It’s a bit early to start promoting a new book, so instead I thought I’d answer some questions that I’ve been getting along the way.
Now that I’ve officially announced that Novel #4 is coming, I get asked what I write.
When people ask “what do you write?” most of the time they’re asking simply so they can match you against somebody else that they’ve read or recognize, or genres they like or don’t.
I get it. If you read nothing but romance, you want to know if science fiction is coming. Even within romance, you might be a devotee of Amish romance and so therefore, contemporary stories may not work for you.
But in that pigeonholing, you also lose a sense of the author’s novelty and authenticity. It’s one of those weird things in fiction where every publisher wants you to have your own voice as long as you sound like other writers. It also helps with marketing.
So what do I write? It’s a good question and it’s a really hard one to answer. I’m quite genre fluid (with a nod to Lilli Fulwood for coining the phrase that I told her I would steal or, as we say in literary terms, leverage).
So rather than try and force me into a pigeonhole – which can be very difficult – here are some of the genre boxes I tick, and what you might be looking for when reading one of my stories.
Anyway, so I ticked the contemporary box. My stories take place in the real world, in contemporary settings which means they’re recognizable.
The Baggage Handler was written around three people taking a flight and ending up at a baggage depot after picking up the wrong suitcase from the airport carousel (who hasn’t done that, or at least knows someone who has?) The Camera Never Lies features a marriage counselor and his therapy practice. Where the Road Bends takes place in Central Australia. The fourth novel (title and pitch pending …) is set in a recognizable, contemporary setting as well.
I also tick the box of speculative. My stories have a sense of the mystical even though they’re in a contemporary location.
The mysterious Baggage Handler does things with my three protagonists’ baggage that seem impossible and violate the laws of physics.
Daniel, the marriage counselor in The Camera Never Lies, inherits a camera that somehow takes photos of secrets he’s trying to hide.
In Where the Road Bends, a mysterious sandstorm scatters our four American tourists to different locations as they find their way back to the campsite.
So, if you were reading contemporary and thought, “Oh no, that book of David’s isn’t for for me”, this isn’t a reality show or a Netflix special based around a particular day in the life of. Neither is it a podcast interview transcribed onto the page. It’s contemporary people and places but with mystical, speculative elements that appeal.
If you prefer speculative stories with mystical elements in a full world-building, fantasy setting but don’t like the gritty realism of contemporary, my stories help bridge that gap.
If you read Christian fiction (now this is a contentious phrase, and almost everyone seems to have a very different and specific definition of what that is and should be), I’m a Christian who writes fiction.
In my experience, the vast, vast majority of Christian fiction is romance, and the stereotypical storyline has the cowboy that the strong, independent woman falls in love with become a Christian in the in the dying gasps of the story, and they live happily to get happily ever after in Christian matrimony. My stories don’t do that. They’re faith based without being preachy, but they are true to theology, my faith and my values. In a way, I’m drawing from Jesus’ own example, who didn’t respond to every question by quoting scripture and demanding altar calls. Instead, he based everything on the values behind the faith, and pose them as questions.
That’s what I’m trying my best to emulate.
So that’s where I fit into the writing market, spreading across a few pigeonholes to hopefully deliver something to a wider readership.
