Dear People,
In the 1960s when I was just starting to write fiction, I was drawn to ancient history as a subject. I liked ancient history and knew nothing about the writing business, but it struck me at once the modern writers in the fantasy genre, particularly Thomas Burnett Swann, were gay (or in my parlance of the time) queer. While teaching bible school in Cincinnati, I found and read a novel by Bryher and was pleased to find that the author was not openly homosexual. (Maybe not but Bryher was gay all her life.)
I did begin writing stories set in the ancient world. I switched to modern settings because ancient settings didn’t have a market in short stories. I switched to military sf because the setting was as exotic to civilians as the third century AD. Roman empire. These short stories worked, and therefore I wrote no more work set in the ancient world. When I decided I was a fulltime writer, I needed to make a living off novels. That required me write a novel, so I started to do so. I didn’t try to use an ancient setting but rather set one in 1692 and studied up on India in 1692. Jim got me to write book length sf for him at Ace before I tried to market the novel.
I therefore set no more stories in the ancient world. I did use an Indian setting for some of the Belisarius series. The development of that series was mostly by Eric Flint, however.
The ancient world fascinated me though. Even though I didn’t write historicals set then, I did use events of ancient history as models for events in the far future. This made me a good deal of money, but it didn’t have the wonder and softness that I’d found and loved in the books I’d been reading in the ’60s.
One more thing.
I have ridden a motorcycle since 1972, basically since back I came back to the world and decided I didn’t want to kill somebody unless I meant to. I was a bad driver. But I was unlikely to kill anybody else on a bike. Giving motorcycles up was very difficult for me. I couldn’t ride one safely anymore. That’s the thing with my problem (not Parkinson’s but rather a series of ministrokes): it isn’t going to get better.
I thought about selling the bikes. Then I realized I didn’t need the hassle or the money, so I just gave them to my friend Dave. He’s a biker and had been thinking about getting a small one for knocking around town. He was glad to get mine.
Because I socked it away in stocks when I was making it, I don’t have to work anymore. Now that’s good, but I’d surely like to go on writing. Still, being in comfortable circumstances allows me to do favors for friends without worrying about where the next meal is coming from. I don’t know of a better use for extra money than helping a friend.
I’m not happy about life but I’m getting on with it and hope others are doing the same.
—Dave Drake
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