LAWRENCE DAVIS

1. Favorite Book:  The Silent Blade by R.A. Salvatore. When I was overseas in Iraq I spent a lot of my time thumbing through the celebrated series by Mr. Salvatore, but it was this book that spoke to me. It’s the first time I ever saw an author highlight an established bad guy who’d been historically two-dimensional (and to his credit, still fascinating) and really dive into him. I’ve read it probably seven or eight times. A very close second would be American Gods.

2. J.R.R. Tolkien. While I would love to stray from the pack and do something more unique, it’s hard for me not to give the nod to the man that opened the door of fantasy to me. I devoured the Hobbit and followed it of course with the Lord of the Rings trilogy in high school. They got me hooked and remain my favorite story arc of all time. Ironically, the author of my favorite book got into writing because of him as well, though to be fair who isn’t a fan of the man?

3. Interesting tidbits about the author .. Well, since writing my book I sometimes have an inner monologue that’s going in third person, though I guess that could be flirting with a mental disorder. I served in the United States Army for around six years, I was an infantryman. Passionate about dog rescue, the way a dog can love you more than itself has always astounded me. When I was making the transition from soldier to civilian I adopted a pitbull named Max, he’s who I credit with seeing me through some of the darker periods of that difficult transition. I’m a motorcycle riding and shooting enthusiast as you may see from a lot of my pictures. I’m going to be attending college for writing but as of yet I don’t have any formal education in it. I started doing it as a kind of escapism online, crafting and creating stories with collaborators and later just doing it for myself.

4. It was an attempt to tightrope between the impossible and have gutpunching moments of relatability. I wanted to have the characters who walk amongst the make-believe to still be themselves believable.

5. The book to me was supposed to keep an element of reality in the supernatural. Originally it started as a kind of cathartic exercise and just came to life, and as I wrote I realized I wanted the influence to be a mix of all the science fiction books and comics that I obsessed over in my youth as well as the hardships that I endured in my adult life.

6. Trying to cultivate my skill is first, and I can’t imagine I am done writing about these very characters.

​

​

Karla Wigginton; Editor & Partner

​