Ep45 – Interview with David C. Smith (Part Two)

David C. Smith remains a lovely and talented author with whom Oliver spoke for so long we decided to split the interview into two parts. Here’s that second part!

In this half we discuss the 80’s sword & sorcery publishing implosion, the importance of adapting to changing tastes and not just telling the same limited range of stories ad infinitum, how expanding something – like a genre’s possibilities – means more and doesn’t take away what’s already there that people like, the fallacy of thinking you can write a story with no theme or message or opinions or “politics” in it, David’s latest novel (Sometime Lofty Towers), avoiding the white savior pitfall and otherwise best practices when writing fictional indigenous peoples, the history of The Other in western civilization, cultural appropriation, writing outside
“the usual sword & sorcery template”, silent film and westerns, Unforgiven, earning the trust of the reader so they’ll follow you through dark passages (of writing), philosophy in sword & sorcery starting right at the beginning with Robert E Howard, asking yourself if there’s enough meat on a character’s bones, how David’s writing style has evolved since he wrote the first Oron book, David’s influences, the exercise of typing up stories by a beloved author, David’s plans to republish his Oron novels, the importance of reading widely, learning by teaching, diagramming sentences, what has kept David writing all these years, David’s opinion on where to start if you want to begin exploring his work, and more!

David’s Author Site
David on Goodreads
The Gonji series David mentions
David’s silent era film mystery novel “Bright Star”
Tales of Attluma and Sometime Lofty Towers
Dark Muse

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