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WiDo Publishing: What kind of writer are you? Where do you get your ideas? What is your inspiration?
David J. West: I think of myself as a warrior-poet. An action-adventure writer, with a strong lyrical and literary side.
It’s an old maxim, but I write what I like to read. I first heard that
in an article about J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S Lewis, and the Inklings. I
want to be a member of a modern-day group of inklings.
Near
everything I have ever written, started, or think about writing
someday, has a basis in history. I like looking back and seeing where
we have been, to me it can be more interesting than where we are going.
I can enjoy the occasional science-fiction tale, but have absolutely no
desire to write one. But anything with swords--I’m all over it. So
when it comes to ideas, I am very taken with aspects of history and
mixing them up.
I really like reading fantastic historical
accounts that are generally viewed as spurious today, and wondering,
“What if that did happen? What if they weren’t lying?”
I have
also mined a great deal from Mormon folklore, forgotten Church History,
and of course I take a lot of things from my youth and tweak them to
fit Book of Mormon times; scouts, camping, fighting and such.
Ideas for stories flow like fish in a river, I have to pick and choose
them. Some fish are bigger than others, and some fight harder too. I
am only guessing, but I think I have around fifty starts for other
novels at the moment. A lot of them relate to the Heroes of the
Fallen, so there is no shortage in that department. I know what is
going to happen for the next few books, but there are always surprises
along the path for me too.
Inspiration for my writing comes from
my faith, my life, and probably what I would like life to be like.
Hemingway said nothing was as much fun as writing, and I completely
understand what he meant.
WP: When did you start writing? How long have you wanted to be a writer?
West: I remember making up stories to entertain myself before I could read. Once I could read, writing only seemed natural.
In elementary school I was usually reading a half-dozen grades ahead. I
distinctly remember reading Beowulf in first grade and being blown
away. Myths have always been among my favorite stories, especially
Greek and Norse myths. I remember writing a few fantasy type stories
based on myths.
I won first place in the second grade for
a story for some parent-teacher night. I’ll have to see if it’s still
in my baby book. I know it was about a family of wolves outwitting a
hunter and his dog, and eventually killing them. I don’t think anyone
expected that out of a second grader in 1980.
I have always
thought about writing, but in my youth (15ish until I got married at
29), I thought I didn’t have time, and I would write when I was old.
NO! The call wouldn’t leave me. I had to write even when I was out
being a hellion. I wrote a lot of what I would now call fan-fiction in
the 80’s, my own stories about G.I. JOE and Transformers and an Indiana
Jones rip-off character I made up.
During my senior year in
high school, I started a huge epic fantasy about a character
essentially given the priesthood and restoring lost principles. It
incorporated his struggles to get people to believe him and follow him,
to serve that world's God. I wrote out the first few chapters and let it
stew for awhile in the back of my mind. As much as liked the story I
don’t think I’ll ever go back to it, because I found a few years later
the late Robert Jordan was following nearly the same premise I was. But
nobody is doing what I am doing now.
WP: What did you do before you started writing?
West: I don’t know what to say here.
In no particular order, I have done a lot of karate, construction,
camping-every month of the year in every type of weather, swat
training, spelunking, white-water rafting, mountain climbing, book
collecting, sword collecting, my wife thought I was a womanizer before
her-but I wasn’t, a lot of traveling all over North America (there are
few places I haven’t seen), rock concerts, worked as DJ for dances,
went clubbing, accused of a lot of things I never did (never caught for
things I really did), egging (of which I had a whole theory justifying
it), and generally being the menace to society that Brigham Young
warned you about.
WP: What are your passions and hobbies?
West:
I sort of covered this above, but music is a major passion of mine. I
love most types of music, but at the same time I can be very picky. I
love listening to music that can help inspire and move me, which is
always different from scene to scene and character to character.
In my teen years, I didn’t write much as far as novels are
concerned, but I have always written a lot of poetry that I deemed
songs. My band(s) put music to maybe a third of them. I have written
close to 500 poems/songs.
I practically learned to read on comic books, and I still have some
from as far back as when I was ten. Now I have graphic novels, its
easier to collect the story arcs that way.
Nowadays if I am not reading or writing, my time at home is spent mostly with my wife and three kids.
WP: What do you feel your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer?
West:
My weaknesses as a writer are, as Kristine (my editor) well knows, my
lack of grammartitudeness, and a propensity for misplacing modifiers in
some bizarre Yoda-like way to make my work sound different than the
norm.
I think my strengths are finding new ways to tell a story
in a genre that has not been done before. I also come up with plausible
scenarios for what could be too fantastic to be real, but I tell the
reader how it may be possible. I prefer the 'why not' to the 'why'.
My number one strength, is blending many diverse good things, into one
great thing; assembling a million cool things I have heard, read, seen
or done, into one awesome series that nobody else could do the same way.
WP: Who is your favorite protagonist and who is your favorite villain in Heroes of the Fallen?
West: That’s a tough one. Elements of me are strong in so many of the characters.
I don’t personally feel righteous enough to fully identify with Zelph
or Mormon, but I am working on it. Amaron is the one I consciously pour
my truest thoughts into, and I base his temper on my own as kid. I
have to catch myself from putting too much of my current attitudes and
knowledge into a character that was me 15-17 years ago. I can’t do that
until maybe book 5. Anathoth is a reflection of me now (at 35), IF I
didn’t have the gospel; so he’s not quite me, but he is a joy to write.
Villains can be more fun to write than heroes, because they get to do
the things we aren’t supposed to, sometimes what we wish we could do.
I really liked writing Uzzsheol, and some others but, Akish-Antum, the
Gadianton Grand Master, has to top my list because he is the lynch-pin
for almost everything happening in book one. I knew if I had great
heroes, I needed great villains. So I thought, What would make him as
bad as possible? Judas was son of perdition, but he felt guilty, and
took his own life in an act of blood atonement. BUT what if that son
of perdition went another way? What if he actively fought against his
own doom and did everything he could to destroy good? And we know he
partially succeeded, we know how the Book of Mormon ends. So I have
Akish-Antum put Aaron, (who becomes king of the Lamanites, see Mormon
chapter 2 and Moroni 9) on the path to accomplish this foul deed. Not
that I am taking free agency from the Nephites by any means, but ‘the
Gadianton’ helps it along. I wanted to make Akish-Antum scary and yet
have a black sense of humor, to make him someone you might like, even
though you know you shouldn’t.
WP: What is your favorite book or books?
West:
I, of course, love the scriptures, but in addition to that, some books
that have the greatest influence on me are: Lord of the Rings, by
J.R.R. Tolkien, the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard (these
were written in the 30’s), The Book of Five Rings, by Miyamoto
Musashi (greatest samurai ever), He Walked the Americas, by L.
Taylor Hansen, greatly influenced Heroes of the Fallen; The Iliad,
(love it) and The Odyssey,
(I borrowed freely from them in an effort
to make my scenes of violence less gory and more lyrical). If you think
"Heroes" is bloody now, it used to be much more skull-crunchery.
WP: Why did you decide to submit your manuscript to WiDo?
West:
I found the link at the LDStorymakers Publishers list. I liked the
sentiment that books make the best furniture. My house is covered with
books in every room, roundabout 4,000 right now, and no chance of that
number declining. The site was in my opinion pretty vague, but at the
same time encouraging, I had "Heroes" submitted somewhere else, and was
quite encouraged, but in the back of my head thought, If it is
rejected, I will try WiDo. You know the rest of the story.
David J. West was born in Salt Lake City, Utah but has lived throughout the western United States, and briefly in Mexico.
West has been writing stories since he learned to read, and is an avid
collector of books and swords. He enjoys traveling, and visiting the
many places he writes about. He lives in Utah with his wife and three
children, each with more unusual names than his own. Heroes of the
Fallen is his first published work. Visit with him at his blog, Nephite Blood, Spartan Heart.
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