- a drummer, gamer, and author of dystopian tales of revenge and redemption
Readers, thanks for checking out another Author Spotlight Interview. Let’s give a good, hearty welcome to this week’s guest!
DB Rook is a new kid on the fantasy block (Obelisk?) His debut, Callus & Crow boasts an impressive list of tropey ingredients that he claims to have spun into a dystopian tale of revenge and redemption. Coming from the Northern end of the UK, DB Rook knows a thing or two about escapism and inventive characters.
He lives in the North of England with his wife and two beautiful children. He is a drummer, a gamer, and a dreamer who loves to spend time in other worlds, as well as this one. He has spent recent years working in the charity sector whilst occasionally visiting the Wayward World to stretch his legs and feed his soul.
DB Rook, thanks for agreeing to be here today. Most author spotlight interviews start off with the boring stuff, but I know what readers REALLY want to know.
If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?
I’ve always had thing for goats…and tentacles. A large tentacular goat that doesn’t smell like a goat would hit the spot.
I… I don’t know what to say to that.
What do you write? And how did you get started?
I write fantasy, first and foremost but I try to bring a few alternative edges with me. I started writing when I was young (hundreds of years ago!) but quickly realized I was trying to be the next…someone, not writing for myself.
A few years later, after a break and becoming a father, I decided to get back in the game and write what I’d want to read. This was the big change for me and although I’m not exactly prolific around my demanding day job, I got myself on the game board.
Glad you found your way back to your writing!
What do you like to read?
I like (surprisingly) fantasy with a twist. I loved Anthony Ryan’s Draconis Memoria series and my ultimate inspiration is Robin Hobb.
Those are some familiar names from my own bookshelves!
Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you
Use beat sheets or formulas!
I have a bit of a phobia of formulas in general, not that I can’t follow the rules, but I always like to keep the back door open incase there’s something special that breaks the mould.
Of course! As with all things authorial — follow the rules unless you have a reason not to.
Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice they can pry out of your cold, dead hands
Hook them!
I’m all about the hooks, chapter hooks, twists, cliff hangers, I love it when I literally have to be late for work because I’m stuck in a book.
I hear you! I am all about the plot and the story momentum.
Shameless Self-Promotion time!
Callus and Crows
Can a path of blood lead to redemption?
Is redemption enough to amend a wayward world?
Morality and reality have shifted from their natural axis. Technology and ideology derive from the remnants of a world long dead and segregated by the monsters that now rule the seas.
Crow, a young ranch hand, is swept into an odyssey of redemption and revenge as he strives to hold back the ravages of fate and the urges born of a curse shared with his new mentor.
Callus, an exile struggling to find redemption whilst keeping his vampiric curse from tainting his new ward, pursues his prey across the sea.
The new world they discover reveals a tyrannical society fixated on their council’s ascension to godhood.
WRITING TIPS & WRITERLY MUSINGS 
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