Today I have the amazing author David Dawson with me and he has answered a few questions for me. Also later today I will be posting a guest post on World Building and a giveaway of his new book! So make sure you stay around for those!
Can you tell us something interesting about your writing process?
I need caffeine, usually Pepsi Max, for me to be able to write. I need peace and quiet. If I have those things I can just sit back and type and type for hours. It could be rubbish I’ve just wrote but that doesn’t matter. I have to write something. Writing isn’t just something I enjoy, it’s sort of like an addiction.
Who is your favorite character (that you’ve written)?
Ben Casper in The Fall is my favorite character. He’s got a lot of me in him, which made it difficult to write (who of us can admit we have flaws and then write about them?) but made him more of a complex character.
Is there anything you’re working on now?
At the moment I’m working on the sequel to The Fall. It’s a mammoth undertaking as it’s the middle volume of a trilogy. It has to have enough plot to make you crave the third book. It’s also going to be very, very long as well. The journey across a broken, dystopian Britain is going to be a very dangerous place.
I’m also pottering about with a series about a vampire utopia. I want to make vampires dangerous and frightening again. It’s in the young adult genre, and will also be my first to have romance at the forefront.
Where did the idea for your book come from?
I have the weirdest dreams ever. I even wrote a dream diary once that read like the ramblings of someone on LSD. Anyway, the idea of The Fall came from a dream. In the dream I was huddled inside my house and there were people floating in the air and fighting and all the buildings around me were being destroyed. The dream terrified the life out of me. So then I thought; turn it into a novel!
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Do you follow a writing schedule, or just write whenever you get the chance?
I don’t have a writing schedule. Well, I suppose I do write like clockwork from 6pm to 7.30pm most days. Usually I write little bits here and there. If I’m out and in the mood to write something I quickly buy a pen and a note pad and write there and then.
If you could jump in to any book and live there, which book would you choose?
I’d love more than anything to live in Harry Potter’s world and be a wizard. Yeah, I know, I’m too old for that wishful thinking, but I love the world in which JK Rowling created.
Describe your book in a tweet (140 characters or less).
Our world has been destroyed by the gods. It’s time to reclaim it.
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How long did it take you to write your book?
It took me three months to write it and then about two more to edit it. Then I wrote something else. A year or so later I dusted off The Fall when my sister suggested I publish it with Amazon Kindle. So I edited it a bit more, which took about a month. I’m still not sure whether I’m 100 percent satisfied but I suppose most authors feel that way.
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Did you use an outline or make some sort of “book plan” before you started writing?
I had a clear plan for how the book progressed at first. As I started writing it I began to realize that the world I was building was too constrained for one book, and so I changed it into a trilogy. That was the best decision I’d ever made. Now my plans are less vague than they were before but I’m having so much fun exploring the ruins of a future Britain that I don’t care.
Is there anything that you believe you still need to accomplish in your career for you - and you alone - to feel truly successful?
It’d be nice to sell millions of copies (or even half a dozen) or get a movie deal but the thing I really want is to stumble upon a blog or a forum and read about people talking about my book and how they love it.
Fun Stuff:
· Coffee or tea?
· Paper book or ebook?
· Summer or winter?
· Werewolves or vampires?
· Morning person or night owl?
· Pantser or plotter?
· Pepsi or Coke?
· Dogs or cats?
Favorites:
· Drink-----Pepsi Max
· Food-----chicken
· Movie----Jumping Jack Flash
· TV show----Doctor Who
· Book----The Stand by Stephen King
· Late night snack----bananas
· Writing tools----laptop
· Sport----Wii fit
· Vacation destination----London
· Music----Lady Gaga
· Place to read-----In bed
· Place to write----My Gran’s old rocking chair
· Way to relax-----listening to Lady Gaga in bed
