Author Archives: admin
Monsters of the Earth
Monsters of the Earth, the third of the Books of the Elements, will be out in September 2013 from Tor. AUTHOR’S NOTE I intend individual volumes in The Books of the Elements to be self-standing, (though I also hope that … Continue reading
Holiday Greetings 2012
Happy Holidays From Bucolic Chatham County From Dave
Amores II:15
What use is it that girls are deaf to the call of Mars and that they don’t wish to pick up shields and follow the brutal columns, if without war they choose weapons to wound themselves and throw their fate … Continue reading
World Fantasy Con 2012
A Hard Look Back
Written for Bull Spec: a magazine of speculative fiction, September 2012 ON A PANEL AT The Escapist Expo in September [2012], my friend Mark asked for a show of hands from people who hadn’t been born in 1966 when I … Continue reading
Newsletter #70
NEWSLETTER 70: September 18, 2012 Dear People, I finished the novel! The title is now MONSTERS OF THE EARTH. I changed the title at the last moment from Demons from the Earth because I realized that though there were demons, … Continue reading
Newsletter #69
NEWSLETTER 69: July 16, 2012 Dear People, This is late, not because anything awful has happened, but because I’ve been dropping stitches. Lots of stitches. The big news in this period is that we’ve gotten a Certificate of Occupancy for … Continue reading
DSC 50, Huntsville – June 15-17, 2012
Newsletter #68
NEWSLETTER 68: May 15, 2012 Dear People, The third of the Books of the Elements fantasy series for Tor, DEMONS FROM THE EARTH (or another title that has Earth, and probably Demons, in it somewhere), is chunking along happily. More … Continue reading
Night & Demons
Cover art: Alan Pollack My earliest published fiction was fantasy and horror. I stopped writing horror in about 1980 as I started to get my head up from Viet Nam. The horror boom of the ’80s that followed the success … Continue reading
Newsletter #67
NEWSLETTER 67: March 5, 2012 Dear People, I’m hard at work on the next Tor fantasy, Demons from the Earth; the third of the Books of the Elements. When I first start writing a novel, that’s always the big news … Continue reading
Team Yankee
In 1987 Team Yankee, a novel by Harold Coyle set in the world of Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War of 1985, became successful in hardcover. Berkley Books bought the paperback rights and teamed with First Comics to bring … Continue reading
Window of Opportunity
In 1983, Jim Baen heard Newt Gingrich, then a junior congressman from Georgia, speak at Balticon. Jim was so impressed that he signed Newt up to do a book setting forth his vision for the future in a series of … Continue reading
Newsletter #66
NEWSLETTER 66: January 5, 2012 Dear People, Jeepers, a new year yet again. I hope you all–and all of us–have a good one. I’m at work on the plot for my next Tor fantasy, which at the moment I’m calling … Continue reading
Vandy, Vandy
Manly traveled with Vance Randolph either during his time at Wichita University (now Wichita State University) or shortly after he graduated. He said that Randolph wanted him to settle in Arkansas. “Manly, you’ve got a hundred dollars. Half of it … Continue reading
Holiday Greetings 2011
Happy Very Non-Denominational Holidays from Dave
Newsletter #65
NEWSLETTER 65: November 7, 2011 Dear People, I’ve finished the plot for Into the Maelstrom, which will be the sequel to Into the Hinterlands when John Lambshead writes it next year. (Next year isn’t nearly as far away as I … Continue reading
Manly and Sprague
The Road of Danger
AUTHOR’S NOTE I use both English and Metric weights and measures in the RCN series to suggest the range of diversity which I believe would exist in a galaxy-spanning civilization. I do not, however, expect either actual system to be … Continue reading
Voyage Across the Stars
“Two incandescent novels of journey and battle across the stars set in David Drake’s best-selling Hammer’s Slammers universe together for the first time in one mega-volume.” –Amazon Book Description. Baen’s combined volume due out January 3 2012 reprints Cross the Stars … Continue reading
Newsletter #64
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 … Continue reading
Biographies
The longer bio: While David Drake was studying at Duke Law School, the Army changed his immediate career path to a choice between interrogator or grunt. Dave chose interrogator. He was assigned to the 11th Cav, the Blackhorse, and spent … Continue reading
About John Lambshead
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 … Continue reading
Another Method of Plotting
Written for the Tor/Forge July 2011 Newsletter Last year when Tor asked me for an essay to accompany the publication of The Legions of Fire, the first of my Books of the Elements fantasy series, I explained that riding a … Continue reading
Who is your webmaster?
Here’s my webmaster, Karen Zimmerman. She’s a former academic librarian/archivist who is currently dabbling at several different projects.
DrakeNews – Dave’s Newsletter
DrakeNews is Dave’s occasional newsletter (think of it as a long blog entry) distributed by e-mail subscription and posted here on the website. The first newsletter was distributed November 14, 2000, and all of them are archived here (or will … Continue reading
Newsletter #61
Dear People, In the immediately previous newsletter I said that I’d finished my rough plot for The Road of Danger (the next RCN space opera). The book is now at 32K and rising at the usual steady rate. This is … Continue reading
Newsletter #60
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, … Continue reading
Like the Man Said
For my birthday in 1975, John Squires (who had been taking a bookbinding class) gave me a book bound in one of my fatigue shirts (that Jo had given him) and containing (as tearsheets) Ranks of Bronze, Arclight, Contact!, Something … Continue reading
Sgt Scratchard Knife
A gift from Christof Harper, a custom knifemaker and a veteran: –the sort of thing Sgt Scratchard (from Counting the Cost) might have carried. The details:
Into the Hinterlands
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 obtained during the youth of George Washington. John … Continue reading
Amores II:14
My rash Corinna lies exhausted between life and death, trying to force the burden from her distended belly. I am rightly angry at her for secretly deciding to try the risk of pregnancy, but my anger gives way before my … Continue reading