From a young age, I loved reading and hearing stories. My mom would read to me each night, even when I was in elementary school – only she didn’t read me children’s books. I grew up on tales of Allanon setting fields of grass alight with Druid’s Fire and Lessa’s quest to bring back the missing Wyers. My imagination was stoked by the wonder of books by Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, and others.
I was young the first time I felt the thrill of telling a story from my imagination. In the fourth grade, there was a local contest for children writers. My teacher led our class in the exercise of writing short stories, and then she submitted the stories for consideration to the competition. I happened to win.
After that, I was hooked.
Writing became a core component of my life. There was always some new, and terribly written, story in the works. I read every Writer’s Digest book I could get my hands on, and I took several courses (online and in person), all in the effort to improve my creative writing.
I had ideas – a lot of ideas – but nothing seemed to stick. I would jump back and forth between projects, never got anything accomplished, and my fears paralyzed me.
Leaving creative writing on the back burner, I made some choices in my career that gave me a chance to use my skills and hone a different version of the craft. For over a decade, I worked in Corporate America as a business process/policy writer and instructional designer. But it was not what I wanted. Just before the banality of writing software documentation destroyed my creative spirit, I left that world behind.
Since then, I have focused on learning creative writing. I knew I needed a win, so I wrote a few non-fiction books right out of the gate. I used a pen name because I was not fully confident it would be any good, but I struck on a lucky gem. In 2015, I released a nonfiction book that topped its category as a best seller on Amazon for several months. It was thrilling to be sure, but it was just more of the same. I had turned my talents in training curriculum design into a book format.
I wanted…No, I needed to get back to fiction.
When I sat down to write Hunted, I decided to leave behind all those broken stories that never went anywhere. I planned to write something new. I had a single character in mind, and I built an outline around him. As I wrote Hunted, the story morphed into an entirely different tale, but I finished with tens of thousands of words about a new character that I was excited to know.
Hunted: A Jonathan Harker Novel was my debut supernatural fiction novel, and it has been an incredible journey! I had finally achieved my dream, and it was so easy to push the button and get it out there for everyone to see…
…and that is when I started to learn the truth about the ‘Being an Author’ business.
About the Book
Title: Hunted: A Jonathan Harker Novel
Author: Christopher Draven
Genre: Paranormal Thriller / Urban Fantasy
Slinging Spells with Broken Ribs Isn’t Easy
Jonathan Harker, mage and life-long demon hunter, wakes to find himself tied to a chair and severely wounded. His captor, a demon in service to a summoner who wants Harker alive.
Armed with impossibly powerful magic and a gang of demon toughs, the summoner has snared Harker in a deadly trap. Nothing is ever easy, and being new in town has left Harker with few allies. However, with help from a Fortune-Teller named Clover and a self-described “Kitchen Witch” named Momma Dee, Harker fights back.
To prevail, Harker must walk unprepared into a pit of demons and black magic – and come out alive on the other side.
Author Bio
Christopher Draven has worked as an instructional designer, newspaper journalist, and ghost writer.
One soggy Monday morning, he committed to leaving behind the soul-stealing work of corporate puppetry and escaped to a meadow where he could concentrate on his passion. Since that fateful day, Christopher has focused on learning the craft of fiction.
Links
Print – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1547126868/
eBook – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071NZC3Z9/
twitter: @writerdraven
email: info@christopherdraven.com
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16042473.Christopher_Draven
https://www.facebook.com/WriterDraven
