In a desolate future where doctors have been replaced by
Healers who practice primitive treatments like bleeding, one medical man risks
his freedom to help a member of a Healer’s family.
David Kubicek visits with me today to chat about his new release A Friend of the Family and why he loves to write.
Click on the image to visit David's Meet & Greet
on VBT Cafe. Follow his tour for a chance to win a $25 GC from Amazon. Details below.
Louise: David, welcome to my blog! I’m so excited you could
join me for a chat. When did you first decide to submit your work to be
published? Tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step.
David: Reading
Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles
got me interested in publishing what I wrote. I’d been writing stories for a
few years before that, but they were just for friends and family. Bradbury made
me think seriously about writing for publication. It was the summer before my
senior year in high school when I went to the newsstand in search of a magazine
to which I could send my stories, found a copy of Writer’s Digest instead, and that started me on the right path.
Louise: Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is one of my favorites and Writer's Digest is a good writing resource for you new and seasoned authors who have stopped by. Please tell us a little about your new release A Friend Of The Family without giving
too much of a spoiler away.
David: A Friend of the
Family is set in a post-apocalyptic future where practicing medicine is
illegal, and Healers—who use primitive and superstitious methods like chanting
and bleeding their patients—are the accepted health care providers. The story
centers around a doctor named Hank, who is estranged from the Underground—a
loose network of medical practitioners who help people who have lost faith in
the Healers—and only practices medicine for his own family. One night a
16-year-old girl, named Gina, knocks on his door. She is a telepath, indirect
results of that long-ago war. She knows Hank is a doctor. She knows where he
hides his equipment and supplies. She threatens to bring the police if Hank
doesn’t come with her and cure her seriously ill father. Hank’s dilemma: If he
doesn’t go with her, he risks being arrested, but if he goes with her he risks
being arrested because Gina’s Aunt Rose is a Healer.
Louise: Do you plan all your characters out before you start
a story or do they develop as you write?
David: I know what types of characters I’m writing about
before I begin, and I usually have an idea of their physical appearance. But
the characters develop as I’m writing about them. That’s more fun than planning
them out beforehand. When I first started writing I would compose these long
character biographies, but it always ended badly. I found that writing down
their physical description, character traits, and background made them more
rigid in my mind; they seemed like cardboard characters rather than living,
breathing people. I need to have my characters fluid. I need to have them
develop like real people. So I put them into situations and see how they
respond to those situations. Anything I need to show about their backgrounds I
make up as I go along.
Louise: How much research do you do for your books? Have you
found any cool tidbits in your research?
David: Usually my research consists of checking facts. For A Friend of the Family I learned a
little about pneumonia and how it’s treated, and I looked up the medical name
for blood pressure equipment. I did much more research for my full-length novel
In Human Form because there were lots
of things I didn’t know but needed to know. I found a great deal of information
in books, but I used some live sources as well. I interviewed a fire inspector
because a pivotal scene in IHF
involves arson.
The first extensive research I did was for a short story set
in a morgue. I didn’t know anything about morgues, so I called one of our local
hospitals and found someone who agreed to show me around. I learned lots of
things about morgues that you don’t see on TV crime/dramas. I found that
morgues keep pieces of organs in meticulously-labeled jars in a cupboard for
future study. When I was there, they had a severed leg in one of the
refrigerators; it was in a plastic bag, so my guide had to feel it to make sure
it was a leg. The resulting story was “Clinical Evaluation,” which was the name
plate on the door to the morgue (my guide said that the pathologists didn’t
like to call it the morgue). “Clinical Evaluation” became my first published
story, in an anthology called The New
Surrealists, and I later reprinted it in The Moaning Rocks and Other Stories.
Louise: What is your writing process? Do you outline, write
by the seat of your pants (Pantser) or a combination of both?
David: I know how I’ll begin and I how I’ll end, and I have
a general idea of what will happen between the beginning and the ending. I’ll
take notes on scenes I plan to write. I try to write in chronological order,
from beginning to end, but usually that doesn’t work out. I’ll write scenes out
of order, planning to sort them out later. I’ll write scenes that I never intend
to put in the novel because they help me work out story problems. I will go
back and revise what I’ve written; if I feel that a storyline is headed in the
wrong direction, I’ll discard pages and nudge the story back onto the right
track. Then, once I have the first draft completed, I tear into it to revise it
and shape it until I’m satisfied with it.
Louise: Do you write full time? What did you do before you
became a writer or still do?
David: Over the course of my writing career I’ve worked in a
print shop and in a photo finishing plant. I’ve worked as a caregiver, and I’ve worked at
a variety of custodial jobs. I ran a publishing company for three years, and
for nine years I wrote for The Midlands
Business Journal (I estimate that I wrote approximately three million words
for the MBJ and its sister publications). I left the MBJ to care for my elderly
parents, which I did for nine years. With my mother’s passing in December 2012,
I am technically writing full time while I search for my next career opportunity.
Louise: Do you have a ritual when it comes to writing?
Example….get coffee, blanket, paper, pen, laptop and a comfy place.
David: I procrastinate. I always have something to
drink—early in the day its coffee (decaf), in the evening it’s diet soda. I
work in the basement, far away from distractions. I use a desktop computer;
laptops and I have never gotten along. I check my e-mail and do a few other
things online. The internet makes it easy for writers to procrastinate; in the
olden days we had to be more creative. But I limit my procrastination to about
10 minutes. Then I turn to my current work-in-progress and start writing.
Louise: I'm guilty of procrastinating. Twitter and FB can become distracting and next thing you know, you're visiting blogs. Which we all should do - but like you limit our time. Describe a typical writing day for you.
David: I usually write for two hours in the evenings on
weekdays, earlier in the day on weekends. I’ve found that if I have a specific
time for writing, I’m less likely to let other things get in the way. There are
times when events keep me away from the keyboard at the appointed time, but for
the most part I’ve been successful at maintaining this schedule.
Louise: Please give us a sneak peek at your future books.
What’s on the horizon?
David: I’m currently working on Empath, a young adult dystopian novel in which the survivors of a
devastating plague live in walled cities. The citizens fear mutations, which they
interpret as evidence of the plague returning, so mutants are exiled into the
wasteland beyond the city walls. Sixteen-year-old Cassidy Anne Lange is an
Empath; she can feel what people are feeling. Her special gift is the ability
to heal, to bring people back even from terminal illness and injury.
Unfortunately, in this society, Empaths are considered mutants, and when Cassidy
saves the life of a classmate, she suddenly finds herself arrested and facing
exile into the hostile world outside.
Also, the sequel to In
Human Form—tentatively entitled Transition—is
in the planning stages, and I have two more short novels in the works.
Louise: What is your favorite genre to read and who is your
favorite author?
David: I read many genres, but science fiction will always
have a special place in my heart because I cut my literary teeth on stories of
the future and of other worlds. I like the early work of Ray Bradbury and most
of Stephen King’s work. I like John Steinbeck, Kathy Reichs (the TV show Bones is based on her series), Audrey
Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife),
and some of Margaret Atwood’s work (The
Handmaid’s Tale). I also love horror stories when they are done well.
Louise: The Handmaiden's Tale; I didn't read the book, but the movie was really good. I'm a huge SK fan! Is there anything else you would like to tell the
readers we have not touched on?
David: My wife Cheryl is an essential force behind my
fiction. She is my first reader, and her opinion carries lots of weight. In Human Form was published because she
wouldn’t let me retire it to the oblivion of file 13 (my dedication to that
novel reads: “For Cheryl, who kept Wendy alive”). I can also count on her
honesty. I have gone back to work on many stories because her comment was four
words: “You can do better.” When I was gathering the stories for my short story
collection, The Moaning Rocks and Other
Stories, I cut two stories from the lineup because Cheryl didn’t like them.
I’d also like to point out that my son Sean, who is 16, read
A Friend of the Family and recommends
it highly. That’s significant because Sean is a very selective reader. He tends
to prefer young adult series novels (and one Dean Koontz novel). So even though
he is my own flesh and blood, he has shown little previous interest in the
stories I write.
Louise: Where can the readers learn more about you and find
your books on the web?
David: A Friend of the Family is available in
paperback and for Kindle from Amazon
until June 1, 2012, when it also will become available for Nook and other
e-book formats.
My other books—including the paperback edition of A Friend of the Family—are available
from Amazon,
Barnes
& Noble, and from many other dealers on the web.
Other places readers can find me are:
One lucky commenter from the entire A Friend of the Family book tour will
receive a $25 Amazon Gift card.
Louise: David, thank you again for visiting with me! Readers, be sure to follow the book tour and comment for a chance to win. Good luck!
Here's an Excerpt for a teaser:
“Are you pleased with yourself,
Medicine Man?” Aunt Rose said. The rockers rolled on the floor, back and forth,
slowly, creaking. Outside the wind buffeted the ancient building. A draft
stirred in the musty closeness of the room “He’s going to die. You’re going to
see to that, aren’t you, Medicine Man?”
Gina
jumped up.
“He’s not, you old bag!”
The
intensity, the bitterness of the words sent a shock sizzling through Hank’s
brain.
Oh, God, he thought.
Please don’t let it end now. Not yet.
Just a little longer. Please.
“You’re the one who’s killing him.
You!”
“Sit down, you little snip, or I’ll cuff you up the side of your head.”
“Piss on you.”
“Sit down, Gina, honey.”
“Piss on you, too, Ma.”
Vic
stirred on the bed. He moaned but didn’t wake up. Gina glanced at him, the
animosity draining from her face.
“Please,” Hank said, his voice hoarse.
“Gina, please. . .”
For
a minute, tension was thick. Then Aunt Rose looked away, resumed rocking. Gina
was breathing as if she’d run a great distance.
She wants Pa to die, Gina
thought at Hank.
Gina
sat down cross-legged on the floor beside Hank’s chair. His hand moved
slightly, raised, hesitated as if he didn’t know what to do with it. Then he
laid his hand lightly on Gina’s shoulder, felt the tight muscles there and the
warmth coming from her body.
You can’t mean that. He’s her brother.
Gina
laughed a dry laugh which ended in a sob that she tried to choke off. Aunt Rose
and Maud looked at her, but she ignored them.
Our family’s dying.
Hank
sensed her sadness, her desperation, but most of all, he sensed her confusion
about why this had to happen, why to them.
Pa holds us together now. My brothers
are dead. If Pa di— If— If he wasn’t here, Max would’ve been head of the
family. He was oldest. He was strong and gentle and wise. So was Jake, my other
brother. They could’ve handled Aunt Rose, like Pa does now. Aunt Rose is afraid
of Pa, even when he’s sick. Now— Now if Pa— Ma’s too weak, and I’m too young.
Aunt Rose will be head of the family.
Hank
tried not to let her see the random thoughts that skittered through his mind
like frightened beetles. Thoughts of getting away from here before it was too
late, if it weren’t too late already, because these people were strangers to
him, and why did he care? But he crushed the thought and cast it away into that
dim part of his consciousness where he stored thoughts and feelings of which he
was ashamed. He squeezed Gina’s shoulder, gently.
She’s using you, she thought.
What?
She builds walls in her mind so I
can’t see her thinking. She’s better at it than you. She’s had more practice.
But I can see more than she thinks I do. I can glimpse shadows of her thoughts.
Hank
took his hand off Gina’s shoulder and sat up straighter in his chair. He
cleared his throat as if about to speak, but he didn’t say anything.
What’s this you’re telling me?
You wondered why she didn’t act the
way you thought she would before, when she came home and found you here. Look
at her sitting over there waiting. Like a vulture. See how calm she is? She
thinks Pa’s dying. She wants you here if he dies.
Hank
was sweating under his jacket. A bead of perspiration rolled down the back of
his neck.
What good will that do?
I told you, Gina thought impatiently, as if he
were a child slow to understand. Both my
brothers died. Both of them within a couple of years. Who do you think was
treating them?
