Author Dana Lockhart

It's been fun on Blogger, but I wanted to revamp my website into something that looked a bit more professional. There will still be a blog on my new website, and this old blog will still be around for you to enjoy. Check out my new blog at the same address this blog used to be: www.danalockhart.com. This blog will now be www.authordanalockhart.com, and will no longer be updated. Thanks for moving with me! -Dana Lockhart

I’m getting more and more serious about making writing my full time career, so I’m taking anything and everything that will help me achieve that dream. Which leads to three big announcements: I am now a writer/game reviewer for SipReadRepeat I was accepted into the  Medium  publication “ Curiosity Never Killed the Writer ” I was officially voted in as the president of the Hannibal Writers Guild this month My Growing Professional Gamer Status It was all well and good writing gaming articles for exposure with DVS . I really didn’t mind at all. I got a load of worthwhile experience and I came out the other end feeling like I got significantly better at writing journalism. I went from every article I wrote having problems - passive voice, high  Flesch-Kincaid reading scores (meaning my writing was too complicated), not enough transitions - to almost every first draft being in the green light with all these things. My writing was trained over time to be better just with simpl...

National Novel Writing Month. It is both the bane of writers and the savior. Write the rough draft of a novel in one month, they said. It’s 100% possible, they said. It will be fun, they said. I don’t know who they are, but they’re a totally different type of person than I am. After four years of participating, I’ve never won a single year of NaNoWriMo yet. And I’m perfectly okay with that. Sure, NaNo might have all these rules and expectations, but in the end, it’s your goals that matter, not theirs. When Is the Best Time to Write? Write now! My goal for NaNoWriMo has always just been to write. Almost always, NaNo has been my excuse to either finish a story I was already working on, or at least make a big dent in it. If I’d been unable to get a word down for months, November became the dedicated month to get over that. Sure, I kept that 50k finish line in mind, too, but it was never my actual goal. NaNo and me, we don’t mix very well. The arguably biggest rule of NaNoWriMo is to neve...

-The Story, The Legend, The Blood Knight - I’m super duper excited by this, guys. The Blood Knights series, as I have said multiple times, is the most vivid world I’ve ever created. It’s so alive that I don’t quite feel like I’m in control of it. More than once a character has veered off on their own chosen path against what I had originally intended. Villains grew up to be heroes, heroes turned out to be villains. New characters I didn’t have in the original concept just popped out of nowhere demanding to be seen. It’s been a wild ride to see all the stories unfold. The Blood Knight is the first in the intended trilogy. It centers on Archer Mathews, a vampire hunter that makes a grave mistake and is turned into the thing he hates most. The thing is, he should have died instead. Hunters are almost a breed of supernatural beings of their own, with fast reflexes and heightened senses tuned into finding evil, and something in their blood won’t let them be corrupted into monsters. The cl...

-My Second and Final Gateway Con- It is with a heavy heart that I write this, because the wonderful convention known as Gateway Con has officially been cancelled, probably forever. The three-day writing retreat I’d recommend first above all other writing conventions is being replaced with a one-day writing retreat, "Writers in the Park." The situation is disappointing to say the least. Supposedly, it wasn’t making enough money to sustain itself. I’d argue that money isn’t the point, it’s inspiring and educating prospective writers, that the friendships we made along the way were worth more, but unfortunately it’s not my call. Goodbye, Gateway Con. I will miss you. You helped me become the writer I am today. Hopefully Writers in the Park will be half as fun. But with bad news comes good, and here’s my trip back in time to Gateway Con 2019 and the events that transpired. -Meeting Old Friends and Making New- This year was different in so many ways. Gateway Con 2018, my first co...

I didn’t talk about it a lot because I was honestly terrified - but this year I lost my job at no fault of my own and was unemployed for 6 months. At the same time, I was investing in my book, which was also scary. Like, what if I dump too much money into the book and then never see it turn around? As the days drug on without a steady income, I tried to stay positive and kept grinding no matter how dismal things looked. And eventually I came out of the other side. -A New Job - A New Start- As of mid-September, I am an administrative assistant at a not-for-profit that helps my local community. While the organization does many, many things (including but not limited to bill assistance and low-cost healthcare), I am based out of the weatherization department. What is weatherization? I thought to myself when I saw the job opening. Basically it amounts to repairing homes so that they are more heating/cooling efficient. We also do things like replacing siding and roofing and ma...

It's been a while! Hi! I've been busy with leading CampNaNoWriMo workshops and lots of book signings . But here I am today, ready to tell you a little more about my novel, The Un-Life of William Moore. I highly suggest reading the novel before reading these "fun facts," as there are spoilers ahead. You can purchase the book at most all places you buy books, including Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and your local book store. -Fun Facts About The Un-Life of William Moore - 1)   The novel is approximately 63k words.   When I first “finished” the story, it only had 35k. Being so short and condensed, the story's pace was way too fast.   The additional word count helped to slow things down, develop characters, and make it a more standard sized novel.   2)  My first working title was “Billy the Vampire.” This title made it too obvious what the story was about, even though it conveyed the corny tone I wanted at the time.   Later, I wanted to make it more subtle. ...

-My Second Year at Gateway to Publishing- I had an amazing time last year at Gateway Con. I met some amazing people and also made a good friend (looking at you, android ). I learned a lot and came home with pages of notes on how to improve my writing and my brand. After such an awesome experience, I couldn't wait for the next one to come around. Though I pitched The Un-Life of William Moore to agents there, ultimately I decided to self-publish it. It's my first story, and as such it has the most of my heart and soul in it. While the changes some agents recommended weren't unreasonable, I wanted to remain as true as I could to what The Un-Life was to me. Still, I applied what I had learned to the story. I connected with people that helped me improve it even further. I still came out of Gateway Con successful, in my mind. This year I will also be having an author table/book signing , so if you're going to the Con, too, come see me! I'll be selling my paperback novel...

-Get An ARC Copy Now!- I'm excited to announce that you can get a free review copy of The Un-Life of William Moore while supplies last. I only have 15 more copies to give away, so first come first serve. A review copy is just that, for review. It's a bit of an "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine" sort of thing. You'll get a free copy of the ebook in exchange for your promise to review the book on Amazon and Smashwords. This copy is e-book only and can be redeemed on Booksprout.  You'll have until June 13, 2019 to review the book, so about a month from this post date. If you happened to not be able to put it down and finish it by the release date, May 16, I would be eternally grateful for a review by that date. But that's entirely optional, as are reviewing it anywhere else (Barnes and Noble, BookBub, Kobo, etc, etc). If you finish your review early, just let me know and I'll make sure it gets up up. To ask me for a review copy, mess...

When I'm put in an unfavorable situation, I try to look on the bright side of things. More often than not, the bright side is always the same: a learning experience. Whether it's a bad breakup, a civil suit, or a risk like investing in my novel, there's always a learning experience. And I love learning. I identify as a scholar, as a student, no matter if I'm enrolled in study or not. And this entire book adventure has been one heck of a learning experience. I always thought I was good at manipulating Microsoft Word, but I discovered new options and standards than what I knew before. Not to mention all the learning of how to write better to even get the book finished. I received my first proof on April 16th for my novel The Un-Life of William Moore. Getting it proof-ready was a challenge in itself. I didn't embed fonts right the first time, had a bunch of hidden blank pages I had to deal with. But the first proof wasn't that bad. Needed some margin work, but oth...

After over a year since I started this journey, The Un-Life of William Moore will soon be available to put on your bookshelf. I already had an e-book cover, but to be able to hold this book in your hands I went back and got a spine and back added to it. A week of waiting was well worth it! Here is the official book cover for The Un-Life of William Moore : I am so ecstatic about this cover. Thank you, again, Zakaria Nada , for working with me on making this book come to life. I didn't have a single complaint on the background of the back cover and am still in awe of how amazing it looks. If you need a book cover done, I highly recommend Zak and her watercolor style book covers. She has great turn around time and great taste. She also designed the bookmark (coming soon) that will come with this book when you buy it at one of my book signings. -Book Signing Times and Locations- Speaking of signings, I already have three book signings on the schedule and a potential fourth in the works...

Life is crazy, but I've finally hit a little lull with The Un-Life of William Moore . She's in limbo as I wait for the cover to be done (it should be within a week!). So, now that I have some more free time, I've taken up a new writing challenge: PAD. PAD is Poetry-A-Day, or NaPoWriMo . It's the poetry equivalent of NaNoWriMo, only instead of a strict word count spread over a month, you write one poem every day for the month of April. So far I've been able to keep up, albeit posting my poems rather late in the day on Twitter. I will start posting them to Instagram, too, but haven't yet because my background images for IG disappeared and it took me a while to find them. I will post all of my poetry in a blog post at the end of the month to see if I managed to successfully write a poem every day. I prefer to write structured poetry, with beat, rhythm, and rhyme, but when put on the spot like I am with PAD it tends to be a little more free form. And more than a ...

I know, I know, I've dropped off the face of the earth. My articles on DVS dropped from four a week to maybe one if I'm lucky, and my blogging here has suffered, too. But I promise it's for a good reason. - The Un-Life Coming June 2019- The big reason that I've stopped my side-writing gigs is because I've gotten back my mini-edit of The Un-Life of William Moore . Applying the critiques is my number one priority right now. I'm in a rush to get everything done in time for Gateway Con to have my grand first book release there. And I'm a little behind schedule. I'm still on target for the June release, but I'm feeling the pressure. Big thank you to Ryan P. Freeman for providing way more feedback than I anticipated. I ordered story editing and he still pointed out several copy-editing suggestions he didn't need to do. On one hand I'm glad he did more than I was looking for, and on the other I'm exhausted at the thought of all these things I s...

I know it seems like I haven't been blogging much (because I haven't), but I am trying.  I have five post drafts in the works right now and I'm not happy with any of them.  And I don't want to just post re-hashed stuff I already posted on DVS Gaming like I did with my Lucifer article .  So, if I can't come up with something entertaining, at least maybe I can come up with a post that's informative. -It's Time to Bring The Un-Life to Life- I am currently in the beginning stages to self-publish The Un-Life of William Moore .  I discussed it with the agent I had been taking to, who gave me her blessing.  As I told her, The Un-Life just feels like an old chapter in my life.  I don't believe that I have the spark to force myself to edit it anymore.  One, because I feel like the story is done and complete as is, two, there's just so much more I want to be doing.  So instead of trying to change the story to what it isn't for the sake of being more main...

Image courtesy of Netflix -The First Fallen Angel- I binged the entire three seasons of Lucifer in two weeks. It completely flabbergasted me that a show about the Devil solving crimes actually worked. I am fascinated by the depiction of Satan in this show. He’s probably the most sympathetic version of the Devil I’ve ever seen. Thank God Netflix picked it up for season 4. In the meantime, it has me thinking about Mark Pellegrino’s version of Lucifer in Supernatural . Even Sadao Maou in the anime The Devil is a Part-Timer . Why are all these characters so alive, sympathetic, and delightful to watch? I previously explored why television has gotten so dark these last few years. When thinking about the sympathetic modern devil, I believe there is a connection between these two thoughts. Tom Ellis as Lucifer is the show “Lucifer.” Image courtesy of Fox. -Humans Are Fatally Flawed- A very common notion is that Satan has a hand in tempting people to sin. However, he’s not the only one. Vampir...

Welcome to another Dana Harts. This time I'm going to tell you how much I ♥  Age Matters ! Yes, it's another Line Webtoon. They make good stuff, kay? It is by Enjelicious. And my poor heart can barely take it. Age Matters is centered around a 30-year old woman, Rose Choi, who recently went through a traumatic breakup with a man that told her she wasn't good enough. Now feeling like she's getting too old to start her life over again, she searches for what to do next. Through twists of fate she ends up getting hired by the young, rich, and handsome CEO of a facebook-like app to be his secretary. For a 23-year-old misunderstood billionaire, Daniel Yoon is quite a handful, acting much more the adult than she. Together, they might beat out rival companies or succumb to their budding feelings and ruin everything. This webcomic is giving me very unrealistic expectations for men. The best part of the story is that the characters are incredibly lively. Rose is a child-woman, no...