Author Doug Dandridge Q&A

We had a slew of questions for our Featured Storyteller, Author Doug Dandridge, and boy, did he deliver! Here’s his response to his guest interview with us.

Glad to have you with us, Doug. Why don’t you tell us about yourself?

I’m an Army veteran (infantry), the son of a Navy veteran and the brother of both Army and Navy veterans. I spent most of my time in Germany, got out after four years, then, after a brief hiatus, I did two years in the Florida National Guard. I was born and raised on the West Coast of Florida. Dad was a Florida native, mom was born in Massachusetts and grew up on Long Island, New York. I grew up in Venice, Florida, what one of my older brothers called Paradise. I was a nerd from the start, but also played unorganized sports, football, baseball and basketball. I started reading science fiction and fantasy from the age of 6, and except for some excursions into technothrillers and horror, those have remained my loves. After the army I did ten years of undergraduate at Florida State, and was either on the Dean’s List or the shit list, no in betweens. Five majors (biology, geology, biology education and finally psychology) before I graduated, then did six years of graduate school at the University of Alabama in clinical psychology. I lived and worked in Alabama for some years, got married, got divorced, and moved back to Tallahassee. I started writing in 1996, and after many years of rejections decided to try self-publishing at the end of 2011. Still a nerd at heart, but also a sports fanatic and a gun enthusiast. I have published thirty-three works of independent scifi and fantasy, sold over 230,000 copies, and recently turned in the manuscript for my first traditionally published series.

People tend to associate your work with hard military sci-fi. How did you find that niche?

I’ve always loved military history, and have read hundreds of books about many different eras, about half on World War 2. I kind of gravitated to that kind of fiction when I could find it. Starship Troopers in scifi, The Forever War, The Mote in God’s Eye by Niven and Pournell. I was introduced to Honor Harrington in 1998, and fell in love with that series. So most of what I write falls into the category ‘military.’ Exodus just seemed to hit a fan base hungering for more. I can write anything, and in fact have plans for more fantasy, post-apocalyptic and alternate history series. The military is what I know, more from reading and talking to people than from my actual service, and from the feedback I get from other veterans I seem to do a good job.

Have you noticed a specific demographic of people who read your work?

I have fans as young as fourteen and as old as eighty-five. I think about half of them are veterans of one sort or another, in one of several countries. Mostly people who love military science fiction, and are fans of David Weber or John Ringo. About three quarters of my fans live in the US, about fifth in the UK, the rest scattered about Germany, Canada and Australia, though I do have a few in France, New Zealand and even a couple in Italy.

You just released the 5th installment in your series, Refuge, where there seems to be a merge of sci-fi & fantasy. Why don’t you tell us about this series?

Refuge was intended as a cross genre series about humans finding themselves in another dimension ruled by magic. A great number of humans, in the millions, bringing a lot of their tech with them. It’s use it or lose it, and they use it against the people trying to kill them with a vengeance over the first two books. Then they don’t have the tech, but they have the history and the creativity to do things with the magic of the new world that the natives had never thought of. And they have the immortals, humans who never age and get stronger the older they get. The first four books were about the use of technology, then figuring out how to get by without it. The fifth book is about discovering the technologies they can use on this world, and the campaign to get rid of the evil elf emperor who wants to use their life force for his own purposes.

Is this your first tale that includes elements typically associated with fantasy?

No. I did a novel called Aura just before I wrote the first of the published Refuge tales, about a world where the aura one possesses is what drives their magic. Strong aura, strong magician. Weak aura, slave. No aura, abomination and slayer of mages. I also wrote a steampunk fantasy called Daemon, set in a dying world in the 1920s by our timeline. A corporation is raiding other dimensions for energy, and the results are disastrous.

How do you combine fantasy in your story by staying true to what readers expect from Author Doug Dandridge?

Heck, I’ve always loved fantasy, from Robert E Howard through Michael Moorcock and into Karl Edward Wagner. All had individual combats, but also great battles involving tens of thousands. From my reading of history I write great battles where magic is incorporated into the fight. I have a lot of cross over fans, but there are some who will only read my science fiction, or conversely, only my fantasy. Recently I have seen some of my ‘never fantasy’ readers trying some, and my ‘not that technobabble readers trying out Exodus.

How do you go about connecting to your fans?

I’m one Facebook quite a bit, and probably have seven or eight hundred readers among my friends. It was amazing how many people were flattered to have a ‘big time author’ communicate with them, LOL. I’m also on Goodreads and have quite a few readers as friends over there. Then there are conventions. Some authors are the kings of convention, and seem to belong to every clique out there. I’m not one of them, but I do have my share.

 

Be sure to listen to our upcoming Podcast EpiXode, where Dandridge will be a guest on the show!

 

Raphyel M Jordan

When drawing fanfic graphic novels was no longer fulfilling enough as a teen, Jordan ventured to greater adventures in storytelling. Now, when he isn’t busy saving the world through the trusty arsenal called “video games,” the author fancies spending time writing about exciting worlds untouched by man. Jordan writes Young Adult science fiction and fantasy. For more details on characters and art, visit RaphyelMJordan.com

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