Ask the Author: David Harris Lang
Answered Questions (6)
David Harris Lang
I don't write when that happens. I do something else. Even if you're not at the computer, when you are walking the dog or whatever, you're still writing in your mind.
David Harris Lang
You explore, and create, a whole other world.
David Harris Lang
Write every day. Open yourself to your muse.
David Harris Lang
As mentioned above, I am currently writing a book with gypsy Travellers involved in bareknuckle fighting. The four Traveler friends in the fight game are also in a Celtic headbanger band called Blue Dye. They have a loose plan to travel to China where 3,000-year old Western mummies have been unearthed in the Tarim Basin, perfectly preserved by the alkaline desert soil. They notice in a National Geographic photo that one of the mummies is wearing the lost gold Ring of Camulus, and the four plan to reclaim their heritage. They become aided in their quest by Japanese Professor Murasaki who wrote a book on the mummies. She lives on the spooky, unknown backside of Mount Fuji where many Japanese go to commit suicide.
David Harris Lang
The ideas for my books come from concepts I run into in life that fascinate me. When one of life's oddities captures my attention I see if I can work it into a story. For example, with the book that I am currently writing I became fascinated by Irish Travelers and how they insult each other on YouTube and then have bareknuckle fights to settle the score. I started to weave a story around a bareknuckle fighter who is found dead in a museum in Hong Kong.
With my just published 'A Devil In Hong Kong' I sat down to write a sequel to the 'Witch of Wanchai' but suddenly found myself writing about computer gamers in California. I went with it, and eventually wove the gamers into a story about a missing jade burial suit from the Han Dynasty.
I keep a list of things that interest me that I feel have story potential.
With my just published 'A Devil In Hong Kong' I sat down to write a sequel to the 'Witch of Wanchai' but suddenly found myself writing about computer gamers in California. I went with it, and eventually wove the gamers into a story about a missing jade burial suit from the Han Dynasty.
I keep a list of things that interest me that I feel have story potential.
David Harris Lang
I live in two worlds: the real world and the world of my imagination. Particularly when I wrote my first book, 'The Journal of Rabbi Levy Wang' which takes place in 1937 China, I felt that the inspiration was channeled to me through the spirits of my father and grandfather, who were fur traders living in China at that time. The trick, I believe, is to leave yourself open to inspiration. When you get a seed of an idea, immediately go with it.
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