Author Interview – David Niemitz
Helen: Welcome David. Congratulations on the release of your latest book. I am very excited to learn more about The Faerie Knight. Tell us a little about it.
David: The Faerie Knight is the first novel in a fantasy trilogy, inspired by Arthurian and other medieval romances, as well as the British Romantic poets – among other things! I’m very excited about this project, for one thing because it’s an experiment for
me, in a lot of ways. To being with, I’m Beta-releasing the trilogy in serial format on Royal Road, and that process has gotten me tons of great feedback. It’s been a great writing excercise to practice crafting chapters to a specific length, on a regular time table, and structured in such a way as to (hopefully) keep people coming back for
the next chapter each time they get to the end of the current one. I’ve had readers tell me they stayed up until 5am finishing volume one in ebook format, and then immediately go to Royal Road to keep going on the first fifteen chapters of volume two, so I’m quite pleased.
Helen: That is great writing habit to get into. I imagine your book grows quite fast writing by chapter. Though I tend to jump around, I’m not sure I could write in a linear fashion! What were your thoughts behind the cover design?
David: The cover of The Faerie Knight features our protagonist, Trist, and the Faerie Acrasia, from whom he draws power. The art is by my wonderful wife, Sarah Murphy, and she’s hard at work on covers for books two and three. She also did the map inside!
We talked about quite a few options for this cover, and went to the MET in New York to look at art for inspiration. I’m really happy with what we ended up with, and we’re already talking about options for volume two, which will be in the same visual style.
Helen: An excellent excuse for a trip to the museum, and how lucky for you to have an amazing artist in-house! I’m glad you found inspiration. Why did you write this particular book?
David: This book came from a couple pieces of inspiration – Keats’ La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Byron’s Darkness, Mallory, Spenser, all things that I love. But then I also read a wonderful metaphor for understanding theoretical five dimensional creatures, and it gave me this idea: what if faeries were essentially 5th dimensional angler fish? That’s the fish that dangles a glowing lure out in front of its mouth to attract its pray. In this world, the majority of a Faerie exists in the 5th dimension, where humans can’t perceive it. But they can perceive the beautiful, shiny lure that brings them right up to the gaping maw. Humans are food.
Helen: What an intriguing premise. Who knows what is behind the next bright light! Which genre do you typically write?
David: Various flavors of science fiction and fantasy. Sci Fi tends toward the harder end of the spectrum, while my fantasy tends more toward traditional/epic, and I would say in either case it’s very character driven.
It was sci-fi and fantasy that I found immersive when I was a young reader, and I loved to lose myself in worlds that were both wonderful and terrifying. That’s the kind of experience I want to craft for other people, now. And I also think both genres provide space to tackle the kinds of questions I find interesting: how would such and such a technology affect the way people live and interact with each other? How would immortal creatures regard humans?
Helen: I think that is what is such fun for writers. We have endless questions and buckets of imagination. Together that drives some amazing stories. I find writing the most enjoyable part, though I find it difficult to put myself out there, so I have to make the effort to put my hand up, and do that author talk or book event. Which part of the writing process do you find most challenging?
David: Marketing. Is that a cop out? I love the process of writing itself, and it’s an escape from the pressures of my career. I find it fulfilling and I’m excited to dive into each new project. Some people can’t stand doing revisions, but I even enjoy that, and the reception I’ve gotten from the Royal Road community has been overwhelmingly positive, even when people had critique or suggestions. I actually recently added an entire chapter to volume two based on reader feedback – they wanted more development on Ismet, a supporting character, when I had been a bit afraid of spending too long with anyone but the Protagonist.
But yeah, Marketing is very daunting. I credit my sister quite a bit with pushing me to challenge myself and work harder in that aspect, and members of my writing group for turning me on to various opportunities. I’ve gotten plenty of advice along the way: anything I do right is probably a credit to someone who has helped me out, and anything I do wrong is my own fault!
Helen: Marketing is difficult. Finding your perfect reader is an ongoing process. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been great meeting you. Just to finish, what do we have to look forward to next?
David: I’m currently revising volume two of The Faerie Knight, which will be entitled The Graal Knight, while also drafting volume three: Knight of Doors. The third volume will conclude this project, though I do potentially see room for a spin off featuring the protagonist’s squire, some years later.
At the same time, I’m taking notes and developing characters/settings for my next series, which I intend to begin on November first. I’ve never done a National Novel Month – last year I was already deep into revising Faerie Knight at that time. Royal Road also runs a contest that lines up with that in November, but of course to qualify you can’t have anything pre-written. So, I’m doing as much development and prep as I can, and then we’ll see how it goes.
I haven’t made every decision, but I think I have a very interesting protagonist shaping up. In Faerie Knight, of course, I had a male knight as a Protagonist, very traditional for the genre inspirations. In my first science fiction novel, A Sea Cold and Deep, I had a pair of lovers who shared equal screentime, Kaito and Annie. Liv – there’s still time for me to change my mind on her name, but I think I’m 90% settled – is occupying more and more of my mind as I draw closer to the end of Trist’s journey. I want to really play with some permutations of this sort of traditional fantasy idea of the half elf with her. For instance, what if elves have certain nutritional requirements that humans don’t, and that manifests as physical problems for her in childhood, because she’s raised by a human mother who just doesn’t know what to do? If Elves live a long time, longer than humans, do they develop more slowly? Is that interpreted as something being wrong with her? What’s it like for her mother to grow into middle age while Liv still isn’t really even an adult? What’s it like for her when her first crush grows up and moves on and gets married and is an adult, and she isn’t really? I think there’s some really interesting stuff to play with there, and I want to start with Liv as a child and cover decades.
About the Author
David NiemitzDave Niemitz is a writer and teacher; he lives with his wife, son, a black cat named Charlie, and a Pug named Duncan. He holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
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Purchase David’s book: The Faerie Knight
Link to book on Amazon UK: eBook | Paperback
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If you enjoy epic fantasy then check out my award winning Sentinal series, which is now complete. If you like fantasy books with a touch of romance then you will love my SoulMist series, start with SoulBreather. Prefer Dystopian Science Fantasy? Then try Harmony. Start the adventure and stay for the journey.
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