Indie Author Interview with Deborah L. Davitt - Author of the Epic Fantasy Series The Saga of Edda-Earth.
After the notable fan-fiction novel Spirit of Redemption netted her 25,000 emails from around the world Deborah L. Davitt published The Valkyrie in 2014, and The Goddess Denied and The Goddess Embraced followed in 2015.
- "It was a great fun to read. It is a long story with great characters and and really interesting world that makes sense. Its a mix of fantasy and alternative history. Each chapter starts with an article/piece over the world or the history. The more you learn the more interesting it gets. If you like history and fantasy or only fantasy books buy this. It has great characters, great combat scenes and an interesting magic and technology system. It was definitely the best book i read in this year.[...]" - Reader Review
Interview with Deborah L. Davitt
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| Author Deborah L. Davitt |
Deborah L. Davitt: I've spent most of my life writing, in one form or another. I started submitting my first stories when I was fourteen or so, a handful more to Dragon Magazine when I was sixteen. Wrote my first, incredibly bad novel when I was eighteen, the summer between high school and college. Then, I had so many papers to write that fiction went by the wayside. I did an honors thesis on Spenser, and got a research grant that took me to the British Library to do a paper for the Shakespeare Association of America when I was 22.
After two more years of grad school, which included teaching writing and composition, I needed a paying job with actual insurance. So I became a technical writer, in fields as diverse as nuclear submarines, NASA, and computer manufacturing. But while that was what let me live, I kept writing behind the scenes--at first, a very long-term play-by-post role-playing games with about eight players, conducted over the course of two years. That required daily writing, and an ability to remember a line three or four months ago, which then could be woven into the ongoing plot for continuity. It taught me how to play to each member of my audience and keep them entertained.
Then, back in 2010 or so, I started a fanfic as a lark--The Spirit of Redemption. I got such an overwhelmingly positive response, that I kept at it. I finished it as a sort of series of fan novels, in 2012, and realized that I'd received some 25,000 emails about it over the course of those years That told me that not only could I finish a long project, but that I had a writing style that people genuinely enjoyed reading. . . and nevermind that I couldn't seem to find an editor or agent who agreed. I immediately set out to write my own intellectual property, and I haven't really looked back since.
Who are your favorite writers, your favorite books, and who or what are your writing influences?
My favorite writers and influences are such a grab-bag that you'll laugh. I spent a full year learning Anglo-Saxon to translate Beowulf--the same year I took a course on the Canterbury Tales and wrote a thesis on Spenser, while being up to my ears in Shakespeare. Those are my classical influences.
My modern influences? If I pull a book off my shelf for a night of reading, it's almost inevitably going to be Terry Pratchett. He had a gift for juxtaposing the sublime and the ridiculous in the exact same sentence, and had a world of wisdom in almost every book. I admire him amazingly. One of my earliest influences was Diane Duane; while I disagree with her philosophy on some matters, I've always found brilliant moments of imagination through her books--and her insistence on magic that makes some sort of sense in terms of physics. . . grounded magic, for lack of a better term. . . rings true to me.
Tad Williams and Clive Barker are also authors that I greatly admire. Williams bends genres till they're reborn, and has the kind of epic scope I enjoy. And Barker's Galiliee has given me the most consolation of any book I've ever read. And I say that, knowing full well that people's brains will break, since he's known for horror. Still, that's the book that went with me on the plane to say goodbye to my dad in the hospital, and it's the book I wore out re-reading the year before my divorce.
When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?
I think around third grade, when I was plowing through Pamela Sergant's YA science fiction works, and one of my teachers said the fatal words "You should be a writer!" "Hey, I like reading books, so why not write them, too? But I'll probably need a day job."
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
I remember starting one around fourth grade, getting partially through it, and making the mistake of showing it to my mom. I wonder how many stories have been killed by the words, "It's nice. I think I read something like that once."
"[...] the act of writing changes what you write."
Tell us about your writing process. Do you have a writing routine?
Generally speaking, I have signpost scenes that I want to write, and I make lists of those. Then I make lists of things that need to happen to get to those scenes. However, I try not to get married to the outline, because the act of writing changes what you write. The words don't come out the same way, or the characters wake up and tell you what an abysmally stupid idea X was, and that they won't do it, and that Y is far more sensible. I also find that music helps, but generally, it has to be instrumentals. Vocals interfere with the voices in my head, unless a given song fits *precisely* with a character or a scene.
Please, describe your desk/workplace.
Sadly, it's a mess at the moment. A cup of tea has been parked on a coaster in front of my keyboard; there are pieces of paper with notes on a half-dozen stories and poems scattered to my left. My work notebook--since I am also gainfully employed--takes up a chunk of desk space to my left as well. There are earbuds here, as well, for when I want to (or can) block out the world with some music and write.
Behind me, my husband sits at his desk in our office. At the moment, he's put in *his* earbuds to block the sound of my typing. No solid writing time will exist in my schedule today until our son has gone to bed. While he's upstairs at the moment, reading his shark books, that will change, and the noise levels will resume their usual decibels.
"Marketing has taken up more of my time this year than writing has [...]"
What do you find easiest about writing? What the hardest?
Easiest? Continuing and continuing and finding the ramifications and implications, and weaving them all into a whole. The hardest? Limiting myself to arbitrary word counts, and marketing. Marketing has taken up more of my time this year than writing has, and I rather dislike that.
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Finding the *exact* way to convey an idea or an emotion, and hoping that the readers get it. And when they do, it's a lift beyond any I can describe. It's like the moment in teaching when I'd see the "aha!" in a student's eyes.
Deborah, please tell us a little about your Epic Fantasy Series The Saga of Edda-Earth.
Edda-Earth is an alternate history series that goes beyond filing the serial numbers off world events. It's a wholly re-imagined world, in which Rome never fell, magic and science coexist, and all the gods are real.
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| Click to Read an Excerpt |
What inspired you to write the series?
I'd always heard as a kid the truism "If Rome hadn't fallen, and the Dark Ages didn't occur, we'd be on Mars by now." That stuck with me, and I sort of wanted to write a story someday about the Roman empire in space. This series isn't that, though. Then, as I was winding down Spirit of Redemption, I found an article on the Morning Star Ritual of the plains tribes of Native Americans, and the two ideas collided in a "Wow. I bet the Romans wouldn't have liked that. They weren't much into human sacrifice. Huh. I wonder what it would have been like if Rome had colonized North America. . . . " I set the idea aside for a while, and then a friend who was doing NaNoWriMo asked me if I wanted to contribute a character to his book, out of a setting that would be referenced, but not done much with.
He told me after I'd explained some of the setting to him, "Deborah, I can't take that setting from you." "You wouldn't. I'm going to write this." "Is there magic in this world?" "I never thought about it before, but I think that now there is."
Sigrun won't be appearing in anyone else's books; her story simply became too large to let anyone else write any part of it.
"I'm getting comments from people world-wide about it."
Who do you see as your target audience?
When I was writing Spirit of Redemption, I had fan mail from Malaysia, Russia, Egypt, and South America, not to mention England and the rest of Europe and the US. I had male readers, female readers, readers in their teens and readers in their fifties. They were, in the main, very bright people with an interest in science, gaming, and the world around them.
Which is of course, the hardest demographic to describe to marketers. Edda's geared to people like that, however. People with an interest in history, philosophy, adventure, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and yes, even a bit of humor and tragedy. It doesn't fit well in a pigeonhole, and I suspect that the people who've enjoyed it so far, can't be easily pegged, either. But again, I'm getting comments from people world-wide about it. So I must be doing something right?
What makes your Epic Fantasy Saga special?
It's rather genre-bending, since every element of the magic in it can and does have a relationship to science. Ley-mages tap ley-lines, which are actually cosmic strings, for energy. Standard sorcerers study chemistry and physics, and don't just stick with old-fashioned fireballs; they remove energy from the air to form walls made of solidified nitrogen to entomb their foes. Spirits and gods come from the Veil, an aentropic universe adjacent to and overlapping this one, and since they tap into the energy of that universe, they can break some, but not all, of the rules of this one.
Additionally, the series is, at its heart, both a mystery and a response to all the many, many series out there that deal with determinism. "Prophecy says the world's about to end. Can we avoid it?" is the premise of the series. "How much of reality do we make for ourselves? Can we change? Can we change the world around us?"
How would you describe the success of your self-published books so far?
I'm pleased with the response so far, but I'd really like to see more people picking up the books. My biggest surge of readers came after my interview with the Dungeons and Dragons podcast this year (Thank you to the podcasters and to the new readers for giving it a go!), but while the reviews have been very, very good, I need to get the word out to more people.
"Sit down and do it."
Can you give some advice for other Authors regarding the writing process?
Sit down and do it.
Are you working on another book project? Can you tell us a little about it?
I'm working on the unexpected Book IV of this series; the first three can stand on their own, but a novella I was working on called "Other Paths" got away from me, and turned into a book on its own. I've also been writing some short fiction and poetry to try to get some professional credits, so that agents might take me a bit more seriously.
Where do you see the book market in 5 or 10 years? Will there be only eBooks and will book stores disappear like record stores disappeared?
I see on-demand printing becoming much more of a thing. I personally still prefer physical books. You can read them in the bathtub, and if they slip, the worst that happens is a bit of a line on some of the pages. Reading on your phone. . . less than handy. Want to read outdoors at your son's swimming lessons? The phone screen is again, less than friendly.
On the other hand, when people recommend me books that were popular in the UK, but are utterly unfindable over here, or when I make a book recommendation that's in print here, but out of print in the UK, the shipping costs are outrageous, so I find myself longing for more books to move to Kindle and other outlets. If only so that they're equally accessible worldwide.
I also see a sea-change coming in the publishing markets as a whole. For decades, the magazine market was used as a filter by the big print houses and agents. "If you've been published in the small leagues, you can come to us with writing credits and we'll consider you."
And then the magazine market collapsed. Imploded. Leaving a handful of big-name magazines out there that still print on paper. Getting published by them is now the imprimatur of quality, but they are slammed by submissions. Online venues and electronic magazines aren't seen as having high enough standards of quality and professionalism to pick up that gap, and they have a hard time paying authors--the mark of professionalism--when they can't get subscribers to pay the bills.
More and more people are turning to self-publishing, and bloggers and paid reviewers are becoming the imprimatur of quality, the way in which you can display your credibility. "Look at all my reviews," you say, like a restaurant on Yelp. "And only one person so far thought that my cooking wasn't to their taste."
What is your e-reading device of choice?
I spent most of my time reading non-fiction on my actual computer, though I've slowly been converting to using my phone as well.
Do you write full-time or do you have a day job? When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
I'm a technical writer by day, mother of a very active seven-year-old, and a writer. I also have a rather patient husband. Those priorities have been clashing a bit more in the past two months than I would prefer. Mostly because we also got a puppy. I wasn't expecting the level of pacing and panting that I've been seeing, hehe.
How can readers connect with you?
I have a Facebook page--the Edda-Earth (https://www.facebook.com/Edda-Earth-1409693822607652) one is the best to get in touch with me. I also have a forum (http://spiritofredemption.yuku.com), and a rather nice website, www.edda-earth.com, with links to get in touch with me and information about the books.
Thank you very much for the Interview, Deborah.
About the Series The Saga of Edda-Earth
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| Click to Read an Excerpt |
Book 1 - The Valkyrie
Ex nihilo nihil fit: From nothing, nothing comes.
Enter the world of Edda-Earth, in which Rome never fell, science and magic coexist, all the gods are real . . . and war is coming
Everyone must serve. Everyone must sacrifice.
The god-born: Sigrun Caetia, valkyrie of Tyr, born in Nova Germania, across the sea
The summoner: Trennus Matrugena, son of a petty king, native of Caledonia
The archmage: Kanmi Eshmunazar, a former wharf-rat of Tyre, Carthage
The godslayer: Adam ben Maor, special forces, of Judea
The prophetess: Sophia, Pythia of Delphi
The truthsayer: Minori Sasaki, scientist and sorcerer, native of Hokkaido
And the man who brings them together in Rome's service: Propraetor Antonius Valerius Livorus.
Together, they pursue a great mystery: Some believe that the world is about to end. Certainly, prophecy indicates so. Some of the gods are making provisions for that day, including reviving the long-prohibited custom of human sacrifice.
How do they stop this, and how deep does the mystery go? Why does a dying man taunt Livorus, asking him if he knows where his gods are? And why does prophecy suggest that Sigrun will be the sole survivor of Ragnarok?
Book 2 - The Goddess Denied
Disbelieve memory. Discard evidence. Deny the truth.
Mysteries deepen as a cursed valkyrie investigates the source of her condition, a young woman goes missing, and monsters are reported in the lands of the north. Lindworms, jotun, and ettin have been seen, along with wolves the size of horses. Surely, this means Ragnarok is at hand.
And yet, it's not just the gods who are making trouble. Groups like Potentia ad Populum and the Carthaginian Liberation Party take radical steps to throw off the yoke of Rome. . . and bring the power of the gods into every mortal hand.
Rejoin Sigrun Caetia, Adam ben Maor, Trennus Matrugena, Kanmi Eshmunazar, and Minori Sasaki in the world of Edda-Earth. They'll gain new allies, such as the enigmatic dragon, Niðhoggr. Make new enemies. Confront prophecy.
And realize, in the end, that you can't deny your true nature forever...
Book 3 - The Goddess Embraced
From sacrifice . . . glory.
Starless skies will swim with smoke
Born of the fire of a fallen earth
Wyrms will writhe over the welkin
The spirits of darkness will swallow whole
Every creature, every spirit, every god.
Yet every end brings new beginnings
New gods arise, and some old are forgiven.
This world will die. But Naglfar will carry us home.
Ragnarok is at hand. The gods fight one another, and while humans are caught in the crossfire, their hands are hardly clean, as nation fights nation for resources and survival.
Sigrun, Trennus, Minori, Adam, Lassair, Saraid, Niðhoggr, and their allies must rely on the words of the Firebringer to try to break the back of prophecy, and avert the end of the world. But questions remain.
Will Adam allow prophecy to consume him, and break all bonds of friendship and kin? Will Sigrun walk her dark road alone, at the end of time? Or can destiny be shattered?
Link to the Book
Link to the eBook The Valkyrie on Amazon
Link to the eBook The Goddess Denied on Amazon
Link to the eBook The Goddess Embraced on Amazon
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