A Few Minutes with Writer and Editor David Lee Summers

With such novels as Vampires of the Scarlet Order and The Pirates of Sufiro as well as editing Tales of the Talisman magazine, writer, editor, and astronomer David Lee Summers has been able to carve out his own niche in the literary world. Mr. Summers was gracious enough to take time away from his busy schedule of working on his next writing project and preparing the next issue of Tales of the Talisman to answer a few questions about himself, his many works, and the literary world in general.

Could you tell a little about yourself?

I have a degree in astrophysics. After college I worked for 14 years at observatories around the Southwest as an observing assistant and telescope engineer. During that time, I published a handful of papers about variable stars - I'm even credited as the co-discoverer of a variable star.

During this period, my wife, Kumie Wise, went to the University of Arizona where she earned her Masters of Business Administration. I worked at Kitt Peak National Observatory at the time. On the way to her degree, she developed Hadrosaur Productions, a small press that was originally devoted to publishing audio books. To show proof-of-concept, we recorded my first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, as an audio book. We then came up with the idea of having an annual anthology to help make people aware of our company. We called it Hadrosaur Tales.Hadrosaur Tales eventually became the focus of the company and ten years later it evolved into Tales of the Talisman magazine.

Soon after Kumie finished her Masters degree, we moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico. I went to work for the astronomy department at New Mexico State University as a telescope engineer and Kumie started building her bread-and-butter business, Wise Bookkeeping. Our first daughter, Myranda, was born shortly after we moved to Las Cruces. She's now 11 and about to start middle school.

In 2000, I decided to devote more time to writing and Hadrosaur Productions, so I left the astronomy department at NMSU. Today, I'm essentially a full-time writer and editor, performing some technical consultation here and there as needed. My second daughter, Verity, was born in 2002 and she starts Kindergarten in the fall.

I've written three science fiction novels - The Pirates of Sufiro, Children of the Old Stars, and Heirs of the New Earth - one vampire novel - Vampires of the Scarlet Order - and a number of short stories and poems that have appeared in such places as Realms of Fantasy, The Santa Clara Review, Night to Dawn, The Vampire's Crypt, Star*Line and many more.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I was ten-years-old when I first announced to my parents that I'd like to be a writer. David Gerrold had written a book about his experience writing the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" and after reading it, I thought writing sounded like the coolest profession in the world.

At the time, I was very much in love with anything to do with space, whether it was the space program, astronomy, science fiction - you name it! My parents saw my love of science as more lucrative than my love of writing so they steered me that direction, even though I was never really an A-student in science. I wrote all through high school and college, even as I worked on my science education. In many ways, I suppose I hoped I'd be another Isaac Asimov.

Nowadays, I certainly don't see myself as another Isaac Asimov. Among other things, I never earned a Ph.D. However, I'm very proud of my contributions to both the worlds of astronomy and writing.

How did you come up with the idea for your novels? Were they ideas you carried around with you for awhile or were they more of a sudden inspiration?

At the core, my novels are built on life experience and pieces of history - both world history and family history - that I'd been carrying around for awhile. However, there were sparks that gave me inspiration, allowing me to write the novels quickly once the pieces fell into place.

My first novel, The Pirates of Sufiro, came to me soon after I read two novels back to back: The Magic Journey by John Nichols and Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein. The first of those books talks about a young woman who grew up in New Mexico and her life as the world changed around her. One section of Time Enough for Love describes a group of pioneers on an alien world. I began to think about my own ancestors who homesteaded in Texas and then New Mexico and saw how I could fold their experiences into a science fiction tale. A few weeks later, I started typing furiously in my days off. The rough draft of The Pirates of Sufiro was complete in three weeks.

My vampire novel was a little slower coming. Some ideas in that novel came from the time I worked at Kitt Peak. Some of us who worked the night shift called ourselves the "vampires of the mountain" and during that period I started reading some vampire fiction, including Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. However, I didn't write any vampire fiction at all until about five years after that, when my friend, Janni Lee Simner made an off-hand comment about vampires living in Las Cruces - the city of crosses. She said if the idea inspired a story, I was welcome to use it. About two weeks later, I wrote the story "Vampire in the City of Crosses," which appeared in the New Voices of Horror anthology (which was short-listed for the Stoker Award) and ultimately became an important chapter in Vampires of the Scarlet Order.

Who are some of your favorite writers, and which ones have influenced your own writing the most?

Ray Bradbury had a very big influence on me, both because of his writing, and because when I was 16, he looked me in the eye and told me not to wait, that I should submit my stories to magazines and book publishers right away! His faith in me at that young age and subsequent correspondence where he encouraged me in my writing meant the world to me.

John Nichols, the author of The Milagro Beanfield war, had a big influence on me. As I mentioned above, it was after reading his novel, The Magic Journey, and Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love, that I began to understand how I could write what I know and transpose it realistically into a futuristic or fantastic landscape.

C.S. Forrester, author of the Horatio Hornblower books, and Patrick O'Brien, author of Master and Commander, both have had a strong influence on my writing. It's amazing how similar 18^th century seafaring stories and space opera can be.

Among contemporary science fiction and fantasy authors, favorites include Neal Asher, Walter Jon Williams and Steven Brust.

Bram Stoker's Dracula was the first vampire novel I ever read, followed soon after by Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. Colin Wilson's space vampires were also an influence on me. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's St. Germain Books and Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampires are among my current favorites in the genre.

What are your thoughts on the fantasy genre in general and what direction do you see it taking in the near future?

Fantasy is a genre that has few bounds. Among my favorite fantasy novels are the Mars Books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams, and the Oz books of L. Frank Baum. I love these books because they really aren't based on a particular notion of what makes a "fantasy novel." The authors invented their worlds from the ground up: Burroughs set his fantasy on Mars and gave us thoats and flying ships; Williams set his fantasy in an urban environment of the distant future and hinted at technologies so great, they were indistinguishable from magic; Baum had wizards and witches, but he also gave us mechanical men, animated scarecrows, a wicked queen who could change her head at will - and in the books, Oz was not just a dream.

That said, the current popularity of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has brought a sense that fantasy must fit a particular mold - that it must be set in a medieval-like world and involve creatures such as elves, dwarfs, and wizards. Thing is, I love this kind of "traditional" fantasy and, as Tolkien himself said, these are stories steeped in folklore and legend. As long as the writers respect and understand that folklore and tradition enough to make it their own - instead of copying Tolkien or those who came after him - it's a completely valid and wonderful form of fantasy. However, it strikes me that many book marketers are beginning to think Tolkienesque fantasy is the only kind of fantasy there is. There's a real danger that the genre may get pigeonholed into a very tight set of rules - not because writers lack imagination, but because the marketers do.

Right now, the highest profile fantasy novels seem to fit the Tolkienesque mold or a mold that's similar. For example, Harry Potter really just takes a world like Tolkien's and hides it in the shadows of the modern world. Other types of fantasy don't seem to be getting as much attention, but they do have welcome homes in the short fiction market.

I think as more and more people discover fantasy and how diverse a genre it is through reading fantasy magazines and some of the older novels, I think it's likely they will start demanding more diverse books and we'll see some truly exciting stuff in the coming years.

How do you feel about the recent trend of popular fantasy novels being made into movies?

There's a long tradition of Hollywood making classic novels into films, such as Moby-Dick, Gone With the Wind, and Doctor Zhivago. So, in many ways it's about time that we're seeing fantasy classics such as The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia get decent film treatment. The same goes for popular books such as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

That said, my favorite fantasy film of all time is John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China just because of its sheer originality. Because it has very little in common with traditional fantasy, I don't really see anything quite like it being made in today's market, which is unfortunate. The closest was probably 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which wasn't made by the Hollywood establishment.

What is the hardest part about being a writer, and what is the best?

The hardest part is rejection - and rejection is not just the little slips of paper that you get in your mailbox. The hardest rejections happen when you're sitting at a bookstore and people either pass you by or talk to you for two minutes and decide your book is not for them.

The best part is acceptance - and again, I'm referring to acceptance by readers more than by editors. I love it when someone really enjoys what I've done, and tells me through an email, letter to the editor of a magazine, or at a convention.

What is the one thing aspiring writers need to know about the publishing business?

That it's tough! The money isn't great and the vast majority of working writers haven't given up their day jobs. Almost all of your writing will be rejected at some time or another - either by editors or by readers. When that happens, you have to be able to pick yourself up off the ground and start over again. Also, just because your writing is rejected, that doesn't mean it's "bad" - it just means that a given person didn't like it enough to buy. The next person may love it.

The publishing business is tough partly because the waters are full of sharks - many of which will happily prey on the fact that you are so tired of being rejected that you will do anything to see your work published, including pay for the privilege. Avoid those sharks at all costs. Money, even if it's just a little, should flow to you, not from you.

Finally, the publishing business is tough because it's competitive and it's getting more competitive all the time as new technologies come into play, making it easier for more books to get to market in different formats. Even if you're published with a big publishing house in New York, you need to be prepared to help market your own work. If you sit back and expect your publisher to do all the work, it's likely your book will fail just because no one has heard about it. In that case, you'll be looking for a new publisher for your second book.

Could you elaborate a little bit about the pros and cons of being published by a small press?

The biggest pros have been a combination of creative freedom and a strong say in the packaging of the novels, from the editing to the artwork. Right now, I have four books that look good, have covers - and even interior art - that represent what the novels are about. I feel like the people of LBF Books/Lachesis Publishing are behind me all the way. I have a lot of support. For example, when I mentioned that I had a vacation coming in Seattle, the company's publicist worked to find me a promotional event in the area.

The cons mostly have to do with the fact that the distribution system for the major book chains is not an easy one for small presses to get into or work with. Books have to be presented to distributors and bookstore buyers. If the distributors and buyers decide to pick up a title, there's a very long lead-time between the time orders have to be fulfilled and when the distributor pays. Many small presses that do get on the shelf go broke waiting for the stores and distributors to pay. Most major presses don't have that problem because multi-media giants such as Time-Warner bolster them. Because it's difficult for smaller presses to get their books on store shelves in any quantity, reviewers are less interested - why review a book that no one's heard of? As a result, it's harder to get word out about a novel with a small press.

However, the inherent difficulties also bring a certain strength to good small presses. All presses want work that's marketable. However, a major press can do that easily with one of their big name authors. It's harder for small presses to attract names that sell, so they have to try harder to find solid, original material and develop it to be as strong as possible.

As a reader, I often find I'm more satisfied with the best small press books than even the best books from the major presses. I've come to a point now where I actually prefer seeking out good, small press books to the latest bestsellers from the major presses.

What is the best advice about writing you have received, and who gave it to you?

"Submit your stories to a publisher now!" from Ray Bradbury. "When your stories are rejected, send them out again. Don't take 'no' for an answer."

As I said above, rejection is hard, but Ray Bradbury's advice is basically to have enough confidence in your work to let people see it and to realize that just because one editor didn't like it, that doesn't mean that another won't. I've had times when I wanted to give up, but those words caused me to pull myself up by my bootstraps and send the story or book out again until it sold.

What are your plans for your writing in the future?

Last fall, I finished a young adult science fiction novel entitled The Solar Sea, which tells the story of a manned solar sail voyage to Jupiter and Saturn. I'm shopping that novel around to publishers right now. This fall, I'll be recording the second of my science fiction novels, Children of the Old Stars, for Podiobooks.com - a website that offers free, downloadable audio books to its listeners. This winter, I plan to finish Scarlet Order: Dragon's Fall, a prequel to Vampires of the Scarlet Order that describes the origins of Lord Draco and the vampire mercenaries called the Scarlet Order.

What is the one creature comfort you can't do without when you're in a writing mode?

Music. I either need a portable CD player or my iPod when I write. The music helps me to block out the outside world and fall into the world I'm trying to create. Most of the time I listen to instrumental music such as classical or jazz when I write because anything with words can be a distraction - but the key is that I look for music that generally fits the mood of the scene I'm trying to write.

What kinds of advice would you give to those trying to break into the business?

First, believe in yourself. It's a tough business and if you don't believe in yourself and your work, you're going to sink.

Second, get someone who knows your genre of choice to critique your work - make sure it's someone who won't spare your feelings. Someone like this will help you find the scenes that work and don't work and help you make them better. They can also tell you whether or not you really are offering something new and original, or just rehashing stuff that's been done many times before.

Third, read as much as you can and read widely. It's important to read outside your favorite genres. You'll be amazed how many ideas you might get by exploring new genres. You'll see new ways of describing things that will help you avoid sounding the same as everyone else trying to break in. Most stories aren't rejected because they're "bad," per se. It's just that they didn't offer anything unique or interesting. Also, when you read widely, it'll be easier for you to step back and analyze your own writing critically.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like hiking and biking. There are wonderful places to do both all around the Southwestern United States in general and around Las Cruces in particular. Both provide great opportunities for me to see and experience things that can influence my writing, plus they are both great ways for me to interact with my kids - who also inspire my writing.

Of course I love to read - though that sometimes doesn't feel like a "spare time" activity these days. Much of my reading time is devoted to Tales of the Talisman submissions or research - and I even read the fun stuff critically. I also love to relax with a good movie.

I enjoy cooking and experimenting with new recipes. I cook New Mexican and Cajun the most. I also enjoy Middle Eastern and European cuisines. Food plays an important role in my writing, too.

How often do you write? Do you have a schedule?

I'm afraid I'm a very undisciplined writer. I've never been able to make myself write every single day. However, even on days I don't write, I usually edit - either my own work or someone else's. At the very least I read stories for Tales of the Talisman.

That said, I have periods where I'm very disciplined. Once an idea forms solidly enough for me to write it, I write at least two hours a day - and preferably four to six hours. My favorite time to write is in the morning right after the kids go to school and the house is quiet. I put on my headphones, turn on the music and get going. Late at night, after the kids go to bed can also be a very productive time for me. At this kind of pace, it usually takes me about two months to write a rough draft novel. But, there has usually been a lot of thinking time before that composition stage and likewise, there's usually a fair amount of clean-up after the composition, though I find that time has gotten shorter as I've become more experienced as an editor.

How difficult is it and in the same regard how fulfilling is it to be the editor of Tales of the Talisman?

The single most difficult thing about being editor of Tales of the Talisman is writing rejection letters. I would say that most stories I see show promise and have some element that I enjoy. However, I don't have the luxury of picking stories that are just "pretty good." I have to pick the stories that will attract the most readers and that means I have to pick the very best stories. Once I've picked those stories, I can't just ignore the ones I've chosen not to purchase; I have to let the author know I'm not buying their work. Imagine what it would be like to go into your favorite bookstore to buy a book, but then you had to send rejection letters to every author whose book you chose not to buy, even though many of those books are great, they just weren't what you were looking for. That's what being an editor can feel like some days.

Still, being an editor can be very rewarding. One of the most rewarding things is when you see an author whose work you bought go on to even greater success. Neal Asher is an excellent example. He sold me a story way back in Hadrosaur Tales 8. That story was one of the chapters of his novel Gridlinked that was ultimately picked up by Tor and met with critical acclaim.

Just as rewarding is when I've been able to take a story by an author who made their very first sale to me and present that story beautifully and professionally. Nothing compares to the look on an author's face when they see their first story in print and nothing makes me feel better than when I get a letter telling me that an author we selected for the first time wrote the best story in a given issue.

That said, editing a magazine is rewarding on an even more personal level. By reading all of the stories I have, I've learned important lessons about how to make my stories more than "pretty good." I've also learned not to take rejection so personally - oh, it's still hard sometimes - but I've learned that rejection can be hard for the editor as well as the writer.

More information about Mr. Summers and his novels can be found at his website http://www.davidleesumers.com.

Information about Mr. Summers, magazine, Tales of the Talisman including how to purchase, where it can be found, and submission guidelines can be found at http://www.talesofthetalisman.com.

For those interested in purchasing Mr. Summers novels, they can visit his website mentioned above, or go to http://www.amazon.com and http://www.podiobooks.com.