Ask the Author: David J. Salisbury
Answered Questions (8)
David J. Salisbury
The most recent is Renegades, which is book 2 of my series The Orris Project. It was a natural continuation from book 1, Origin & Earth but was not related to the book at all. It was definitely its own story, even though you could also read it as the next chapter in the story of Garrett Rhodes. Most of it came to me while I was writing Origin & Earth, and it filled itself out while I was writing the book itself, as they often do.
David J. Salisbury
If the only thing I had to do every day was write, getting inspired might be a problem for me. My reality is that for most of every day I can't write, even if I want to. So, by the end of each day when I can sit down in my home office and open the project I'm working on, it takes very little to get going. Most days I've been impatiently waiting to resume my project until the evening.
David J. Salisbury
The Orris Project, book 2 - Renegades is currently in editing and will be released in the summer of 2022. A standalone novel, which I don't have a title for yet and refer to it as the Jesse Wallace story, will be out in the fall of 2022, I'm writing that one now.
David J. Salisbury
Learn as much as you can from writers that have had success. Keep their teachings in mind but remember that no one has ownership of the perfect system. What works for others may not work for you. And then write. Even if it's bad, write. The whole body of text may be trash, but the story will begin to develop. I rewrote the entire first chapter of my first book. All of the words changed but what happened in the chapter didn't. Write.
David J. Salisbury
It's fun. I work from eight in the morning to about midnight every day with breaks here and there, but the four hours at night when I'm writing are the most fun.
David J. Salisbury
I do get writer's block occasionally, and I handle it one of two ways. Since I also publish my own work, there is always something else I could be doing with my time. For example, working on a cover, editing a different manuscript, working on ad campaigns or updating social media. As long as I'm being productive I don't worry about it. The other way is to move to a different project. Just because I may be stuck in one story doesn't mean I'll be stuck on another, and I have four or five going right now. The book I'm stuck on will get unstuck when I have time to think about it when I can't write anyway, like when I'm driving.
David J. Salisbury
Maybe Gilead, from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Most of the places I read about are worse than where I live now, so it's hard to say where I would want to visit. If I could be a bit snobbish, I'd like to visit Orris, I can see it so vividly in my mind when I write, but only if I could come back to Earth after.
David J. Salisbury
A great question that I don't have a great answer for. I work a 9 to 5 plus I own a small business (malting barley for breweries and distilleries) in addition to my publishing company and writing. My life is fairly boring, and writing is my outlet for that. The one exception is the book that will be coming out in the fall of 2022, which I have not nailed down a title for yet. That was inspired by something that happened to me one afternoon when I was alone in the malthouse.
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