Q & A with David Maine discussion

The title pretty much says it all.

what is your favorite fantasy author, why?

I like all the usual suspects--Tolkein et al--but I'm also a pretty big fan of Melanie Rawn, who wrote a great series of novels back in the 1980s.

For my REAL favorite, though, you have to hit the used bookstores to find Lin Carter's Callisto books. I must have read them a half dozen times as a teenager. They are awesome.

Do yourself a favor and hunt these up:

Jandar of Callisto, Black Legion of Callisto, Sky Pirates of Callisto, Mad Empress of Callisto, Mind Wizards of Callisto, Lankar of Callisto. There are a couple of other, later ones, but they're not as good.

You won't be disappointed. Promise. Good dumb fun.

I've never read the George RR Martin stuff. Is it any good? Anybody?

I've been enjoying the Game of Thrones series but reading one of his books feels like running a marathon...there's a LOT of pages, characters and storylines and if I find myself lolly-gagging about then I'm easily lost.

Still have the fifth book to read which I'll be reading soon but it's another 1000 pager and it's been kind of staring me down as I read other lighter material...it will just have to wait it's turn!

Will have to check out the series you mentioned. Love good dumb fun.

That's the impression I get about GoT. It all sounds good, but I feel like I have to set aside an entire summer or something to really delve into it and get through it all... and even then, it still won't be finished for another two books! That's, what, 6 years each, so another 12 years... Looks like the series will finish around 2023 or so.

On second thought, it looks like have plenty of time after all...

And Lin Carter, yeah, he rocks. He co-created Conan I think, with ERB, so he's seriously old-school derring-do. Which we could all do with a little more of these days, son't you think?

Some of my best memories of summers are stealing borrowing Conan magazines from the crew of the carnival my parents owned and which I worked every summer from the time I was 8 or 9 until I was 16. It was heaven to grab a coke, find some shade and steal away some time reading the latest adventure, and if I was really lucky Red Sonja would put in an appearance as well. Gotta love a woman who can kick ass, though I'm sure Gloria Steinem might have had a thing or 2 to say about the manner in which she kicked it, I loved those stories!


Now I'm off to add something from Lin Carter to my already overwhelming to-read list, which in my opinion is a lot like jello...there's always room for more.

One of the best fantasy series I remember from aeons past was by Patricia Kenneally - a celtic series as I remember.

Have you ever read the Stephen King "Dark Tower" series? If so what did you think?

Never did, though I have a buddy who swears by the first four books. I've had mixed results with King -- Pet Sematary and Salem's Lot were both good, but man, Cujo was laughable. So I haven;t read anything by him for, oh, 20 years or so... Maybe I should look again. (?)

He has written some stinkers for sure, but also a few gems. The dark tower is my favorite, along with "from a Buick 8" and "running man".

In interviews he has said said he can't remember writing Cujo he was so high... That can't be good.

I my creative writing classes, I cite Cujo as an example of how not to evoke the consciousness of a non-human character. The scenes early on where the dog is running around thinking things like "RUN RUN FAST RABBIT RUN KILL KILL CHASE KILL" is just laughable.

It makes more sense if you imagine SK stoned out of his mind... this pieces kind of fall into place.

I used to love Stephen King. But I just got tired of the everpresent profanity. People just don't think/talk like that. Maybe some people do, but not as many as he has. I think he sells books on reputation nowadays.

You might be right. I don't remember bucketloads of swearing in his books, but as I say, I haven't read him for a long time. I do remember reading some piece years ago, I forget who wrote it and where it was, that talked about his kind of creepy stuff regarding women. Like, third person narrators talking really vilely about women characters and so on. I think maybe there was some stuff from Misery but I don't remember for sure. Always a tricky line to tread, with stuff like that. It has to be fairly deftly handled, and rightly or wrongly I don't exactly think of SK as being deft.

As for selling on rep, yeah maybe. I guess that's what we all do, to some degree, but when you've been in the game as long as he has, and have sold as many books as he has, it's easy to do...

Mr. Maine,

I appreciate your writing and that you have a forum like this for questions. So far I've read The Preservationist and Fallen and am partway through The Book of Samson and I have a few questions:

-What is your religious background, if any?
-You mention that you use the spelling found in the Douay-Rheims Bible. Is that a stylistic decision?
-You seem to respect the characters of the Biblical narrative in the way you flesh them out without substantially altering their stories. When did you realize you wanted to write about OT characters?

Brian! Call me Dave. Really. Please.

BTW, that's some racy profile pic you have there...

1. You know, I never talk about religion with people, and that's because no matter what I say, the answer will be used as a kind of lens to look through while reading the books. So, if I said "I'm Lutheran," you'd think, "Oh, okay," and then think of the books in that light, or if I said "I'm atheist," you'd say, "Ohhh, well that explains that then," or if I said I'm Buddhist or Muslim or Catholic or whatever. Whatever I say will end up being a sort of filter that you would use to interpret the stories. What you think about what (you think) you know about me then enters the conversation between you and the book. But really, the conversation should just be between you two. You can leave me out of it.

This of course ignores the impossible problem of trying to encapsulate any type of meanignful religious or spiritual cosmology in just a handful of words or sentences. So even if I did give an answer, that answer would be hopelessly truncated and inadequate.

2. Using the Douay became a stylistic decision for Fallen and Samson because I wanted to maintain the continuity with The Pres. Initially, it wasn't my first choice--I wanted to use the King James, which is the one everyone knows. But I didn't have a King James, I only had a Douay, and where I was living at the time (Lahore, Pakistan) would have made tracking down a King James something of a production. So what the heck, I opened the Douay and the first thing I noticed was that Noah's name was spelled Noe, and I thought, "Oh man, that'll disorient everybody." And then I thought: "Exactly!" So I ended up being really happy with the oddball spellings in the Douay--Shem, Ham--because they were just that little bit off for most people, which I hope added to the experience of looking at this familiar story with fresh eyes.

3. Yeah it's important (to me) that I not take liberties with the characters. Whether you believe in them or not as historical figures, they are certainly literary figures in that they have featured in stories for three or four thousand years. So I have to respect that, I have to respect their integrity as characters with a history that predates my own by a good bit. I can't go making them into animal-rights activists or feminists or homosexuals because--even though that might make for some interesting tensions and a great story--it just isn't realistically a part of where they come from. Or I should say, there's nothing in the source material to indicate that it is.

I never really sat down and figured, "Hey I want to write about OT characters." The idea to write about Noah came to me one day when I was staring out the window at the rain and I had this image of the family standing around the newly-finished boat just as the rain starts coming down. The looks on their faces, like, "Oh man, I guess we'd better believe the old guy." And then the water comes and washes everything away. That was a moment that I found very moving, and everything sort of grew out of that.

You got it, Dave. I understand what you mean about not wanting your own thoughts on religion to color or influence the readers of your books.

It might interest you to know that I heard about you from a man named David Taylor, who named you as a novelist who pastors should read. He talked about all three of the Biblical novels and I got interested from there and have read, and enjoyed and learned from, all of them.

Since you mentioned it my profile pic is a painting of Edward Knippers called Jesus Whipped. In reality it is this massive twelve foot by eight foot work of art and a main concern of his is where modern Christians are falling into the ancient heresy of docetism, where Christ only appeared to have a body.

Take care.

Brian, Thanks for the interest. Is David Taylor someone you know, or did he write an article or review about my books? I'm curious. Anyway, if you see him, thank him for me!

The response from seriously-minded people has been gratifying overall. Yeah, I've gotten some fairly predictable, "Oooh, you show Bible characters havong sex, you're a bad man!" type of response, but overall, people seem to get it that I'm interested in exploring these people's lives, as people, not as icons. And that means of course showing the dodgy stuff as well as the nice stuff. Well, I do my best.

I've never heard of docetism, but it sounds odd. Then again I guess it's no odder thn thinking that God does have a physical body, which Mormons believe, aand which has always been a bit of a head-scratcher for me.

Of course there's no shartage of head-scratchers out there...

David wrote: "I like all the usual suspects--Tolkein et al--but I'm also a pretty big fan of Melanie Rawn, who wrote a great series of novels back in the 1980s.

For my REAL favorite, though, you have to hit th..."

George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series is fantastic epic, sprawling fantasy. I think his books are more reader friendly than Tolkien's LOTR series. However, few books are as dear to me as The Hobbit.

My favorite fantasy author is Ursula K. LeGuin and her EarthSeas series. I am alway surprised that people haven't read this series, especially epic fantasy/sci-fi readers. It is BY FAR the best wizard series. And yes, I say this in light of the Harry Potter series, LOTR, Shannara series, etc. I LOVE LOVE LOVE all those series, but LeGuin is my fav and I wish more people tried EarthSea out. I try to share my knowledge and love for her with everyone I encounter. Kinda like I do with your books!! :-)

David wrote: "Never did, though I have a buddy who swears by the first four books. I've had mixed results with King -- Pet Sematary and Salem's Lot were both good, but man, Cujo was laughable. So I haven;t read ..."

I don't read anymore of King's horror as I have been irked too many times now. Besides, I am a Clive Barker fan so my horror needs are met by him. However, King's The Dark Tower/Gunslinger series IS AMAZING!!!!! I'm starting book 4 or 5 this year. I read one or two per year. They are also like a marathon read that gets in your bones mentally and emotionally. I rejected this series for years until peer pressure from my fellow book geeks finally won. I'm glad it did.

David wrote: "Brian, Thanks for the interest. Is David Taylor someone you know, or did he write an article or review about my books? I'm curious. Anyway, if you see him, thank him for me!

I don't know David personally but came across one of his blog entries. You can see a video where he recommends your work here:
http://artspastor.blogspot.com/2010/1...

I'm enjoying following what you're reading and seeing your reviews. Goodreads is such a great place for book geeks!

Hey Shorshanik, thanks for bringing to my attention yet more books I have to read before I die... I do like the Le Guin I've read (basically The Lathe of Heaven and The Dispossessed but never made it to the Earthsea stories. I will check them out.

The Dark Tower, I dunno. I sort of feel I'm done with SK, but as I said, my buddy swears by that series. And apparently he just announced a new book in the series recently--anybody know anything about that?

And thanks for recommending my books! Much appreciated.

Brian: thanks for the link! I'll check it out and maybe post it on my blog too. What a riot to hear people recommending me out there in the blogosphere. More connections just sprouting up every day...

SK did just release another Dark Tower book. Though he finished the series, he wrote a book that fits in between the 4th and 5th books. It is a story in a story in a story, a la Arabian nights. I'm almost finished this one, called 'Wind through a key Hole'.

I think I already recommended this to you, but since we are on the topic again, read it! It is the pinnacle of SK's writing and my favorite series of books ever written. It is not horror, it is a mashup of western, fantasy and sci-fi. It is long, but unlike some other series I've read there is no formula, the characters change and grow and age. It's wonderful.

So Dave, when's your new book coming? And the next fantasy?

The new book is called An Age of Madness and will be released early September; it has a page on Amazon but not yet on Goodreads, so go figure. Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/An-Age-Madness-... Sweet cover, eh?

The second fantasy in The Chronicles of Avin is called The Rime of the Remorseless and it's forthcoming, but slowly. There's an awful lot on my plate this summer, suddenly, and I haven't gotten to the final revising that I need to do before releasing it. I really don't want to put out some unpolished thing for people to wade through, so it's still a few weeks away (or maybe even longer). Sorry about that! But what with the other book, and some changes in my work and living situation, there's just some stuff that has taken priority.

However, once that ball gets rolling, I will certainly let people know about it!