Spotlight Saturday: Guest Post and Giveaway with D.A. Adams

Hi, everyone!

Welcome to another edition of Spotlight Saturday at Darlene's Book Nook, where we feature authors and their books!

We will be joined today by D.A. Adams.

About D.A.:

Living and working in East Tennessee, D.A. Adams is an established novelist, a farmer, a professor of English, and has contributed writing to literary as well as fine art publications.  He also maintains an active blog, entitled "The Ramblings of D. A. Adams".

For more information on D.A., please visit him at:

http://www.facebook.com/authordaadams

Twitter @thirdaxemedia

http://daadams.com/

Welcome to Darlene's Book Nook, D.A.!

D.A. has written a guest post, so I will now turn the floor over to him!

A Different Kind of Fantasy Series
by D.A. Adams

When I began writing The Brotherhood of Dwarves series, I did so with the conscious intent of avoiding profanity and sex as narrative or plot devices. I decided this after watching one episode of the HBO series *Deadwood*. The dialogue was so profane that it seemed like every otherword was the F-bomb, and I thought to myself, “That’s just lazy writing.” I challenged myself to avoid profanity while working on the manuscript.

Then, I took that a step further and decided to avoid adult content, too. I wanted to prove that a well-crafted story doesn’t need to rely on those gimmicks. So far, in all three books, there is not one utterance of profanity and not one direct sexual reference. I did hint at sexuality in a couple of places, but the innuendoes are rather vague.

Then, because I’m a bit masochistic, I took it one step further and avoided any reference to any deity or religion. I wanted to see if I could create a realistic world that existed without a god or gods. I did this in part because I personally lean towards atheism, but also because I had read somewhere that it couldn’t be done, that a writer who even attempted to create a world without religion would fail miserably. Not only do I feel like I succeeded, I succeeded well enough that to this day not one reader has noticed, or if they have noticed, they haven’t complained or commented.

What amazes me is that most of the feedback I’ve received raves about how exciting and fast-paced the plot is. Early on, I did market the book as being free of profanity and sex because I live in a fairly conservative region and needed that as a selling point, but for the same reason, I avoided mentioning the atheistic world because I didn’t want the local backlash while struggling as an independent. Now, if someone pitched you a book as free of profanity, sex, and religion, would you ever consider it exciting and fast-paced? Of course not. Even I would probably prejudge it as boring, but instead, the story is riveting. Good storytelling doesn’t have to rely on cheap gimmicks to entertain, if the characters are real, the tension is palpable, and the action is compelling.

I'm proud of this series and the quality of narrative voice that relies on carefully crafted sentences, crisp dialogue, and complex character dynamics to move the plot forward.

Thanks so much for joining us today, D.A.! 

As a parent, I appreciate authors like you who write books that have "clean" content so I do not have to worry about "pre-reading" to ensure that the books do not contain anything that I do not want my children exposed to! In this day and age, it is hard to find books like this!

Giveaway: 

One lucky winner will receive a copy of The Fall of Dorkhun (Brotherhood of Dwarves, Book #3).

This giveaway is limited to entries from Canada and the United States only at the publisher's request.

SYNOPSIS: 

The Fall of Dorkuhn continues the story of the dwarf Roskin.  In the newest adventure of the series, Roskin returns home to a kingdom divided by war with the ogres.  On one side, his father desires to restore peace, but on the other, Master Sondious, seeking revenge for having been crippled, seeks to escalate aggression against the ogres  Roskin and his friends make a desperate attempt to resolve the growing rift, but unknown to the dwarves, new and powerful menaces threaten to destroy the entire kingdom... 

 

To enter the giveaway, you must complete the Rafflecopter entry form below.

This giveaway is limited to entries from Canada and the United States only, and it will close on Saturday, December 10th at 12:01 AM EST.