Friday, April 12, 2013

Author Interview – David VanDyke

imageWhat’s your favorite place in the entire world? My favorite place I have been has to be the Sierras – Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy, Lake Tahoe – if I could afford to live there, that’s probably where I’d live. I love the mountains, the clean air, the coolness, the seasons.

How has your upbringing influenced your writing? I was brought up a relatively moderate and mainstream Protestant Christian and you can see it come through every now and again in my writing. I haven’t wrote anything in the Christian genre yet but I keep my books PG-13 or cleaner, and I give my characters a range of beliefs from atheist to fundamentalist, and try to use those in the stories without making them into stereotypes.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? I’ve been an avid reader and created stories in my head since I was five, but I got sidetracked in life by two things. One, in-person role-playing games like D&D or Vampire: The Masquerade gave me a creative outlet with much more immediate rewards, and two, it was so hard to break in to the traditional market. With the advent of self-publishing through things like Amazon, and the success of a couple of childhood friends of mine, authors BV Larson and Vaughn Heppner, I figured I had a real shot at getting my work read and bought.

How long have you been writing? About a year, in which time I’ve published four books in a series, and two standalone works. I’m starting to slow down and concentrate on improving my quality, editing, and all those other things that go with trying to set myself up for success, but I have one book written but not published yet, and several more in various stages of development.

When did you first know you could be a writer? I’ve always known it. I’ve been a technical writer in some form on and off for almost thirty years, all my adult life (I’m 49). The only question ever was, how to translate the craft of communication into writing good stories and prose.

What inspires you to write and why? An audience. I don’t think I’d write if I was not published. In fact, I’m sure of it, since I didn’t. I’m not one of those writers who writes for himself. I’ve always been something of a performer, just like my brother Andrew, who has a degree in theatre. Mine was in history, but it was role-playing games that really game me the chance to tell stories to an audience.

What genre are you most comfortable writing? Anything with a speculative bent – sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural. That’s what all my books are so farm and unless at some point I deliberately decide to write without those elements, they’ll probably always be there.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – SciFi /Adventure

Rating – PG13

More details about the author & the book

Connect with David Van Dyke on FacebookTwitter

Blog https://davidvandyke.wordpress.com/

No comments:

Post a Comment