Author interview: DB Rook

As part of an ongoing series of posts, I sat down for a (virtual) meeting with another indie author in the fantasy (and science fiction) genre. Here’s how my chat with author DB Rook, went.

The interview

Introductions and on reading

Steve Pannett (SP): We’ll start off with a nice easy question; do you want to introduce yourself and your work?

DB Rook (DBR): I’m DB Rook, I would consider myself a fantasy author, but I write with a bit of a twist. My main series, The Wayward World Chronicles, is post-apocalyptic, western-themed. A little bit of horror in there, some genre-blending. It has lots and lots of ingredients.

I also have a new novella out, called Residuum, which is a bit more straight-up sci-fi. Part-Firefly, part-space pirate, bit of fun really. A nice short, easy read.

And then I’ve contributed to the Book of Spores, with an intentionally comedic, 90s-referenced Fallout-ish story. Very different, but a play on the 90s action hero, post-apocalyptic theme.

SP: Brilliant, sounds like there’ll be something for everyone in there! Let’s hit rewind now. Take me back to your earliest memory of reading. Where did it all start for you?

DBR: So I actually didn’t get on with reading at all when I was little. I remember being at school and they were constantly trying to get me to read and I just didn’t gel with it. It wasn’t for me. So I didn’t really start reading for my own pleasure until I found the Conan books. They were my way in.

Although, as an aside, the first book I ever read wasn’t fantasy. It was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

SP: I can relate to some of the early frustration. I remember being forced to read some of the classics and hated it.

DBR: Yeah, it’s like learning a musical instrument. You’ve got to get something out of it before you get the drive to do it more.

On writing

SP: Yeah that sounds about right. So, a neat segue from early reading into early writing. When did you first start? What inspired you to first give it a go?

DBR: So I was reading a lot of that old fantasy—all of the Robert E Howard stuff—and I was into The Lord of the Rings, y’know the real foundational stuff? And then I went away from reading for a good few years and came back to Robin Hobb and Raymond E Feist. They were the two that really fuelled me. And I never thought I was going to be able to do what they do, but I wanted to make my own world. It’s always been about the world to me.

So I did write probably about three quarters of a novel back then. It took me ages and it’s probably utter crap! There was no craft involved. Nothing to guide me except this thought of “I’m just gonna write this story.” I have still got it somewhere! I don’t look at it, but some of the concepts I’ve pulled out and used in later stuff when I got more serious.

So I wrote that, but then there was a big turning point when my wife got pregnant and I realised that in nine months’ time my world’s going to change completely – so I’m either going to stop messing about with this writing stuff or I’m going to get pretty serious and do it properly. And I’m going to do it my way. And that led to [DB Rook’s debut novel] Callus & Crow.

SP: Nice, so that was the catalyst. You mentioned there that you had a real focus on written “worlds” – is that world-building still what gets you fired up to write?

DBR: I think I strive to create worlds, and now I also strive to create characters that I—and hopefully other people—enjoy. And then I like throwing those characters into those worlds. That is the bit of magic for me. Like what happens if an assassin droid is thrown into this conceptual world where such-and-such happens? I love the kind of magic that happens when you do that.

SP: Yeah! It’s something that Stephen King references in On Writing where you’re more discoverer than creator. You create a character and you create a situation and then throw them together; then you observe and document and tell the story as you see it in your mind’s eye.

DBR: Yeah, exactly like that.

SP: Okay great. So after you’d started writing with more seriousness, what led you into publishing, and how did you explore it? Trad pub? Small press? Self-pub?

DBR: So I went a bit of a weird route because I didn’t really know how to launch a book in any way. So I was trying to figure things out, but knew I couldn’t really approach anyone until I had a book out. So I did that – I finished the book, I published it myself and then just went “hello world, I’m an author, please read it!” and things built up a little bit from there!

I did go with a small press for a short time, but it didn’t really do anything for me. It was nice to have somebody else thinking about this project, because it’s such a vast amount of skills and different things you’ve got to think about. So it was nice to have another brain on it, but I actually didn’t get that far down that road. And, to be honest, I preferred having more control over it.

I wouldn’t ever close the door to traditional publishing, but I would worry about surrendering that control.

SP: Fair enough. I mean, they’re all perfectly valid routes to get work out there, right? Each with their own pros and cons. So tell me about your writing process itself now. Do you have any rituals? A set place or a set list of conditions that work best for you when you sit down to write?

DBR: Well I’d love to answer and say “Yes my ritual is this…” — but then I realise that, if the conditions have to be perfect for me to write then I’m just never going to get the time to write! I’d love to say someone hands me a drink and then puts a smoking jacket around my shoulders and then I go “right, the magic is about to happen!” — but that ain’t gonna happen!

But there is a bit of a weird story where, I was once working my day job, and I had a bit of time between meetings so I went to where my band practices and I sat in the boiler room. It was basically like a little broom cupboard, so nothing to look at and not even a surface to work on. It was just me, my knees and my laptop. It was cold and I was uncomfortable, and it was the most productive hour and a half of my life! Because all I had to do was just write.

Ever since then I’ve just thought that if you’ve got a paragraph in your head then just get it down on the page, otherwise you’ll be waiting forever for the perfect conditions and you’ll just get no progress!

SP: I can relate heavily to that. Finding time to write, in between everything else going on, is a real test of your mettle when it comes to how much you want to do it! But what about Writer’s Block? Have you ever struggled with it, and—if so—what do you do to get around it?

DBR: So I actually try my best to just not believe in it! I think it’s just a fear that’s trying to get in your way. But sometimes if I get stuck on a particular scene, my antidote is to actually write to myself. Even if I write utter crap for three paragraphs I know there’ll be something I can go back to and pull something out of. But if you don’t write anything, you’ve got no chance.

SP: For sure. You can’t edit a blank page, right?

DBR: Yeah, exactly. So sometimes I’ll even write a joke with myself to break the paralysis. I’ll get relaxed and just have a laugh with what’s happening in the scene and sometimes that breaks the spell a little bit, and then I start getting more serious and I can take that stuff out.

SP: Ah that’s really clever. So you’ll write something almost facetious in a bid to break through?

DBR: Yeah! Sometimes I’ll even write myself into the work. So I might write “The author is staring at this page, what an idiot…” and then that actually gets me going again.

SP: That’s great. Just any writing to get you back onto writing the thing you actually want to focus on. It’s a great technique, and one that I’ll have to try myself next time I get stuck! Okay so moving on now, talk to me about characters. Do you have a favourite character that you’ve created, and if so, why them?

DBR: Oh god, I’m not very good at deciding from options. But I think I would say Silk from Callus & Crow. She’s a lot more prominent in the next book, but I love the concept of her character. She has the soul of her dead mother in a bit of cloth that remains on her body at all times. And I love the fact that she’s got this closeness, but that she gets incredibly lonely because she can’t actually speak with her mother. It’s almost this denial of grieving, and it leads to frustration with another character [Silk’s mother] who isn’t really there. I love the interplay.

SP: Nice. And so you mentioned the next instalment of the Wayward World Chronicles there. Talking of your books more broadly, if you wanted readers to take one thing away from your work, what would it be?

DBR: I want readers to relate to a concept. I’m not very good at writing “real world” – I’m definitely a fantasy guy. But I want readers to recognise the resonance between what’s happening in this crazy, fantastical world and what’s happening right now. So I might take big themes or concepts from the real world but play with them in this fantasy world. So yeah I’d like people to relate to them, but not necessarily see them as commentary or a suggested solution to the world’s problems!

And also, I want readers to have fun. Sometimes that’s all a reader wants. It’s like when you watch a Quentin Tarantino film and you just go “shit, that was just so cool.” — there’s not really much substance to it, but it was just fun!

SP: Yeah for sure, I can understand that. But do you think it’s difficult to deliver that feeling through darker fantasy? You and I both write fairly dark and gritty stuff, so do you think it’s hard to write in a way that delivers that joy?

DBR: There’s something to be said for having a dark palette, so that when you decide to paint something brighter it stands out more. So I try to do that. I also try to laugh at myself sometimes for being so dark. So I think there’s some light and shade there.

I don’t necessarily set out to be particularly dark, either. I set out to be quite real. And even though it’s an absurd space concept or whatever, I do want some reality in there — and yeah, life can be quite dark!

On the future

SP: Yeah I can see the parallels for sure. Okay we’re close to wrapping up now. Do you want to tell me what upcoming releases you’re really excited for? Either your own or just other books you’re looking forward to reading!

DBR: I really cannot wait to get this new book [Book 2 of the Wayward World Chronicles] out there. It’s my main series and it’s a real passion project. I probably should’ve put this out two years ago but I just haven’t found the time! I also think I needed to put some energy into those other projects, to gear myself up for this one again. It builds the world out and I can’t wait to see what people think of it.

SP: Lovely. Can I press you for dates? Do you have a release-date in mind yet?

DBR: It has to be this year. [I should note, DB has a wry smile on his face at this point!]

SP: Haha fair enough. What about any other projects in the pipeline?

DBR: [That wry smile grows wider] I’ve got another secret project, but I’m not allowed to speak about it yet! Even saying that sentence is exciting but I’m under instructions not to mention it more than that.

SP: I won’t press you on that then, as I don’t want to get you into trouble! Any final thoughts before we wrap it up today?

DBR: Yeah it’s a bit of a tangent, but I just want to get it off my chest a bit! What I just wanted to say is to almost warn authors of how much it appears that we—as authors—seem to get preyed on by publicists and promo people. It feels like there a lot of shady stuff out there. You’ve got to be careful.

SP: Yeah we authors get targeted by scammers a lot. The deluge of AI-generated messages and fake outreach is tricky. My best advice to any other author is to always do a bit of digging to see if something is legitimate or not, and if it feels too good to be true, then it probably is. Also, if someone asks you for money that’s an immediate red flag, right?

DBR: Oh yeah, totally. You don’t want to miss out on opportunities but yeah you’ve got to be careful.

SP: Okay great stuff. I think we’ll leave it there. Thank you for your time!

DBR: Been a pleasure!

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DB Rook is a genre-blending sci-fi and fantasy author with a range of published works available to buy and read. His next novel, the as-yet untitled Book 2 of the Wayward World Chronicles, is due to be released in 2026.

📚✌🏻SP

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