Author Archives: admin
What genre do you feel is your best to write in?
Which genre do you feel is your best to write in? Best is tricky. I don’t know really. I can do some things in the military that others who’ve had different lives can’t, but I personally think some of the … Continue reading
Who were your influences?
Who were your influences? One strand is pulp fiction–literally, stories from the ’30s and ’40s collected into anthologies in the ’50s when I started reading SF and fantasy. Robert E. Howard in particular, then when I got to college the … Continue reading
What’s your best book?
What’s your best book? Again, that’s a matter of definition. Personally I’d say Redliners, but that’s not a book for everybody. It’s a very tough story about war and redemption. With the Lightnings–a space opera–and the Isles Series, my Tolkienesque … Continue reading
What do you read for pleasure?
Who do you read for pleasure? In the field–I read a lot of stuff out of the f/sf field–I read Vance and Pratchett among living authors, and have a particular affection for Kuttner, Kornbluth, and Jack Williamson’s work from the … Continue reading
The Sharp End
Did you take the plot of THE SHARP END from Kurosawa’s Yojimbo or from Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars? No, I took the plot from Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, his first novel (a fixup from novellas he’d written for … Continue reading
Proofreading the hardcover Servant of the Dragon?
Why is the hardcover edition of Servant of the Dragon so poorly proofread? This is a sore subject with me. I did three drafts of the novel (as usual). My friend Dan Breen read each section after I’d gone over … Continue reading
How did you come up with the magic in the Isles Series?
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 … Continue reading
RCN Series
WITH THE LIGHTNINGS (Baen/1998) LT LEARY, COMMANDING (Baen/2000) THE FAR SIDE OF THE STARS (Baen/2003) THE WAY TO GLORY (Baen/2005) SOME GOLDEN HARBOR (Baen/2006) WHEN THE TIDE RISES (Baen/2008) IN THE STORMY RED SKY (Baen/2009) WHAT DISTANT DEEPS (Baen/2010) THE … Continue reading
Hammer’s Slammers Series
The Hammer’s Slammers series of Military SF stories and novels focus on a mercenary armored regiment in the 30th century. I based the fiction on my experience in 1970 with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Viet-Nam and Cambodia. HAMMER’S … Continue reading
Books in the Isles Series
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 … Continue reading
Newsletter #56
Dear People, I’m in the middle of the third chapter of MONSTERS OF THE SEAS, the second (of four) novels in my new fantasy series for Tor. It’s moving along at the usual comfortable rate… which as usual isn’t nearly … Continue reading
What Distant Deeps
I’ll start out with what in my days as a lawyer we would call boilerplate: 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 … Continue reading
Newsletter #55
Dear People, I’m going to start with something positive: I’ve now seen a cover comp for THE LEGIONS OF FIRE, the first of four books in my new fantasy series, due from Tor as a May, 2010, hardcover. I’d seen … Continue reading
French Edition of the Isles Series
Balefires
Contents of Balefires: A Land of Romance Arclight Awakening Best of Luck Black Iron Blood Debt Children of the Forest The Master of Demons Denkirch Firefight Lord of the Depths Men Like Us
The Legions of Fire
The Legions of Fire is the first of a quartet of fantasies in The Books of the Elements series from Tor. First and foremost, The Legions of Fire is a novel about a fictional city named Carce (pronounced CAR-see) and … Continue reading
Newsletter #54
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 … Continue reading
Newsletter #53
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. … Continue reading
Birthday Pig Pickin’ September 2009
Con*Stellation, Hunstville AL, September 2009
Belisarius Series
Eric Flint wrote these books from Dave’s plot outlines: An Oblique Approach. 1998, Baen. In the Heart of Darkness. 1998, Baen. Destiny’s Shield. 1999, Baen. Fortune’s Stroke. 2000, Baen. The Tide of Victory. . 2001, Baen. The Dance of Time. 2006, Baen.
Newsletter #52
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 … Continue reading
Vietnam
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed Shall … Continue reading
Patriots
The new edition of Patriots, packaged as a YA trade paperback, is out (September 2016) from Baen. It has a new Tom Kidd cover with an airship (both Tom and I like airships). PATRIOTS was the idea of Tor’s publisher, … Continue reading
Newsletter #51
Dear People, I intended to start this newsletter by saying that I’d completed the plot of the next RCN space opera and am at work on it. Those things are true (we’ll get back to them), but in my mind … Continue reading
Mongoose Role Playing Game
Available from Mongoose Publishing (June 2009) as part of their Traveller Series of games.
Amores II:13
Wind yourselves about my temples, shoots of triumphal laurel: we have conquered! Behold, Corinna nestles into my bosom. Corinna, whom a husband, a doorman, and sturdy gates–so many enemies!–guarded against being taken by any artifice. This is a victory worthy … Continue reading
In the Stormy Red Sky
I learned with the first book of the RCN series, With the Lightnings, that I have to explain that I use English and Metric weights and measures as a convenience to readers, not because I think the same systems will … Continue reading
Newsletter #50
Dear People, I turned in THE LEGIONS OF FIRE not quite a month ago–140,845 words including the front matter. I’m overall pleased with the novel, the first of a four-book fantasy series for Tor, but the thing that pleases me … Continue reading
Five Firebases
Dave’s original introduction to the Hammer’s Slammers Role-Playing game rules for Mongoose. The version as printed drops the title and was edited for length. FIVE FIREBASES I was very pleased when I got the materials for the Hammer’s Slammers role-playing … Continue reading
Amores II:12
The pine cut for the Argonauts from the steep slope of Mount Pelion first taught the evil paths through the glittering waves of the sea. By rashly slipping between the sliding rocks, it was able to carry the Golden Fleece.
Newsletter #49
Dear People, Well, I haven’t completed the rough draft of THE LEGIONS OF FIRE, the start of my new fantasy series for Tor, but I’m close. And I’m darned consistent: two months ago I had about 60K; now I’ve got … Continue reading
Newsletter #48
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 … Continue reading
World Fantasy Con 2008
Walden West Festival, October 11-12, 2008
Video Interviews
Video Interviews: Moses Siregar III posted a YouTube video in four chunks of the panel “The Continued Viability of Epic Fantasy” recorded at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus OH October 30, 2010. Dave is on the panel with John … Continue reading
Newsletter #47
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 … Continue reading
Conjecture, San Diego, September 26-29, 2008
Newsletter #45
Dear People, The major news item is that while I haven’t yet finished IN THE STORMY RED SKY, the next RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera, I’m getting darned close. As I write this I’m in the midst of the climactic battle, … Continue reading
A Dedication for Jim Rigney (Robert Jordan) at The Citadel, April 8, 2008
Photos by Alan Romanczuk.
When the Tide Rises
The genesis of my RCN novels was Patrick O’Brian’s wonderful Aubrey/Maturin series, set during and after the Napoleonic Wars. It therefore won’t surprise many of you to find a number of plot points common to O’Brian’s last novels and When … Continue reading