UFI welcomes Patrick Donovan Author of Demon Jack. Thanks for Joining us!!
For some reason, everyone (or most everyone) loves a good antihero. There's just something about the almost good guy, that dude that's willing to crack a few heads and break a few rules to get the job done, that captures folk's imaginations. We're talking about the Han Solos, the Constantines, and the Roland Deschains here folks.
But, alas, the question doth remain:
What makes these guys (and gals) so damned awesome? Is it their
swagger? Is it that sly little smile and the well placed snarky
comment?
When I first got the idea for Demon
Jack, I knew I didn't want the typical hero. The world that I had
envisioned, which even I admit is pretty dark and gritty, needed
something more than just your average do-gooder. The story itself
just didn't have room, at least at the moment, for a Boy Scout kind
of hero. It needed someone a little more raw, a little more willing
to say to hell with the rules, and thus Jack Draughn was born. The
world was flawed, it needed a flawed hero.
This brings me to the first thing
that, in my opinion, makes the antihero what he is. He's a flawed
case. There is some fundamental flaw, somewhere in their character,
that takes away from their value as a full-fledged hero. For Jack, it
was addiction and all the fear, selfishness, and other things that
came with it. When he died, before the novel started, he sold his
soul to a demon because he was scared of what came after. When he has
a choice to save himself or the two people with him, he very
seriously questions leaving them behind to save his own skin. It's
because of these flaws, that the antihero doesn't ever really get to
be the shining beacon of hope or get the girl. Unless your Han Solo,
Han always gets the girl.
The second thing that makes these
lovable bastards so wonderful, is exactly the opposite of what
defines your stereotype good guy. Law and order, adherence to the
social norms, the antihero scoffs at such notions. This disregard for
the law of the land, is more often than not, what puts the hero into
the title of antihero. See, sometimes, to be the hero, you have to go
outside of the rules to make things happen. Why else would Han shoot
first, right?
With Jack, it goes a little past a
firm defiance to the law. Now, don't get me wrong, he's no fan of the
local constabulary, but more than that he doesn't have the same set
of morals that most folks tend to have. He doesn't have a problem
with say, killing someone instead of saving them. The thing is
though, and I think this is important, is it's not killing for
killing's sake. It's not just wanton violence for the sake of
spattering the pages with a little bit of character guts. I won't say
it's entirely justified, but it's not entirely outside of the scope
of what the character would do. It's a survival matter, a them or me
mentality. It plays back onto something that I think is at the heart
of all good antihero types, which brings me to my next, final, and
probably most important point.
Antiheroes, in their own way, are
inherently selfish. Now, bare with me for a second. That selfishness
plays its way out into the greater good in some way, shape, or form.
Han came back and saved the day sure, but the question is why? For
Leia? Because the Empire had just pissed him off? Does it matter? It
served Han's purposes and thus, Han became heroic in his own right.
With Jack, well, he got forced into it. So to get out from underneath
it, he's going to lay down as much hell and havoc as he can until he
go back to living his boring life without monsters trying to eat his
face.
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He started telling stories at a young age, drawing his stories on paper bags with crayons. He believes characters are what breathe life into a story as the reader watches them fight for survival, make choices (for better or worse) or just fall in love. It's the characters that tell the tale, he just takes dictation.
Like many authors, he lives off of coffee and would consume it via IV if that was a viable option. When he's not writing, he can be found reading, gaming and playing dad.
A graduate of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, he is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in English with a focus on Creative Writing.
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Find Patrick and his books
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Demon JackSimple choice:
Stay dead and go to Hell,
Or sell your soul to a demon and keep breathing.
Fifteen years ago, Jack died and chose the latter. Now, a few years out of prison and living on the streets of Boston, Jack is perfectly content to keep a low profile and avoid his turbulent past.
Being a faceless “nobody” suits Jack just fine.
It’s working out until the only person he considers a friend turns on him, possessed by something far worse than the demon holding the contract to Jack's soul. Now, he's been recruited (some might say blackmailed) by an ancient order with roots in the Inquisition to hunt down whatever malevolent force is responsible for turning Boston's homeless into ravenous killers. At the same time, someone from his past with a massive vendetta and nothing in the way of conscience, is looking for Jack, hoping to issue a little payback of his own.
Paired with a centuries old witch and the only person to survive the rampage thus far, Jack is in a race to track down whatever’s responsible for killing his people, all while staying one step ahead of the skeletons in his closet.
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