Enjoy!
And there's still time if you want to get an advance PDF version of Lost Wings. Send me an email at matt@elephantsbookshelfpress.com and I'll send it to you. And if you post a review to Amazon (doesn't matter whether you liked the book or not, we're just looking for honest reviews) by October 1, we'll send you a signed copy of the paperback!
I set out to interview Don M. Vail, the author of the next book from
Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. It’s a very different novel for EBP, which to date
has published novels written for young adult and middle grade audiences, though
many of the stories in EBP’s anthologies are written with adult protagonists and with adult audiences in mind.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Tenderloin. Don came with his
alter ego, Robert K. Lewis, author of the Mark Mallen crime fiction trilogy: Untold Damage, Critical Damage, and Damage.
Of course, Don is the pseudonym of Robert, and he explains the genesis of not
only the pen name but also the story behind Lost
Wings, Don’s “debut” novel.
Elephant’s
Bookshelf: What inspired the character of Richard Eastman and this story?
Don M.
Vail/Robert K. Lewis: Well, it’s really about redemption. With me, it’s
always about redemption. With the Damage
Series, the protagonist, Mark Mallen, is on a road to redemption. He had a
life that he lost. A home, a wife, and a child. All that Mallen wants to do is
make it right, win back what he’s lost. That’s of course what redemption is all
about for me: an attempt to make things right, to atone for past sins. This
sense of redemption is what fuels Richard Eastman. He finds his chance in
helping this wingless angel named Avesta. And given who Richard is, I feel
sorry for anyone who wants to stop him.
When did you
complete your initial draft of Lost Wings?
Jesus, I think it was about twelve years ago. Lost Wings was the third book I’d written, and it’s been said that
it takes two or three books before you really get a handle on the form. From
the beginning, Lost Wings felt like
my first “real” book. So, yeah, I think about 2005 is accurate regarding the
time I finished the first draft.
Why did it take
so long?
(Laughs) Well, because nobody wanted to run with it. Like I said, Lost Wings was the first book that really
felt like “a book.” I queried every agent out there, and also any publishers
that dealt with Urban Fantasy, Sci Fi, or even Horror. I got close, but no
cigars. So, after getting nowhere, I put it away in my desk drawer and went on
to the next project, the one that would eventually get me published, Untold Damage. However, over all those
long years since its inception, I would take Lost Wings out of the drawer and
rewrite it again. Like so many other authors, I had “that” book; the one a
writer just can’t let go of and always keeps around in the hope that at some
point in time, it would see the light of day. For me, Lost Wings was that book.
What was it about
the story that kept coming back to you?
(Pauses) I believe that every person has a small kernel of hero inside
them, and that this kernel is just waiting to come out, given the circumstances.
In Lost Wings, Richard is not a hero
in the classical sense, like the paladin figure of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings. He’s, in my
opinion, closer to Michael Moorcock’s Elric
of Melnibone where the hero is the reluctant hero, called by the “horn of
fate.” Maybe in a more modern, non-sword iteration, Richard Eastman is more
akin to John McClane from the movie Die
Hard. I love a story about a person that crawls from the wreckage and keeps
on moving forward. That’s Richard Eastman in a nutshell. You can’t stop him. Yes,
he’s a derelict war vet. Yes, he’s drowning in his own pain, and also the pain
of the Tenderloin. But even then, when that horn sounds, he stands up and
starts down that road of redemption. I love pain-filled heroes, but then again…
I guess all heroes are filled with pain.
Aside from your
affinity for down-and-out characters living in San Francisco, there isn’t much
that is similar to your crime novels. How is writing urban fantasy different
from your other work and what do you see as similar?
The first thing that comes to mind is that when I’m writing crime
fiction, there is an inherent reality in the world that I’m working with. It’s
San Francisco. It’s the Tenderloin. Along with that reality comes a certain set
of expectations. There are cars on the street, there are criminals that have to
be arrested. There will be bullets and blood. However, I found writing urban
fantasy to be incredibly freeing. I mean, sure, there is the Tenderloin, there
is San Francisco, there are bullets and blood, but now I’m free to add a wingless
angel, or Lucifer as a little girl who runs a pawnshop, or even a hero that
both visually and metaphorically
takes a trip through hell. In crime fiction there is no visual trip through
hell, that trip only exists in a metaphorical sense. Again, it was incredibly
freeing to write urban fantasy, especially after growing up on Michael
Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone series,
and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic
novels. However, at its core, the similarity
lies with the fact that both Richard Eastman and my detective Mark Mallen walk
the same hero’s road, and that they both possess a moral compass that is always
kept, well… pointing north.
Where did you
come up with the back story of Don M. Vail?
All three Mark Mallen novels are dedicated to my best friend, life
partner, and spouse, Dawn M. Vail. This time, since I took a pen name, I
thought I should shake it up, and so Don M. Vail was born. She’s had to put up
with so much in regard to me being a writer, and since I can’t afford to give
her combat pay, I felt that this was the best homage I could come up with under
the circumstances.
The book
noticeably has “Book One” on the cover. What can we expect of Richard and
Avesta in book two?
(Pauses) How can I say anything without giving away too much? All I
can say is that the seed that is planted in book one will come home to roost in
book two, x 2.
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