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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Dream: Part 2 of Mental Damnation by Konn Lavery

"Dark and Captivating!
Konn Lavery’s writing hooks you in by painting graphical imagery with each word that progressively moves the twisted fantasy story forward.
Dream was a real pager-turner and ends in a dramatic cliffhanger, leaving a number of sub plots unexplained and making it quite clear that there will be a sequel." - BDianne, Goodreads

Description:

Published: September 2017

Thought to be banished to the underworld by the humans, Krista mysteriously finds herself as the first of her kind to walk on the surface in centuries. This was caused by one of the underworld’s corrupt leaders, Danil, who uses her in an unholy ritual to set their people free. Danil’s infectious touch gives Krista the nightmarish disease known as Mental Damnation.

She becomes the key interest of two men, Paladin and Dr. Alsroc, who struggle to make sense of her sudden appearance and how it relates to Mental Damnation. Her friend back in the underworld, Darkwing, abandons his gang to begin his search for her.

Krista finds herself torn between two worlds, gaining acceptance among the humans while experiencing inner turmoil from hallucinations caused by her disease. These visions paint a hellish dream world known as Dreadweave Pass where the realm’s ruler, a corrupt god known as the Weaver, is on the hunt for her. Krista’s blood is believed to be a key component for the Weaver’s retribution against the Heavenly Kingdoms that once banished him!

AUTHOR's Q&A

How did you decide where part 2 of Mental Damnation would go? Part 1 was left with a lot of unanswered questions. 
The whole Mental Damnation story dates back to 2006 as a completed manuscript. It was supposed to be an origins story of Krista, where a future book would have her as an adult. Of course, a lot can happen in 10 years and that was ultimately scrapped. 

When I decided to take my writing seriously after college, the editor and I reviewed the original manuscript from 2006 and spent a lot of time revising it. The first third of the book took us about 9 months to edit and we decided the book would be too large if we continued to edit it. Instead, we released that first third as book one, Reality. 

So to answer the question, Dream has always been a part of the Mental Damnation story. It wasn't until recent years that the story has transitioned into a series.

Would that mean, technically, the whole Mental Damnation story is complete? 
The original one, mostly. Since the editing phase and the revamp from the first and second, final, edition, the series has steered away from the 2006 manuscript. It shares most of the same concepts up to book three which will be out in 2018. 

There will be a fourth which will be the finalization of the series. 

You mentioned first and second editions? 
That is correct, the first edition of Reality came out in 2012. It was my first release to the public. The first edition of Dream came out in early 2014, followed by the third novel, Fusion late in 2014. 

I took a break from the series to write my stand-alone novel Seed Me in 2015 and early 2016. In the fall of 2016, I returned to Mental Damnation to finish the story and realized it was an opportunity to revisit the plot from the beginning and polish the story after receiving feedback from readers over five years. 

The benefit of releasing the second editions has also allowed me to write book one, two and three with the ending in mind. 

Normally second editions of novels have a few changes, what makes this different? 
The second edition of Reality saw the largest alteration of the three Mental Damnation novels. Since it is the first in the series, it had the most amount of work. A lot like a ripple effect, the changes in book one effect book two and book three, in smaller amounts for each book once the story gets back on course. 

The second edition of Dream has had an additional 8 chapters added to it from the previous edition. Darkwing's involvement has been expanding upon greatly. There is also new illustrations and an encyclopedia for people to reference. 

Can you elaborate on the drawings? 
All of the drawings seen in the Mental Damnation novels I drew originally by hand, scanned into the computer and refined digitally. All of the novels in the series use a custom typeface created for the series, seen in the book titles, chapter titles and dropcaps. 

Dream has a number of new illustrations seen in the book as well to accompany the new chapters.
Outside of the Mental Damnation series, what else do you have in the works? 
The revisit of Mental Damnation has taken a lot of time over the past year, putting in more hours than I normally do for writing. It was worth it though. 

Next year we have book three o Mental Damnation coming out and a new thriller novel that is like an 80s action movie meets Sin City. That one I am quite excited about. More to come late 2017 and early 2018.

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About the author:
Konn Lavery is a Canadian horror and dark fantasy writer who is known for his Mental Damnation series. The second book, Dream, reached the Edmonton Journal’s top five selling fictional books list. He started writing fantasy stories at a very young age while being home schooled. It wasn’t until graduating college that he began professionally pursuing his work with his first release, Reality. Since then he has continued to write works of fiction ranging from fantasy to horror.

His literary work is done in the long hours of the night. By day, Konn runs his own graphic design and website development business under the title Reveal Design. These skills have been transcribed into the formatting and artwork found within his publications supporting his fascination of transmedia storytelling.

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