- Your novel, Tread Carefully on the Sea, published with Solstice. How did you discover Solstice Publishing?
When I thought my first book was ready, I started approaching literary agents. I googled agents and tried so many I was eventually down to the bottom layer, i.e. those that didn’t even have their own websites. I was determined that if I never placed the book it would not be because I had not exhausted the possibilities. I have kept a count of the queries I sent out – it totaled 370 between July 2013 and April 2014. Somewhere along the way I realized that there were indie publishers who took submissions direct and I started approaching them. Bingo! Solstice gave me a contract. God bless Mel Massey-Maroni.
- Where did your inspiration come from for this book? Was there a character that just had to be heard? Was there an event that inspired you to start writing?
I’ve pasted the following from my website because it answers the question.
I was seven years old or thereabouts and I walked round the garden reading Treasure Island. When I got to the bit about the musket and cutlass battle I was so engrossed I walked into a tree. I was proud of my bleeding nose – I imagined I got it in a fight with a pirate. What intrigued me most about that classic book by Robert Louis Stevenson were all the references to Captain Flint, a pirate king who was brutal, intimidating and quite likely an alcoholic – yet obviously very clever. Without Flint there would have been no Treasure Island for he was the man who had buried the Treasure on the Island. Yet in that book we hear about Flint only in reminiscences from some of the protagonists because Flint is dead by the time the story begins. For me, Flint deserved a biography of his own. Now I’ve written it, Tread Carefully on the Sea.
I did a first draft many years ago and read it to my son Matthew when he was a child. About the year 2010 he asked if he could read it again. I was ashamed to give him what I knew was an inadequate story so I set about writing it properly. That’s why I have dedicated the book to him – he inspired the completion of the project.
- Does your background (in terms of job, family, geographic location, etc.) play into your writing? What kind of research went into your story?
I’m retired but my career was in journalism and public relations so I’ve always been a writer. I never dreamed of becoming an author until retirement gave me the time. My late brother Ray was an author. He produced a magnificent tome about the Bayeux Tapestry called Warriors of the Dragon Gold which, although written in the 1980s, is still available through Amazon.
Geographic location? – to some extent. Tread Carefully on the Sea is set in the Caribbean and Georgia and my second book, The Dust of Cannae, in ancient Rome. For the next two books, however, I have turned to geography and time frames I know well, i.e. England in the 1960s and 1970s.
Research? Well Tread Carefully took an awful lot. It’s set in the 18th Century and is all about pirates, ships, the weaponry and fashion of the period. I spent hours on the internet and in libraries. So much so that while I’m pleased with the results, I wouldn’t want to have to do that depth of research again.
- Describe the genres in which you write (paranormal, contemporary, westerns, etc.) If write in more than one genre or area (poetry, non-fiction), do you have a different process when you’re writing different kinds of fiction or non-fiction?
First two books = historical fiction
Third = has an SF base but is really about political chicanery
Fourth = police-based mystery thriller
I don’t think I have a different process. What I am aware of is the need to make each book different, e.g. the characters in one should not be echoes of those in another.
- What is your mind set or process as you sit down to write? Do you have a playlist going? Do you need complete silence? Are you a 6 am writer or an 11 pm writer?
I tend to get an idea and then starting writing, not knowing how the story will end. Obviously this leads sometimes to ending up stuck in a pit not knowing the way forward but happily I’ve overcome that each time. Once I’ve written through to the finale I find I’ve got about 40000 words then I go back and think of more chapters that would help the plot or character-building and I fill in the gaps. I try to avoid waffling and try to make every word play a part. Tread Carefully ended up at 100,000 words, the others between 80,000 and 90,000. I do need silence and I do feel guilty that my wife goes for hours without seeing me – but she does seem to like my books and helps with a good deal of the detail, especially about women’s stuff. I can be 6am or 11pm – often it’s been 2 or 3am.
- How do you balance writing with work and/or personal life?
I’m lucky in that I’m retired and do tend to be a bit stay-at-home. I make a great effort, however, not to become a total recluse.
- Do you have any other projects you’re working on?
Those other books that I’ve mentioned before. Two of them need polishing. The fourth needs a lot more thought and writing.
- Any words of advice for aspiring writers?
Don’t just write.
- Keep one document in which you have salient notes, such as character descriptions.
- Keep another where you work out your times and dates (very easy to be halfway through a story and announce a date that doesn’t tie up with something you wrote earlier on)
- Keep notes of things that you want to say somewhere but you haven’t reached the right point yet.
- Keep a notebook with you at all times. You’ll get ideas when shopping, watching tv, even when you’re in the toilet. Write them down as soon as you can get your hands free because you’ll kick yourself to hell if you forget those ideas. If you really can’t note them down quickly, keep going over them in your head to commit them to memory.
- Most of all don’t panic. The answers will come.
- Social media: Tell us where readers can find you (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, website)
Facebook (I don’t even know if I’ve got an identity on Facebook. Is there an address like there is on Twitter?)
Twitter @DavidKBryant
Website = www.davidkbryant.com
Email (open to anyone friendly or constructive) = davidkbryant.author@yahoo.com
Linked In
Goodreads
