On Writing

Originally posted on December 6, 2011.

Greetings!

In case you haven’t noticed, there has been a lot of interviews lately. I’m pleased to say that this isn’t the end of them. If you’re an author, agent, editor, or someone with know-how about the publishing world, and  you’d like to be a victim of one of these interviews, please feel free to give a shout out. You can send me a tweet (@rebeccablain) or find me on google+.

Now, for the interview. Today, I am pleased to introduce to you David Summers. David has written several books, edited a magazine for 17 years, and has also done editing work for anthologies.

Greetings, David!

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions. Congratulations on your recently release of your book. Can you tell us a little about your book and the journey you took to get it from conception to print?

My latest novel is called OWL DANCE and it’s a wild west steampunk adventure. It tells the story of a healer from Persia named Fatemeh Karimi who tries to make a life for herself in the Southwest, but rapidly gets in trouble with one of the local mine owners. A sheriff named Ramon Morales helps her out and they both end up on the road, falling into one adventure after another. They meet mad scientists, pirates and ultimately they have to stop an invasion of the United States by Russian airships.

You can read a bit more about the novel at the publisher’s website.

The novel started out as a short story called “The Persian Witch” which ran in the anthology TRAILS: INTRIGUING STORIES OF THE WILD WEST which was published in 2006. In 2007, I wrote two more stories featuring Ramon and Fatemeh. During the course of those stories, Ramon and Fatemeh’s world took on more of a Wild West steampunk look. Then in 2009, David Rozansky of Flying Pen Press asked if I had a steampunk novel that I could pitch to him. I sent him the stories plus an outline that showed the story arc I had in mind. He gave me the green light and I proceeded to write the novel. He purchased it at the beginning of 2011.

This isn’t your first time working with Flying Pen Press. What made you choose this specific press for your books versus trying for a different press?

I edited two of the FULL-THROTTLE SPACE TALES anthologies for Flying Pen Press: SPACE PIRATES and SPACE HORRORS. I enjoyed working with David Rozansky on those collections and I liked the quality of the books themselves. Moreover, I’ve seen those books distributed in more bookstores than any of my other titles.

Of course, David Rozansky sparked OWL DANCE by asking for an outline, so as far as I was concerned, he had first right of refusal for the finished novel. Also, I knew he had hired a good editor, knowledgeable about the steampunk genre. All of those facts together prompted me to stick with Flying Pen through the whole publication process.

What process did you use to select your publisher? Can you tell us anything about the pitfalls and challenges that you encountered on your way to getting your books in print?

At the point that I wrote OWL DANCE, I had two established publishing companies that I had a really good working relationship with — one of them being Flying Pen Press. I like both companies about equally, but OWL DANCE was something quite different from what the other publisher had done. In particular, because David Rozansky had hired Matt Delman to edit steampunk titles, I thought Flying Pen had a particular passion for this up-and-coming genre that my other publisher didn’t necessarily share.

Because I already had two established publishers, I actually had a relatively easy time bringing OWL DANCE to print.

Earlier in my career, it was a different story. I had an agent who sold my novel THE PIRATES OF SUFIRO to a publisher in Canada. That publisher promptly went out of business and I had a book few people were interested in. I’ll tell a little more of that story in the next question, but in short I tried to resell the book and its sequel CHILDREN OF THE OLD STARS without much success. Finally, a friend of mine was hired as an art director for LBF Books. He encouraged me to submit the books there. They loved them and asked if I could complete the trilogy, which I did. The books have been in print with them ever since. LBF also went on to publish my novel VAMPIRES OF THE SCARLET ORDER.

Do you have an agent? If you do, what steps did you take to acquire him or her? If not, what made you choose not having an agent?

As I mentioned in the previous question, I had an agent. I was living in Tucson at the time, and this particular agent was scheduled to come to a local book festival. She was taking submissions of manuscripts to evaluate, so I sent THE PIRATES OF SUFIRO to her. In the meantime, I researched her and she appeared legitimate with a listing in Literary Market Place and a good client list. I was thrilled when she agreed to represent THE PIRATES OF SUFIRO.

Unfortunately, what I didn’t know was that she was involved in a scam to send authors to a vanity press. She ultimately went to jail for that scam and that ended my relationship with her.

I haven’t worked to find an agent since then. That said, I know that having a good agent can be helpful and can really help on the business side of publishing. So I’ve been giving serious thought to beginning the search again.

Steampunk wouldn’t be steampunk without the science. During your ‘daily’ life, you operate telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. When you aren’t tinkering, you enjoy history and travel. What triggered the jump from doing things like this in the real world to putting them on paper as stories?

In some ways the jump actually happened the other way around. I’ve been writing stories as long as I can remember. Sometime when I was about eight years old, I declared to my parents that I was going to be a writer. They told me I couldn’t do that, no one ever made money as a writer. So they encouraged me to find something I could make money at. Because I liked space exploration from all the science fiction I read as a kid, I thought astronomy would be a good career, and it succeeded in pleasing my parents.

Now I should step back and say, no one can have a good career in science if they don’t have a passion for the subject. That passion for me developed starting when I was eight and has continued to grow since then. The work we do at Kitt Peak nowadays, looking for exoplanets and trying to understand dark matter and dark energy is vitally important and I’m really honored to be a part of it.

That said, writing is like having a good diet for me. I just don’t feel right if I go a week without putting some words into the computer!

You are one of the many who merge writer and editor in one entity. Did you start as an editor or did you start as a writer? What made you pursue both aspects of writing?

My science career is actually where I got my start in editing. My science papers were heavily hacked up and put back together again by peers. It gave me a strong appreciation for clarity in writing. As I started seriously pursuing writing for publication and being part of writer’s groups, I realized I could bring those skills to my fellow writers.

A short time after that, my wife pursued her MBA at the University of Arizona. She did research into small press publishing and we decided to start a small press called Hadrosaur Productions where I could use those editorial skills I’d been acquiring. The press was originally going to focus on audio books, but it really got off the ground with a small magazine called HADROSAUR TALES. Over the years, we’ve changed the format and its now called TALES OF THE TALISMAN.

Can you tell us a little about your editing work?

Most of the editing I do now is selecting and editing stories for TALES OF THE TALISMAN magazine. We have two reading periods each year starting on January 1 and July 1. We read until the magazine is full — usually about six weeks after opening. People can learn more about the magazine, order a sample copy and get writer’s guidelines at talesofthetalisman.com

Editing a magazine for 17 years has given me a really critical eye for stories. I have a good sense for what things work and don’t work in a story. I’ve learned that if you mention something in a story, you should pay it off in some way before the story ends. I’ve also developed a pretty good eye for things that have been done to death, versus ideas that could use further exploration. I use all of that both when selecting stories for the magazine as well as when writing my own stories and novels.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve also edited two anthologies for Flying Pen Press called SPACE PIRATES and SPACE HORRORS. Those were invitation anthologies, where I invited a set of writers I knew and had worked with to submit. I picked the writers because I knew they were solid storytellers and would bring a good balance to the anthologies.

Every writer approaches a book differently. Do you have a set method for writing a novel? If so, do you mind sharing your process? What makes you tick as a writer?

I usually start a novel with a handful of cool ideas — or at least ideas I think are cool. I start a file on the computer and put those ideas down, then let them percolate for a while until I understand the story that links those ideas together. At that point, I typically put together a synopsis that gives me an idea of what the novel is actually about. That’s about the time I’m ready to start composing the novel.

At that point, I approach chapters the same way I approach short stories. In both cases, I start thinking about the events and go through a process of visualization. I try to “see” the events of the story as though they are something that actually happened. Once I think I have the story sorted out, I’m finally ready to sit down and write it. By the time I get to that stage, I feel like I’m writing about something that actually happened. I take a lot of long walks and a lot of this visualizing happens while I’m out walking.

Do you ever find that your editorial side interferes with your creative side?

Not too much. I do find that I tend to edit as I type, trying to make things get better even as I’m writing them. However, that’s where the long walks come in. I get the basics of the story down in my mind before I actually try to set them down in the computer. It becomes a way for me to keep the editor in me from interfering with story creation before I’m ready to write the words. Once I’m ready to write the words, the editor helps to make sure I get the right ones down the first time — or at least close to the right ones!

Writing is a never-ending process. Do you have any new projects that are in the works right now? Can you tell us a little about what you’re actively working on?

Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on a novel called DRAGON’S FALL. It’s a prequel to VAMPIRES OF THE SCARLET ORDER that’s slated to be out in early 2012. The book is basically complete and edited, but I’m working on some extra scenes my editor and I thought would enhance the novel.

Next after that, I plan to start work on a sequel to OWL DANCE tentatively entitled CLOCKWORK POSSE. I’ve already started collecting ideas and throwing them into a file on my computer!

What is your favorite part of writing?

I think my favorite part is when I realize that I have a story that actually works. That usually happens somewhere between the visualization step and the actual writing stage. Basically it’s the moment in writing where I realize that I know this story and I don’t have to work at it. I’m just along for an enjoyable ride!

If you could give a new writer one piece of advice, what would it be?

Always hone and practice your craft. Part of that is to read with a thoughtful eye — see what other writers do better than you and see if you can incorporate something of that into your own writing. Part of that is to write regularly and look at your own writing with a critical eye. Ask yourself if you told a story in the best possible way. Have readers give you feedback and pay attention. Readers and editors aren’t always right, but they always provide insight.

No interview is complete without a strange question. You can take one famous author to lunch with you. During the hour you have with them, you are not allowed to talk about the writing craft or about books in any shape or form. Who would you take with you and what would you talk about?

I think it would have to be Neil Gaiman and I would talk to him about the places he’s been. It sounds like he’s traveled quite a bit around the United States and so have I. It would be fun to talk about some of the things we’ve seen and people we’ve encountered. Of course, maybe that’s cheating since that’s the essence of what good storytelling is all about!

Thank you for joining us!

Thanks for the interview! It was a pleasure. Please feel free to let me know if you have any followup questions.