Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been a writer in one form or another for my entire adult life. I started writing in junior high school, experimenting with plays, poetry, and essays – of course, it was junk, but it was still “writing.” In college, I majored in English and Journalism. My career has included nearly two decades as a journalist, a decade and a half in freelance public relations and marketing, and adjunct teaching.
I have previously published seven non-fiction books under my own name – Dave Ramacitti – for the small business market. They are still available on Amazon.
Under a pen name, Dave Lager, I have published three Ro Delahanty novels– Ro’s Handle, Hear Evil, and Losses. Two more have been written and are awaiting polishing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Losses, the third book in the Ro Delahanty series, was published earlier this fall. Ro is a deputy sheriff in a semi-rural county in Iowa, but don’t be fooled; she is quite good at getting herself into trouble.
I have always liked strong female characters – Sarah Connor (the Terminator films), Ellen Ripley (the Alien series), and Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games).
The primary motivation is I have always wanted to write fiction; they just provided the role model for my protagonist.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I listen to straight-ahead jazz, no be-bop or progressive while writing; it helps me focus. In fact, I have several thousand songs on my Spotify playlists.
I am a morning person, so I am often at my keyboard at 4 a.m.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty in fifth grade. Looking back, I understand that was my initial inspiration for wanting to become a writer.
I read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in college. It taught me how a story can have grandeur and sweep and fanciful characters yet still be about human strengths and weaknesses.
Finally, while I do not consciously emulate Ernest Hemingway’s style, he has undoubtedly influenced my hope to make every word count in my writing.
What are you working on now?
Books four and five of the Ro Delahanty series: Secrets Never End and Secrets Never End: Revelations. While complete stories in themselves, they also build on plotlines introduced in the earlier books. Both have been drafted but need polishing. I hope to publish Secrets early in 2022 and Revelations next summer.
Oh, and then there’s Sniper’s Day, a companion novella to Revelations. In Revelations, Ro has dual with a former military sniper who’s gone off the deep end. In that book, it is told entirely from her point of view. Sniper’s Day tells the same story from his point of view. I plan to publish it simultaneously with Revelations.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Don’t know; still trying to find my way in the book marketing jungle. I can tell you my favorite is book signings and book fairs, because I get to meet and talk to readers one-on-one. And I have a few women helpers too.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write! Write! Write!
If it’s actual chapters for your story, good. Sketch notes on the back of an envelope about your characters’ backgrounds are OK, too. But even if it’s a just blog post or a one or two-sentence response to an email…Keep writing!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I was a naïve and frightened college freshman in my first journalism course. One day, in a private conversation, the professor told me I was a “cursed man.”
Of course, my initial reaction was, “What did I do wrong?” He then explained most people are “how” people, they just want to know what the rules are for how to get along. Then there are the few “why” people, who want to know why we are doing something in a certain way and whether there is maybe a better way.
Being a why person was a curse because they are known as the boat-rockers and are not popular. My curse was to be a ‘why-people.’
However, his advice changed my life, because for the first time I had an inkling of who I really was. Why-people write novels because they have to, ‘how people,’ don’t bother.
What are you reading now?
Who has time to read when I am always writing? Lol.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Mourning Dove, book six of the Ro Delahanty series. While it has yet to be written, I have a fairly detailed chapter-by-chapter outline. To say nothing of developing ideas for books seven and eight and perhaps beyond.
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?
Like in W. Somerset Maugham’s famous short story “The Book Bag,” I would need more than three of four books on such a journey.
The complete works of William Shakespeare, of course. All of John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway. The previously mentioned Tolkien masterpiece, plus The Hobbit.
The Bible, as literature rather than for its religious content. A philosophy textbook. And then at least one book each from the giants in my genre: James Patterson, Jim Thompson, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Cornwall, Agatha Christie, Robert Parker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Louise Penny, Ann Cleves, David Baldacci, Stephen King, Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Tana French, Dean Koontz, Dorothy L. Sayers, Karen Slaughter, Martin Cruz Smith, Sara Paretsky…
Needless to say, it would be a rather weighty bag.
Author Websites and Profiles
Dave Lager Website
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