Author Interview with Cassandra Davis

[Anna]

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

We're privileged to have Cassandra Davis, author of Dremiks, answer our Space Opera Fans Awesome Author Interview so we can pop the hood on the hyperdrives and peek into the inspirations behind this month's group read.



And be sure to hop on over to the Dremiks book discussion thread to find out who else is reading it and what they think of the book:

HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

So without further ado … I give you Cassandra Davis!

Be epic!

Anna Erishkigal
SOF Borg Queen

****************

1. What books have most influenced your life?

Battlefield Earth. I know, it's an odd choice and definitely not the height of science fiction literature, but the interaction between humans and aliens has such wonderful insights into human nature.

2. How do you develop your plots and characters?

They live in my head and I argue with them constantly. I don't set out to write specific archetypes. For example. I'm against the movement to write "strong female characters", not because I think we need fewer female role models, but because the best characters are the *real* characters. Write people, with flaws and motivations, with hopes and dreams and failures, and your work will touch the reader in a way that stock characters never could.

3. Tell us about your Space Opera Fans book?

Dremiks started out as a one word writing prompt in the 7th grade. I wrote a quick (really awful)short story and then tinkered with it for the delight of my friends for the next year. Then it all went in a drawer for 15 years. I pulled it back out and started doing serious work keeping nothing but the main character's name and the word "Dremiks". Soon after Ron Moore's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series launched, I realized there was a huge audience for space opera.

4. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her?

Despite the continued insistence of friends and family, Maggie O'Connell is NOT based on my life or motivations. She's Scarlett O'Hara without the crippling obsession with Ashley Wilkes. Oh, and she's a damn good pilot.

5. A good villain is hard to write. How did you get in touch with your inner villain(s) to write this book. Was there a real-life inspiration for him/her/it?

Again, I try to write real people and real people can quite often be real a--holes. Since I'm not writing a fantasy novel with an evil genius wizard, I couldn't make my villain set out to be evil. In point of fact, I have several degrees of villain in my novel because there are always such variations in human beings.

6. What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

Well I used US Navy protocol for my military characters, based some of the political intrigue on conduct by the US State Department employees I've met, and did a great deal of reading about artificial gravity systems. The greatest challenge I had with word building is that as soon as I would settle on a particular piece of futuristic tech, Apple would go and release it!

7. Sci-fi fans love techno-porn! What real-life science (or pseudo-science) did you research for your book?

I studied star charts for months to line up the route to and the approximate position of Dremiks. There were many emails exchanged with math nerds regarding the speed calculations. As mentioned above, I read far too much about proposed artificial gravity systems.

8. What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Editing it. I know, you probably get that answer quite often. When a story lives in your head for so long, though, it becomes a part of your reality. Sentences, or entire scenes that made perfect sense to me had my editors scratching their heads.

9. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

The interactions between Maggie and Swede were by far my favorite. Swede was originally a background persona and very flat. While re-writing the rough draft (for the billionth time) I decided to base Swede on a friend of mine from high school. Swede is, in fact, the only character closely based on a real person.

10. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

I don't think we have the cloumn space to answer this! I learned that writing a manuscript in MS Word will make your eyes bleed, especially during editing and ebook formatting. I learned that I'm my harshest critic. Oh, and I learned that no matter how many people scour your drafts, mistakes slip through into publishing.

11. Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp?

For all of our advances, humanity regresses to the most basic "me caveman, me smash" mentality when cornered.

12. What are your future project(s)?

Dremiks was published in March 2012. In July of 2012 I started writing a sequel novella that I thought I could churn out in 8 months. Well, it's March 2015 and I'm still beating that manuscript into submission. There are at least 3 sequels to Dremiks that I've outlined. I'm also have plans for a historical fantasy series regarding immortal angelic agents.

13. If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?

Captain of a spaceship.

14. What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)?

Whatever way they feel most comfortable with, barring showing up at my door unannounced! I'm on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. I have a mailing list linked on my website. www.cassandradavis-author.com

15. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to the Space Opera Fans community members?

Thank you for reading the book. I greatly appreciate it.
******
Interview granted to SOF 03/20/2015

[John]

Great interview!

I have also heard a lot of people state they really like Battlefield Earth, I think the movie just put a bad taste in my mouth. I'll have to try to get over that and read it.

Thanks for writing the book, I can't wait for the sequels to come out!

[Anna]

I really enjoyed Battlefield Earth as a teen, but agree the movie was terrible. Why does Hollywood do such a terrible job with space opera most of the time? Unless it's bad-cult-bad as in Bruce Campbell movies :-)

"For all of our advances, humanity regresses to the most basic "me caveman, me smash" mentality when cornered..."

This cracked me up!!! So true!

[Lawrence]

Anna and Cassandra, thank you both for this. Dremiks is now next up on my bookshelf.

[Anna]

I'm just the facilitator :-) If you build it, the awesome baseball legends will come!

[John]

We have baseball legends as well?! Sweet!

[Anna]

Baseball in space?

Now THERE would be my Star-Trek loving husband's dream...

Somebody should write that. Inter-galactic World Series?

[Cassandra]

There is a football (American style) game in my book. :)

[John]

Cassandra wrote: "There is a football (American style) game in my book. :)"

It was a good game too, kept most people entertained for a while. :D