Darian Hart

Find books by Darian Hart at sci-fi-cafe on
table number 8
at the summer
Oxford Indie Book Fair
on 13-July 2025

See home page for details, map and more.

A lot of writers stick to a genre. “Write what you know” is often the advice given by successful old authors when asked for pearls of wisdom. And it’s true, I’ve written plenty of books (under a different name) and they’ve all been largely straightforward to come up with.

But I was given a challenge by my publisher to write a book to a brief; well, not so brief to be honest, when I said I’d give it a go I was given a full set of notes, story arcs, character profiles, background information about the world I was to write in and RULES… wow!

Thus began the development of a novel that took me completely by surprise. “The Wolf Inside Us”, a ‘paranormal love story’… eech, that’s not MY genre! But a lot of the work had been done, so it was for the most part just a case of ‘colouring-in’ the detail. And you know what, I loved it. The publishers admitted that it was something of an experiment for them as well so we were all outside our comfort zones.

Then came the “Hey, do you want to do another” email. I agreed of course and read the story notes… a couple, on the verge of a break-up over Christmas… paranormal shenanigans… she has to go through all kinds of dangerous situations to save her husband… Okay, sounds good.

“BUT,” I said, “Let’s push the boat out onto uncertain, shark-infested waters; let’s mix things up.” I proposed that the couple be in a same-sex relationship, let’s give them a whole host of things in their background that cause them pain and hardship and conflict. Let’s throw the book at them! Take for example, the Indiana Jones movies. Literally EVERYHING that can go wrong for poor Indie DOES go wrong, and that makes for some great situations.

I had some moments of doubt as to whether I could write an LGBT themed story convincingly, but I decided not to make a big fuss about it. “love is love”, I think they said somewhere in the book’s blurb. I think it worked, oh how I loved those girls when I’d finished.

I return now to a novel that’s been gathering dust with fresh enthusiasm and broader horizons. The re-drafts of some chapters seem to sparkle on the page again. But I don’t think I’ll finish it any time soon because I’m now working on another paranormal book. And this time, it’s going in a direction that NOBODY would have expected.

So, if I was ever asked for writing advice from a fresh-faced author I’d say “Write OUTSIDE your comfort zone. Nobody ever achieved anything good by doing the EASY thing.”