My librarian just informed me that I have an interview/article in the current issue of AudioFile magazine. Nice.

HERE it is!

Labels: Interviews

The second part of my interview with Larry at OF Blog of the Fallen has just gone up. It's HERE!

Labels: Interviews, Links

The first part of a two part interview just went up at OF Blog of the Fallen. Larry asked great questions, substantive ones that range away from just talking about the book and get into lots of other stuff.

Check it out: HERE.

Also, his earlier review of The Other Lands is HERE.

Labels: Interviews

Sorry to just be lobbing links to interviews and reviews at you these last couple of weeks, but this period will pass before long so I'd better make the best of it.

Here's another podcast! This time it's with the folks at The Dragon Page. These guys are fun, too. Not sure about the author in question, but still...

Check it out HERE.

Labels: Interviews

Artist extraordinaire John Picacio has been nice enough to give The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2) cover treatment a shout out at Missions Unknown! Take a look at the other choices that caught his HERE.

(By the way, the image here in one of John's, the cover of Subterranean's Muse of Fire, by Dan Simmons. Pretty cool, huh?)

Just got word that a new podcast interview I did recently with Jon Armstrong has gone up on his site, If You're Just Joining Us. It was a pleasure talking to him. I'd first done so a little over a year ago also, back when we were both up for the 2008 Campbell Award. (For the record, Jon did get more votes than me that time around. So the eventual win this year was definitely a come from behind deal.)

He's always fun to chat with. Oh, and you can listen and then tell me how I don't sound anything like you'd imagined... It's HERE.

Labels: Interviews, Writing Life

I just came across an interview with David Liss at Girls Just Reading. David is one of my favorite historical novelists, author of The Whiskey Rebels, A Conspiracy of Paper, The Coffee Trader, among others. His newest is The Devil's Company, which I haven't read yet, but will soon.

Now, as I send you over to the interview I should mention that David isn't just a favorite author because he writes entertaining, smart, well-plotted historical fiction about memorable characters. That's more than enough, but I also should mention that he's been know to say nice things about my writing - as he does in this interview. Smart guy, indeed.

The interview is HERE.

Labels: Interviews, Other Authors

Elbakin.net just put up an interview I did with them while in France.

It was good fun, done at a patio table at a creperie in Rennes, with a small group of people I now think of as friends.

The Elbakin.net folks also alerted me to another French Acacia development, but in the interests of creating suspense (and stretching content) I'll hold off on that post for a day or two...

Labels: Foreign Editions, Interviews

Mary Robinette Kowal, the current reigning Campbell queen, has started a series of interview features with the rabble that would like to grab her tiara. She sent me some questions a few days ago, I shot them back to her fast, and she's posted them. Take a look here.

As I send you over there, I realize that in one of my answers I made a wee announcement that I hadn't actually made here yet. It's a Kowal exclusive. Perhaps I should say a word about it, though. So, go take a look and then come back and we'll talk.

I'll just look at puppies until you get back...

Okay, so you're back? Right. You may have noticed that I announced over there that I'll be leaving my full-time teaching job at Cal State Fresno. Yep. Crazy, huh? With this economy? Are you loopy, David? (That's me talking to myself. Sorry...)

Well, yes, it may be a bit loopy, but it may also be wonderful. When we moved West three years ago, we were following the teaching jobs that were on offer. Good jobs. Engaging teaching. Grown-up security. But we were also leaving behind a house in the woods in Western Massachusetts, a house and community we really rather loved. We've decided the time away has been enough. We're going back. (There's more to it than that, but that's the short version.)

So what am I going to do for a living at my "house in the woods"? Part time I'll continue to teach for the Stonecoast MFA Program. It's a low-residency program that includes Popular Fiction in its curriculum. I get to hang out with James Patrick Kelly, Kelly Link, Nancy Holder and Michael Kimball (just to name a few folks), and I get to work with material that's often close to my own interests.

But that's just part time. More significantly, my full time job will be... writing. Writing books. Writing stories. Writing blog posts, essays, reviews. Writing stuff. I hope that excites you. It excites me, but it'll only work if I have some help from my friends.

So don't be shy out there. If you like my work buy a title every now and then. Tell friends. Give chunky books as birthday present. Write a blog post or review. I'll appreciate it each and every time, and in return I'll focus on being the best writer I can. And I'll make sure that if you do care about my characters and the worlds they live in I won't make you wait too long between books about them.

Deal?

Labels: Cool Friends, Interviews, John W. Campbell

David Anthony Durham de nouveau en exclusivite sur Elbakin.net...

French

English

Labels: Acacia, Foreign Editions, Interviews

The very cool Allan Dujiperou conducted an interview with me for the French website Fantastinet. Thanks, much, Allan. I love the way I sound in French. For example...

Allan : Je dois reconnaitre que j'ai lu le premier volume et que j'ai ete impressionne par… Tout ! Pour beaucoup de lecteurs, ton livre est parmi les meilleurs de fantasy. Que ressens-tu quand tu entends ca ?

Anthony : Je suis enchante ! Bien sur, c'est exactement ce que j'espere entendre. J'ai travaille dur pour rendre l'histoire complexe, avec des personnages interessants des thematiques sous le verni de l'action. Je veux ecrire des romans << serieux >> qui font aussi passer de bons moments au lecteur. Entendre que les lecteurs ont trouve cela dans mon travail est tres satisfaisant.

"Anthony" is me, by the way. Yeah, I like that...

Here's the interview in English.

And here it is in French.

Labels: Foreign Editions, Interviews, Links

I recently answered Five Questions for Shawn Speakman over on his Suvudu blog. Please check it out here: SUVUDU.

(And if I don't interest you enough to sen you over there, Shawn has recent interviews up from Terry Brooks, Sean Williams and Jacqueline Carey, just to name a few.)

Labels: Interviews, Links

I'll do something other than just post links to interviews and reviews soon, but I've got another one first. Joseph Mallozzi has kindly featured me on his uber-popular webblog. Acacia was the November fantasy book club pick. They discussed it. (I looked away - just in case.) But afterwards the participants sent me some questions. I happily answered them, sent them back and Joe just published them.

You can read them here.

He's got an old photo of me and friend from the Netherlands on there as well...

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Links

Phenix-Web has just posted a French language interview with me on their site. You can check it out here. (I think it's probably better if you speak French, though.)

Labels: Foreign Editions, Interviews

I've been a bit distracted this week. A lot of stuff going on, really. I'm in the thick of teaching again, and trying to keep my nose in The Other Lands, dealing with interview queries and such, and also juggling some family-related decisions (this last is not actually the last in terms of the attention it's received recently). Oh, and, yeah, I've been keeping one eye on the election news and another on real estate in Europe (depending what happens). I've no major upheavals to report, or drama like that on Gulf Coast right now, but if you're interested in some of the new developments, I offer these...

Joseph Mallozzi, a producer for the very successful series Stargate: Atlantis, contacted me early in the week. No, not because he has series plans for Acacia... (You'll forgive me for inhaling sharply before reading the rest of his email.) Instead, he mentioned that his book club - which choses a sci-fi, fantasy and horror title to read and discuss each month - will be featuring Acacia as their November fantasy pick. Rather nice, this. (His blog is very well trafficked. So I can be sure Aliver and Corinn and Hanish will please and upset a few more folks.) And, better yet, he asked if I'd answer questions and interact a bit with his readers. I was quite happy to say yes. Here's the announcement. (John Twelve Hawks is doing it also, although I bet I'm a bit more approachable.) If you're reading the book now and would like to have a community to talk it over with others, this is probably a good place to start.

Also this week, I was invited to become a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Novelists (SF Novelist, for short). I accepted, of course. It's sort of discussion/support/networking group for established authors. Invite only, thank you very much. I'm thrilled to get in. I've been too busy this week with a variety of other things to post much yet, but I've had a flood of interesting emails coming from the group. It's very nice to hear professionals talking candidly about all aspects of their experiences in the business. I think I'm going to really like being part of it. They also keep a blog in which we rotate posting and offer news about our books: Science Fiction and Fantasy Novelists.

And, finally, I spent a deal of time chewing on this dilemma... (I know, it's a pretty nice dilemma to have. That doesn't mean it doesn't make my head spin a bit.) I'm scheduled to go World Fantasy in Calgary next month. Super terrific. I thought last year's con was great, and I've been looking forward to this for ages. I know so many more people now and - even better - I know who I don't know, and who I'll look to accost this time around. So that's all good.

The possible problem is that my French publisher tossed out the suggestion that I go to Utopiales, probably the largest European SciFi Con. (It's in Nantes, if you want to Google the locale.) They're very excited about the book, see, and the timing would be just perfect for the launch of Acacia in France. They'd try to set up interviews, events, meetings, etc. I'd do a lot more of that than at World Fantasy, I imagine. And, just like World Fantasy, there are lots of groovy authors and events at Utopiales. It's decidedly a different slice of the international literary world, but it's one that I'd love sample. I don't have all the details yet, but I'll know soon what's possible with such a trip.

The problem? The two events happen at exactly the same time. Oct 29 - Nov 2. Though I tried to twist my head around it, there's no possible way to do both at once. Is there? Believe me, I tried to think of ways... If you have any suggestions on how I could manage that let me know. Otherwise, what to do? What to do?

Labels: Interviews, Links, Other Authors

Hi. Just wanted to mention that the interview I did with Dave Brendon is up on his blog.

You can check it out here.

Okay. I'm off to the natural world for bit. Be back in a few days!

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Links

Dave Brendon, a bookseller and blogger from South Africa, has posted a lovely review of Acacia on his blog. He's the SciFi and Fantasy specialist at Fascination Books, which appears to be a chain with stores all over South Africa. Cool. Also very nice that he liked the book so much!

Dave has been in contact with me, actually, and I'll be answering a few interview questions for him shortly. Great to think I'm getting some attention way down south in Africa.

If you have any desire to buy your books in Rands, now you know where to go!

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Links

I had the pleasure recently of doing an interview with Zauberspiegel, an up and coming German review site. Thanks to Bettina Meister for her time and attention to the book and to translating the interview!

The English Version is HERE.

The German Version is HERE.

Labels: Acacia, Foreign Editions, Interviews, Links

Yep, it's my turn on If You're Just Joining Us. Jon has been interviewing all the Campbell Award Nominees. We had a talk a couple weeks back. I quite enjoyed it. We talked for over an hour, I think, but don't worry - the interview is cut down to about 20 minutes. (Ah, one might wonder what tidbits were cut out...)

Thing to remember with Jon is that he doesn't like to ask the standard writerly-type questions. He wants us thinking out of the box a bit, responding to some random promptings like, "I understand you spent four days fasting naked in the Arizona desert... was that by choice?"

Click here to have a listen.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, John W. Campbell, Random Ruminations

A couple of months back I got an email from a high school student in Massachusetts. He was doing a project on "local" writers and came across little ole me. He asked if he could interview me. I pointed out that I lived about 3,000 miles away from MA, but also admitted that part of my soul is still rooted in that rich soil... We decided to go ahead and do the interview.

He asked the questions you see below, and I answered them as you see below. I was thrilled to learn later that he received an A on the project. Glad I could help. Here's the Q&A we came up with...

What is life as an author like for you today?

Right now it’s pretty darn good. Acacia is going to come out in paperback later this summer, after a year as a hardcover. It’s also come out in Germany and Britain, and will steadily roll out in a variety of languages and countries throughout the year. That’s thrilling. It’s taken a while to get here, but it does finally feel like new people are being exposed to my books somewhere in the world every day. I like that a lot.

On a daily basis, I’ve just finished up my teaching responsibilities. (I teach creative writing at Cal State University.) That means I’m focusing a lot more on finishing my next novel. It’s the sequel to Acacia, called The Other Lands, and I have to do as much work on it as I can this summer. The pressure is on, really, but that’s a good pressure. I do feel that writing fiction is the main thing I’m supposed to do for a living, so it’s good to be at it again on a daily basis.

Right now I’m in the small room toward the back of my property. It’s my new office. I’d like to think that I’ll spend most of my days in here throughout the summer, writing and reading and slowly moving the book toward the end.

How did your English teachers influence you and help develop your passion for writing?

I need to admit something to you before I answer – I wasn’t a good high school student. Not good at all. There were a lot of reasons for it, surely too many to go into here, but I’d have to say that my love of reading and writing happened largely outside of the classroom – at least, this is true for when I was in high school. I was an avid reader from my early teens, but my recollection of it is that I found my love of literature on my own.

Frankly, I wish that wasn’t the case. If you’re lucky enough to teachers that are encouraging your passion for literature – as I assume they are since you’re talking with me and since you asked that question – you’re lucky. Enjoy it. Make use of it. If you do you’ll be heading forward ahead of where I was when I stumbled out of high school with very little idea what I was going to do next.

You have written both historical fiction and other novels like Acacia: What has drawn you to these two genres?

Although I wasn’t a good high school student, I did become a very good college student. I loved the challenges thrown at me in college, and I responded to them by becoming a better and better student. One of the areas I excelled in was writing, but the second area was history. I absolutely loved learning about the gritty details of the past, the amazing stories, the dirty secrets, the inspiring characters that have actually lived before us.

My first two novels (I mean the unpublished novels I wrote in college and graduate school) were contemporary, but those were really just the books I had to write to grow into being a writer. When things really took off for me was when I combined the coming of age stories I’d been working on with historical eras that interested me.

At it’s heart, my first published novel, Gabriel’s Story, is a coming of age tale. It’s about a young man that moves with his mother to a place that’s foreign to him. He mourns his dead father and doesn’t like his well-meaning stepfather. Well, that’s exactly what one of my unpublished novels was about. But when I combined that story with history that I was interested in – that of the old American West – the story got a lot more exciting. I had learned that African-Americans moved into the West just as white settlers did. We don’t tend to learn as much about that, though, and black characters certainly weren’t a very big part of old Western films. So it was also exciting to be able to write about that aspect of history, but do it by telling an adventure story focused on a few characters.

When writing, do you find similarities between the personalities of your characters and people you know in your own life?

You bet. I also find bits and pieces of myself in all my characters. I think that’s the way it has to be. If I couldn’t identify with something in each of my characters I don’t think I could write them well. Good guys. Bad guys. White. Black. Male. Female. Whatever – there’s always some of me - and part of people I know - in them somewhere.

I’ve never modeled a character completely after a real person, though. That’s where it gets confusing. The character of Gabriel from Gabriel’s Story, for example, was inspired by someone I new in childhood. He was a bully. A mean kid, full of anger. That’s where Gabriel began, but Gabriel is also me, and he’s also a fictional character. It’s kinda weird. Gabriel in the novel isn’t even a bully. His character changed that much from when I began to write it until when I finished, but if you ask me I know exactly what Gabriel looks like because I remember what a bully named Tony looked like. Oh, and I should note that my middle name is Tony (Anthony), as is my son’s, and my stepfather’s. Even more telling – my father’s first name is Tony. Ah, you say, but the character is your book isn’t named Tony. He’s Gabriel! You’re right. But to me his also Tony, and he embodies an incredible host of connections with real life for me.

Welcome to fiction writer weirdness.

For a historical fiction book like Pride of Carthage, how did you decide on such a specific time and place in history to write about?

Oh, in the case of Pride of Carthage it was the main character, Hannibal Barca, that drew me in. I first learned about him in college, and I still remember the exact day in a big lecture hall when my professor told us about this guy from North Africa that defeated Romans in battle after battle, so much so that the Romans spent several years refusing to fight him anymore. They would just shut the gates and say, “No thanks,” and would hold out until he went off somewhere else. This a guy that rode up to the gates of Rome on an elephant, munching on dates or figs and just sort of hung out, daring Rome to risk everything by fighting him. Pretty amazing character, and it only gets better when you know the details of how it all came to be. That’s I really wanted to write about.

Also, I loved it that the world of the Second Punic War (Hannibal’s War) was so ethnically diverse. This wasn’t just Brad Pitt fighting Eric Bana (as in the movie Troy). It was so much more multi-hued than that. It features many North African tribes, and Celt-Iberian Tribes from Spain, Gauls from Southern France and Northern Italy, Macedonians and other Greeks… It really was an incredible conflict.

Don’t get me wrong; it was also a horrible conflict with an endless death toll and all sorts of rape and misery. But that’s often what history is about. I hadn’t read what I thought was a good novel about Hannibal and his war, so I decided to write the novel that I wished I could have read. That’s what Pride of Carthage is.

How was it different for you writing Acacia after writing a lot of historical fiction?

This may seem weird, but it wasn’t that different at all. I kinda felt like I was writing an historical novel. It’s just that it was an historical novel of a world that doesn’t exist!

My approach was the same in many ways. Consider that when writing about historical events that happened two thousand years ago I did have to describe a pretty strange world. Religious ideas, science, race and gender roles, morality – not to mention that vast array of different customs and cultures: all of that meant that I was writing about a world that is quite alien to a modern reader. So it wasn’t too big a jump to start writing about a world that I’d made up. I had to cover the same bases. I wanted the cultures to feel authentic, for the history to be detailed, for the conflicts to be deep-rooted and for the characters to really come alive. Added to all, though, I got to add some magic, some strange creatures, and I got to mix everything up to make sure it stayed interesting.

Neal Stephenson, a very popular science fiction writer (Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptomonicon), who has also written historical novels (The Baroque Trilogy), said that he didn’t think that writing sci-fi was very different than writing about the distant past. He’s a smart guy. I agree with him.

Labels: Interviews

The fantastic Tempest Bradford has just put up an Interview with me in Fantasy Magazine.

It's here!

If that one does nothing for you, try clicking on Tempest's name. That'll take you to a listing of her many, many other cool interviews and stuff.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Links

Leaving on a jet-plane for fantasy land tomorrow. Good stuff, but I'm not ready. I should be packing. Why is it that I'm still wearing clothes that I plan on taking with me? Gotta do a wash... It's been a hectic few days, and that's not likely to change soon.

Last day for the Acacia Audio Giveaway. You could still slip your name in at the Forum to win 29.5 hours of Dick Hill's melodious voice reading about Aliver and Hanish, Corinn and Mena and Santoths and Numreks, etc...

I was super-pleased to get featured in this month's issue of Geek Monthly. (No, I'm not being ironic, or oblivious either...) I'm in this issue...

Jeremiah Griffey did a great peace, not so much a review as a feature interview. Great big picture of the book. And of me! And lots of good quotes. Very nicely done. Thank you, Jeremiah.

Oh, and by the way, I had what I think was a very cool Acacia 2 revelation today. Ah, the places we'll go... The things we'll see...

I'm a little giddy.

Labels: Acacia, Cons, Interviews

Hello. Nothing profound to say this Sunday afternoon. Just spent a few days in Tahoe, very nice. Loved the air, the vistas, the cold. It always does us good to get up to altitude.

I've been quite pleased that folks have joined my Forum and put their names in for the audio Acacia giveaway (Click Here for the Original Post About It). The contest is still open, so if you're interested in picking up a free copy of the audio version of Acacia pop over to the Forum and sign up. I'm thinking I'll leave it open until the end of the month, and then I'll do the big drawing! (Hey, it's my first giveaway. I'm digging it.)

I got a stellar review from Joe Sherry over at his Adventures in Reading blog. It's easy for me to point you his direction on this occasion, seeing as how he's proved himself an insightful reader - the kind I do figurative somersaults on hearing from. I also don't mind just sending you in his direction in general, though. He's an active blogger that has a wide range of reading tastes. He's just got his 10,000 visitor. Nice numeric milestone to reach!

Oh, I'm also pleased to say the Durham family is soon to be conducting an interview with Kai Meyer. He's a wonderful, internationally bestselling writer of many novels, known in English translations primarily for his YA fantasy. I say "the Durham family" because all of us have been reading his books. Kai agreed to take questions from adults and kids alike, so look for what we put together in the coming weeks! Maybe it'll be the start of a series of some sort...

Labels: Interviews, Links, Other Authors, Recommendations

I was surprised and pleased to be mentioned in an interview with Jonathan Messinger at Likely Stories, a book blog affiliated with Booklist. Jonathan is the books and poetry editor at Time Out Chicago and Editor in Chief of a Featherproof, an independent publisher.

He was promoting a forthcoming book of short stories called Hiding Out, but when asked about what he likes to read he mentioned taking Acacia with him on a recent vacation. Nice. That's always a treat to hear, but even better when it's said in public like that. I don't know Jonathon's work yet, but I'll be checking it out soon.

What's more, there's a link in the piece that goes to the Booklist review of Acacia. Strangely enough, it's a review I never read before. I knew it was good (starred actually), but I'd never gotten my hands on the text. Then I sort of forgot about it. You can read it here. Thanks to Sally Estes, the reviewer, for the kind treatment.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews

After Sylvain directed me to the elbakin.net website and forums I ended up poking around enough to find a lengthy interview I did - in French!

For example, I was asked "J'ai note que le titre de la série est The war with Mein, Acacia est donc le premier d'une plus large serie?"

Nice question, I thought. Great to be able to elaborate. So I said, "Oui. Pour le moment, je suis sur une intrigue qui porte sur deux livres supplementaires. Je ne voudrai pas trop en dire – sur ce qui se passe dans ce livre ou le prochain - mais je dirai que les deux prochains livres impliquent des luttes beaucoup plus vastes qui mettent en cause bien plus de pays. C'est a propos du conflit entre le Monde connu et les Autres terres."

I was then asked, "Votre precedent livre etait du domaine historique. Qu'est-ce qui vous a amene a la fantasy?"

I always enjoy this question, so I quickly replied, "Je pensais a Acacia depuis 8 ans avant de l'ecrire. Et ceci seulement en ce qui concerne le scénario et les conflits du roman. Mon amour de la fantasy remonte bien plus loin. J'ai appris a aimer lire grace a la fantasy. Je n'etais pas un tres bon lecteur lorsque j'etais jeune. C'etait dur pour moi, mais lorsque j'ai commence a lire de la fantasy j'ai découvert des mondes, des personnages et des histoires si merveilleuses que j'avais plus qu'envie de m'y frayer un chemin. Je dois beaucoup a C. S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula LeGuin, et, bien sur, a Tolkien..." And on and on. I just couldn't shut up!

You can see the entire interview HERE. How interesting it is to be part of wired world... (Thanks to Jay Tomio and FantasyBookSpot for the original interview.)

Labels: Acacia, Foreign Editions, Interviews

Another interview. A shorter one this time. A bit lighter than most, I'm glad to say. Neth at Neth Space had a few questions for me. They include bits on Haggis and Cow-skin soup and nudity - not necessarily in conjunction. You can read it here.

Labels: Interviews, Links

No, I haven't literally had any lately, but I did have the pleasure of doing an interview for a very cool store by that name. They've got it up here: Adventures Underground.

At the moment, the bio attributes a few things to me that I can't exactly vouch for the truth of, but I understand that'll be changed soon. (I chuckled when I saw the Eskimo mention.) Anyway, if you're interested they also have signed copies of Acacia: The War with the Mein. Signed by me, that is.

*Update* As of later in the day... the sketchy bio info has been amended. Alas, I chuckle no more...

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Signed Copies

Hi. I'm still stuck in to three days of "New Faculty" stuff here at Cal State. Not my favorite way to spend time. I just thought I'd take a minute, though, and link to a few things...

Over at the SF Site an interview I did with Jeff VanderMeer just went up. It was a pleasure to do. Jeff's a professional at all this stuff. (And he knows The Church - as in the band! Very cool.)

Do you know about the Page 69 Test? It's a site that has authors look at page 69 of their book and write a bit about whether or not it represents the entire book, etc. They tapped me and I took the test. You can read it here.

There's still a good deal of debate going on regarding my "Color Blind" reader post. (See below. )I find it all very interesting, and there's been more said them I'm actually able to comment on. Other than here on the blog, there are discussions up in quite a few places now. You could definitely check out The Fantasy Review, Neth Space and Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog for some other perspectives/discussions.

In particular, the George RR Martin Forum has quite a lively discussion going on.

Labels: Interviews, Links, Random Ruminations, That Old Race Thing Again

Hey. John Scalzi just posted an interview with me on Ficlets. He also mentions it on his stellar blog, Whatever. I'm thrilled about this. John's great. I admire his work and the life he's leading as a hard-core freelance writer.

I just popped over and checked out his blog and took a look at the comments so far. (One wonders if I should do this...) John gets a lot of visitors, so the comments are already lining up. One thing I'd note is that almost all the comments are about my answer to "racism in fantasy" question. Hey, I'm cool with whatever aspect of it gets folks talking, but it's funny that that's what gets picked up on. It was only one of the six questions, and none of the other ones had anything to do with race.

What about my days naked and fasting in the Arizona desert?

Or my answer to the question about a piece of writing advice I'd been given?

Labels: Acacia, Cool Friends, Interviews, Links

RevolutionSF has shown me love in several ways. They made Acacia: The War with the Mein the front page feature! At the moment it's HERE, with the Acacia map used prominently. If you click on the map it takes you to the "Baker's Dozen" interview I did with Rick Klaw. Nice. This would've been cool enough, especially as I think their site is great, smart and witty and well put together. It gets better, though.

They have a review up by Peggy Hailey. She talks about approaching the book warily, thinking she was largely done with epic fantasy quests and Book One's of new series, and especially with long Book One's. That is, of course, a scary way to start a review - from the author's perspective...

Ah, but what gratification follows! She liked the book, quite a bit it seems. Among other generous things, she writes...

"David Anthony Durham has pulled off something remarkable: a huge, sprawling epic that manages to weave together history, politics, intrigue and thunderous action scenes without ever losing track of the multitudes of finely-drawn characters."

Double nice.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews

My first podcast interview is up now on The Dragon Page. It was good fun to do a few weeks ago, although of course as soon as I got off the phone I thought of all sorts of smart stuff I should've said... But such is always the case. I'm brilliant after-the-fact.

If you're interested, though, please listen. Actually, The Dragon Page is doing double-barrelled interviews. I'm paired with Anne McCaffrey, no less! You can check it out here.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews

I noticed an interesting article in the New York Times today that corresponded to something I'd just been thinking about. Jay Tomio, in his interview with me for at Book Spot Central, asked in what ways I found the pre-publication of my first fantasy novel different than my earlier publications as an historical/literary novelist. One of the things that came to mind was that we were putting a lot of effort into creating online interest among die-hard fantasy/sci-fi fans. A lot of what that means is that we're sending arcs of the book to people that blog on fantasy fiction. We'll be giving attention to the traditional media formats also, but I've found it interesting to face the reality (and the potential) of giving actual readers a say in the early shaping of a title's reputation. I don't think we'd done that much with earlier novels, and I feel in general that literary writers and editors probably aren't that keen on giving regular folks (ie- readers instead of professional critics) that sort of power.

Thing is, it's increasingly not up to publishers to determine who shapes opinion on their books. The New York Times article is about just this, the reality that print media has been cutting, cutting, cutting back on the space they give book reviews. At the same time, the online world is growing as a source for literary discourse. So maybe my feeling that this fantasy publication of mine is quite different is really just coming to see that the fantasy market is ahead of the curve in acknowledging the changing world. If this is the case, many literary writers are going to need to do some catching up in the coming years.

Take a look at the article (Are Book Reviewers Out of Print?) and, if you like, tell me what think.

Labels: Interviews, Random Ruminations

Jay Tomio reviewed Acacia: The War with the Mein interviewed me of Book Spot Central. Check it out here.

And Robert Thompson of the Fantasy Book Critic has posted a review on his website. Check it out here.

Thank you, Jay and Robert.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Links

Paul Witcover recently interviewed me on behalf of my publisher, Doubleday. I thought he asked great questions and it was really enjoyable interacting with him. It can be found, along with other book info, over at Random House. But I'll include it here also...

AUTHOR Q & A
An Interview with David Anthony Durham,
author of Acacia: Book 1: The War with the Mein

Doubleday Books: You're known as a historical novelist; your previous novel was the well-received Pride of Carthage. Was moving into epic fantasy a natural step for you? Certainly the novel reveals a writer with a deep familiarity and affection for the genre.

David Anthony Durham: Thanks for saying that. It did feel very natural to me. I loved fantasy as an adolescent - Tolkein, LeGuin, Lewis, Alexander, Donaldson - and took great joy in rediscovering it as an adult - most notably with George RR Martin's works. Reading Martin I'm aware I'm in the hands of an intelligent writer with a great grasp of literature and wonderful gifts as a storyteller, someone who is going to take me on a long journey with quite a few surprises along the way. I felt the same reading science fiction writers like Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Herbert. I read Dune for the first time about three years ago. A few chapters in, I realized with glee that I hadn't enjoyed reading a novel as much since... well, since I was young and reading fantasy. That combination of being challenged, being spoken to as a reader with an intellect, but also being sent on a voyage overtly of the imagination was like a reawakening to what storytelling is (and always has been) really about. I knew that's what I'd been working toward in my historical fiction, but I hungered to be let loose to explore an alternative world. Acacia is that world.

DB: Still, I can imagine that some agents, or even writers, might feel a bit nervous about making this kind of career move. Even today, isn't there critical and academic prejudice against epic fantasies, a sense that such novels are somehow less "serious" than other forms of fiction? Is that something you encounter as a writer and a teacher of writing?

DAD: Yes to all the above. I do think many writers - especially if they're wearing the "literary" badge - are scared to death of writing anything somebody might label as having genre elements. That's part of why literary fiction can seem quite stale. Some of our most famed authors have found a comfortable place in their fiction and rarely venture from it. After my first two novels were modestly well-received, I could've stayed on similar territory for a career, writing about the African-American experience in an historical context. But it didn't make sense to me that something as special as writing and publishing novels should be done on auto-pilot.

When I proposed writing about Hannibal's war with Rome, my agent and editors were supportive. They hadn't exactly expected it, but they were as interested as I was in what I'd manage to produce. When I suggested fantasy, they needed a little convincing, but once I laid out what I had in mind they knew I was serious. Among other things, I said - and meant it - that if I could only write one more book before I died, I wanted it to be Acacia.

There is absolutely an academic and critical bias against epic fantasies - against anything that can fit into a genre, for that matter. I think it's stupid. This is not to pretend I think all fantasy is great, either. I don't. I'm a picky reader, and a lot of fantasy doesn't cut it for me. But a lot of highbrow literary fiction doesn't cut it either. I believe the intelligent way to read - and the way that the academy should be teaching students to read - is to roam widely, exploring different genres and perspectives and narrative styles, focusing a critical eye on all of them and judging them all accordingly. All too often, though, the academy teaches students to wear blinders and to only focus on a narrow sliver of what's published in the world. As a teacher of writing, I make a case for students seeking out good writing - wherever they can find it - and learning what they can from it.

I've just been hired at Cal State Fresno, to teach in their MFA program. During the interview I said that my next novel was a fantasy and that I could only come to the program if that wasn't go to be a problem for them. Not only wasn't it a problem, they were so enthusiastic to have me that they made the terms of the position far too good to refuse. I'm proud of that, but I also know I'm lucky. It was a one in a thousand fit, and I'm looking forward to starting in the program in the fall of 2007.

DB: This a very fertile time for heroic fantasy. You've mentioned George R.R. Martin; I'd add Steven Erikson and R. Scott Bakker to the list of writers breaking out from under the stultifying shadow of Tolkien's influence. These writers and others have brought a renewed focus on realism of character, politics, and history to the genre. Do you see yourself as part of this trend?

DAD:I wasn't aware of joining a trend, but if a readership is increasingly picking up on fantasy novels with those characteristics, I'm happy to be a part of that. Realism of character, politics, history: those are all fundamental to my writing, regardless of the genre. Bringing it to epic fantasy, though, excites me like nothing has before. There's so much potential to comment meaningfully on our world and on the human experience, while at the same time sweeping a reader into engaging, complex, dangerous adventures. People want that, don't they? I think they do, and I hope they do, because those are exactly the type of stories I want to tell.

DB: For many years, African Americans were underrepresented in the field of speculative fiction. Now, thanks to trailblazers like Samuel R. Delany, Octavia Butler, and others, more writers of color are embracing the genre. But it's still rare to see an African American writer tackling epic fantasy. Why is that?

DAD: That's a complicated question, and I'm not sure I'm up to answering it fully. I'll tell you what comes to mind, though. One is that African-Americans (or readers from many non-Caucasian ethnic groups) haven't seen themselves represented in epic fantasy very often. Much of it grew out of a European storytelling ethos that looked back toward a time not nearly as multicultural as contemporary Europe actually is. Having said that, black readers do read fantasy. I did. My friends did. Black viewers were as much a part of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings audience as other Americans. But there's a considerable chasm between appreciating fantasy and committing to write it.

The publishing business is not without its segregationist tendencies. It's hard for an African-American writer to get acceptance writing about anything other than African-American topics, much less heading into epic fantasy, which will not only be seen as risky, but will also mean an investment of years of work with no guarantee the publishing world will even open the bridge to a possible audience. Writers like Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler are real exceptions, really unique individuals that did what they did regardless of the hurdles.

As for me, I have a very good relationship with my publisher. They believe I can write whatever I want, and they're willing to do the work - and I do believe its work - to get reviewers and booksellers to read me without preconceived notions. It helps, also, that Pride of Carthage was successful at finding an audience here and abroad, in the UK and in six foreign language editions so far. If I can make this work, I hope it will inspire other writers of color into the genre. We'd all have richer reading choices with more diverse voices in the mix.

DB: Do you feel, as an African American writer, a special obligation to address the black experience in America in your fiction, or is such an expectation on the part of readers or critics essentially racist?

DAD: My problem with being obligated to address the black experience is that my identity as an African American is only part of who I am. It's a proud part, but in many ways my life has only a fractured similarity to the larger African American experience. I grew up in America, but my family is from the West Indies on both sides (Trinidad and Barbados). That gave me a different outlook on the world. I've lived a good portion of my adult life in Europe. I’m married to a Scottish woman, the father of two very mixed-race children, and part of an extended family that stretches as far around the world as New Zealand. (The phone bills on the holidays are painful!) So I think I have a bit more to speak about than being black in America.

Projects like Pride of Carthage and Acacia are informed by my identity as a multi-cultural member of our wide world. That, I think, is a strength, and I hope it helps my writing to be probing in terms of cultural issues but also accessible - and relevant - to everyone.

DB: Okay, I have to ask: why "Acacia"? Did you always have this in mind for your title and the name of the empire at the heart of the novel, or did you sort of write your way into it as the novel grew?

DAD: It became the title and the central image of the novel early on, but I also grew into it with time. I was looking for a simple name for the empire, one that could have both concrete and symbolic resonance and that suggested the multi-cultural aspects of the world I was creating. I've always loved the way the acacia trees look, and the name sounded right. It reminded me of Arcadia, which has its own utopian implications. As I learned more about the trees they seemed an even better fit. Though symbolic of Africa or Australia, acacia trees are widely distributed around the world - like my Acacians. The trees are eloquently beautiful, but also thorny and protective - like Acacians. Their great branches provide homes for all sorts of animals, a structure to some creatures that know no other possibilities - like the Acacian Empire. Because they can be largely burnt to the ground and yet emerge still living much later, they've become symbolic of resurrection - which is a theme in a variety of ways in the novel. And, as fundamental as anything else, this is a novel of the legacy of a family tree.

DB: Is your invented empire of Acacia, and the world in which it is set, based on actual history? With the drug Mist, and the mysterious yet seemingly all-powerful Lothan Aklun, I was reminded a bit of China and its relations with the British... but the hideous and pernicious Quota system of slave export also put me in mind of African kingdoms along the so-called Slave Coast during the height of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

DAD: Great question, and the answer is yes on all counts. I did an awful lot of reading into actual world history as I wrote Acacia. Part of the joy of writing fantasy was that I could take bits of pieces of history and juxtapose them in ways I couldn’t have if I was writing about our world. The thing is, I'm not sure anymore where the inspiration from our world begins or ends. Those aspects have so blended with the imagined influences that the connections blur and tangle - hopefully in a manner that gives readers lots of food for thought but skews away from being a commentary on any particular historical situation.

DB: It sounds as though your skills as an historical novelist played a big part in the world-building for these books.

DAD: The work I'd done on Pride of Carthage fed directly into world-building in Acacia. I had to create a credible, detailed, but also entirely foreign world for that novel, one that hasn't existed for 2,000 years. It was a time of very different moral outlooks, different religions, values, fundamental beliefs. A lot of what we think we know about the ancient world is nothing more than informed speculation. Frankly, I had to make up an awful lot to fill in the gaps in the historical record and to make a textured narrative. After that experience, I felt quite at home with the notion of building another speculative world–my own.

DB: Magic is obviously an important part of the world-building in any fantasy, and I think it's fair to say that the best fantasies also feature the most imaginative and well thought out magical systems. We only see the first glimmerings of your magical system here in the first volume, but it promises to be a doozy. Can you expand a bit on the Santoth, also known as the God-Talkers, and how you developed their magic? Are they the only source of magic in your world?

DAD: I wouldn't say the Santoth are the only source of magic in this world, but I would say the language that they speak (in corrupted form) is the source of all life, energy, animation in the world. It's best explained by Acacian mythology. The ancient tale goes that a creator figure called the Giver roamed the early earth, singing it to life. The words of his song had the power to breathe life, to give shape and form and substance to the world and all its creatures. One of his human creations, a young man called Elenet, began to follow him as he walked the earth, entranced by his song. Problem is that Elenet learned the words of the God-Talk and before long began to speak it himself. When the Giver discovered this, he turned angrily away from the world and abandoned it. Elenet, however, coveted his knowledge and continued to use it. He became the first human God-Talker, and his followers became the Santoth magicians. So that's the tale that explains how magic came into the world and got into human hands. (It may or may not be true, by the way.)

There was a problem with all of this, though. Humans weren't meant to speak God's language. They were never quite capable of singing the words purely, and their flawed character always warped their magic, no matter what their intentions were. Acacia's first undisputed king, Tinhadin, was a Santoth. Once he'd secured his throne, he banished the rest of the Santoth because he feared their power. He kept for himself the Book of Elenet, the dictionary that the first Santoth had kept to preserve the knowledge of God-Talk. And then he stopped using magic himself, hoping it would die from the world since it had always been a source of chaos.

The novel begins many generations after Tinhadin. The Santoth are but a myth, and the Book of Elenet is believed to have been lost long ago. Suffice it to say that during the course of the first novel both the Santoth and the Book are found again. They have a dramatic role in the events toward the end of the novel, but you're right - they'll be of even greater import in the coming struggles.

DB: Tell us a bit about the main characters, King Leodan and his four children: Aliver, Corinn, Mena, and Dariel. Do you have a favorite among them? I found myself initially very sympathetic toward Corinn... yet by the end of the volume, I was actually kind of terrified of her! And the other children undergo similarly complex changes as they grow up.

DAD: That's great to hear! Yeah, by the end Corinn terrifies me too. Even as the writer I'm surprised at how she developed, but I also see an inevitable connecting of the dots that shaped her into what she becomes by the end.

I love all my characters for different reasons and in different ways. Leodan is a fine man in many ways, moral and troubled by the inequities the empire is built on. He wants only to raise his children in peace, and because of that he's torn between allowing the status quo to continue and/or revealing the crimes of the empire and trying to change them. From page one of the book, though, forces are moving against him. Before long the empire is crumbling amidst a multi-pronged attack. He's forced to send his children into exile. He sends them each in a different direction, hoping they'll survive to adulthood and learn enough from their host nations to be able to rebuild Acacia on a better model.

Aliver, the oldest son, is sent into a tribal culture from the south, where his insecurities are severely tested. Corinn, the beauty of the family, heads to the north, but has an unexpected turn. Mena finds herself far from the center of the empire, among an island culture in which she becomes a religious figure. And Dariel, the youngest son, winds up in the care of a pirate-culture that he falls into so completely he almost forgets his earlier life as an Akaran prince. Needless to say, being among the people this way provides them firsthand knowledge of how the empire really works, and this knowledge is part of what allows them to realize their potential in ways their father never could.

If I had to pick a favorite Akaran, it would probably be Mena. I love the severe, sword-wielding half-goddess toughness of her, and the way that's tempered by a quiet intelligence and sensitivity.

DB: One of the things I admired about the novel was how much care you took to make the Mein, the ostensible bad-guys, as complex and, in many ways, worthy of sympathy as the heroes and heroines.

DAD: I've written quite a few bad-guys so far, but almost all of them have some trait or characteristic that endears them to me. That's true of racist cowboy demagogues of Gabriel's Story and of the slave trackers of Walk Through Darkness. With Acacia, though, I got to have even more fun with them.

Hanish Mein is smart, witty, charismatic. He's got the best wardrobe - lots of tight-fitting leather, etc. His brothers are, in their own ways, even cooler. Icy, in fact. As a group, they're tall and lean, fair-skinned and gray-eyed and blond-haired, with braids and golden dreads and bells chiming as they move to sing to their ancestors, of whom they're fiercely proud. I relished skewing the familiar notions of good and bad, white and black. But complexity is still a must. So I haven't just made the Nordic types the baddies. It's more complicated than that.

Is Hanish Mein relentless in the way he prosecutes his war? Yes. Does he orchestrate the death of millions to achieve his goals, even using a form of biological warfare? Yes. Does he strive to unleash a sort of hell on earth in the name of his ancestors? Yes. And were his people gravely, gravely wronged by the Acacians, enough so that all his actions can be seen as a long-delayed retribution for past crimes done to them and to the larger world as well? Yes, that's true too. For my money, that's what makes the novel interesting. Conflicts between peoples never line up in terms of absolute good versus absolute evil. There are always shared human impulses on both sides. There are always ways that each side justifies themselves, and almost always there are legitimate grievances that get hijacked by our baser impulses. If that's true in this world, I knew it had to be true in Acacia as well.

DB: How many books will there be in the series? And can you give us a hint of what lies ahead? I presume, for one, that we'll learn a lot more about the Lothan Aklun!

DAD: Right now I envision three books in this series. That, at least, is what I think it will take to wrap up the narrative arc begun with The War with the Mein. In terms of what lies ahead... There will definitely be more about the Lothan Aklun, and more about the even greater power that lies to the west of them, much more about Corinn and the Santoth, about Mena as a warrior princess and about Dariel's emergence as a revolutionary. The driving plot point is that the Acacians make the mistake of contacting The Other Lands directly for the first time. It's a blunder that unleashes a much greater threat than the one posed by Hanish Mein in the first novel. And then a whole lot of stuff happens... Just thinking about it starts my fingers itching to get back to work!

DB: A lot of writers, especially those who work across genres, like to keep a couple of irons in the fire at any one time. Are you working on any other projects?

DAD: Nope, just this next volume in the Acacia series. That's all that's on my plate right now, other than teaching, writing an occasional review, being a husband and father, and getting back into whitewater kayaking.

Labels: Acacia, Interviews, Random Ruminations