Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written all my life on and off, but I got back into it about a year and a half ago when I quit my job over COVID concerns. I’m currently done one book and doing a bunch of other projects.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
(U)topian is the first and only book I’ve published, and I just got the idea when I was in the shower. Lots of very smart and very accomplished authors have written dystopian fiction, I wanted to do something a little different – make the problems come from within the main character, not external. It really started as a reverse 1984 and then evolved from there – the first idea was very philosophical and then it got a bit more fast-paced as I wrote it.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write better in chaos. I have two young kids at home and I write best when they’re around me, playing and yelling and whatnot. Quiet can be quite, um, disquieting…
What authors, or books have influenced you?
George Orwell, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ursula K. LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, Haruki Murakami
What are you working on now?
The sequel to (U)topian – Project Elevate. I have the whole trilogy mapped out. Well, trilogy, one prequel and then one side-story that probably makes no sense but I just want to do it anyway. If I make it four books in, hopefully I can justify it.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still getting a feel for promotion, I’m trying a few different methods both traditional and not, but Awesome Gang seems like a pretty great website. I need to get better at following these websites as a reader and not just a writer – it’s give and take, after all. Not take and take.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m a new author, so I feel like it’s a bit gauche to give advice. But like everyone else says: Read and write. Read when you don’t feel like reading, write when you don’t feel like writing. It’s not a hobby (unless it is, in which case, ignore this), it’s a vocation and you need to treat it like that.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Write until you can’t anymore and then keep writing.”
What are you reading now?
A book on parenting – “No Drama Discipline”. I’m perpetually re-reading Norwegian Wood, though. It’s the only book I’ve read more than twice, for whatever reason.
What’s next for you as a writer?
As I mentioned, I’m working on a sequel to “(U)topian” and I’m about a quarter done the first draft. I have a few ideas about the prequel, and doing it in a dramatically different format – screenplay, maybe?
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Norwegian Wood, 1984, and probably some kind of desert island survival book, I would think. Or some kind of magic book that lets you make portals off deserted islands. Does that exist?d
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Dave Fin Website
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