David Lundgren was born in “a pokey town in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia)” and spent the first 18
years of his life there. He grew up in an environment “that seemed to combine
the best elements of both an American and English heritage with a hybrid
African lifestyle.” Lundgren is also a musician, which gave him the creative
spark to create the Melforger series. He spends his time in San Francisco
“teaching, enjoying frequent – and often frustrating – games of tennis, trying
to learn the blues on piano, attacking Sudoku puzzles with relish, and
attempting to make some headway with the ever-increasing pile of books that is
waiting patiently at my bedside, developing its own gravity.”
His latest book is the fantasy/science
fiction, Rhapsody.
For More Information
- Visit David Lundgren’s website.
- Connect with David on Facebook.
- More books by David Lundgren.
- Contact David.
About the Book:
In RHAPSODY,
the Forest has been completely healed
and the battles of Books I and II are over, but a corrosive blackness that has
been haunting Raf still seems to be growing in strength. They return to Miern
to stop a traitor from assuming control of the city, but find themselves caught
up in a deadly plot as they race against time to stop a dark and horrific power
being unleashed on them all.
For More Information
- Rhapsody is available at Amazon.
- Read the first chapter here.
- Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
Thank you for this
interview! I’d like to know more about
you as a person first. What do you do
when you’re not writing?
When did you start
writing?
My official ‘writing’ (that is, not including the
ridiculously embellished journals I used to send to my family, chronicling my
wacky travels after university) was Melforger,
the first book in The Melforger
Chronicles trilogy. There was no exact moment when it began as I had been
building the ideas for it for many years. However, I started putting in the
serious effort that writing a book demands about four years ago, culminating in
Melforger coming out in 2012, Disharmony in 2013, and now Rhapsody.
As a published
author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?
Getting to the 100th page of the first draft of Melforger and realizing that I could
actually do it. It had seemed such an abstract up until that moment, and then
all in one moment, it suddenly crystalized and I knew it was real, that I loved
it, and that I wanted to commit to getting stuck in and finishing it.
If you could go
anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and
why?
I’m not sure I’d want to go anywhere to write the book,
actually; I need a quiet, comfortable desk, free of distractions, and free of
noisy neighbors to be able to write. I also need space to spread out my notes
and research and timelines and sub-plots – far too much to travel with! As a
backup option, I occasionally seclude myself in a booth at the local Panera
where the muddled background noise somehow helps keep me focused (not to
mention the availability of inspiring hazelnut coffee...)
If you had 4 hours of
extra time today, what would you do?
To be honest, in this hypothetical world we’re talking about,
I’m sure teleportation would exist, so I would take the opportunity to jump
around the planet visiting family and friends who are spread far and wide,
catching up with them. If teleportation didn’t exist, I would love to seize the
opportunity to actually do some casual reading which seems hard to find the
time for these days.
Where would you like
to set a story that you haven’t done yet?
Where would I want to travel to find inspiration for the
next story? Probably Indonesia
or Brazil. I
love creating settings, and I’ve been in person to all the extreme landscapes
in The Melforger Chronicles – from
forests to deserts to savannah plains. The jungle is one that has eluded me so
far, and if I get to travel to one, I can’t imagine not being inspired to use it in a new yarn!
Back to your present
book, Rhapsody, how did you publish
it?
I avoided the traditional route and instead used CreateSpace
to publish it, hiring an editor, proof-reader, designer and publicist to make
it as awesome as possible.
In writing your book,
did you travel anywhere for research?
Not very far, but I planned a few camping trips into the
redwoods of California to try to
capture the feel and atmosphere for the forest in The Melforger Chronicles. I’m very lucky to have been brought up in Africa
as it gave me the opportunity to capture the experience of savannahs and
deserts which were key landscapes in the trilogy. Forest
experience was a little lacking, however. Most of my research, though – and
there was a copious amount of it – was from books and online sources, making
sure that the technological, musical, cultural and natural elements all worked.
For any reader who’s kind enough to suspend their disbelief and sink into my
world, I was very keen to make sure there weren’t any jarring inconsistencies
that snapped them out of the spell.
Why was writing Rhapsody so important to you?
Rhapsody is the
final book in The Melforger Chronicles
trilogy, concluding the story and bringing the entire journey to a dizzy and
brilliant halt (hopefully!) – so there’s why it was important! As for writing
the trilogy as a whole, I suppose if you look at my love of reading sci-fi and
fantasy as an only child, my upbringing in Africa with its jaw-dropping
wilderness, and how I’ve been surrounded by music my entire life, it seemed an
obvious for me to find a way to string them all together and create my own
original story.
Where do you get your
best ideas and why do you think that is?
Traveling and getting out there, seeing the world in all its
rich and weird beauty, is one of the best ways to find inspiration. If I push
myself to be creative, to proactively find a novel idea, it’s a struggle. I
don’t think it tends to work like that for many people, and it’s more often the
case that you are struck by something unusual and original when doing something
else – often something mundane and completely unrelated to the book. Whatever
it is – whether it’s playing sport or doing the dishes or traveling on the Muni
in San Francisco or hiking the
redwoods – I find myself frantically scribbling down ideas on bits of paper or
writing texts to myself to keep track of those key breakthroughs. As to why it
happens like that, perhaps it’s a question of making links or connections
between unrelated ideas, or some change in perspective giving you a subtle new
angle or approach by which to view it. Or, even more likely, I suspect our
brains need space to ‘incubate’ and play with ideas without any conscious
pressure. I’ve found myself at my most creative when I let go the drive to come
up with new ideas and let them come to me by doing other things to distract me.
Any final words?
Thanks for having me! I hope you enjoy reading the trilogy
as much as I enjoyed writing it. And whatever you think – reviews are always
welcome!
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