A.M Harte, author of Above Ground, returns with a new, chilling story called DarkSight.
Tell our readers about the plot of your new serial, DarkSight.
Set in present-day London, DarkSight is the story of small-town Irish girl Maeve Nealon who has the rather unusual ability to see demons. This ability is perhaps more of a curse: since Maeve can see demons, they can see her, and let’s just say their intentions aren’t exactly friendly. It doesn’t help that at the beginning of the story, Maeve’s not even entirely sure what she’s seeing.
It’s my understanding that you don’t like scary stories, but there are elements of fear in your work. Why do you think that is?
I think that at the core of any story is a basic emotion, propelling the characters forward — greed, or lust, or joy, or jealousy — and that the darker sides of human nature are the ones that are most fascinating. Fear is a very strong driver; it can make people do things they’d never have thought possible, and it’s very much a test of someone’s character.
There’s that age-old adage that a writer should write about what they know. So perhaps fear crops up often in my writing because it is the emotion that resonates the most with me. I avoid scary stories because I have a hyperactive imagination. Reading or watching horror inevitably results in recurring nightmares. I scare easily, and so when it comes to writing a story and putting a piece of myself into that story to bring it to life, the emotion that’s the easiest to access is fear.
Besides, putting my characters through horrible situations is very entertaining. And it’s my way of experiencing fear in a nice, controlled environment!
Tell us a little about your protagonist, Maeve.
Maeve is from Southern Ireland, a small town near Dublin. She has green eyes and auburn hair, slightly curly. Outwardly, she is strong, self-confident, a perfectionist. She’s curious, thirsty for knowledge, and sets high standards for herself — perhaps too high. Inside, there is a lot of carefully concealed darkness: insecurities, fear of losing control, and something not-quite normal which has given her the ability to see demons.
Why do the themes of faith, belief, and the unseen appeal to you?
Religion is something I’ve always grappled with. I was raised a Roman Catholic, but have had a prickly relationship with faith. I’m fascinated by the dichotomy between logical thought and hope for the unseen, for a promise that we aren’t just born to inevitably die. I am the type of person that craves proof, and yet with proof religion wouldn’t exist anymore — it would become fact. Not to imply that religion doesn’t have a truth of its own, and definitely faith is a powerful motivator. I suppose it is just an element of human nature that I can’t quite understand, and that is why it appeals to me.
What sparked the idea for this story in particular?
DarkSight as you see it first came into being whilst I was doing my daily write on my way into work. I travel into work on the tube, and I began writing about a girl travelling to work on the tube (how inspired, I know!). The lights in my tube carriage kept flickering, and I was still unsettled from the previous night’s awful case of sleep paralysis, so everything blended together into a hopefully spine-tingling scene. Then I realized I wanted to expand it further than just the one story, and planning for the whole serial began.
How do you find writing DarkSight to be different than Above Ground?
Very different! Above Ground is written as a novel in instalments, with each chapter picking up exactly where the previous left off, whereas DarkSight is written as a series of short stories that (I hope) can be read out of order. I’ve been calling DarkSight’s updates “episodes” rather than “chapters” to highlight that difference. Also, the much slower update schedule means I have far more time to plan ahead and edit my writing — DarkSight is a polished piece, whereas Above Ground is very much a pants-ing panic-inducing endeavour written five minutes before midnight. Each method has its pros and cons, but after the stress of writing Above Ground: Affected (the first book in the trilogy), I’m enjoying the more laidback approach.
With one completed web serial and DarkSight in full swing, what are your writing objectives for the next year or so?
Well, Above Ground isn’t entirely completed yet! The first book, Affected, is finished, but I do hope to write two more. In any case, it’s hard to think ahead. But let’s see…. In a year’s time I want DarkSight completed, Above Ground: Affected edited and released in ebook form, Above Ground’s Book 2 in-progress, perhaps a short story or two published in a magazine, not to mention have a substantial amount of work finished on my other as-yet private writing projects — perhaps even have a couple other novels finished, one a romance and the other urban fantasy. I like to keep myself busy! I always bite off more than I can chew, but I need the pressure to get any writing done.
If you had a chance to cast actors for DarkSight, who would you chose?
I always find these questions difficult, because I never really think of actors or famous faces when creating characters — more often I mash together features from random stock images and from friends (without their knowing!). At a push, I’d say Maeve would be acted by Amy Adams (Enchanted, Junebug) or Alyson Hannigan (Willow in Buffy), her friend Tom by someone with boyish floppy blond hair like Jamie Bell, and the dark and mysterious Seth (who hasn’t had a huge role yet) would be acted by Ian Somerhalder.
Have you seen any movies (or read any books) recently that stick out in your mind as entertaining?
Hm. I’m not much of a movie-watcher. I did only recently watch J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film and enjoyed it muchly. Oh! And the 2007 Spanish film Timecrimes is definitely worth watching, really weird and twisted and thought-provoking. I only saw that on TV the other day.
Books-wise? In hard cover, I just read The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, which was really unexpectedly good — a young adult fantasy/almost horror. Yes, it’s for kids, but it’s a great story, and spooky too! And when it comes to webfiction, I read the free ebook How to Disappear Completely by David Bowick, a tragic comedy about relationships from a male perspective.
Do you plan any special episodes or reader requested writings in the near future?
For DarkSight I haven’t yet considered it. I fear that reader requested stories would be too revealing! I am however hoping to write ahead of my schedule and be able to publish episodes ahead of time, or even write shorter side-episodes! I am also considering making Above Ground’s Book 2 much more interactive (with reader polls influencing the story), although I haven’t pinned down the details just yet. I definitely have had a great time bouncing ideas off of my readers, and they’ve already helped shape a lot of my planning (something without realizing it!) so the more they’re included, the better!
Will we find any of the characters on Twitter?
I’m still considering it. I already have about 5 Twitter accounts (yes, really!), two of which are characters accounts for Above Ground — the werewolves @lakesidejake and @hoowl . DarkSight is set in contemporary times, and thus it’d be entirely feasible for someone to have a Twitter account, but I can’t decide on whom! Maeve might be too spoilery, Tom wouldn’t use Twitter… Perhaps when some more characters are introduced I will reconsider. There is a society of sorts who could have an account, now that I think about it…. Ha! You’ve just given me an idea. No, I’m not telling.
Where can our readers go to keep up with all of your work?
My “official” author hub is http://amharte.com where you can find links to everything I’m involved in, from writing to other online fiction projects like Ergofiction magazine and the WFG. To just jump straight to my online serials (Above Ground and DarkSight), point your browsers towards http://qazyfiction.com !
What would you like to write one day that people would be surprised to find you’re interested in?
I can’t think of anything people might be surprised to find me interested in! As a matter of fact, most of my family and friends are already surprised by the fact that I enjoy speculative fiction — apparently, from my appearance, they’d expect me to write contemporary/literary work. I guess I look too serious or something.
I would like to try write something for every genre, and I do my best on http://amharte.com to write a wide range of short stories to develop my genre-bending. So how about I open it up to you guys? What would you be surprised to find me writing? Challenge me, send me a prompt or an idea, and I’ll do my best to scribble a short story to prove you wrong.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Firstly, thank you very much for the interview! And secondly, thank you to the dear readers for getting to the bottom of the page without clicking away! I invite all of you to take up my offer in question 13.
Other than that… I’d put in the usual “feedback is awesome blah blah blah” but we’ve all heard that before and I’d hope by now all readers now how awesome they are, so perhaps the best thing to finish on is a shout out to all my fellow members of The Unpaired Socks Appreciation Society (you don’t want to know).
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©2010 Lori Titus
Tags: A.M. Harte, THE SUNDAY SPECIAL
June 13th, 2010 at 5:02 am
[...] head on over to check it out, and of course questions in the comments section are more than [...]
June 15th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Fun interview! Harte is always a pleasure to read.
June 16th, 2010 at 4:10 am
Darksight has been great, I’m looking forward to more episodes & the second book of Above Ground!!
September 12th, 2010 at 11:14 am
You didn’t mention http://praetergarda.wordpress.com/
It’s not quite twitter, but you did give a character a blog. ^^
September 12th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
*Looks at comment dates, feels like an idiot.*
So yeaaahh, ignore previous comment.
November 7th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
@eSpyre Haha! Actually the Praetergarda twitter/website thing is what I had thought of as I was answering the “Will we find any of the characters on Twitter?” question.