David Drake

What are you working on now?

I’m well into the third Book of the Elements, Demons from the Earth, for Tor.

NEWSLETTER 64: September 7, 2011

Dear People,

INTO THE HINTERLANDS, the space opera which John Lambshead wrote from my outline, should be out by the time you read this. I’m ridiculously pleased with the book. John’s style is nothing like mine, but the style of Hinterlands is quite different from the style of Lucy’s Blade (for example), also. I think the combination–this book really was a collaboration, though it’s taken me a while to see that–fits very well into John’s and my mutual view of our model. continue reading…

John Lambshead is joint author with Dave of The Citizen Series from Baen Books.

When John Lambshead was fourteen, he helped his mother carry lunch to the firemen spreading dispersants so that oil from the tanker Torrey Canyon did not coat the beaches of Newquay, Cornwall. When he was fifteen, he watched green algae coat those same beaches, because the dispersant had killed the sea life which normally controlled algae. continue reading…

NEWSLETTER 63: July 4, 2011

Dear People,

I have written a(nother) novel! The Road of Danger, the latest RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera went off to Baen Books at 124,889 words. For the moment it feels good, but I’ll shortly start to be antsy that I’m not accomplishing anything, I’m sure.

I don’t think I’m exactly a workaholic–I don’t think that everything hangs on me or anything like that. But I’m most content when I’m working and the project is going well. Work structures my existence and keeps me from thinking too much about the meaning of life. (I figure I know the meaning already, and it’s not something that makes me happier to dwell on.)  continue reading…

Dear People,

I have a rough plot outline for the next RCN space opera, The Road of Danger. (The title is from a poem by A E Housman.) Whee! A rough plot may not seem very exciting to other people, but it certainly was to me after months of work to get there.

Almost four months, to be precise. I’ll refine and expand the plot; then there’s the real job of writing the book, but to a considerable degree the rest of the job is mechanical. Somebody else could take what I have now and turn it into a book. The result would be different from what I will do, but there are people who’d like someone else’s result better than mine.

continue reading…

Cover art: Bob Eggleton

Baen Books has posted a Teacher’s Guide for Into the Hinterlands.

Into the Hinterlands–the first book in The Citizen Series– is a space opera built around cultural situations very similar to those obtaining during the youth of George Washington. John Lambshead developed the plot from my outline with a great deal of interchange between us.

The odd thing about Hinterlands is that while it’s a space opera with a plot as intricate as that of, say, Northworld, it’s also hard SF. I hadn’t expected, let alone intended, that to be the case, but John is a world-class molecular biologist. That became implicit in the work.  continue reading…

Dear People,

Just as I predicted in Newsletter 58, I’m completely wrung out. Most of that is connected with the one major thing in this newsletter: I completed OUT OF THE WATERS, the second (of four) fantasies in my new Tor series. It’s scheduled to come out in July, 2011, with a Donato cover.  continue reading…

Hammer’s Slammers Handbooks

Pireme Publishing will launch the definitive guide to wargaming the characters and actions in David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers books. Hammer’s Slammers – The Crucible contains:

• A unique Slammers story introduction by David Drake • Character History and Background • Vehicle and Weapon Designs and Technical Specifications • Full Profiles of the Slammers, other mercenary units and aliens • Easy to Play Rules and Scenarios • Unit Cards • Painting Guide by Kevin Dallimore • A4 Hardback format • Full colour throughout

Featured in Miniature Wargames Magazine, Issue 325 continue reading…

Dear People,

First, a note on the format. Thirteen of the thousand-plus subscribers couldn’t read #40. They tended to be computer professionals who had, I suspect, very advanced electronic security. (Nothing had changed at our end.) People who have similar problems in the future will be directed to the website, where a copy of this and future newsletters will go up as soon as they’ve been sent to subscribers.  continue reading…