Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Dickson.
Hi Kevin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I moved to Eagle Rock over twenty years ago, I was an Aussie entertainment reporter. In Eagle Rock, I found an environment that reminded me very much of my home town, Sydney. Surrounded by inspiring artists and great food, I threw myself into the local scene, playing in bands and enjoying the nightlife while I began work on my first novel. I became an American citizen in 2012, and published my first novel, Blind Item, in 2017. It made it onto the LA Times bestseller list, a humbling honor. In 2018 I quit working as a journalist to focus solely on writing my books. In 2018 I released Guilty Pleasure, a sequel to Blind Item. Then I set to work on my feminist vampire trilogy, Vampire State. The first book, From Him To Eternity, came out in 2022, followed by Seasons Of Blood in 2024. The final installment in the trilogy, Deathland, will be released on October 7, 2025. I still live in the same house on a hill in Eagle Rock, with my husband, our two dogs, and one vicious parrot. There is nowhere else in Los Angeles that I would rather live.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No journey is smooth. I saw the end of journalism coming a mile off and knew I needed to transition into another industry. I chose to be a fiction author, since it was a passion of mine and also a lifelong dream. After signing to a major publisher, I learned that the book industry was facing similar issues to journalism, and I did not like being part of the corporate publishing machine. My agent convinced me to write two books on spec, and they were optioned by a publisher who went broke during Covid. I terminated my contracts with my publishers and my agents and went into the self-publishing world. Ask anyone in that world and they will tell you that it is an incredibly difficult and demanding space, but I love the freedom and the ownership of my work. and it was a blessing to begin work on my vampire trilogy during lockdown. After the publication of the first book in the trilogy, I experienced a horrifying spate of deaths among my inner circle, due to age, cancer and accidents. This delayed the second book by a year, but now everything is back on track, and once again, having a fictional world to retreat into during a time of social injustice is a great thing.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I set out to write a fresh take on the vampire horror genre. It always struck me as illogical that the foundation of vampire lore was a readiness to kill in order to survive. That should be existential crisis number one for any human being. Then, I wanted to couple that with what would be truly horrible about immortality, which would be the struggles that every day people have with filling their time in a meaningful way. I wanted to explore the power dynamic in an all-female vampire world, because the present state of the world stems back to predominantly male governance. I’m really proud of the world I created, peopled by scores of complicated female characters in various stages of immortal midlife crises. From the outset I’ve challenged myself to avoid cliches and to focus on horrors that occur in everyday life. The ending of the trilogy has made me cry every time I’ve reread it.
Additionally, I’m fiercely proud of the album I made with my band, The Chew Toys. As a lifelong music obsessive, I really wanted to put my money where my mouth is, and write and perform music on the local scene. It was a fiery ride until we imploded but the album stands up well as a piece of loud scuzz punk.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
For most industries, the next decade is going to be transformative. For authors, specifically, the writing is already on the wall. Publishers are offering less and less as an advance to new writers. Considering the amount of work it takes to complete a book, as well as the time, the hourly pay for most authors is below the national minimum wage. It’s hard to see your choice of career being devalued. At the same time, and this isn’t a new thing, publishers want writers who are producing things similar to what is selling. Established authors are being told to dumb their work down and also they’re being given story outlines to follow, with book editors taking over the creative process.
That said, there’s always a silver lining. Authors these days can’t be afraid to diversify into new media such as user-driven models such as SubStack, or even podcasts and youtube channels. The time of being able to hide behind your computer and simply be an author has come to an end for most of us.
The one thing that won’t change is that there will always be people who love to read, people who still want to lose themselves in the ritual of reading a book. The industry will survive because of them.
Pricing:
- My books cost $24.99
- My ebooks cost between $1-$12.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevin.dickson.author
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Kevin-Dickson-61561928937735/?_rdr
- Other: https://thechewtoys.bandcamp.com/album/chew-toys
Image Credits
Stephen Gidlow
