AMoRaR Interview – Dave Dobson

A Month of Rain and Reads Interviews6 months ago15 min readAdd comment

Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.

Today, we ask some questions of Dave Dobson, author of the Inquisitor’s Guild series.

Describe yourself like you would a character in one of your books.

Dave stared at the document, not knowing what to type, exactly. He had a life that was a little hard to sum up in a paragraph, especially in the third person. He could mention Snood, probably the biggest thing he’d done, but that was receding into history, and only older folks probably remembered. He could talk about being a geology professor, which had been his identity for so many years, but indie fantasy people might not care so much about that. He could talk about the puzzle games he’d designed, or the ten books he’d written, mostly after the professor thing went sideways, but he had a feeling that would get long and a little tedious.

“Screw it,” he said, though nobody listened but the squirrels. He closed his laptop, chugged the dregs of his Diet Mountain Dew, and pulled his axe out of the stump nearby. The snarling from the cave mouth didn’t faze him. Easier to kill a troll than to write a bio, any day of the week.

Our theme for November is A Month of Rain & Reads. Do you subscribe to the idea of curling up with a good book while the rain pours down outside? What book would you read? Would you bring tea and a blanket? What would make the moment perfect?

The first fantasy I remember reading on my own was L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. I had copies of all of the Oz books – my dad’s books from when he was a kid. I started reading pretty early, and I can remember lying on our 1970’s brown plaid couch as a six- or seven-year-old with a big hardback full of W.W. Denslow illustrations. That room looked out on our garden, so I am sure I weathered a few Iowa thunderstorms scrunched up in my Toughskins having an absolute blast reading about magical people and adventures far away.

What else do you want our readers to know about you?

I write in a lot of genres, not just fantasy. You can see them all on my site.

Why did you decide to self-publish, and what has been your biggest success so far?

I have queried with agents twice, but that process was frustrating – I didn’t get a ton of interest, and they seemed to be looking for books that were different from what I wanted to write. I was used to starting ventures up on my own, after Snood (my shareware computer game that I released in 1996 that ended up being pretty popular) and then my Doctor Esker’s Notebook games, so self-publishing seemed like a natural, hands-on way to get my books out there to readers without dealing with an industry full of gate-keeping.

My biggest achievement was winning the 3rd annual SPSFC, an indie sci fi competition founded by Hugh Howey. My book Kenai beat out 220 other books across nine judging teams. That was a really great experience, both in terms of finding new readers for my books and also for feeling like I’m not a total poser when it comes to writing.

My most popular books have been my Inquisitors’ Guild fantasy detective series, which represent most of my sales and page reads, and also my modern-day mystery, What Grows From the Dead, which has the most ratings of any of my books (over 700 on Amazon).

What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?

The community of readers and writers and bloggers and reviewers, for sure, especially surrounding the SPFBO and SPSFC contests I’ve entered. Indie authors are (for the most part) really creative, really supportive, fun people to hang out with, both in person and online. The reader communities, particularly readers who focus on indie books, are likewise supportive, dedicated, curious, excited, and really into giving creative folks a boost. As I’ve gone through life, I’ve tried to find communities where people are doing silly, fun stuff together and getting really excited about it. For me, that’s included D&D games, marching band, improv comedy, and community theater, and the indie book community is exactly the same kind of thing.

You’ve written both fantasy and sci-fi. Do you have a preference between genres? How easy is it to switch between the two?

I love both fantasy and sci-fi, and have since I was a little kid. I think that’s why I’ve switched back and forth – I love aspects of both, and I find the imagination required to be a ton of fun, both when I read and when I write.

To me, those genres far more similar to each other than to the contemporary mysteries I write. Both fantasy and sci-fi have a lot of world-building associated with them, although the details and scale can be a little different. You’re writing (hopefully) a rip-roaring story, but you’re also telling people about this strange, mysterious world and time and culture that you’ve created. When you’re writing in the present, in the real world, you can rely on people to know how a lot of things work – you don’t have to explain policing or taxes or bagels or racism or whatever. That makes your job a little easier, but the hard part there is that you can’t screw any of it up, or your readers will know. You have to know how search warrants work, how cell phone towers work, how long it takes to get a divorce, whether a particular kind of gun has a safety – there’s a ton of research to get that all right.

You’ve worked on computer games in the past. Is there anything you’ve taken from this experience that you’ve applied to your books?

Most of my computer game work was publishing my own shareware titles back in the 1990’s and 2000’s, although I’ve more recently worked as a plot and story writer for an upcoming game. The game stuff I’ve done hasn’t influenced my writing too much, but it’s been far more applicable in building something up from scratch, in marketing, and in how you treat fans and customers. It’s also given me the confidence that you can find an audience for your creative work if you work at it hard enough.

You also take part in improv comedy! How does that experience influence your writing, such as The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar?

I’ve been doing improv at the Idiot Box here in Greensboro for almost 20 years (will be 20 in January). I think the biggest gift it’s given me in my writing has been with dialogue. In an improv scene, you’re constantly having conversations, building off what has been said and established, and trying to make it both natural and fun (and sometimes important and moving, although short-form comedy doesn’t dive into serious subjects too deeply). It’s also affected my plotting – I almost never have any kind of outline, and I’ll often start a chapter without knowing how it will end or what new character will appear. That’s pretty random, for sure, but the improv mindset helps me build that into what I hope are believable scenes and characters. I think it lets my characters react to what they discover in natural ways without being forced into service of plot destiny.

The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar is the book where I’ve tried my hardest to be funny. I set Lady Isovar up as a (literally and figuratively) larger than life character dead-set on glory, and I added to that her squire Chevson, who’s forced to deal with her ridiculousness and wants only to keep her from killing people or destroying things that aren’t actually worthy of destruction. That dynamic between them, where he’s fully aware of the situation and she’s only partly aware, is just a ton of fun, and the conversations between them were 100% improv as I wrote them. Izzy has some of the greatest, funniest lines I’ve ever written.

Kenai was the winner of the third Self-Published Science Fiction Competition AKA SPSFC! How did that feel, and what was the competition like for you?

I’ve really enjoyed both SPFBO and the SPSFC. I’ve been part of three of the four SPSFCs, entering Daros the first year (a semifinalist!) and Kenai the third. The fourth year, I didn’t have a new book to enter, so I volunteered as a judge, which was really great – I got to read a ton of creative indie sci fi from all kinds of authors and work with some great people on my judging team. The finalists in SPSFC and SPFBO are as good as anything coming out of traditional publishing – often better. I’m judging again this year, in SPSFC 5.

Kenai’s success in the competition was both awesome for me and also a little surreal. It was a really close thing at all the different stages, both the semifinals and finals, so it was always a nail-biter. It’s certainly been the biggest validation that this writing career I’ve shifted over to in mid life is something I don’t entirely suck at.

For all the other jobs I’ve had, I’ve earned degrees, been interviewed, been selected by other people, been promoted by other people, so there was some external validation that I was OK at them. As an indie author, you just shout “I’m an writer” at the universe, and there’s none of that validation until readers find you and reviews start to come in. I think all of us have imposter syndrome to some degree, and the contest win helped me get past some of that.

What themes are important to you, and how are they reflected in your writing?

All of my books, regardless of genre, center around regular people who are faced with unexpected danger and bad guys. (This is even true of the heroic Lady Isovar, but you have to read it to figure out how it applies.) They all have to figure out what the right thing is and how to do it, and how to protect the people they love while dealing with the challenges and danger. Some folks have taken to calling that “noblebright,” as a contrast to grimdark. That’s absolutely my favorite kind of story to read and to write, where people who don’t have all the answers or qualifications or skills still step up to do what they can against the bad guys because that’s what’s right.

What are you working on next? Can you tease us?

I have three (well, maybe four) projects in the works now. One is a romance novel with a central mystery to it that I’m co-writing with an author friend. We’re in the editing process now. We alternated between two characters who start out pretty cold and distant to each other, but who are thrown together in a mystery affecting their college. They start to warm to each other and figure each other out as they work through what’s going on. I am also working on a fifth Inquisitors’ Guild book (they’re all stand-alone mysteries set in the same city), and on another space opera sci-fi novel in the same universe as Daros and Kenai, although with a different main character and different situation. I’ve also written a couple thousand words of a contemporary story that may end up being kind of literary fiction. Not sure where that’s going, but it’s been interesting to flex some different muscles.

And a few quick questions. What’s your favourite…

…book, in recent times?

I loved Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. More recently, I really liked the SPSFC #4 winner, Saint Elspeth, by Wick Welker. It was my favorite of the competition, and I’m really glad it won.

…game, in recent times?

Oh, so many. I play DotA 2 every day, and I play the venerable Age of Empires II with my college buddy most nights. Satisfactory was one I lost hours and hours to – so well made – and I still enjoy Helldivers 2 with friends and family when I get a chance. As far as more story-based games I loved Ghosts of Tsushima, and I’m totally excited to start the sequel, Ghosts of Yōtei.

…writing advice?

Write what you love, and try to write at least something every day. That’s what will make it sustainable and fun. If you’re trying to chase a trend or write to market, you might have some success marketing, but writing will most likely turn into a job, not a passion. Surround yourself (at least online) with people who are also excited about writing and reading, and it will be a lot more fun.

…advice for someone who wants to publish their own book?

Publishing is the easiest part, if you’re going indie. Setting yourself up to get your book to readers who will enjoy it is by far the hardest, and it takes luck and a lot of skills that aren’t related to writing at all. Luckily, there’s a ton of advice out there, much of it good, so don’t try to invent it on your own.

…source of inspiration?

Some authors don’t read reviews, but I seek them out, refreshing my browser plug-in multiple times a day. When a reader connects to my characters or my story, that’s what makes it all worth doing for me. Having taught for almost 25 years and read my course evaluations that whole time, I’m pretty good at not dwelling on negative feedback, and the positive stuff is affirming as hell.

…way to clear your mind when everything gets a bit much?

It’s almost always video games for me. I started out with Pong and Atari and the 1980’s arcades, so that’s been a constant for me for nearly fifty years.

Do you have any last words? Any shoutouts to authors who have supported you or whose books have inspired you?

I loved Wick Welker’s SPSFC Champion Saint Elspeth. Mike Mollman and Ro Bushey have a great indie fiction YouTube show, Bald & Balding.

In terms of inspiration, all my stuff is inspired to some extent by the OG authors I read as a kid – L. Frank Baum, Andre Norton, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heinlein, and William Goldman.

Thanks so much for the interview! These were fun questions.

Dave Dobson

A native of Ames, Iowa, Dave loves writing, reading, boardgames, computer games, improv comedy, pizza, barbarian movies, and the cheaper end of the Taco Bell menu. Also, his wife and kids.

Dave is the author of Snood, Snoodoku, Snood Towers, and other computer games. Dave first published Snood in 1996, and it became one of the most popular shareware games of the early Internet. He’s recently published some puzzle card games in the Doctor Esker’s Notebook series.

Dave taught geology, environmental studies, and computer programming at Guilford College for 24 years. He does improv comedy at the Idiot Box in Greensboro, North Carolina. He’s also played the world’s largest tuba in concert. Not that that is relevant, but it’s still kinda cool.

Dave’s book Kenai was the winner (out of 221 entries) of the 3rd Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) run by Hugh Howey, author of Wool and Silo.