Ask the Author: Luke H. Davis
Answered Questions (5)
Luke H. Davis
1. I read like my life depends on it. I’m a firm believer than what is in the result is in the cause. You can’t push through (and also, in some cases, avoid) writer's block unless you read willingly and with breadth and depth. When you read, your mind has all sorts of hidden conversations with your soul that you aren’t aware of, yet the fruit of these silent chats shows up in your writing.
2. Don’t get discouraged. Some days you’ll be on fire and write 5000 words (my most productive day was 8400 words), and other days you can’t generate a thought. It happens. Don’t beat yourself up.
3. Usually my most productive method is to think about where I'd like to be five chapters ahead, then leave the project alone for a few days while talking through how to fill in the gap from where I stopped to Point B. Eventually, this process dislodges the writer's block.
2. Don’t get discouraged. Some days you’ll be on fire and write 5000 words (my most productive day was 8400 words), and other days you can’t generate a thought. It happens. Don’t beat yourself up.
3. Usually my most productive method is to think about where I'd like to be five chapters ahead, then leave the project alone for a few days while talking through how to fill in the gap from where I stopped to Point B. Eventually, this process dislodges the writer's block.
Luke H. Davis
A good bit of it is just tapping into the human experience. More specifically, part of the desire to write a murder mystery came from being a reader of the genre. I believe that P.D. James is the living author at the top of the list in crime fiction. I always loved the way she constructed Adam Dalgliesh in her novels and could perfectly balance plot, character, and setting so well. I’ve also enjoyed the more cozy British mysteries of M.C. Beaton and–more recently–James Runcie.
I grew into the mystery writing mode because of several other factors. It’s a creative way to explore the complicated emotions and actions of the human experience, a chance to maneuver the paradoxes of love, forgiveness, revenge, loss, etc., within the grid of a great story. As a high school teacher of ethics, issues of justice and order (and reactions to evil and injustice) are important to me and I find that writing gives me a platform to make the point that justice and honor are charactersitics worth seeking. Because my stories take place within a religious institutions, I can deliver the shock and tremor of unspeakable evil occurring in what many would view as safe havens. With my lead detective, the skeptical Cameron Ballack, I can pose an outsider’s approach to matters of spirituality, faith, and hope while solving a mystery. So there were many layers that folded into this desire.
I grew into the mystery writing mode because of several other factors. It’s a creative way to explore the complicated emotions and actions of the human experience, a chance to maneuver the paradoxes of love, forgiveness, revenge, loss, etc., within the grid of a great story. As a high school teacher of ethics, issues of justice and order (and reactions to evil and injustice) are important to me and I find that writing gives me a platform to make the point that justice and honor are charactersitics worth seeking. Because my stories take place within a religious institutions, I can deliver the shock and tremor of unspeakable evil occurring in what many would view as safe havens. With my lead detective, the skeptical Cameron Ballack, I can pose an outsider’s approach to matters of spirituality, faith, and hope while solving a mystery. So there were many layers that folded into this desire.
Luke H. Davis
First: Read, read, read! What’s in the result must be in the cause. If you aim to be a great writer, you MUST be a voracious reader. Second, write about what you want to write about, not what others want you to write about. Third, while there is no one-size-fits-all system for how to write a book (some are more spontaneous, others follow a more regimented schedule), there is no substitute for perseverance. Write consistently, and when you aren’t writing, be thinking about what you could write. And finally, believe in yourself! Writing is less than you think about the nuts-and-bolts and it’s more than you imagine about what you have inside you from the very beginning.
Luke H. Davis
Several factors blended together: I wanted to prove to myself I could write a murder mystery. I also liked the idea of this kind of story being done in a Christian setting while not being a “Christian” book. The Christian faith is my life tradition, but there is no doubt that some Christian environments are marked by deep flaws and—tragically—great evil. So my writing explores this brokenness, this flawed nature of faith. I use my lead detective character, Cameron Ballack, to pose these issues as a skeptic who can’t bring himself to embrace faith. And the human inspiration would be our son, Joshua, who is the prototype for Cameron Ballack. They share a common neuromusuclar disorder and common quirks. Both are wheelchair-bound yet very determined souls. I wanted a story that would show people like Joshua are primarily “handi-capable”, not handicapped.
Luke H. Davis
My publisher has my sequel novel right now and we should be hearing something about that fairly soon. The title is "The Broken Cross" which will take Detective Cameron Ballack all over St. Louis, rather than all the action taking place in one locale like in "Litany of Secrets". Both the detective team and Ballack's challenges grow in number as someone with an axe to grind is looking to settle a serious score.
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