Giveaway and Blog Tour – A Hard Day’s Knight: Guest Post by John Hartness

John G. Hartness is a recovering theatre geek who likes loud music, fried pickles and cold beer. He’s been published or accepted online in several journals including The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, cc&d, Deuce Coupe and Truckin’.

His first novel, The Chosen, is an urban fantasy about saving the world, snotty archangels, gambling, tattooed street preachers, immortals with family issues, bar brawls and the consequences of our decisions.

He followed up The Chosen with Hard Day’s Knight, a new twist on the vampire detective novel and the first in a planned series of at least five books. The second book of The Black Knight Chronicles, Back in Black, landed in March 2011 and has enjoyed immediate success.

John has been called “the Kevin Smith of Charlotte,” and fans of Joss Whedon and Jim Butcher should enjoy his snarky slant on the fantasy genre. His next novel, Knight Moves (Black Knight Chronicles Vol. 3) is due out in the summer of 2011.

He can be found online at www.johnhartness.com and spends too much time on Twitter, especially after a few drinks.

Guest Post: 

By John G. Hartness

People ask me from time to time where I got the idea for a series of books about dorky vampire detectives who solve crimes and save the world almost in spite of themselves. I blame Anita Blake. And TrueBlood, but mostly Anita Blake.

Now let’s be clear, I love the Anita Blake books. I think Laurell K. Hamilton is a monster of the genre and has done a killer job building her world and populating it with characters that people believe in and care about. But they spend a lot of time in the sack. I mean those folks get around. And while I’m all in favor of a healthy libido, I was reading one of her books and I was wondering to myself, “How do these people get anything done?”

And then I thought, “Why are there no fat or ugly vampires? These people are all really, really hot.”

So I looked around, and all I could find in the popular literature was that one pudgy gay guy from Season One of TrueBlood, and he died. Every other vampire was really attractive. So there was my hook – I’d write a serious of books about dorky vampires who couldn’t get laid if their unlives depended on it. So I did.

I created Jimmy Black and Gregory Knightwood, childhood friends who end up vampires and form a detective agency. Now Jimmy and Greg aren’t hot by any stretch. They’re much more likely to show up in a comic book shop or video game bargain bin than on the cover of GQ. As a matter of fact, they aren’t really any more pallid now that they’ve been consigned to a life without sunshine than they were when they were alive! And just because they’re vampires, they’re no luckier with the ladies than they were when they were alive. Which is to say not at all.

So if you’re looking for a change from the typical hunky vampires who make all the women swoon, check out The Black Knight Chronicles. Non-sparkly snarky vampires who save the day with a wisecrack or three thrown in, but not a single rippling abdominal muscle between the two of them. 

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