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Amores II:2
Bagoas, the duty of guarding your mistress is in your hands, so listen well while I go over a few necessary matters with you. Yesterday I saw my girlfriend taking the air in the Portico of the Palatine Apollo, decorated … Continue reading
World Fantasy Con 2004
Amores II:1
I, Naso, born in the stream-cut Paelignian hills, composed this book also. I am the poet of my own dalliances. And again Love has called me to write. Get away from here, get away, you moralists! You aren’t the right … Continue reading
Amores I:15
Why do you complain, carping Envy, that I’m wasting my life? Do you call poetry a lazy man’s work? Do you say that I should be like the ancient Romans who so long as health permitted pursued the rewards of … Continue reading
Amores I:14
I said, “Stop dyeing your hair,” but now you no longer have hair to dye. Whoever had thicker hair than you when you let it fall free? And it touched the backs of your knees! What have you done to … Continue reading
Amores I:13
Already the blond dawn-maiden rises above the ocean from the side of her elderly husband and sets the day to turning on its frozen axis. Why do you hasten, Aurora? Hold for a time:the flock of birds that every year … Continue reading
Iowa Connections
Piedmont North Carolina has been my permanent home since 1967, when I moved to Durham to enter Duke University Law School. But as I get older I appreciate with increasing clarity how much I was shaped by being born and … Continue reading
Clinton Iowa
In 1955, when I was ten, we moved 70 miles south along the river to Clinton. I was already a voracious reader, but in Clinton I was old enough to go to the public library on my own. At the … Continue reading
Dubuque Iowa
My parents graduated from the U of Dubuque, and my mother’s family all lived in Dubuque. Mom came home from Boca Raton where my folks were living during the war (Dad worked for the Navy) to have me. When the … Continue reading
Dave’s 59th Birthday Dinner
The University of Iowa
Like many other bright Iowans, I never took the SAT. The U of Iowa accepts scores from the American College Test (based in Iowa City, like the U of I itself) for enrollment–and you could go a long way without … Continue reading
Grimmer Than Hell
COMING HOME BY THE LONG WAY A few years ago I collected my humorous stories in All the Way to the Gallows.” In my introduction I admitted that I wasn’t best known for writing humor. This is what I’m best … Continue reading
Amores I:12
Weep with me for my hard luck: my girlfriend’s answer came back, “No.” Her wretched message denies she can see me today. I should’ve known from the omens. When Nape turned to leave the house with my request, she stubbed … Continue reading
Hammer’s Slammers Gaming, England 2004
Pictures from Salute in 2004, a wargames show held by the South London Warlords. Accompanies England Travel Narrative
Trip to England, April 2004 – Photos
Accompanies Dave’s Travel Narrative
Trip to England, April 2004 – Travel Narrative
Dave’s Trip to England April 2004 Accompanies Photos of England and Photos of Salute War Gaming April 18: We left for RDU Airport at 3 PM for a 6 PM flight. Better safe than sorry, and I was nervously reading … Continue reading
Master of the Cauldron
Those of you who’ve read previous books in the Isles series will note some repetition in these notes, but I go to a good deal of effort to make each book accessible to people who’ve never read anything of mine … Continue reading
Codex
Though this was published (by the Sidecar Preservation Society) in both hardcover and saddle-stapled editions, it’s actually a short story which I drafted in 1967 but didn’t bother to type into submission form. (My webmaster typed it for this edition, … Continue reading
The Far Side of the Stars
One of the problems when you’re writing of either the past or the future is ‘How much should I translate?’ I don’t mean simply language: there’s a whole complex of things that people within any society take for granted but … Continue reading
Book Signing, Waterloo IA Barnes & Noble
From a signing October 9, 2003 at the Waterloo IA Barnes and Noble
The Reaches: Igniting the Reaches, Through the Breach & Fireships
INTRODUCTION: THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY I’m a very organized writer–insanely organized, one might say, and we’ll get back to that in a moment. I take extensive notes before I start plotting, and I do very detailed plots (usually in … Continue reading
Amores I:11
Nape, you’re skilled at arranging your mistress’ scattered hair, but you’re not merely a handmaid. You’ve shown your talent for the duties of the furtive night, and you’ve proved your cleverness at passing me notes. Often you’ve encouraged a hesitant … Continue reading
Amores I:10
As lovely as Helen who had two husbands, while she was being borne by Phrygian ships from the Eurotas Strait to be the cause of war; as lovely as Leda, to whom cleverly adulterous Zeus made love clad as a … Continue reading
Amores I:9
Every lover is a soldier and guards the camp of Cupid; believe me, Atticus, every lover is a soldier. The age that’s suitable for war is equally fitted for Venus. An aged soldier is a sad thing, just as an … Continue reading
Amores I:8
There’s a certain old woman–if you want to know how a procurer works, listen to me–there’s a certain old woman named Dipsas. She got her nickname from her habits: She’s never been sober to watch Dawn, the mother of Memnon, … Continue reading
Amores I:7
If I have any friends present, clamp manacles on my hands (for they deserve to be chained) before the madness returns: for madness moved my arms to strike my mistress. My injured darling weeps from my woeful hand!
Goddess of the Ice Realm
As is the case with most of my books, a good deal of the background to Goddess of the Ice Realm is real. The general religion of the Isles is Sumerian, though in some cases I’ve interpolated cult practice from … Continue reading
Joke Covers at Dave’s Roast
At Trinoc-con on Sunday, October 6, 2002, my friend Mark Van Name presided over what was billed as a David Drake Roast but was really a tribute. I was very embarrassed at the idea beforehand, but it turned out to … Continue reading
Recommended Reading on a C-130
Amores I:6
Doorkeeper, though it’s embarrassing to ask this, loose your hard chain and swing the surly outer door inward a trifle on its hinges. I ask but a little thing: that you make enough room on the threshold for me to … Continue reading
Dagger
DAGGER was an important book for me in various odd ways. In the Fall of 1979 I ran into Bob Asprin when we were both boarding an airplane to return from a convention (probably World Fantasy Con in Providence, but … Continue reading
Amores I:4-5
Amores I:4 Your husband is going to the same dinner party as we are; I pray that this is the last dinner he lives to eat! How shall I react when I see my beloved mistress as a fellow guest? … Continue reading
Redliners
A 20th anniversary edition of REDLINERS is out from Baen July 2016 with a new introduction. Redliners is possibly the best thing I’ve written. It’s certainly the most important thing, both to me personally and to the audience I particularly … Continue reading
Queen of Demons
QUEEN OF DEMONS, my second Isles fantasy, uses the structure of Lord of the Isles, so it was simpler to write than if I’d had to construct an entire world. Nonetheless there was the challenge of how much of the … Continue reading
Amores I:1-3
Amores I:1 EPIGRAM: We who once were five books by Naso now are three. The author himself has trimmed us. Now even if you don’t like what you read, at least you’re spared the punishment of two more books. I … Continue reading
World Fantasy Con 2001
Amores III:13
Since my wife comes from the fruit-bearing Faliscan region, we journeyed to the city of Falerii which you conquered, Camillus. There priestesses were preparing the chaste festival of Juno, featuring famous games and locally-raised cattle.
Amores III:15
You must find a new bard, mother of the little Cupids: my elegies will go no farther. I am the offspring of the Paelignian countryside, and I’m not ashamed of the sophisticated verses which I’ve composed to date. If it’s … Continue reading
Amores III:14
Since you are so beautiful I do not plead with you not to sin; but only that you not force miserable me to know about it. I don’t require that you be chaste, but I ask that you make an … Continue reading
Amores III:12
Why must there always come the day on which you black birds caw sad omens to a lover? What star shall I blame for my fate, against which gods shall I rail for waging war against me? She who was … Continue reading
Amores III:11A-B
Amores III:11A Long have I borne your slights, but your insults have finally overcome my patience. I have liberated myself, broken my chains, and now am ashamed to have borne what I wasn’t ashamed to bear. I have revolted from … Continue reading