Featured Author David Lee Summers

Featured Interview With David Lee Summers

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is David Lee Summers and I write science fiction, steampunk, and horror.

I was raised in Southern California. My dad was a locomotive machinist who started his career at the end of the steam era and who loved history. When I was a child, we’d travel around the United States to different historical sites. Sometimes, we’d play “what if” games imagining different outcomes to famous battles or wondering what would happen if a certain technology had been introduced a little sooner. This became a great foundation for the kinds of things I write, both in asking “what if” and seeing different parts of the country.

My formal education is in astrophysics and, besides writing, I operate telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. It’s a great job for a science fiction writer because it puts me at the forefront of a lot of cutting edge science.

I don’t have any pets because my kids have allergies, but I have owned dogs, cats, and turtles in the past and love them all.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination with books goes back to when I first learned to read. I especially loved a collection of Bible stories my grandmother used to read with me when I was very young. The first chapter book I remember reading was James Cloyd Bowman’s “Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time.”

I also discovered the TV series Star Trek when I was about 7 years old and watched it regularly. As I got a little older, I noticed the names of the writers at the beginning of each episode and would seek them out at the local library. This was a great thing as it introduced me to some of the great writers in the business, including Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Norman Spinrad, and Jerome Bixby. Reading these wonderful writers made me want to become a writer myself.

As a kid, I was a little more visually oriented than word-oriented, so I would tell stories by drawing pictures, but I began to get serious about writing when I was in high school. I made my first attempts at writing novels and short stories in my high school years. While in high school, I was fortunate enough to meet Ray Bradbury who encouraged me to keep improving my craft.

I continued to write and to improve through college and finally got serious about submitting my work soon afterward. I wrote my first novel which was actually published in 1992.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love to read the genres I write. In science fiction, I love the works of Robert A. Heinlein, A. Bertram Chandler, and Lois McMaster Bujold. Having grown up on Star Trek, I love space adventure and I love the kinds of stories these folks tell.

In steampunk, I’m especially fond of Gail Carriger and Richard Harland. Carriger helps me see the fun side of steampunk while Harland keeps me grounded in social sensibilities.

Stephen King’s “On Writing” was a great, inspirational book and his horror novels inspire my horror writing as well. Classic horror authors like Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu are also among my favorites.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is called “Firebrandt’s Legacy” It tells the story of a space pirate named Ellison Firebrandt who fights the good fight for Earth. Operating under a letter of marque, he raids the ships of Earth’s opponents, slowing down their progress and ability to compete with the home system. On the planet Epsilon Indi 2, he rescues a woman named Suki Mori from a drug lord, only to find she isn’t so happy about living a pirate’s life. However, when the captain finds a new engine that will make him the most successful pirate of all, Suki is the only one who can make it work. Now Firebrandt must find a way to keep his crew fed and his ship supplied while relying on a woman who barely trusts him and while every government in the galaxy hunts him to get the engine back!

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