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| photo: Angie Hodapp | |
David R. Slayton grew up in Guthrie, Okla., where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver, Colo., and writes the books he always wanted to read. His debut, White Trash Warlock, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. In 2015, Slayton founded Trick or Read, an initiative to distribute books, along with candy, to children on Halloween and to uplift lesser-known authors or those from marginalized backgrounds. Slayton is a regular speaker and panelist at fan cons and writing conferences. The epic fantasy Dark Moon, Shallow Sea (Blackstone Publishing, October 31, 2023) is the first in a series.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
It finds love and hope in a moonless world drowning in ghosts. The dark high fantasy of my heart. I hope it haunts you too.
On your nightstand now:
Helen Corcoran's Daughter of Winter and Twilight. She has such a way with language. It's a brilliant follow-up to Queen of Coin and Whispers, which I think far too few people have read.
I was also fortunate enough to get an early copy of Kosoko Jackson's The Forest Demands Its Due. So creepy and bloody. So good.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I became deeply obsessed with the lore of the Lord of the Rings and the spirit of exploration and adventure in Star Trek novels by authors like David Mack. You'll find that mix in Dark Moon, Shallow Sea. I try to capture a go-forth-and-discover feeling set in a world with myths and ruins that peek out of the ground like the bones of dead gods.
Your top five authors:
Shaun David Hutchinson. He marries high-concept and deep, personal issues so well.
Gail Carriger. Her books are like a warm blanket and a cup of tea on a winter morning, and she always makes me smile.
Cale Dietrich writes everything from rom-coms to slasher horror. I think he captures the feeling of teen want like no one else. He's on auto-buy.
Terry Pratchett is like an old friend. His death had me crying in the early morning. I revisit his work any time I'm sad.
Barbara Ann Wright. She's the queen of sapphic SFF. She has so many worlds and genre hops with drama or humor--but always with romance.
Book you've faked reading:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. It was assigned in one of my final classes in my English degree. Sorry, Dr. Farkus, but after Ulysses I just could not take any more Joyce. I barely managed to read enough to get an A on my paper.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. This book made me want to write fantasy. It made me see how you can construct a deep, rich world and imbue it with magic and meaning without using 200,000 words. It's amazing what she accomplishes and brings alive in so little space.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Tad Williams's Stone of Farewell. I remember seeing the mass-market paperback and needing to read that book, to learn the story of the guy on the cover. I put it off until my grandmother died, and the books in the Green Angel Tower series really helped me escape and process my grief. My grandmother was a huge reader and encouraged me to write and be my authentic self. Losing her was like losing a guiding light. I'll always be grateful to Tad Williams for those books and for the way that epic fantasy can transport us somewhere else in harder times.
Book you hid from your parents:
Anything with magic. It was banned in our house, so I had to read in secret, late at night when my mother was asleep. I'm still a bit of an insomniac and night child, and that's probably why my main character, Raef, cherishes books and secret knowledge the way that he does.
Book that changed your life:
Lynn Flewelling's Luck in the Shadows was the first time I saw myself reflected in fantasy: a gay main character who didn't die tragically and got to live as a hero. I still have my battered paperback.
Favorite line from a book:
"It was freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrived." --The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. What an amazing line to open chapter one!
Five books you'll never part with:
Gail Carriger's Soulless. It's my favorite love story and an annual comfort read.
Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad. It's like a dear old friend. I'm still learning from and laughing at it decades later.
Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye. I love this book, especially on audio. I love what it has to say about the closet and the young-adult gay experience.
Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye. This was my introduction to her, and I fell in utter love with this book at a young age when I really couldn't understand what she was saying. I keep rereading it and, though I understand it more and more as I age, I feel like it has mysteries I've yet to unlock.
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. This book made me laugh out loud in one chapter and weep in the next, which made reading it on the bus very awkward. It's so brilliant and emotive.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. It's so beautiful and captivating. The way she blends myth time and strong time is so evocative and dreamlike. It's truly a wonderful example of magical realism.
Your favorite nonfiction book:
The Victorian City by Judith Flanders. It's such a deep dive into research and the urban experience of the era. You'll certainly find some traces in Dark Moon, Shallow Sea.