By Lori McKay - The Weekly News
There are dangerous vampires living among us in HRM. Well, not really, but there are plenty of local vampires - both good and evil - in Dartmouth's David Rhind's new book, Once a Samurai.
The 52-year-old fantasy/adventure author has recently moved back to Dartmouth after years of travelling and has settled down with his new wife to write a series of vampire novels.
A Prince Andrew High School graduate, Rhind spent time living in Florida, the Bahamas and Bermuda, working various careers as a biology teacher, a kung fu instructor, a musician and a sailor, which can also be looked at as years of research for his book.
"There's a lot of my own experiences in the book," says Rhind, noting the main character, like himself, lost his first wife to cancer.
Of course, the getting attacked by vampires part is fiction.
| David Rhind's favourites include: * Bram Stoker (Dracula) * P. N. Elrod (Vampire Files) * Ann Rice (author) * Cornelia Funke (author) Tracy Harrison recommends: * L.J. Smith (The Vampire Diaries) * Kelly Armstrong (The Awakening, The Summoning) * L.J. Smith (The Secret Circle) * Linda Lael Miller (author) Rhonda Haley-McKinnon's top vampire movies/shows: * Bram Stoker's Dracula * True Blood (Season two begins on HBO June 14) * Underworld series |
Once A Samurai, published by the U.S. self-publishing firm VirtualBookWorm, begins with a death in the family bringing the protagonist, Mike, back home to Halifax, where he opens a martial arts studio. Vampires are secretly an integral part of local society, but are limited to working the night shift. Some are renegades, preying on humans.
At first, Mike is reluctant to get involved, but then it becomes personal. He's been marked as a target and a vampire is sent to kill him. He later finds out a long-time family friend is actually a vampire, and discovers why the martial arts always came so easily to him, and why he's so fast ...
Most of the book takes place in Dartmouth or Halifax, and Rhind uses local hangouts throughout, but changes the names.
"People will still recognize them," he said.
Rhind gives much of his research credit to Google, saying if he needed to find a particular house, or building, he'd use Google Earth and find exactly what he needed, without leaving home.
"Any time I needed something technical, I Googled it. When it came to knowing different weapons, I just found them on Google."
Rhind said the recent spike in popularity of vampire books, brought on by Stephanie Meyer's national best-selling series Twilight, has not gone unnoticed.
"This book was something I had been thinking about writing for many years," he said. "The timing is good. But, this isn't Twilight. It's action and mystery."
Rhind says his target market is his teenage son and jokes that he strives to keep his novels PG-14.
"I want my son to be able to read it and want to read it, but women seem to like it too," he said.
Rhind says he gets his wife to read pages and sometimes she'll offer suggestions, "Like, 'You should add more romance.' And I listen," he said with a laugh.
The book's sequel, Always a Samurai, is nearing completion and Rhind says there will be a third book too.
lmckay@hfxnews.ca
The book is available to order online from Amazon.ca. For more information on Rhind, visit http://dcrhind.ca.
