Today, guest author Gregory Delaurentis is here to discuss his new release, Cover of Darkness, and his use of characterization. He'll be giving away a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift certificate at the end of his blog tour, so make sure to enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.
I don’t happen to have a hero. I don’t usually write about heroes. I usually write about an ensemble cast because I feel that much more can be done with many and not just a few. If I do choose a single hero, I would have a single protagonist, and that they would have a close relationship between each other. It would be an intimate battle between the two that would bring them together in a white hot furnace. That’s how I would use a single hero. Not much to learn from.
However, I am fascinated by what can be learned from a group of people working towards a common goal. First and foremost is teamwork. Teamwork is a variable that is not present by some autonomic function. Just because you put a group of people together and give them one goal, they will not necessarily work as a team. Most likely egos will rise to the fore, there will be dissention and distrust, power struggles and grabs. Chaos can quickly develop and in the final analysis, there is a failure to achieve the goal. This, fortunately, makes for good writing, but unfortunately makes for poor progress.
The lessons that I’ve learned from my heroes is that there is great value in learning to work as a team, to coordinate and allow each and every individual talent an opportunity to participate. There is also a benefit in aiding those in the team to reach their potential through encouragement and support. All of these lessons can be learned by anyone, and I struggle to apply them in my life. Did not the Bible say that many hands make the load light?
When I think of crime solving, which is what many of my books are about, I think of how many individual talents come to play in the apprehension of criminals. The skillsets of forensic teams, fingerprinting, ballistic and blood splatter technicians, detectives, police officers, even witnesses and profilers come to bear as a team to find, locate and arrest criminals. Not one of these resources could have solved the crime on their own. They need each other and support each other in the commission of one goal.
That’s a valuable lesson to learn, one that many corporations are intent on teaching their workers, which is the value of teamwork, of working together to get the job done. They invest hundreds of dollars in coaches and events to pull teams together because of the value in this.
It’s this lesson that I strive to take away with me as I not only write, but depend on several outside professionals to bring it all together into a single novel.
However, I am fascinated by what can be learned from a group of people working towards a common goal. First and foremost is teamwork. Teamwork is a variable that is not present by some autonomic function. Just because you put a group of people together and give them one goal, they will not necessarily work as a team. Most likely egos will rise to the fore, there will be dissention and distrust, power struggles and grabs. Chaos can quickly develop and in the final analysis, there is a failure to achieve the goal. This, fortunately, makes for good writing, but unfortunately makes for poor progress.
The lessons that I’ve learned from my heroes is that there is great value in learning to work as a team, to coordinate and allow each and every individual talent an opportunity to participate. There is also a benefit in aiding those in the team to reach their potential through encouragement and support. All of these lessons can be learned by anyone, and I struggle to apply them in my life. Did not the Bible say that many hands make the load light?
When I think of crime solving, which is what many of my books are about, I think of how many individual talents come to play in the apprehension of criminals. The skillsets of forensic teams, fingerprinting, ballistic and blood splatter technicians, detectives, police officers, even witnesses and profilers come to bear as a team to find, locate and arrest criminals. Not one of these resources could have solved the crime on their own. They need each other and support each other in the commission of one goal.
That’s a valuable lesson to learn, one that many corporations are intent on teaching their workers, which is the value of teamwork, of working together to get the job done. They invest hundreds of dollars in coaches and events to pull teams together because of the value in this.
It’s this lesson that I strive to take away with me as I not only write, but depend on several outside professionals to bring it all together into a single novel.
About the novel:
A high profile murder of a Wall Street executive in Westchester pits three people against the criminal underbelly of Manhattan nightlife. The key players are two ex-cops turned private investigators—Kevin Whitehouse, whose sharpest tool is his keen analytical mind, and David Allerton, a former Special Forces operative—and Margaret Alexander, Kevin’s lover. In their search for a killer, they are forced to travel to the edge of sanity and morality, while stumbling onto their own confusing secrets as well. The Cover of Darkness is a gritty noir saga that untangles a web of deceit in the course of tracking down a brutal murderer.
Excerpt:
David stopped pacing, and then started working on a rock embedded in the dirt with the toe of his shoe. “I wonder why MacDonald didn’t say anything in the interview about the cops being present. He should have told us that there were cops in the Midnight for protection—making sure the dealers were selling and not using.”
“Maybe,” Kevin ventured, “he didn’t want to drop a dime on his cop friends. Maybe he was frightened.”
“Maybe. That would have helped us a lot,” David said, his eye caught by a shapely girl on a bike riding nearby.
Margaret sat up. “That would also explain how the killer got past the gate and simply walked into the house. He could have been flashing a badge.”
“That makes some sense,” Kevin said. “And certainly cops can kill.”
“They make the best assassins, don’t they?” David quipped.
“So now this is a cop hunt?” Kevin asked.
“I would rather it end here, guys,” Margaret said.
David approached the two and stood over them. “The question is now how to hunt the most dangerous thing in New York. Crossing the thin blue line is not going to be fun or easy.”
“Fun?” Margaret said. “It’s downright dangerous.”
“We can’t go to Ferryman and Reynolds,” Kevin said, nervously running his fingers through his hair, and retrieving his arm from around Margaret as he sat up. “They’ll only go on the defensive. And if the case starts turning in that direction, they’ll only deflect it.”
A high profile murder of a Wall Street executive in Westchester pits three people against the criminal underbelly of Manhattan nightlife. The key players are two ex-cops turned private investigators—Kevin Whitehouse, whose sharpest tool is his keen analytical mind, and David Allerton, a former Special Forces operative—and Margaret Alexander, Kevin’s lover. In their search for a killer, they are forced to travel to the edge of sanity and morality, while stumbling onto their own confusing secrets as well. The Cover of Darkness is a gritty noir saga that untangles a web of deceit in the course of tracking down a brutal murderer.
Excerpt:
David stopped pacing, and then started working on a rock embedded in the dirt with the toe of his shoe. “I wonder why MacDonald didn’t say anything in the interview about the cops being present. He should have told us that there were cops in the Midnight for protection—making sure the dealers were selling and not using.”
“Maybe,” Kevin ventured, “he didn’t want to drop a dime on his cop friends. Maybe he was frightened.”
“Maybe. That would have helped us a lot,” David said, his eye caught by a shapely girl on a bike riding nearby.
Margaret sat up. “That would also explain how the killer got past the gate and simply walked into the house. He could have been flashing a badge.”
“That makes some sense,” Kevin said. “And certainly cops can kill.”
“They make the best assassins, don’t they?” David quipped.
“So now this is a cop hunt?” Kevin asked.
“I would rather it end here, guys,” Margaret said.
David approached the two and stood over them. “The question is now how to hunt the most dangerous thing in New York. Crossing the thin blue line is not going to be fun or easy.”
“Fun?” Margaret said. “It’s downright dangerous.”
“We can’t go to Ferryman and Reynolds,” Kevin said, nervously running his fingers through his hair, and retrieving his arm from around Margaret as he sat up. “They’ll only go on the defensive. And if the case starts turning in that direction, they’ll only deflect it.”
About the author:
Gregory Delaurentis spent his adult life roaming from job to job, working for Lockheed in California, various law firms in New York, and financial firms on Wall Street. Throughout this period of time, he was writing—unceasingly—finally producing a large body of work, albeit unrecognized and unpublished . . . until now. Cover of Darkness is the first in a series of upcoming books that include Edge of Darkness, Pale of Darkness and Cries of Darkness. These novels follow the lives of three individuals who do battle bringing criminals to justice, while they struggle to understand the complex relationships that exist among themselves. This intriguing trio has absorbed the attention of Mr. Delaurentis for the past year and a half, so much so he decided to self-publish their stories to bring them to a wider audience.
AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER: These are works of fiction. Name, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
You can find Cover of Darkness at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Smashwords.
For more information about Gregory Delaurentis and his books, check out his website, Facebook, Twitter, or his blog.
Don't forget to enter to win your choice of Amazon or B&N gift certificate. For more entries, follow the rest of his blog tour. You can find the schedule and links here.
Gregory Delaurentis spent his adult life roaming from job to job, working for Lockheed in California, various law firms in New York, and financial firms on Wall Street. Throughout this period of time, he was writing—unceasingly—finally producing a large body of work, albeit unrecognized and unpublished . . . until now. Cover of Darkness is the first in a series of upcoming books that include Edge of Darkness, Pale of Darkness and Cries of Darkness. These novels follow the lives of three individuals who do battle bringing criminals to justice, while they struggle to understand the complex relationships that exist among themselves. This intriguing trio has absorbed the attention of Mr. Delaurentis for the past year and a half, so much so he decided to self-publish their stories to bring them to a wider audience.
AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER: These are works of fiction. Name, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
You can find Cover of Darkness at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Smashwords.
For more information about Gregory Delaurentis and his books, check out his website, Facebook, Twitter, or his blog.
Don't forget to enter to win your choice of Amazon or B&N gift certificate. For more entries, follow the rest of his blog tour. You can find the schedule and links here.
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