Daniel A. Kaine Leaves No Question Unanswered On The Slasherazzi Blog Tour – And There’s A Giveaway

Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping by as we kick off the second week of the Slasherazzi blog tour. And thank you to The Novel Approach for having me.

Just a quick note about the giveaway: you may notice the giveaway has reset this week. Don’t worry, because it hasn’t. There are actually two giveaways. This second one will be running until the 27th, giving you a second chance to win if you’re unlucky in last week’s draw, which will conclude on the 20th. If you’d like to check out last week’s stops, you can view the schedule at the bottom of my home page.

And now, on with the main feature. Some of you may have been at GRL last year in Atlanta. If you were, you may even have shown up to my Q&A session. I was absolutely terrified at the thought of sitting in front of a group of people and having questions thrown at me. The audience could have asked anything! How was I supposed to think up answers on the spot?

Turns out, it wasn’t the audience I had to worry about. The true horror of the live Q&A session came in the form of the lovely moderator, Lisa. One particular question she asked had me completely lost for words. I forget the exact question, but it was along the lines of if I could bring any of my characters into the real world, who would I choose and what impact would they have on our world? Talk about a deep question! In the end, I used my free pass on that one.

Fast forward to last month, and I was busy emailing blogs to see who would interested in hosting a spot for this blog tour. And guess who happened to answer for The Novel Approach. Yep, Lisa. It’s almost as if the fates were toying with me.

She promised this time not to make the questions impossible to answer, and I’m glad to say that I managed to answer every one of them.

Q: When it comes to your own writing, who are your literary influences? Who did you read that made you want to write good juicy horror/thriller stories rather than, say, contemporary or, for that matter, any other romance?

A: I guess my influences date back to when I first started reading as a hobby. At the age of 16 I won an award in school, and we received book vouchers as rewards. I picked up one of the Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton. After that I was hooked on vampires, and pretty much anything paranormal.

As for what made me go down the horror/thriller route… Jeff Lindsay, author of the Dexter series. I loved Dexter’s character and being able to get a glimpse inside the mind of someone who isn’t exactly the ‘good guy’. Being able to explore the dark side made me giddy, and had me hooked on the books from start to finish.

I just love to explore anything that isn’t ‘normal’ in our everyday lives. I find the venture into the unknown exciting. Also, I love the fact that you can really stretch your imagination with different genres and ignore some of the normal conventions. That’s why I’ve chosen to write non-contemporaries, for now. There may be something lurking on the horizon though… Distant horizon, that is.

Q: Is it fun to let loose your imagination when you’re writing about mutilated corpses? Is there ever a point where you’ve had to scale back your descriptions because you thought maybe you’d gone too far? Where do you find you draw that line, or don’t you, and let the reader beware?

A: When I first started writing Slasherazzi it was because a friend had given me a one line prompt. I went into that with the aim of freaking the hell out of her. And I carried on with that goal once the prompt ended and the real story began.

Did I ever hold back? Definitely not. In fact, I often wondered the opposite. How could I push this one step further? Readers shouldn’t definitely beware when picking up this book. And if you’re a scaredy-pants, like a certain Ms. Poppy Dennison, then you can always skim some of the really nasty parts.

Q: What was some of the feedback you got during the editing process? Did you give your editor nightmares?

A: the great thing about my editor, Val, is that she wanted to make the book gorier. She fed back to me that some of the scenes weren’t visual enough. So I went through adding little bits of detail, like how the blood was flowing, where it was going, what kind of knife was being used… Tiny details that really drove home the gore factor.

The best part was Val’s reaction after reading the edited work. Let’s just say she regretted eating minced meat while reading a certain scene. I may have let out a particularly loud evil laugh when reading her message on Facebook.

Q: I have to admit I’m a horror fan, and am even a little bit obsessed with the mystery of Jack the Ripper. Do you ever use any ‘real life’ murder stories as the basis or inspiration for your own writing?

A: I didn’t use any real life murders when coming up with the inspiration for my writing. I did, however, draw inspiration from TV shows, such as Criminal Minds, CSI, and Dexter.

When I was coming up with a profile for my killer, I went through and watched several episodes of Criminal Minds, looking specifically at what different types of behaviours might mean. What personality traits might the killer have when committing those horrible murders? Why do things the way he does? What could have triggered him? Also, I had a lot of help from my friend Patricia who is absolutely obsessed with serial killers.

Q: What made you decide to set Slasherazzi in the US, and why Tampa, specifically?

A: My main reason for setting the book in the US was simply because of the prevalence of US crime shows. Sure the information you get from them may not be 100% true to life, but it served as a great starting point for gathering information on the workings of a police department.

As for why I chose Tampa… Who knows? Maybe because at the time I chose the setting, that was one of the few places I’d been in America; the others being Miami and Orlando. Miami was already taken by Dexter and CSI, and Orlando… Well, pretty much all I saw there was Disney World. Although, that could be a totally nightmare-ish book—Disney World meets horror! All your favourite cartoon characters gone psycho… I’m just gonna go write this idea down somewhere.

Blurb: Recently promoted to Detective, Alex is out to prove himself and the Slasherazzi case is the perfect opportunity. Mutilated corpses are showing up across Tampa, and when the team discovers the newest victim was tortured alive, Alex becomes more determined than ever to stop the crazed serial killer before the horrific stabbings escalate further.

With the return of Alex’s ex-boyfriend and journalist, Vince, the investigation takes a dangerous twist: the killer starts showing a personal interest in Alex. Can he stop the murders and salvage his relationship with Vince, or does he risk letting both men get away?

Buy Links: Wilde City Press | Amazon | Amazon UK

Author Bio: Daniel was born and raised in the Land of Rain, aka England, where he now lives with his four lovable furballs; Mik, Ash, Spidey and Flash. Originally trained as a Biology teacher, Daniel was unsure what to do with his life until he came across fanfiction for his favourite anime and decided to have a go at writing his own. To this day, he still cringes at the memory of the cheesy terminology he used.

When not writing, Daniel enjoys a variety of activities, including running, going to the gym, bondage, watching anime, and the mass-slaying of virtual monsters in the hopes of receiving epic loot. One day, he hopes to become a werepanther and invent chocolate that can be eaten all day without making you fat.

Author Links: Website | Facebook or Fan Page | Twitter

The Giveaway: An e-copy of Slasherazzi (deadline: June 20, 2014)

The Giveaway: 2nd Chance to Win an e-copy of Slasherazzi (deadline: June 27, 2014)