The next best thing to experiencing something yourself is to hear people talk about their interests, sharing their experiences and stories. And the best stories are those that come from passion - striving to overcome obstacles on your way to succeeding in your chosen field, funny anecdotes, hardships endured. "Release The Geek" is our weekly forum to chat to people who are geeky about something - they could be successful, semi-so, or on their way to achieving a level of it but they've all got one thing in common - passion. Can't replicate it. And we want to share their experiences, their hurdles, their stories with the greater geek populace (or anyone who would care to).
http://www.releasethegeek.net/blog/
Episode 14 - Betrayal's Shadow Geekery with Dave de Burgh
Back in October, Vittorio and I had the pleasure to interview Raymond E. Feist. During the interview he discussed his recent trip to South Africa for the Cape Town Book Fair. On this visit, he was given a book called "Betrayal's Shadow" by local author Dave de Burgh. Raymond proceeded to give the man incredible props ... which meant we simply had to chat to him as well. Because when you get a recommendation from a London Times and New York Times bestseller, you probably should listen.
Dave de Burgh wanted to be an artist and speak French, but he says that Fate saved him and pointed him in the direction of writing. He's a bookseller, co-parent to three wonderful Pekingese 'kids', reads speculative fiction voraciously and is the luckiest guy in the world because he has a blond, blue-eyed woman in his life who supports his need to write and be crazy. When he's not writing, he's probably secretly laughing at cognitively challenged bookstore-customers. Dave was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule for a chat where we talked about many things including:
- the fun of Afrikaans voiceovers for Star Trek and other tv shows as a kid,
- his dabbling with Star Wars fan fiction,
- and the lessons he learned about the industry when trying to get his first book published, including how to adjust his writing style.
Plus we discuss the average number of regular readers in South Africa ... and it's disturbingly low.
You can contact Dave via his email davebrendon AT yahoo.com, through his Facebook page, or via the Twitter machine: @DaveSASFFAuthor
You can pick up a copy of Betrayal's Shadow on Amazon (US or UK stores), locally through Exclusive Books or directly through the publisher, Fox and Raven Emporium