David Coe: A Rare Bird
David Coe is the Crawford Award-winning fantasy author of the LonTobyn Chronicle trilogy as well as the new fantasy series Winds of the Forelands. He is published by Tor Books, a New York-based company founded in 1980. David’s next book, Bonds of Vengeance, book III of Winds of the Forelands, is slated for release in February 2005.
FCR: What does it feel like to complete a book you’ve been working on? Do you have a ritual that you follow when you finish writing and rewriting a book— something like the character Paul Sheldon in Stephen King’s Misery? [Sheldon has a book-completion ritual.]
COE: Finishing a book, be it my first or my eighth, is always a milestone. I tend to take several months to write each of my books, and so the sense of completion -- and in many ways, release -- is enormous. My process grows more frenzied as a book progresses, and I usually finish with an enormous burst of creative energy. Those final chapters tend to be the best written, but, oddly enough, also the quickest to write. In the past I’ve compared this to completing a jigsaw puzzle: as the puzzle becomes more complete, it becomes easier to fit in those last pieces. But while this analogy captures the creative process, it doesn’t capture the energy level. I’m pretty hyper in those last weeks of writing and, as I say, when I finally complete the final chapter, I feel a sense of freedom and accomplishment. I can’t say that I really have a ritual for the completion of a book, but I do reward myself with time off from work. I love writing – it’s a terrific way to make a living and I wouldn’t trade careers with anyone. But I have other interests and I often find that I haven’t the time to pursue them when I’m in the middle of a book. So during this time off -- often as long as two months -- I’ll take time to go bird watching or hiking, or I’ll take out my photography equipment and lose myself in the forests and streambeds of the Cumberland Plateau, where I live.
FCR: Did you always know you were a writer? Did you write as a child? What did you want to be when you grew up?
COE: Yes, I suppose I did always know that I’d be a writer. I wrote stories as a child, was accepted into a writing workshop at my high school, and went to college at Brown University with the intention of being a creative writing major. During my years as an undergraduate I began to stray from this career path. My parents encouraged me to pursue my talent with the written word, but in a somewhat more pragmatic direction. For a time I thought about journalism, and then I turned to academia, thinking that I might enjoy being a historian. But in the end I came back to my first love, which was writing fiction. There are times, I believe, when it’s wise to be pragmatic. But I think I got caught up in equating pragmatism with financial security, and there are other considerations. I could probably be making more money in some other field, but I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. I’m fulfilled by writing fantasy in ways I never could be as the author of history books or as a reporter struggling to make daily filing deadlines.
Part Two
FDR: Were your parents artists? Where does your creativeness come from?
COE: My parents weren’t artists. My mother was a teacher who specialized in helping kids with learning disabilities, and my father worked on Wall Street. But both of them had what I can only call a reverence for the written word. Our house was always filled with books – fiction, nonfiction, it didn’t really matter. Both of them just loved to read, and they turned my siblings and me into readers as well. They also were devotees of all the arts – fine art, photography, classical music, ballet, the theater. So that even without being artists themselves, they encouraged all of us to be creative and to explore our capacity for expressing ourselves in all sorts of ways. As a result, all of us are writers and artists of one sort or another. My oldest brother, Bill, who is undoubtedly the most avid reader of all of us, also wrote poetry for many years and is now a writer for a tech company in New England . My sister, Liz, is an award-winning writer and producer of television programs. And my other brother, Jim, is an amazingly talented painter who used to make a living writing and illustrating bird field guides and more recently has gained national acclaim as a landscape artist. We’ve quite a concentration of artistic talent in our family. It’s really quite remarkable when you think about it and a testament to what wonderful parents my mother and father were.
FCR: Where were you educated?
COE: I went to college at Brown University and majored in American Civilization, an interdisciplinary major that allowed me to combine my passion for literature and history with my interest in American politics. After graduating, I actually spent a couple of years working for a political consulting firm as a writer and researcher before returning to school as a graduate student in U.S. History at Stanford. I received my Ph.D. in 1993 and went on the academic job market. At around that time, though, I also began to work on the beginning chapters of what would become my first book, Children of Amarid. I gave those chapters to a friend of mine who agreed to act as my literary agent, and he sent them to several publishing houses in New York . The following spring, in what can only be termed a twist of fate, my two career paths collided. In the span of two days I was offered a job teaching history at a very fine university and contacted by an editor at Tor Books who was interested in seeing more of my book. I chose fiction, and feel in my heart that it was absolutely the right choice. I still do a bit of lecturing at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, which is where my wife teaches biology, but for the most part, I’ve left academia.
FCR: What led you to write about these fantastic tales about mages and masters who derive their powers from psychic connections to birds of prey? Why birds?
COE: I found in speculative fiction an outlet for my imagination unlike any other. I was inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien to read as much fantasy as I could find. And after reading other authors – Stephen R. Donaldson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Frank Herbert, to name a few – I realized that I wanted to write this stuff for a living. Fantasy at its best is at once incredibly liberating from a creative standpoint, and also incredibly real. On the one hand, a fantasy author gets to create entire worlds, complete with their own unique geographies, cultures, societies, religions, political systems, magic systems. On the other hand, in order for a book – any book -- to be successful, it must be populated with characters to whom a reader in our world can relate from the outset. It’s a terrific challenge and a great deal of fun.
COE: But even more than that, fantasy, I believe, gives me the freedom to explore real world issues in a way that escapes the tropes and stereotypes that too often hinder positive social discussion. For instance, in my first series, the LonTobyn Chronicle, I deal with ecological issues, many of which mirror environmental struggles in the United States. But I believe that I present the issues in an innovative way that removes them from the tired old arguments and incendiary rhetoric of the political arena. In the same way, my new series, Winds of the Forelands, revolves around racial conflict, but again, because the races are not the ones in our world, I’m free to deal with race in a way that shows the injustice and destructiveness of racism without offending the sensibilities of my readers. The avian theme in my first series was really just a product of my lifelong interest in birding and my fascination with the power, grace, and intelligence of birds of prey in particular. I’d love to be able to say that there’s some great spiritual significance to this aspect of my work, but in all honesty I just think hawks and owls are very cool. That said, I have become convinced that my totem is the Great Horned Owl. In the spring of 1993, when I returned to Stanford to submit my doctoral dissertation, I stayed with a good friend who was still living in university housing. At the time, I had begun to plot out Children of Amarid and was already thinking about leaving academia. My friend and I took a walk through the Eucalyptus groves near his house and spoke about the choice I was facing. And in the middle of the walk, we came upon a family of Great Horned Owls – an adult and several fledglings. It seemed at the time like a sign that I should pursue my passion. I still consider it one of the most important moments in my life.
FDR: Children of Amarid, the first volume of the award-winning LonTobyn Chronicle, first appeared in print in 1997. In 1999, the series was awarded the William L. Crawford Memorial Fantasy Award by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) as the best new work in fantasy. Volumes of the LonTobyn Chronicle have been translated into Dutch, German, Czechoslovakian, and Russian. Do you feel like a celebrity?
COE: I don’t feel like a celebrity, although my kids think it’s really cool that people know who I am based solely on my books and my name. Compared to best selling authors, I have a fairly small readership, and I’m certainly not recognized by people in restaurants or public places the way a real celebrity would be. That said, I do get a good deal of fan mail and it’s awfully fun to walk into a bookstore a thousand miles from my home and find my books right there in the fantasy/science fiction section. I really enjoy having an international following. In the past few months I’ve sold the rights for my Winds of the Forelands books to publishers in France and Bulgaria , so at this point I’m in seven languages including English. I’d love to be able to read my books as translated, just to see what it’s like to read David B. Coe in Czechoslovakian – how cool would that be!
FCR: When you’re working on a book, what is your day like? Are you a disciplined writer? Do you meditate or jog first? Give the readers an idea of A Day in the Life of a real writer.
COE: I consider myself highly disciplined. Quite often we see authors portrayed in movies and television shows as these dreamy artists, living from hand to mouth, struggling to finish a book and waiting for inspiration to see them through an extended bout of writers’ block. Nothing could be further from the reality of my life. I treat writing as a full time job, because for me, that’s exactly what it is. I write on weekdays, every day, from about 9:30 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon. I usually exercise in the morning first, and occasionally I’ll break up the day by walking my dog for half an hour, just so that I can clear my head or work out a problem I’ve encountered at the keyboard. I try to write at least five to seven manuscript pages each day (approximately 1,500 words). I don’t wait for inspiration and I don’t believe in writers’ block.
COE: The improvisational elements of jazz and bluegrass, on the other hand, have a liberating effect. When I listen to Miles Davis riff on trumpet or Tony Rice run his fingers up and down a fret board, I feel that I can just let myself go as an artist.
FCR:What person has been the biggest influence for good in your life?
COE:I’d have to say my parents. Not only did they nurture my creativity, they also taught me, simply by the strength of their own example, what it meant to be a caring parent, a loving spouse, a responsible member of a community. They encouraged me to explore the world around me, to question assumptions, to think critically about everything from art to politics. Our dinner table was more than a place where we ate meals. It was a forum for political discussion. I was the youngest of four children, and by quite a bit – my brother who’s closest to me in age is still six year older than I am – and so if I wanted to get a word in edgewise, I had to learn at an early age how to express an opinion forcefully and succinctly. They created a wonderful home for all of us, one that was so secure, so comfortable, that we were free to learn and grow and thrive, to explore our creativity and expand our intellects.
FDR: What’s the best (bravest, most honorable, kindest) thing you’ve ever done, the thing you’re most proud of?
COE: In a way, my answer to this question is an outgrowth of my answer to the last one. I think the best thing I’ve done is something I actually do everyday. I’m a Dad to my two daughters and a partner to my wife. As a father, I get to be brave and kind and wise every day. Whether I’m comforting my five year-old during a thunderstorm, or reading Tolkien to my older child, I feel that I’m shaping their lives, offering them the same security and opportunity to grow that my parents gave to me. As a husband I get to be comforter and confidant to my best friend – what could be better than that? I’d love to say that I’ve done something truly heroic in my life, but I’m not certain that I have. By the same token, though, I think one of the things that we forget as a society is that there’s heroism to be found in the simplest act of kindness. There’s honor to be found in teaching a child right from wrong. I believe that if my wife and I can guide our children through their early years and help them grow into strong, considerate, socially responsible adults, we’ve done something far more significant than any single act of bravery or honor that I might find in my past. I hope that makes sense.
FCR:What do you do for fun?
COE:As I mentioned before, I spend a good deal of my spare time pursuing outdoor hobbies – bird watching, butterfly watching, nature photography. I’ve been birding since I was seven years old. My brothers got me interested in it and it continues to be something that the three of us enjoy doing together. A few years ago, my brother Jim also sparked my interest in butterflies, and I’ve become nearly as fanatical about that as I am about birding. Recently, I’ve become very interested in nature photography. I live in a beautiful part of the country – rural Tennessee on top of the Cumberland Plateau , and it’s a marvelous place to take pictures. Photography is actually something I did a bit when I was in college, but I got away from it for a long time. I’ve come back to it in the past year or so, and I just love it.
FDR: What about your career would you have done differently?
COE: That’s a tough question. In most respects, I’m happy with the path my career has taken. I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t like my readership to grow at a somewhat faster pace, but that’s more a product of the profession than any decision I’ve made. I guess if there’s one thing I’d like to change, it would be that I’d like to take a bit more time to write short fiction. I’ve been fortunate in my ability to sell my novels to Tor. I know many authors – excellent writers, all of them -- who have sold dozens of short stories but haven’t been able to get their first novels published. This is a fickle business and I think it’s merely the vagaries of the market that explain this. As I say, I’ve been lucky. But while I wouldn’t want to give up any of my novel sales, I would like to make time in my writing schedule to work on some short projects, perhaps even some that are entirely unrelated to my longer work.
FDR: What’s still on your “Wish List” to do?
COE: Are you speaking professionally or personally? Professionally, I’d like to write a best seller, I’d like to win a World Fantasy Award, and I’d like to see at least one of my books turned into a movie. How’s that for ambition?! I’d also like to try my hand at writing screenplays. I love writing dialogue and I think I could come up with a decent script. Personally, I have a dream of someday taking a year and driving all around the United States with my camera and as much film as I could possibly shoot. I’d like to visit Yosemite Valley in mid-winter and South Dakota’s Badlands in the spring, Utah’s Escalante Wilderness early in the summer, Vermont’s maple forests in autumn, and a hundred other places in between. I’d camp along the way – hopefully my wife would come with me. I think it would be a tremendous experience, one that I would document with my photos and a travel journal. Who knows? Maybe this would become a book as well.
FDR: How do you see yourself when you’re 80 years old?
COE: I hope to still be writing, playing with my grandchildren, taking long walks with my wife. In essence, I see the sunset of my life as a natural conclusion to the life I’m already living now. Life’s good. I’m happy. [Leans over and knocks on wood.]
