{"id":250,"date":"2017-08-31T13:53:48","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T17:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=250"},"modified":"2021-03-25T09:38:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T13:38:47","slug":"author-spotlight-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/author-spotlight-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Spotlight: David Tatum"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

It\u2019s Author Spotlight time! If you want to know more about how the series got started, go check out the introduction post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today the spotlight is on proudly self-published author\u00a0David Tatum<\/a>. You know I\u2019m not really a fan of long introductions, so let\u2019s jump right in.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0– \u00a0–<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the most important. What\u2019s your most recent\/next book, and where can we go to learn more about it and you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"TheI’m hoping my next book will be The Merrimack Event<\/em>, my first novel-length foray into the military science fiction\\space opera genre and the first book in the Shieldclads series. The series focuses on a hand-picked crew of students from the Earth Alliance Naval Academy who, when a real war breaks out during a war game, are the only people capable of striking back.\u00a0 As you might guess from the title, this book draws parallels with the Battle of the Monitor and the CSS Virginia (aka the Monitor vs. the Merrimack), though the series is nothing even close to an allegory of the U.S. Civil War.<\/p>\n

I’m just waiting on cover art for its release, at this point, which SHOULD be delivered either later this month or early next.\u00a0 It could easily have been my first book, but it’s been in the literary equivalent of development hell for the past two and a half years.\u00a0 First my intended editor vanished on me, then I couldn’t find a cover artist, then an old draft got saved over the edited copy while attempting to make a back-up (I’ve lost more manuscripts to problems making back-ups than manuscripts I’ve saved WITH back-ups), and finally \u2014 right before my intended launch at a sci-fi convention I was attending as a guest \u2014 I had to reject a piece of cover art I’d spent months working with a cover artist to get right.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the new cover art will work out \u2014 the artist just sent me a mock-up and it looks good, so far.\u00a0 I managed to find a guy who may not regularly be a cover artist, but does have a pedigree to suggest he’s capable of it; I mean, he’s worked on things like concept art for Heroes of Might and Magic, background art for Starship Troopers: Roughnecks, and this tiny little sci-fi franchise called Star Wars.\u00a0 With luck, I’ll have the book out before this interview is posted.<\/p>\n

As far as where to find information about it?\u00a0 Well, I have a website<\/a> just for my books,\u00a0but that’s about to go through a complete overhaul and isn’t being updated at the moment (I’m overhauling it, in part, because I’ve lost the ABILITY to update it).\u00a0 For the next few months, you’ll have better luck finding info about this and my other writing projects from my blog<\/a>, which I update (irregularly) on Sundays.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite book\/story among the one\u2019s you\u2019ve written? Why is it so special to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My best-sellers are the two books in my Law of Swords series. They’ve had reasonably good success, and I’m working on the third book now; they’re my money-makers.\u00a0 My favorite book, and the one I personally feel is my best to date, is The Kitsune Stratagem<\/em>, the first book of what should become the Inari’s Children series.<\/p>\n

\"CoverWhen I had completed In Treachery Forged<\/em> (the first Law of Swords book), and was getting it ready to send to publishers, I went to a convention with a publisher and several editors I was interested in submitting to.\u00a0 One of those editors, in a panel discussing clich\u00e9 in fiction, said that if he ever saw another manuscript with Elves and Dwarves and Dragons, he felt like he would pick it up and throw it across the room.\u00a0 In Treachery Forged was filled with Elves and Dwarves and Dragons, so I knew submitting it to that publisher was a no-go.\u00a0 If I wanted to go with this publisher (which, in the end, I didn’t, but I didn’t know that at the time), I would have to write something else… something which had no Elves, Dwarves, or Dragons anywhere in sight.<\/p>\n

So I started looking for substitutes for these fantasy staples, pulling mythological creatures from around the world to take their place.\u00a0 I researched Kitsune from Japanese mythology, Wulvers from Shetland Island folklore, and Bunyips from aboriginal Australian folk tales…and several other creatures in less prominent roles from those and other mythologies and folklores.\u00a0 I tried to make all of these creatures relatable to an audience used to Western-style fantasies while keeping them as true to those mythologies as I could.<\/p>\n

\"CoverI love the world that I built for The Kitsune Stratagem<\/em>.\u00a0 I love the history I’ve developed, the characters, the bestiary, the social structure, etc.\u00a0 The plot is pretty good, too, in my humble opinion.\u00a0 It hasn’t sold as well as my other books, but I am still going to be revisiting this world at some point in the future, both to write novel-length sequels and short fiction set in its history.<\/p>\n

What genre do you wish you could write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have designs on writing more fantasy and science fiction, a YA Spy Thriller, and even some non-fiction, but curiously I don’t think I can write in my favorite genre to read: Historical fiction.\u00a0 I love the sea-faring novels of Patrick O’Brian and C.S. Forester.\u00a0 I can get wholly immersed in the world of the American Revolution with the collected works of Kenneth Roberts.\u00a0 I have a lot of favorites from this genre…but I worry that, to write those books RIGHT, I would need to invest far more time in research than I have.<\/p>\n

\"CoverNot that I haven’t been considering it.\u00a0 Heck, I’ve been researching for an “age of fighting sail” historical novel off and on since…well…before I began my first serious attempt at a novel.\u00a0 For a novella I wrote that appeared in a recent anthology (A Gun for Shalla, from Worlds Enough: Fantastic Defenders<\/em>, published by Tannhauser Press), I built a world that might allow me to use some of that research…but, it turns out, not much.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll be able to revisit that world, some day, or I could even do a full-fledged historical novel if I’m ever satisfied with my research, but I have a lot of other projects which must be completed, first.<\/p>\n

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in researching your book(s)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Honestly, it’s mostly the mundane things that surprise me the most, which don’t usually make interesting discussions. I mean, I know that you can do just about anything in a fantasy novel, but having lemonade appear in certain types of fantasy settings can still be anachronistic if it APPEARS out of place.\u00a0 Especially if the climate is such that lemons just wouldn’t exist in that area…but I was surprised to learn that lemons COULD have existed in that climate.\u00a0 I didn’t wind up using it, because it would throw my readers, but they could have.<\/p>\n

But it’s even more surprising when researching the fantastic and discovering a very mundane real-life cause.\u00a0 For a short story I wrote, I wanted to touch on hard science a little (I wouldn’t call the story hard science fiction, overall, but I researched it as if it was).\u00a0 I was fascinated to find that, for example, a type of engine commonly found in science fiction (ion drives) exists and has been tried in working models for over fifty years.\u00a0 It’s practical for use in small, unmanned probes, providing a constant if very low rate of acceleration… but to be made practical for human flight, it would need a relatively low- mass to high-yield energy source.\u00a0 Similarly, the technology exists for an “Iron Man”-like power armor suit…if sufficient man-portable power supplies existed. Etc., etc. Many sci-fi technologies I wanted to employ, that had been employed in science fiction for decades, all already existed!\u00a0 But they were impractical, because we still need a relatively low-mass, scalable reactor that could provide sufficient power for them.\u00a0 Or, well, we could get by with something even more mundane:\u00a0 Better batteries.<\/p>\n

Do you support the Oxford comma?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m a supporter of the Oxford comma, two spaces after a period, and the abolition of the Chicago Manual of Style (favoring Webster’s, Words Into Type, or even a house style over CMoS). I cite CJ Cherryh<\/a>, Heraclitean River<\/a>, and common sense to support my views.\u00a0 I’ve been working on a “house style guide” for myself for a while, now, so that I can favor all of my favorite quirky opinions on grammatical style, but it’ll be a while before it’s done.\u00a0 In software parlance, my style guide is in an “alpha” version, and I don’t have much time to spend on it, but one day I’ll get it done.<\/p>\n

Did you have a security blanket as a child?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes<\/p>\n

What is one question you\u2019ve always wanted to be asked in an interview?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Hey, would you like me to send you a million dollars?” would be nice. \u00a0 Actually, I’m not sure if there IS one specific question I’ve always wanted to be asked.\u00a0 If you avoid questions that delve too deeply into politics, religion, and other topics that tend to end friendships, that’s really all I ask.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0– \u00a0–<\/p>\n

And there you have it. All you sci-fi readers, if you want to know more about David Tatum, make sure to check out his\u00a0website<\/a>. You can learn about his various books here<\/a>.\u00a0The Merrimack Event<\/em>, mentioned above, is now on sale<\/a>.\u00a0 It is currently exclusive to Amazon, and is only available as an eBook, but a print edition is forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Have you read any of his books before? What do you think of them? Leave a comment below. If you\u2019d like the spotlight turned on you, send me a message on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, or Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Author Spotlight time! If you want to know more about how the series got started, go check out the introduction post. Today the spotlight…<\/p>\n

Keep ReadingAuthor Spotlight: David Tatum<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[183,47],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-blogger","tag-author-spotlight","tag-interview","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Z77k-42","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/author-spotlight-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":250,"position":0},"title":"Author Spotlight: Subhan Mohammad","author":"Rachel","date":"August 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s Author Spotlight time! 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