David Drake

It surprises me to be asked this so frequently since I thought I’d covered it in the introductory notes to each volume. Classical peoples were heavily involved in magic (as opposed to religion). This seems to have been mostly Egyptian in origin, though there are mixtures of classical religion as well as Judaism and Christianity.

Spells could be for any purpose: revenge on a thief or strayed lover, gambling success, and good health are among the range of typical examples. The person making the spell spoke it or wrote and buried it. A lot of those buried (often in a graveyard) have been discovered in modern times. continue reading…

There are nine novels in the complete Isles series. Each of the first six Isles novels is intended to be a self-standing work that can be read alone. (This is true of all my books; and, for that matter, my stories.) The final three books are written as a trilogy to end the series. All volumes are currently available.

LORD OF THE ISLES (Tor/1997)
QUEEN OF DEMONS (Tor/1998)
SERVANT OF THE DRAGON (Tor/1999)
MISTRESS OF THE CATACOMBS (Tor/2001)
GODDESS OF THE ICE REALM (Tor/2003)
MASTER OF THE CAULDRON (Tor/2004)
THE FORTRESS OF GLASS Crown of the Isles Trilogy (Tor/2006)
THE MIRROR OF WORLDS Crown of the Isles Trilogy (Tor/2007)
THE GODS RETURN Crown of the Isles Trilogy (Tor/2008) – Final volume of the Isles Series.

Dear People,

WHAT DISTANT DEEPS, the next RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera, isn’t quite finished. It’s coming along fine and I’ve got well over 100K words in draft–but it just flat isn’t done. I’ll be a lot happier when it’s finished. Or–realistically; this is me we’re talking about–I’ll be a lot less miserable.  continue reading…

Dear People,

I’m well into (about 60K) the rough draft of THE LEGIONS OF FIRE. This is the first book of the new fantasy series for Tor. When asked, I picked The Books of the Elements as the series title because I thought it sounded good and I sincerely hoped that it would fit the series as it developed. Now that I’m this far along, it seems to be fitting pretty well.  continue reading…

Dear People,

Folks frequently ask me how long it takes to write a novel. (People ask me a lot of questions that presumably seem simpler from the outside than they do to me.) The answer depends on a lot of things, in particular the length of the novel. (I average about a thousand words of rough draft per day; thus a novel of 135K words takes around two weeks longer to write than a similar book that was 120K words long.)  continue reading…

Dear People,

Baen Books sent me copies of WHEN THE TIDE RISES just before newsletter 43 came out, so by now it’s thoroughly on sale. This is the latest RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera, and it’s a lovely production.

The splendid Steve Hickman painting is complemented by a transparent foil imprinted with a hologram, here showing the actual holographic display of the story. Steve and the cover designer, my friend Jennie Faries, championed the process, and Toni Weisskopf, the Baen publisher, gave it a shot.  continue reading…

Dear People,

I’ve turned in THE GODS RETURN, the final book of the Crown of the Isles trilogy and of the whole Isles series. I hadn’t fully appreciated that till a friend congratulated me on completing my largest project thus far. That took me aback, because though GODS is a substantial book at 145, 595 words, I’ve written novels of over 200K. Then I realized that he meant the nine-book series as an entity–and that he was right.  continue reading…