A Miscellaneous Collection of David Drake's Essays, Musings, and Interviews

ESSAYS AND MUSINGS

The Forgotten Planet - Written August 2009 for posting at SF Signal's web page MIND MELD: Books That Hold Special Places in Our Hearts and On Our Shelves

Five Firebases, Dave's original introduction to the Hammer's Slammers Role-Playing game rules for Mongoose. The version as printed drops the title and was edited for length.

Dave's Introduction to a volume of August Derleth short stories titled That is Not Dead: Black Magic and Occult Stories, volume 3 of 4 being produced by The August Derleth Society in conjunction with Arkham House Publishers to be published February 2009.

INTERVIEWS

Text interviews:

A Q&A Interview with David Drake posted by Travis Heermann at his Blogging the Muse site, November 14, 2009.

The 7 Question Interview with David Drake at WritingRaw.com, posted August 2009.

Rhonda Parrish interviewed Dave for Niteblade News, posted December 9, 2008

Jeremy Rickert interviewed Dave as part of a feature column on Manly Wade Wellman in the Oregon Literary Review, v.2, no.2, Summer/Fall 2007.

Podcast interviews:

Rick Kleffel interviewed Dave at World Fantasy Con and has posted it at his Agony Column podcast site, February 8-9, 2010.

Matthew Peterson interviewed Dave for an episode of the radio show VoiceAmerica which aired January 7, 2010. The audio and text transcript are posted at The Author Hour.

Stephen Euin Cobb posted several chunks of interviews with Dave in his podcast series"The Future and You."

• June 1, 2006: [2] David Drake on the surprising truth of what's holding back the popularity of e-books. He also talks about his participation in the new online science fiction and fantasy magazine from Baen Books called: Jim Baen's Universe.
• July 1, 2006: [6] David Drake on the weakness of science fiction as prediction and the accumulation of historical errors in popular culture.
• August 1, 2006: [6] David Drake who reads and translates ancient Latin for fun and relaxation, discusses lessons from antiquity; similarities between the USA and ancient Rome; and one of the host's (Stephen Euin Cobb's) favorite British miniseries: I Claudius. Stephen also asks David how he thinks the USA might meet its eventual and inevitable end. After all, someday the USA, like the Roman Empire, will no longer exist.
• September 1, 2006: [8] What are the changing trends and public perceptions of Motorcycles? Author David Drake aught to know, he's been riding motorcycles instead of cars for over 30 years.
• April 1, 2007: [4] Are SF writers really trying to predict the future? Hugo Gernsback thought he was predicting, but were H.G. Wells or Jules Verne also trying to be predictors? Many people think so but David Drake says "No" and backs it with specific examples.
• March 11, 2009: Topics include: How blatantly morality and ethics must be depicted in fiction, and which self-appointed thought-police will jump on you if you do not toe-the-line. The unknown risks of the experiment now known as the, and Jim Baen's other efforts to innovate within the publishing industry. David Drake also talks about: Rudyard Kipling; Project Gutenberg; Samuel Johnson, and his biographer James Boswell; as well as the power and value of online Search.
• March 18, 2009: Topics include: his opinion of the Amazon Kindle; his improving opinion of the future of electronic publishing; the collapse of the Borders Books Store chain, which occurred before the economic down turn; and why he urged Jim Baen into ask Eric Flint to be the first Editor-in-Chief of what has become the widely popular online magazine called Jim Baen's Universe. Working with Newt Gingrich is also topic.

Mur Lafferty interviewed Dave "about writing, being A Writer, and how he became a writer and deals with criticism" for her blog "I Should be Writing 2.0" posted August 29, 2006. The unedited version is available here.