Dark Matter Heart by Nathan Wrann

Dark Matter Heart by Nathan Wrann
Published: 11th May 2011
ASIN: B0050ITJEU
Purchase: Amazon/Smashwords


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After Cor was almost killed in a car accident four years ago, when he was 13, he developed allergies. His is allergic to the sun. He is weak and sickly during the day, and can't sleep at night. After getting into some trouble in Los Angeles, his mom Jane decides to move to the misty Pacific Northwest, with two hundred and forty overcast days per year. He makes a new best friend Taylor. But it seems that trouble has followed him.


Nathan Wrann has done a fantastic job of weaving a paranormal romance/murder thriller with a web of suspense and mystery. This book would interest paranormal fans as well as those who love a good "whodunnit" book. Nathan has a writing style that I really liked and I just didn't want to put this book down. It was totally unpredictable and kept me wondering and guessing throughout.


Cor and Taylor are really likeable characters and I really enjoyed the interactions between them, total geek speak and playing detective and forensic scientist. Taylor turned out to be a much different character than I thought he was going to be when I started reading this.


The only downside I had was Caitlyn. I don't feel her character has enough depth for the reader to be able to connect with her properly. The type of girl who dated the dumb ass jock didn't gel with the type of person who would have been drawn to Cor. I would have liked some more insight into Caitlyn, like who she hung out with, was she popular etc.?


I really liked the ending when the action kicks off. We find out who the killer is (shocker) and there's also another twist. I am really looking forward to reading the next instalment in this series, From Out of Chaos.

Nathan was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions, so let's get started.


Why don't you start by telling us a bit about yourself? 

Yikes! That's a little bit of a broad question and I'm not sure how much time we have. But here's a brief history: Born in Florida (USA). Joined the U.S. Army (Military Police) directly after High School. After 5 years in I got out and went to college at Southern Connecticut State University where I studied Theatre and Video Production and met my future wife. Immediately upon graduation I opened a coffee shop in New Haven, Connecticut called Elm City Java. Got married to Kimberly Dalton (jewellery maker and children's book author). Sold the coffee shop and went to work in an office. Created the online music magazine www.heartsandsleeves.com. Wrote, produced, directed, photographed, edited my first feature film, a slasher horror film called "Hunting Season". Wrote, directed etc. etc. my 2nd feature film, a surreal, mind-trippy piece, called "Burning Inside." Wrote and published Dark Matter Heart and From Out of Chaos, and am currently working on book 3 in the series. I live in West Haven, CT with my wife, our adopted chihuahua Napoleon Dynamite and our cat Konstantine. 

What challenges, if any, did you face while writing this book? 

I've written plenty of screenplays over the years and I was pretty intimidated by the change in format. Screenplays have their own kind of shorthand where you can get away with things. You know, "a picture is worth a thousand words"? In a screenplay you can simply say "Cor's Bedroom" and not have to worry about it until you decorate and film Cor's bedroom. In a book the writer has to actually describe Cor's bedroom to develop it in the readers head. Along the same lines there isn't much collaboration when writing a book. With a book I can't expect an actor to flesh out the character, or a cinematographer to set the tone, or music to enhance the scene. It's all gotta be on the page or it isn't there. But at the same time you don't want too much description to bog the story down.

Did your characters behave the way you wanted them to or did they change the direction of the story? 

DARK MATTER HEART started its life as a screenplay, called "NICE" that I wrote in 2005. The movie, didn't get produced so after six years of my wife prodding me to turn it into a book I relented and turned the screenplay into the novel. I can't remember if back when I wrote the screenplay if the characters gave me any trouble, but this time around they were all well behaved and did what they were supposed to. The story had already been set in stone for quite some time. However, Cor and Taylor do have a tendency to start bantering and I have difficulty shutting them up so they can get on with what they have to do.

Forensic science plays a significant part in this book. Is this something you have a lot of interest in? 

As a former Military Policeman it would have been neat to further pursue a career in that. Solving mysteries and especially using science to do so has always interested me but my life took a different direction. Now I enjoy doing the research to see how this stuff works.

What inspired you to write in the YA paranormal genre? 

I've always been a fan of "teen" stories. Ever since "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton or Romeo & Juliet or "Back to the Future" or "West Side Story" as a child. In the late 90's there were some great teen movies that spanned a few genres like "Drive Me Crazy", or "The Faculty" and "Disturbing Behavior" and I loved the TV Shows "Roswell" and "Veronica Mars" so when I was writing the screenplay in 2005, I wanted to write a cool teenage vampire movie. Flashforward 6 years and the book maintains its YA/Teen roots.

Can you sum up Dart Matter Heart in 10 words? 

I'll cheat and pull the quote that I have at the beginning of the book which is from H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man" I think it sums it up beautifully: "It is wonderful how little a man can do alone!"

How many books do you plan to write in this series? The "Dark Matter Heart" series will be a trilogy. And that trilogy will be the "Origin" of The Cor Griffin Bloodsuckers. I plan to write stand-alone novels for Cor (and any others that make it through. wink wink) that will take them around the world on individual adventures. I've got the ideas for 3 additional stand-alones already but there could be plenty more.

You can find Nathan on Facebook/Goodreads/Twitter/Website