animal or human features the longer they stay in the world. Are these at all related to their inner natures? 

Definitely. As Tabby explains, she was a hunter. She enjoyed her sexuality. She was independent when she came to Gwennolin. The magic gave her some more feline traits to go with her personality. Mare, Jack's horse becomes much more human. I've always believed horses have souls. The fact she becomes a great archer and fighters goes back to the Sagittarian mythos. Jack becoming more mountain lion relates to the type of businessman he was, and the fact he was also a hunter. So, yes, the magic taps into your personality and shapes you accordingly.

Every tale has a story seed. What was the story seed for Black Jack? 

I think the original seed was planted years ago when I was going through a rough patch. I woke up after a blackout drunk under a tombstone topped by a life-sized weeping angel. Through my hangover, the idea kind of germinated with some of the fantasy novels I'd read over the years. I stumbled out of the cemetery and the thought hit me what would happen if you woke up in a truly alien landscape. So through liberal overuse of alcohol, the seed for Gwennolin and Jack was planted.

Which was the most difficult scene to write (without giving spoilers)?

The scene directly at the end of the final battle. It took me the better part of two weeks to write that. Close on the heels of that would be the argument between Jack and Tabby. Also took me a number of days to write that one as well.

And your favourite scene (also without giving spoilers)?

Boy, this is a tough one. It's a toss-up between two. The final, epic battle was the first battle scene where I was able to create an entire battle, with troop movements of my own, weapons used and units of knights, commoners and mounted cavalry. When I wrote Out of Sync it was the culmination of about two years research into the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I had an epic battle two historically recreate with some variances, but mostly had to stick with the historical record. Again, a great battle, but very confining. With Snareville, it's kind of many little fights, with maybe one or two bigger battles, but fights were one sided. Zombies don't shoot back. With this final battle in Black Jack, it starts out rather quiet, and then just explodes into all out violence. Typical of most big battles anyway.

My other favorite scene is when Jack has a sit down with the vampire lord Al Capone. It is so much part of this reality, with the office, a desk, and a man in a well-made suit, until you realize a vampire is having a discussion with a feline (mountain lion) male about how they can make the problems between them go away. The talks devolve when Jack reveals that Capone's men had killed his grandfather, who had been a hitman for the Irish mob. Again, a nice, quiet, tense scene that devolves into utter violence from one heartbeat to the next.

Who do you think the novel will appeal to? You've got exactly 16 words to sell the novel to this person, GO!

Mix Harry Potter with Harry Dresden with a dash of Piers Anthony. Enjoy.

Now go feed your Kindle...

A Dark Continents round-up with David Youngquist

We're almost [gasp] in the middle of 2013 already, which means it's time for a round-up with one of my favourite bookish people—none other than Dark Continents (DCP) publisher David Youngquist... So, what have been some of DCP's releases worth checking out this year... and what's still lined up that's worth looking out for? 

Boy, we've already had a number of releases. Two good ones in the horror lineup of DCP are Resurrection Child by Lee Pletzers which is a return to the Cthulhu mythos set in our modern era, and Ghostly Summons. The e-book is out now, and will be followed in the next few weeks in stores for the print book. A nice little paranormal detective story to get you thinking.

We're also branching out this year into other genres than straight horror. In the non-fiction realm, we have what some people have called the Paranormal Researcher's Bible. Fractured Spirits, by Sylvia Shults has gotten people's attention around the world. She was given unprecidented access to the Peoria State Hospital for research. It's a great read for those folks who enjoy a good ghost hunt. We also stepped into the paranormal romance field with Double Double Love and Trouble. Sylvia has always been a romance writer, and here she combines her two loves. I've been really impressed with how fast this book has caught people's attention. As for what we have coming up, well, there's a number of projects coming in the Darkness and Dismay branch of our little house. Everything from a YA book, to a sea anthology. I look forward to what our new head of that division can do for us (considering I'm writing on her blog) And for something of a scoop, in the next couple weeks, we'll release our first book that has been written in partnership with Silent Studios, Ldt of England. Dave Jeffery's book Contamination will be filmed starting in early 2014.

Are there any cons folks can expect to see a DCP presence at this year? And now for the evil question... Stuff always happens at cons... Have you got any amusing DCP-related anecdotes? 

Cons...cons are always interesting. They're fun. They're exciting, and they're draining all at the same time. We've shuffled things around a bit this year, and I'm sad to say that DCP won't officially be at any cons here in the US. I might make a couple privately with Sylvia Shults and Andy Taylor, but not as a company itself. I will announce here, however, that myself and DCP will be at World Fantasy Con and The Bram Stoker International Film Festival, both in England this October. At WFC, we'll be launching the second installment of Phobophobias with Dean Drinkel, and from the generous invitation of the Stoker Film Fest Comittee I will be there to help lauch Dave Jeffery's book, Necropolis Rising II.

Stuff at cons...hmmmm...Fandom Fest in Louisville, KY last year was a blast. On Saturday, after a long day on the con floor, we decided to hit a couple room parties we were invited to. It was myself, my wife Fay, Sylvia Shuts, and Andy Taylor. I decided to be the designated driver (or in this case walker. The dual hotels the con was at were more than a little confusing. One of us better be able to find our way around) One of the room parties we ended up at, found us drinking with David Della Rocco from the Boondock Saints.

David's a great guy, and we had a good time drinking with him, but the heatwave melting Louisville last year was not conducive to room parties. So as everyone started to trickle out, we found ourselves downstairs in the plaza. This was at about two in the morning, and most of the town was winding down. There was however, a nice, inviting fountian going full blast. Apparently it was something you could walk into, as there were a few locals cooling off in it. The non-sober of the group quickly got in to play with the sprays of water. I myself, sat down to enjoy a nice cigar. A gentleman in a spotless white suit wandered over in my direction. Great, I thought, I'm about to get hit on. Nope. He needed a light for his own cigar. Turns out he was a producer for a Hollywood studio, there for the festival over the weekend. We sat and smoked and talked films and books for a better than an hour. We exchanged business cards, and the sun was coming up before we left the plaza. Two hours until con time, so we found our room and snatched some sleep before we had to get back on the floor.

You mentioned that general submissions open soon. What would *you* love to see personally? Also, any particular bugbears you'd like to avoid in submissions? 

I'd definately love to see another great paranormal romance. That said, it has to be well written. We get tons of submissions, and it really takes something to stand out. Some are borderline. Last year, we turned down a couple that were good, but just needed a little something. A little seasoning. A little more umph. I'd love to see the new great fantasy novel too. Something that grabs you by the throat and won't let you go. Something that takes you to such a new world, you don't want to come back.

What I don't want to see, is simply any more zombie books. It's not that there's not some good z-poc books out there, but between my Snareville series, and Dave J's Necropolis Rising series, and now Contamination, we have all we can handle. Plus, and I find this a little annoying, for some reason, aspiring writers think they can write a z-poc novel as their intro into horror writing.

You've got unlimited budget, which of your stories would you have developed into a screenplay and filmed, and who would you cast in the lead roles? 

Well, Contamination will start filming early next year, so I'll keep everyone apprised of progress on it. Some of us have actually sat down and discussed this. With award-winning screenplay writer Dean Drinkel within the company, and now Dave Jeffery, a DCP film studio would seem to be the next logical step. I've talked with Dean about doing a series of short films based on the stories in Phobophobias. He's actually got a number of scripts written up already, including my entry, but we're a bit away from that.

Dream wise, no limits? I'd love to see Peter Jackson develope Inkarna. I know he could do an amazing job on the book. And it's something we've not seen before. They're always complaining there's no original ideas out there for film? Well here's one! Or just take a look at all of the DCP library for that matter. There are 22 books to choose from for developement. Cast wise, I'm never good at something like that. I never would have picked Hugh Jackman for Wolverine, but he is now the only one I can see in that role now.

I've been bullying you with your own writing. Tell us a little more about your epic fantasy novel. What planted the seeds for that novel? What's been the most difficult... and the most rewarding aspects of writing it? 

Hahaha! That you have. Black Jack. I think Black Jack came about as my habit of devouring every piece of fantasy, sci-fi, and mythic legend I could lay my hands on between the age of 12 and oh say, now. I read everything from Tolkien to Piers Anthony, to Celtic mythology and legends when I was a young man. Black Jack is the result of that. It's not a traditional fantasy by any means. I merge magic with technology. Swords with rifles. A vampire nation led by Al Capone, and werewolf tribes led by Adolph Hitler. It's not your standard epic fantasy. I built Gwennolin from the ground up with influences from my past.

The catalyst for the book, was waking up in a bar in Union Station with no real idea how I got there. Apparently, after putting the newspaper to bed that morning about 1am, I went out for a drink. I was going through a divorce at the time, and after leaving a local tavern, I apparently bought a ticket to Chicago and rode the train up there. One hundred miles. Drunk. When I woke up, I was lucky enough to have enough money to buy a ticket home. It was at that point, I decided I better quit drinking. Never touched another drop for two years.

Not long after, the thought crossed my mind as to what it would be like to wake up in a truly aliBlack Jack grew.

en land, and the idea for

Some of the most difficult aspects of the book, was not stealing other ideas that were already out there. That's tough in the fantasy world. Another problem I had, was telling simply Jack's story. I ended up cutting 38k words just to find the course Jack was taking. A third problem I had was keeping Gwennolin straight in my head. I actually took a movie poster, laid it out on the table and with some drafting tools, drew a map of Gwennolin with all the mountians and rivers and kingdoms on the back.

The most rewarding, I think were creating some really great charactors. Mare especially. She was someone built completely from the ground up. I had total freedom to create with her, and I loved writing her. Jack is another. He's probably my fullest, most complete person I've written to date.

Guest blog: David Youngquist

Today I'm pleased as punch to offer the limelight to David Youngquist, one of the masterminds behind Dark Continents Publishing, who will be nurturing my next "heart" novel, Inkarna (you may have heard me muttering about the novel a few times on assorted social media). I'm very excited to be on board as I believe that Dark Continents is bringing the art back into horror and dark fantasy, with gritty often unrelenting offerings of fiction guaranteed to leave you thinking about what you've read for months, if not years after.

So, without further ado, I hand the mic to Mr. Youngquist...

I got around a lot as a kid. I crawled through the African bush with Peter Hathaway Capstick. On my hands and knees, I swatted away tsetse flies and waited for a wounded leopard to charge. After Peter and I had finished the job, I went on a trip to the future with Piers Anthony and a naked serf named Stiles and a magical, shape shifting unicorn mare named Neysa. I lay on the cold cobbled floor of a rundown barn in the Yorkshire Dales and helped James Herriot pull a calf on a cold winter night with snow sizzling on our backs. I even took a trip across the mores with Holmes and Watson as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sent them in pursuit of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

They were amazing trips. Told through the voices, minds and eyes of people who lived in far away countries. I loved going on these trips through my reading. I’ve got a few books in my collection of each of these authors, and on occasion, I’ll dig them out and reread them. I love the flavor these writers bring to my world.

I’m sorry. I should introduce myself. I’m David Youngquist. Publisher/President and one of the founding members of Dark Continents Publishing. Nerine asked me to do a guest blog for her, and I’m happy to oblige. I cut my teeth writing an opinions column for my college newspaper, so I’ve had a little practice at this.

Dark Continents is a new publisher on the scene. We did our official company launch this past may at the World Horror Convention in Austin, Texas. We launched with 13 books from the authors in our company at that time. By Christmas of this year, we’ll launch another eight books. Not bad for a company who just has their one year anniversary a few days ago.

When we founded DCP, there were six of us from around the world who came together to take better control of our careers. We saw where the publishing industry was floundering, and where we could fix it. We also have a green mindset, corporately. We take only electronic submissions. No slush pile of manuscripts to recycle. Our books are Print on Demand. Therefore no books that didn’t sell that have to be recycled. We used corn plastic pens that are biodegradable as giveaways at conventions and signings.

A big thing that we do differently than other publishing companies is this: We welcome unique voices from around the world to be part of our publishing family. The internet has allowed for amazing things. Our original six founding members are from the US, Australia and England. Hence, our name. We have since added writers from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. One thing I wanted to do, when I started putting this together, was to bring some of the flavor back to people’s reading menu.

If you walk into an American bookstore, and start thumbing through titles, one thing you’ll notice is a severe lack of variety in the writers offered. Oh, you’ll get a few Brits here and there, but they’ve been homogenized by American editors to sound like the rest of us, so the flavor is pretty much gone.

But I like the differences we all bring to the table. A lot of publishers here in the US are afraid that Americans won’t be able to relate to a British author or an Australian author and vice versa, I’m sure. I give the reading public more credit than that, however, and have seen that with the rise of the internet, people can read authors, bloggers, reviews, and just about anyone else from around the world. Old style, traditional presses have yet to figure this out. They don’t believe that someone in Kansas would want to read a novel written by someone on Birmingham, England.

But isn’t that what reading is all about? Going to places you might never get to visit otherwise? Capstick has retired and is out of the African bush. James Herriot passed away a few years ago, and no longer walks his beloved Dales. I think I’ll dig some of those old books soon, and take the trips again.

See Dark Continents Publishing's website here... Or like the Facebook page.