David Drake

Dear People,

The most exciting news this time has very little to do with me. I am therefore turning the stage over to my webmaster, Karen Zimmerman:

The new web site is up at http://david-drake.com.  Our very simple original web site went live April 2000 and since then outgrew its ability to handle Dave’s very extensive, rich content.  I hope the new site helps users find things more easily—there are a lot of cross references and access points.  Please be aware that I’m still tweaking things, so you might see changes in appearance once in a while, and I’m still uploading some of the old archival content, including past newsletters and photos. continue reading…

This time the short answer is, it doesn’t matter.

The cover does not illustrate my book, it advertises my book. A good cover sells the book to people who will like the book. A bad cover either doesn’t sell the book to the right people or (worse) does sell it to the wrong people. continue reading…

I’m frequently asked what control I have over cover art. The short answer is, all I want. There’s nothing about cover control written into my contracts, but I’m on terms of friendship with both my publishers. If I said, ‘I want Smith to paint the cover, and this is the scene I want him to illustrate,’ that’s what I’d get.

I never do that, and I think that writers who do are being foolish. (Unless there are other factors: I know of cases where writer and artist were in a relationship, in which case the writer got benefits which perhaps counterbalanced the cost to the book.)

I’m neither an artist nor an art director. Even if the artist and art director were bad at their jobs, they’d still be better at their jobs than I would be at their jobs.

Dear People,

Quite a lot has been happening. First and foremost in my mind, I turned in WHAT DISTANT DEEPS, the latest RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera, to Baen Books the day after I got back from World Fantasy Con. I’d carried hardcopy of my second draft with me and edited it while sitting on planes and in parks in San Jose. My first priority on getting home was to key in the final changes and ship the book off.  continue reading…

Dear People,

In the most recent newsletter I said that I’d just started the rough draft of the next RCN space opera, WHAT DISTANT DEEPS. I now have a hair under 60K in draft. As usual, I’m very depressed about it–though I’ve found an interesting evolution in my thinking over the years.  continue reading…

Dear People,

For a moment I thought was going to start somewhere else, but no: the big news this time is still that I’ve finished the plot for the next RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera and expect to begin writing very soon. My working title is IN THE STORMY RED SKY, but that may change. Possibly to CRUISER CAPTAIN. I’ll run options by my demon support staff soon.  continue reading…

A bookseller asked if I’d sign bookplates for her; sure, I said. (I always say that.) But this time instead of using a commercial product, she wanted to create personalized bookplates with Photoshop. She asked if I still had the pictures I took of my Damascus-steel dagger for Gary Ruddell when he painted the cover of Dagger. I didn’t, but I had the dagger and a camera with a timer. It was cold and windy, so I put on my motorcycle jacket (normally I’d have been wearing a ratty nylon bomber jacket under a photographer’s vest; but then, normally I wouldn’t have been holding a long custom dagger).

At Trinoc-con on Sunday, October 6, 2002, my friend Mark Van Name presided over what was billed as a David Drake Roast but was really a tribute. I was very embarrassed at the idea beforehand, but it turned out to be one of the funniest hours of my existence. Besides the usual sorts of comments from Mark, Jim Baen, and Dan Breen on the panel (and offerings from more distant friends), Mark and our friend Jennie Faries (who does real cover design for Baen Books) mocked up the covers for David Drake volumes kicking off new lines for Baen Books. I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard since the first time I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  continue reading…

Baen Books has now officially moved to North Carolina. Jo and I had dinner Christmas Eve with Jim at his house/office. The place is gorgeous, and it’s in an even nicer setting including five-acre pond.

Jim Baen at his e-mail computer

Jim in the office portion of the building holding the Gary Ruddell cover for THE TIDE OF VICTORY, the fifth book in the Belisarius series which Eric Flint is writing from my outlines.

Jim was invited to our family and friends Thanksgiving dinner (fifteen people, and a great time was had by all) but had to cancel at the last moment because his car wouldn't start.

He did, however, make it to dinner of pretty much the same group the next night at a family-style BBQ place in Durham, another tradition in our crowd. Everybody pigged out happily again. The shots here are from that event, not Thanksgiving; but maybe next year.