7 Deadly Questions with author Luke Romyn

1. On the surface, your novel THE DARK PATH has all the makings of a classic tale of good vs evil, but after sitting down with your book I realized you've really blurred the lines. Talk to me about good vs evil and how you let them play out in THE DARK PATH?

Nothing is ever clear cut in the real world; the villain from one perspective is quite often the hero from another, so why should a novel be any different. If the enemy is evil, able to play outside of the rules, why would the opposition try to find someone who is squeaky-clean and morally virtuous?

Vain is the perfect person to go up against the forces he has to, unbound as he is to the ridiculous beliefs which would make a lesser man falter when the time came for action. Nobody else could step into Hell itself, calmly converse with Satan, and then make off with the one object which might help him survive against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and he does it with a certain amount of panache, endearing him to the reader.

2. I've always connected with the anti-hero in stories and you've created a great one in VAIN. I can only imagine how much fun it is to write a hero with a dark side. Did you find it difficult to reconcile this dichotomy within VAIN?

Not at all, I simply likened it to my own internal conflicts of personality, and those I assume every person has. Nobody is pure, regardless of their best efforts; in Vain this separation is merely more defined, and the clash between the opposing aspects of his nature is much more pronounced.

The initial creation of Vain was the hardest thing, delving deep into the darkness of my own nature, dredging up the most horrific nuances of what makes up me. I had to go into a very nasty place and then, much like Vain does in the novel, I needed to come out of that place, finding the brighter aspects of the story along the way and using him to deal with them in spite of his conflicting emotions.

3. With so many spiritual overtones, can you talk about how religion and spirituality have influenced your life and writing?

I was raised in a Catholic household and went to private Catholic schools, so religion was always around me, but my parents never forced it down my throat, for which I am grateful.

Religion is a wonderful thing in the right hands, but it is often misused and confused. I like the themes I have used in my book, but I can't forget being refused entry into the Vatican for the clothes I was wearing and wondering if this is what a religion created by a man living in rags wearing sandals would have wanted. I also have trouble forgetting the convicted pedophile teaching at my school who was kept employed despite complaints from my fellow classmates.

I love God and always will, but the ones who screech loudest in His name often give me the shits.

4. From your bio I see that you've worked for years in the security industry. Sounds like you've had some wild experiences. How have you used those experiences to your advantage as a writer?

Working as I have has really drawn me through a wringer of experiences due to the diversity of places I've worked and things I've had to do. Nightclubs are an incredible place to learn about human behavior – especially aggressive behavior and how it is contested. Fear is also prevalent prior to the anger, and the fight or flight response is so hard to combat when it's right in your face that only being there and experiencing it could give insight into what to do. Bodyguard work shows another side of things with the potential of focused, dangerous individuals as opposed to the random violence of a spontaneous brawl.

So basically what I'm saying is I've been in the thick of it. I've been involved in over a thousand fights and have seen some of the worst human behavior imaginable; from drive-by shootings to people stabbing each other over a game of pool to drug users trying to chew off other people's noses. I've associated with criminals who have done some truly detestable crimes and seen beyond that to their human side. I went so deep down the rabbit hole it seemed impossible for me to come back… but somehow I did.

5. What's the last book you read and why did you choose it?

The last book I read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Despite simply loving the Harry Potter series, I find the way J.K. Rowling creates her characters and develops the story around them incredibly simple and yet awesomely effective. At the moment I'm working on a trilogy based around the same concept – hugely character-driven – and as such I like to read as much stuff like that in order to research the writing style and put my mind in the right frame in order to do what I need it to do. It's pointless for me to read an action-driven story if I want my characters to be the main focus of a novel, and the same is true vice-versa. Even though my storyline is nothing like the Harry Potter series, while I'm writing as such I'll continue to read her books over and over, each time picking up a tiny nuance I can use in regards to speech or something else.

In a way it saddens me that I can no longer simply immerse myself in a great book without analyzing it, but this is the only way to learn how to be a better writer. In another book I was writing I needed massive landscapes of description and so I started reading the Thomas Covenant Chronicles by Stephen Donaldson who created some phenomenal lands through his six novels about a man with leprosy. I tend to avoid Stephen King since his work is immensely imagination driven – whilst also being great writing, don't get me wrong – but I have my own ideas flowing when I write and his are just so off the wall I don't want to get confused.

6. As a fellow horror writer I understand the stigma that sometimes attached itself to you; some people just refuse to believe that you don't have severed heads in your fridge! Time to reveal the softer side – what one hobby or interest would readers be most surprised by about you?

Unfortunately I'm not simply a horror writer, I'm also a reformed hired-goon, and so with such a double-whammy against me it's hard to find a softer side, but I'll try.

I spend a lot of time studying philosophy, trying to find my place in the universe amid the disharmony of my life. Simple things like walking with my wife at sunset bring me a certain amount of peace, although it is an uncertain peace, easily shattered, and so it is often short-lived. My meditation is usually found in the gym, training with weights. I have always said this is how I maintain my focus, but such a thing is hardly the softer side you asked about, so I'll search deeper.

Hmm. Not sure if this is what you're after, but it's the best I've got. At one point in my life, many years ago, I reached rock-bottom. I was doing some terrible stuff and had pretty much lost the plot with my drinking and violent tendencies. I seriously wanted to change my life, but had no idea how, and so I asked God.

It wasn't a prayer so much as a plea. Your earlier question probably made it clear about my thoughts on traditional religion, but my faith in God has always been strong. And so I begged Him for help, asking for three things: a good job, a better place to live and someone to love me. The next week I got offered a new job and my friend asked me to move in with him exactly where I wanted to live.

And I met my future wife….

7. Where can people learn more about you and your work?

My website is constantly getting updated with news about my career along with short stories, links and interviews like this. It's http://www.lukeromyn.com . I'm also very active on the social networks with links to both my Twitter and Facebook accounts found on my website.

About Luke Romyn

Luke Romyn spent many years, fifteen in fact, working in the security industry. From doorwork in some of Australia's roughest pubs and clubs to protecting Mickey Mouse and the Disney crew from the overzealous jaws of tenacious toddlers, Luke has worked throughout Australia and internationally in a vast array of roles. He's done close protection for UK celebrities in Fiji and chased feral pigs and snakes out of the jungle film sets on Steven Spielberg's and Tom Hank's epic: The Pacific. There are few things Luke hasn't seen.

With all this experience behind him, it would be tempting to write a set of memoirs. Instead, Luke utilized it to fuel his own expansive imagination and began writing fiction. Initially starting with short stories, Luke rapidly progressed onto novels. His first book, THE DARK PATH, is now out and swiftly became a #1 best selling Horror and was also voted in the Top Ten Horror novels of 2009. His second novel, BLACKLISTED, is almost set to go and will blow the roof off action thriller novels.