Welcome to month two of my newest feature: Authorly Love! If you missed my announcement post about this feature, let me give a brief explanation. Every month I’m going to feature an author throughout that month, shining a spotlight on their work with an introduction, a review of the book, and a discussion post.
David Luna studied physics before turning to writing, so naturally, his interests tend to fall in the realm of science fiction. He worked in a state-of-the-art research lab experimenting with superconducting compounds, and then dirtied his hands in a blood plasma fractionation facility before receiving his MFA from USC’s Writing for Film & Television program.
You can follow him on:
His website: davidjluna.com
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
The Collector
Release Date: July 16, 2015, by Lunatime Publishing
Goodreads | Amazon | Book’s Website
Years ago when the dam collapsed, the city’s water supply went with it. Combined with a decades-long drought, polluted waterways, and gross overpopulation, people were encouraged to voluntarily sell their lives in exchange for water rations to those they leave behind.
Neil Vaughn, a hardened 3-stripe Collector, is part of an elite squad who has sworn an oath to the Agency to round up, transport, and deliver the volunteers to the processing facility where they are to be killed. But when he makes the mistake of falling in love, it reawakens his humanity and threatens his most important assignment yet, one which could undermine the Agency’s control over the system should he fail.
In a world where everything including life is stripped away, nothing can suppress our ability to love.
Since this was via email, I wanted to start out with something a little less formal. Here were 5 random quick-fire questions I asked to get it started:
- Television or movies? Movies
- Fiction or non-fiction? Fiction
- Favorite movie? Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- Favorite book? Lord of the Flies
- Coffee or tea? Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, coffee again at night
I then moved into more in-depth questions about his writing and inspirations:
Q: Introduce yourself to my readers.
A: I moved to Los Angeles from a small town in Northern California when I was 17 (just three weeks after high school). I came here for the movie industry as I knew I wanted to write, but when it came time to choose a major in undergrad I instead picked physics. I felt I needed to learn more about the world and experience new things in order to have more things to write about, and the only thing my school offered that really interested me was that. I was lucky enough to be able to take a few writing classes simultaneously though, and it was in those workshops where I was encouraged to go on and get my master’s from USC’s screenwriting program. I worked a few years in between before doing so, but both the physics program and USC’s program were invaluable, and the lack of sleep from both really prepped me for things to come.
Q: When you’re not writing, what do you like to spend your time doing?
A: My wife and I just had our first child in June, so I try to give her as much time as possible. I also love to watch football and baseball, specifically the SF 49ers and Oakland A’s (I’m a confused Bay Area fan). I’m a huge video game fan, but those can take up so much time that I have to be really selective about those.
Q: How did you come up with the idea of The Collector?
“…[could people] become so desperate that they would willingly give up their lives[?]”
A: The Collector as it is today is so much different than when it first started. It was back in 2007 I was reading an article about natural resources, and it talked about how by the year 20xx we would run out of a specific one. This wasn’t the first time I heard that claim and I’m not sure why this particular instance was any different, but by the end of the article I started toying with the idea that if we couldn’t get more of that specific resource then what if we were able to have less people and reduce our numbers? (Most of my ideas start out with the question “what if”).
So I started thinking about the desperation a resource shortage could cause and I wondered if people could become so desperate that they would willingly give up their lives. That was the initial spine of the idea. From there my imagination had a field day and over the years this initial concept became muddied by endless drafts with over-the-top villains and confusing/complicated conspiracies which were ultimately dropped. However, through dozens of outlines and feedback from those I trusted, I realized the idea that people seemed to respond to most was this notion of people volunteering to die and even more to the notion of a man tasked with shuttling people to their death.
Q: How has your science background affected your writing & the story of The Collector?
A: I think studying science has affected me most predominately in two ways. First, believe it or not, I try to keep the science aspect in my writing grounded in some sort of reality, though in my opinion, stories aren’t academic papers so I definitely don’t feel like science has to be 100% accurate. However, I do try to start from a small kernel of truth and then expand on it (or blow it out of proportion) as I feel this adds a sense of authenticity to the story.
Secondly, and this might sound a little odd, but physics is very very structured and I think this structure translates into my writing. If you look at a story as a whole it has a structure to it, and if you zoom into the beginning, middle, or end, or even move in further to a single moment or series of moments, you’ll find each of these chunks have their own structures. You have to be able to see both the big picture as well as the individual building blocks that add up to make your story at all times, and I think the same can be said in how you attack physics.
Q: What other books, movies, or other media have inspired your writing?
“I lean heavily on music during the early stages of outlining because it just lets my imagination run free.”
A: My writing is most inspired by music, and second to that is probably video games. I lean heavily on music during the early stages of outlining because it just lets my imagination run free. At that stage, I’m most inspired by the mood and atmosphere that music can create as it feels like I’m on an emotional experience. There’s an entire genre of “epic trailer music” where anything by Two Steps From Hell, Brand X Music, and many others are just fantastic. Video games tie into this, at least the ones I’m drawn to, since they are very story-driven, immersive, and have great world building (I highly recommend Enslaved: Odyssey to the West). Once I’m further along with a story though I will definitely seek out other books and movies in the same genre or that might have similarities. Children of Men and Gattaca are definitely noteworthy here. This is a great way to study how other writers approached a situation and it can inspire me to build upon that and do something different.
Q: I noticed you tend to lean towards video games and movie soundtracks for your writing playlists. What is it about that specific type of instrumental music that helps you with your writing?
A: I learned from very early on that I am unable to write to anything with lyrics as I’m easily distracted, and silence is sometimes worse. Soundtrack music just puts me in a certain mood that allows my imagination to kick into gear. I’ll often tailor the music to fit the type of pages I’m working on that day, though I sometimes have to remember to actually write rather than just sit there and daydream to the music. I wrote a lot of The Collector listening to music from Inception, Fury, The Fountain, Tron, and Oblivion (just to name a few).
Q: The Collector was originally a screenplay, how hard was it to transition it to novel form? What sort of changes did you have to make? Was it like an extra step of editing?
A: Adapting The Collector from screenplay to novel form was much harder than expected. I (naively) thought that I would simply change the format and writing style, and then add back in many of the elements that were cut from the script form (since page length is so highly scrutinized). Boy, was I wrong. I did follow this route initially, but when I was done I realized that I was doing a major disservice to the story by not giving it time to breathe. I love writing screenplays, but they can be very restrictive in what one can and cannot do as you have to take into consideration budget, number of characters, number of locations, etc. So only later on in the adaptation process did I decide to take the time to go back to the original outline and start over. This allowed me to flesh out the characters and themes and really take the time to explore things I wanted to include in the story. By the end of it all the page length nearly doubled.
Q: Who was your favorite character to write? Who was the hardest to write?
A: Slayter was my favorite character to write (with Quado a close second) just because he’s so honest and brutal. However, even though he’s vicious I loved that he was able to justify his actions with the penal codes, and that’s what made him more real and interesting to me. He’s someone who truly believes what he’s doing is justified and right. Damian was probably the hardest to write as I would occasionally lose his voice and he would start to sound like Slayter. I had to take a couple rewrite passes and flesh each character out in order to really learn what distinguishes them from one another. What helped me the most was envisioning a sort of “humanity spectrum” and figuring out where each character fell on it. While Neil shifts along the spectrum as his character changes, I knew two characters couldn’t be at the same point (and if they were I had a problem), so doing this really helped me with Damian the most.
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
A: Don’t be afraid to write bad pages. I learned this from one of my professors, and here’s a real life excerpt from one of our workshops after turning in the original opening to The Collector (a very early draft):
Professor: You know how I always tell you all don’t be afraid to write crap? Well, this here is crap (holds up my printed pages). These are bad pages. But that’s okay because now we have a starting point to make it better.
Seems a little harsh, right? But it’s advice I absolutely agree with. Ultimately, don’t try to be perfect on your first draft and don’t over think it. If you use an outline, great, just move forward from there and write since you can’t make a blank page better.
I hope you got to know David Luna and his debut novel, The Collector! Keep an eye out for future Authorly Love posts this month featuring Luna and his novel. In the mean time, enjoy the book trailer for The Collector!
2 Comments
This was a great authorly love post. I’m not much of a science fiction person but I could be, especially after reading this. The Collector is going on my TBB list. Thanks for the author intro!
Thank you! I think this one is different from most science fiction in that there is a huge focus on the romance. I’ll be reviewing the book next week, if you want to check that out so you can make a decision 🙂