Author Interview - David T List
What inspired you to write in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, and how does that inspiration reflect in your stories?
My earliest inspirations were Tolkein’s works (starting with the Hobbit and eventually the Silmarillion) and RPGs and action games on NES: Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Castlevania. In all of them, I loved the weapons and armor, the histories, the spells, the monsters, and the foreign worlds. I began making Silexare 25 years before writing a story ever crossed my mind.
Why did you choose the indie author route to publication?
I’ve been doing it myself my whole life and this was no different. I think something deep in my soul finds it utterly unacceptable to place my dreams in someone else’s hands. I pitched my first novel to about thirteen literary agents back in 2014 but I hated every moment of it, especially the helpless waiting. By now I’ve convinced myself any benefit they provide is outweighed by the sacrifices I’d have to make to sign the dotted line. I want full ownership of Silexare.
Can you share a bit about the world-building process in your series or novel? How do you balance creativity with consistency?
World-building is an activity that, for better or worse, never stops for me. I’m inspired by things I see or experience on a daily basis so I constantly take notes and store them away. Eventually notes begin to stick to one another and take concrete form. It was in that way that Turesia Untamed came together. I liked the idea of two warring islands, one being barbarians and the other wizards. I liked the idea of UFC fights and grudge matches. I liked the idea of song magic. God only knows how many other ingredients went into it, but after several years of kneading at the ideas, I found a story and began to write it.
The bad thing about such constant inspiration is that it makes me impatient to start the next project before the current one’s even finished. I must exercise discipline!
What unique challenges do you face as an indie author in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, and how do you overcome them?
I’d say the most significant challenge is standing out or even being noticed in the deep, rich environment that is the current fantasy/sci-fi publishing scene. I can’t say I’ve overcome that challenge, but hiring amazing artists like Felix Ortiz and Shawn T King to design V&V’s cover definitely helped. It also helps to be open to conversation and engage in environments online where fantasy and sci-fi are discussed. Not to just endlessly toot your own horn and self-promo, but to offer insight about books, or answer requests for recommendations.
Who are your favorite fantasy/sci-fi authors or works, and in what ways have they influenced your writing?
I find it hard to pin down “favorites” because mine shift constantly. Here are some recents:
Joe Abercrombie, for his character work. His unreliable narrators are the best and he’s good at convincing you the darkness his characters commit is necessary. Josiah Bancroft, for his glorious prose. Very few authors can paint the images he does with as few words. Robin Hobb, also for character work. She’ll make you love a person then she’ll drag them through hell. It’s impressive.
Fonda Lee, for interweaving plot lines with family/business/politics. I aspire to write some gangsta fantasy in the not-too-distant future and her Green Bone Saga, along with Peter McLean’s War for the Rose Throne, are amazing inspiration.
How do you develop your characters, and who is your favorite character from your works? Why?
Most of my characters are born as necessities for the plot. These start by simply filling a niche, then expanding as the story is written. By the end, I usually know them well enough to determine who they are so that they can be fleshed out in concurrent drafts.
Some though are already imagined through and through before they ever hit the page. I can’t rely on inspiration like this, but I sure do appreciate it when it strikes. This includes Kraus the Carcass, a recent favorite of mine, who we meet in the prologue of Violence & Vigilance. In a role-playing game or D&D party, he’d be the tank – aggravating enemies and absorbing their punishment like a cutting board. He’s foul-mouthed and violent and thirsty as hell. While writing him, I find myself daydreaming about what he’d do if he were in my shoes, in any given situation. I can’t act on those thoughts obviously, or I’d end up with less friends, less teeth, in jail, or dead.
Could you discuss the role of magic/science or fantastical/sci-fi elements in your stories? How do you create rules and limitations for them?
Short answer: I like Sanderson’s advice to value a system’s limitations. If a spell is powerful, it should have an equal cost – be it time, resources, or blood.
Less short answer: Building Silexare (the world) is the true focus of all my stories, and I enjoy the challenge of transforming modern technologies and situations (ex: phone calls, drone strikes, weapons of mass destruction, social media) into something that can fit therein, whether through magic or some fantastical technology or material. In this way I attempt to bypass the hurdles of pseudo-medieval fantasy – limited medicine, transportation, technology.
I like all magic and technologies to have roots in science. The song magic of the monks in Turesia Untamed is based in resonance and throat singing and supersensory perception. Through supersensory perception (that’s where the magic happens) monks evaluate a given environment to determine how to change it. Through throat singing (that, too, is where the magic happens) they sing polyphonically in such a way that the vibrations they create are answered by their environment (okay magic happens here too) such that if they so choose, they can concentrate movement to make fire spring from nothing, or concentrate stillness to turn water into ice.
How do you approach the plotting and planning of your series or novels? Do you prefer to map everything out beforehand or let the story evolve as you write?
I’m more a plotter than a pantser. I generally know the majority of the plot before I start writing, and I learn the characters as I go. Sometimes they surprise me and I have to make accommodations to the plot because in the end, characters are the most important detail. If they don’t matter to the reader, neither does the plot.
What is a theme or message you hope readers take away from your work?
At large: That the world is not fully explored so long as humans exercise imagination! I hope to incite a sense of hope and wonder and excitement and dread that my favorite stories incite in me.
From Violence & Vigilance: Losing loved ones isn’t easy but you aren’t alone in your grief. Sometimes you hide it. Sometimes it makes you act evil. Sometimes it makes you act heroic. But you are not alone.
In what ways do you connect with your readers, and how has their feedback influenced your writing?
I make myself available on as many social media sites as I can stomach, and am happy to hear feedback from any and all! I can’t promise feedback will influence me because I am a stubborn old goat. Thus far, I’ve only almost felt influenced to start reading The Wheel of Time, since more than one person has compared Violence & Vigilance to it.
As an indie author, what advice would you give to aspiring writers wanting to publish in the fantasy/sci-fi genre?
Advice 1: Don’t listen to advice.
If you’re going to expose yourself to advice, take it with a grain of salt. Someone else’s advice, that did or did not work for them, may not apply to you at all. Just because your favorite author writes a thousand words a day before breakfast doesn’t mean you should.
Advice 2: Write for you, and don’t share your work-in-progress publicly.
I’m not talking about writing groups or beta readers; I’m talking about social media or your buddy. No one will love it like you do. You see potential. They only see a mess. Keep writing that story until you get to The End. Only then can you share it for feedback, but I’d still say don’t. Clean it up first.
What are the biggest challenges you face as an indie author?
Discipline. I don’t have a publishing agency breathing down my neck demanding book 2. And so I struggle with procrastination, he says, spending the morning answering interview questions instead of writing book 2. But I’ve learned that a writing group provides exactly the deadlines I need to constantly produce scenes/chapters.
Find David Links here –
Monthly News / Blog – https://www.silexare.com/
VIOLENCE & VIGILANCE on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C542GC78
Twitter/X – https://twitter.com/DavidTList
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/davidtlist
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/davidtlist/
Thank you!
Thank you for having me Matthew, and for the thought-provoking questions!
