On Top Down Under Book Reviews  would like to welcome award winning author Drake Braxton.  His new novella, Vacation from Hell: The D.C. Plummer Chronicles: Volume One, was released on September 20, 2013 from Seventh Window Publications. It is the first of a collection of novellas based on D.C. Plummer (Van), a reporter in Washington, D.C. 

Author bio: Drake Braxton was born from straight parents and yet go figure – he came out gay. He’s an avid reader of gay and M/M fiction (since many people see that as two completely different things) and wanted to offer a multi-genre voice in the GLBT arena. He loves authors that can mix romance with erotice scenes and still be great story tellers. Someday he hopes to see ‘gay fiction’ moved from the back of the bookstore and mixed in with all other fiction for anyone to read. In the meantime, he’d gladly see his books on any shelf in a store: real or virtual. He is the award-winning author of MISSING published by Seventh Window Publication 2012 and optioned as as feature film,Destiny on the Tracks published by Dreamspinner Press 2013, and Vacation from Hell the first in a new series published by Seventh Window Publications 2013.

Cindi:   First, congratulations on Missing being optioned for a film. You must be so excited.

Drake: Thanks so much! That’s one of those things that some authors dream of happening, but it still feels surreal to know my story and characters may be on the big screen. (Notice I say “may” as I’m well aware of how the business works and many, MANY authors are optioned and the project never sees the light of day. But I’m still going to revel in the excitement of it all!)

Cindi:   Can you tell the readers a little about yourself? Personal? Professional?

Drake: I’m about as boring as they come which is probably why I love to escape into the world of my characters when I write. Happily married to my husband – the same one that instigated the story behind Missing because I had a dream he went missing from a reunion we attended and I woke in such a panic that I wanted to convey that in a book. We love to travel, so I enjoy adding that into my writing. Both Amsterdam in Missing and Bermuda which is in Vacation from Hell. You would find me sitting behind a desk in an office all day looking at the same computer monitor for hours on end, so I tend to give my characters much more to do in life than the monotonous world that is my own.

Cindi:  Now to your new release, Vacation from Hell (The D.C. Plummer Chronicles #1).

Official Blurb: Donovan C. Plummer has a problem, he’s too obsessed with his job as a journalist for the D.C. Herald to keep a man in his life. Eight months into his present relationship with Chet Michaels and Donovan’s job is already putting a strain on their relationship, so Donovan decides to take Chet away from everything and go on a seven day cruise. The only problem is that Donovan has a big story about to hit involving a conservative senator caught in a homosexual liaison, a story that brings death threats to Donovan via e-mail. It isn’t until those threats follow Donovan and Chet on vacation that the perfect romantic getaway becomes the vacation from hell.

Cindi:   In Vacation from Hell, D.C. Plummer (Van) is a reporter who is married to his job. This, of course, wreaks havoc on any type of relationship he hopes to have. A week long cruise is an attempt to see if he and Chet (his boyfriend of eight months) are capable of going the long-haul. Without giving anything away, do you anticipate Van ever giving a little when it comes to relationships and his job as a reporter?

Drake: It’s funny, in the first draft of the story, Van was happily married (more like me) and I decided I needed to change that up. I love to write characters with flaws and obstacles they attempt to overcome. I’ve known many people that are married to their jobs and I believe it’s something readers may be able to easily relate. By making this a series, it allows us to witness Van’s attempt to balance his life throughout different points in his career. (Naturally there will be other big stories/adventures he’ll be covering in upcoming chronicles.) I believe Van will need to learn the lesson about giving if he is to have a healthy relationship.

Cindi:  After reading the story, I can’t imagine Van being happily married as his entire world is focused on his job and finding a man who can handle the time he spends working. When you changed his character, you changed it big. He is extremely self-centered and, at times, not a likable person. While I found him to be quite charming, others might not. What do you want the readers to know about D.C. Plummer, the person?

Drake:  I think he is a very driven person. He’s an over achiever and wants to succeed. So I suppose that definitely can come across as one that worries more about himself than others around him. I don’t think journalists are always thought to have the best moral conduct, but I think in time Van will need to stop blaming his past and take control of his own life. Those times in our 30s (after the wild times of 20s) can be when people do the most soul searching. He really loves Chet and though it’s only been eight months, it is the longest relationship he’s ever had so he thinks it’s good. He just has a hard time jumping that hurdle to have someone invade his space to live with him. Again, I’ve known these people in my life (I’ve dated them before) – so I believed it added a dimension to Van that I wanted to explore as a writer.

Cindi:  Vacation from Hell takes place on a cruise ship and you could not have come up with a better title, as that’s exactly what Van and Chet experience. What made you decide to go the cruise ship route?

Drake:  I wrote the prologue to this book when I was actually on a cruise ship. I wrote it as a short story after going on a horse and buggy ride around a remote island. My crazy brain started to imagine things that could happen and this sort of poured out of me. When I decided to create this series, that story kept coming back in my head and I knew it had to be part of the book. Plus my husband and I love to cruise and have gone on several, so I felt that I really know that world. I tried to paint the picture for the reader of what it is like for those that many have never experienced it. Yet the cruise was simply part of a much larger story with the vacation being a metaphor about several areas of Van’s life that are ‘hell.’

Cindi:  Ryder is one of the secondary characters and a close friend to Van and personally, my favorite character in the book. Without telling a very important part of the story that involves him, will he be prominent in future volumes?  If not, can we expect Ryder to have his own story someday?

Drake:  Thank you! I absolutely love when readers point out the secondary characters that they enjoy. My goal was to slowly introduce some of the other people in this first story so that we meet them and then yes…Ryder will DEFINITELY be a much larger character in the next chronicle. (Maybe Van & Ryder need to be an adult version of the Hardy Boys.) {wink}

Cindi:  That makes me more eager to read the second in the series. Ryder was a blast. What else would you like to tell the readers about the book or the series as a whole?  Volume 1 ended with something brewing between two of the characters. When can we expect volume #2? How many anticipated volumes?

Drake:  I’ve never written a series before, yet I’ve read several throughout my life. I do have the outline already completed for the second one and an idea jumped in my head for a storyline further down the road – however I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I think it’s important for each story to drive itself. My characters always speak to me when I’m writing which accounts for twists and turns to happen in my stories. (People don’t always believe this, but the big twist in Missing came about after I had done the outline and started writing the book. It was never intended when I first started writing.)   Instead of one major story Van is working on as he did in the first book, there will be multiple stories he is covering in book two because his profile with the paper has been elevated. We will definitely see more of what was brewing at the end of the first book. Oh and Van is turning 35 in book two which was an important date that he mentioned in the first book. So will he have met some of those relationship goals? Guess we’ll wait to see!   And for the number of anticipated volumes, that will probably depend on how well readers respond to it and if anyone is longing for more.

Cindi:   Aside from the D.C. Plummer Chronicles, what else can the readers expect from you in the near future?

Drake:  My publisher asked me if I had another novel in me since the last book published by Dreamspinner in June was a novella and now I’m working on this series which are shorter stories. I’d like to work on another full novel, but I think for now I will concentrate on these Chronicles to see where it takes me!

Cindi:   Thank you so much for spending time with us at On Top Down Under, Drake. We look forward to volume 2 in The D.C. Plummer Chronicles and wish you much success with the series. You can find my review of Vacation from Hell here.