Behind the Words with Davis Bunn
Welcome David, we’re excited to have you on Reader’s Entertainment. First, tell our readers a bit about yourself. Where you’re from, where you live? Is writing your full-time job?Â
I was born and raised in North Carolina. I left for graduate school in London at age twenty, and have lived in Europe, the Middle East and Africa ever since.
How long have you been writing?
I came to faith at age twenty-eight, while working as a consultant in Germany. Two weeks later, I began to write. I did not even know the word ‘calling’ at that point. I wrote for nine years and finished seven books before my first, ‘The Presence’, was accepted for publication.
Give readers a look at a typical writing day.
Right now, because of my screen work as well as my book commitments, the days are quite intense. I try to be at my desk by six. The creative period ends sometime around lunch, because there is now so much administrivia to complete.
Tell us about your latest release? Where the idea came from? Perhaps some fun moments, or not so fun moments?
I have wanted to write a time-travel book for what seems like twenty years. I actually wrote the first forty pages of this story nine years ago. A man is given the chance to travel back in time and redo the worst day of his life. Like that. But it just wasn’t enough. I felt like I was onto something really, really big. But it wasn’t there yet. The story needed…something. So I set it aside. Once every year or so, I’d go back and reread those initial pages. And then…
Could you share one detail from your current release with readers that they might not find in the book? Perhaps a juicy bit of back-story, or something only you know about a character.
I realized what I had been missing. Of course, once it came to me, it seemed so utterly natural I felt like I should have known this ten years ago. But never mind. The missing element was, this wasn’t to be a story about time travel. It has to be about a man who goes back and relives ALL the mistakes of that very crucial period, only this time he realizes what he did wrong, and how it impacted the world around him. In other words, it became a modern-day Prodigal Son story.
Who has been the most difficult character for you to write? Why?
By far it was the man’s wife. There were actually two women. One was the wife he simply did not love deeply enough. The other was the one who should have been his lifelong partner, who could have been the healing grace, the living embodiment of eternal love. Those scenes were wrenching to write. The man seeing what he could have had, if he had only been a better man, if only…
If you could be one of your characters for a day which character would it be? Why?
I have been a passionate surfer all my life. But never particularly good at the sport. I mean, I’m okay. But nowadays I often surf with international professionals, and they are sooooo much better than I would ever be. In the story, this man goes back to the contest that launched him into the series of bad moves. And now he carries with him thirty years of surfing the world’s biggest waves. That day, with that level of experience, would be soooooo cooooooooool to live.
All writers are readers. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
So many. One new element in my creative life, as I’ve said, is my screen work. I have been reading a number of other novelists who also write scripts. Their writing styles and emotive power are heightened by this back-and-forth transition. I have been reading extensively, taking notes, copying certain traits…A literary thief.
Do you have a secret talent readers would be surprised by?
I am an avid road cyclist. Most weeks, I ride between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and fifty miles.
Your favorite go to drink or food when the world goes crazy!
That would have to be what my brother calls the road serum. A secret mix.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Davis!
Here’s a look at Davis’ latest release BURDEN OF PROOF:
When Ethan was twenty, he experienced a traumatic, life-changing event—the murder of his brother. Since that time, he has struggled with recurring memories of that fateful day and guilt from failure to save his brother.
When his brother’s widow, Dr. Sonya Barrett, requests Ethan’s help to uncover what really led to his brother’s death, Ethan rises to the challenge and begins his search for answers. But he is stunned to hear that Sonya and his brother were involved in a much larger case than he knew.
Can Ethan move beyond his past, restore his future, and become the man that he was destined to be?
You can purchase BURDEN OF PROOF at:
Amazon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Davis Bunn (www.davisbunn.com) is the award-winning author of numerous national bestsellers, with sales totaling more than eight million copies. His work has been published in twenty languages, and his critical acclaim includes four Christy Awards for excellence in fiction. He and his wife, Isabella, live in England.
