#56 - Weapons in Fiction with J. Daniel Sawyer

Mark Lefebvre, Director of Kobo Writing Life, interviews, author, podcaster, film-maker, photographer and audio-book producer, J. Daniel Sawyer. In the interview, Mark and Daniel discuss:

• Dan’s publishing production schedule which include 5 books currently in the queue, 8 mysteries in a single series (The Clarke Lantham Mysteries) 6 science fiction books spread across two different series (The Antithesis Progression & Suave Rob’s Awesome Adventures) and stand-alones, a couple of short story collections and two long form writer’s guides (Making Tracks: A Writer’s Guide to Audiobooks and How to Produce Them and Throwing Lead: A Writer’s Guide to Firearms and the People Who Use Them)
• How four of the books in Sawyer’s Clarke Lantham series started off as short stories, but then “escaped” into full sized novels
• Dan’s book Idea’s Inc. that was inspired by science fiction legend Harlan Ellison’s snarky response to where he gets his ideas from.
• His goal to write 3000 words each and every day
• Dan’s Nanowrimo Daily Podcast project Nanowrimo Every Month
• The three pillars of writing: Craft, Business, Law
• Examples of incorrect weapon use in stories, which Sawyer addresses in his book: Throwing Lead: A Writer’s Guide to Firearms and the People Who Use Them
• How poorly researched use of something like weapons can kick a knowing reader out of the story
• The differences in weapon terminology use, such as a clip and a magazine, an automatic and a semi-automatic
• The Weaver stance, originally created in the 1950’s and how it remains one of a number of popular shooting stances in handgun training today because it taught police officers how to shoot quickly, accurately and without accidents
• Why the “clicking” of a gun when it is out of ammunition is an inaccurate Hollywood convention when it comes to most modern firearms
• Why Doc Brown would NOT have survived the AK-47 attack in the movie Back to the Future, even with a Kevlar vest on
• Why being shot typically won’t send someone flying backwards or even stop them while rushing forward
• Dan’s life-long passion for theatre-radio and audio-books
• How Scott Sigler inspired Dan into podcasting his fiction.
• A look at the minimum standard equipment an author would need in order to produce their own quality audio book
• How Dan has created full-cast / multi-voice audio productions
• The rough number of hours it takes to produce each hour of finished audio product and the differences between single narrator recordings and full-cast productions
• The importance of learning from one’s own blunders while finding your way through the business aspect of writing

Links:

Daniel Sawyer’s Website

Twitter:  @dsawyer