An Interview with Author

——— RICK DAKAN ———

“Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a prison for one’s own self.”
- The Prisoner

Interviewer: How did you start writing?

Rick Dakan: Sort of by accident. In college I never thought of myself as a writer. The first inkling I had that I might have some facility for it came in an upper level American History class. We’d all turned in our first papers and the professor came in the next week and just laid into us for being such crappy writers. He devoted the whole lecture to explaining some basics of good writing. Then he handed back our papers and I’d gotten an “A” minus and he stopped to say it was on of the few well written papers he’d gotten. Sometimes all it takes is something like that to give you that boost of confidence and get you going.

My first published book, Dark Kingdom of Jade, was co-written with Mark Friedman. It was for a role-playing game called Wraith: The Oblivion. It was a brand new role-playing game at the time, and Mark knew the editor in charge a little through an online writing group. We just cold pitched her the idea for the book and she liked it. Then, much to our surprise, we had to write the damn thing. I was really rough back then, but Mark was a good editor as well as a writer and that’s how things started. I was in grad school at the time, supposedly working on my Master’s Thesis, so I signed up for a writing class that was supposed to help you improve your thesis. Instead I used a lot of the workshop time with pieces from Dark Kingdom of Jade.

After that I did a whole string or role-playing game books for games like Conspiracy X, Deadlands, Kult, and Dungeons and Dragons, and on and on. Which is good, because grad school really wasn’t working out. Walking out of Ohio State and never looking back was one of the happier days of my life. Afterwards, I did the freelance game writer thing for about five or six years. The pay was low, but the deadlines were tight. It taught me to write fast or die. It was a great crucible to hone my skills and, more importantly, my work ethic. I may have been living on $13k a year, but at least I was earning it all by writing.

2) In your mind, who are geeks?

First of all, Geeks are people who become obsessed with things that aren’t widely seen as “cool.” Moreover, the things the objects of their obsession require a bit of smarts to fully appreciate. Comic books, video games, audio equipment, even cars all produce geeks. And of course, computers. A geek looks at one or more of these things and sees more than just a box for checking e-mail or a storybook with bright pictures. The true geek sees all the possibilities in that thing – and those possibilities become the basis for the obsession.

In Geek Mafia we have characters who are definitely criminals. They’re stealing and extorting money from people, just like the traditional mob. But they’re doing it through the lens of their geek world-view. They not only see the possibilities in comics and computers and games, they see the possibility to make a quick and dirty buck.

3) How much of Geek Mafia is drawn from your own personal experiences?

All of it and none of it. I’ve never been part of a criminal conspiracy and I’ve never committed any of the crimes portrayed in this book (as far as you know). Certainly all the characters are purely fictional. But pieces of them are inspired by both my own life and other true-life stories.

At the same time, many of the settings and some of the events closely mirror my own experiences living in Silicon Valley and working in the videogame industry. I was an inexperienced game designer who moved out to San Jose with nothing but a great idea and a friend willing to invest money in it. And my partners did indeed fire me in a way a lot like what’s shown in the book, very much to my utter surprise when it happened. And I really did harbor a burning desire for revenge there for a while. So I wrote this book instead.

But, while Geek Mafia’s genesis was in my own experiences the characters and story soon took on a life of their own. Even as the story spun off into a tale much more interesting and exciting than anything that’s ever happened to me, all the little details remain true to what Silicon Valley was like while I lived there. People who live there will recognize all the locations and the general vibe of both the place and the computer game industry.

4) Why did you decide to publish Geek Mafia through your own company, Blue King Studios?

Part of it is control. Part of it is that it’s not that hard. For a year, my little company Blue King Studios published the City of Heroes comic book. I wrote it, Brandon McKinney drew it, Austin McKinnley did the colors, and Neil Hendrick did letters and layout. That was it. Just the four of us put out a monthly comic book that went out to around 150,000 subscribers who were playing the online game. I was really impressed with that and it inspired me to think about what else I could publish. When I started to do the math I realized that there was really no reason not to do it myself. I had the funds to print it and get the word out. I may not sell as many as I would if a bigger publisher was putting the book out, but I’m also keeping four to five times as much money from each book, so I only need to sell a quarter of the books to make the same amount of cash. And if I sell more…well, you can see how that works out well for me.

I never submitted Geek Mafia to any publisher. These days, unless you get an amazing book deal, first time novelists end up being responsible for most of the publicity themselves. And planning on getting an amazing book deal is like planning on winning the lottery. So, once you’ve taken on the marketing responsibility, it’s not that big a leap to printing it yourself – especially if you already have a small publishing company like I do.

Just as important as the money stuff, is the control issue. I wanted to be able to position my work in the market exactly how I wanted. I wanted to put the cover on it that I thought worked best. And I wanted to publish it under the Creative Commons copyright regime and give away free electronic versions online. I don’t think I could have done all that with a big publisher.

Ultimately I think that more and more authors are going to follow my lead. For me, I’m sort of amazed that more name authors don’t do this. I mean, does anyone care who publishes Stephen King or J K Rowling or John Grisham? Do they even know? Of course not. Readers follow authors and stories, not imprints. I know the next time Neal Stephenson or China Mieville comes out with a book I’m going to buy it without thinking twice. And these days, computer publishing just makes this all so very easy. I just decided to be on the cutting edge of this revolution, that’s all. I know a lot of your favorite authors will be joining me eventually.

5) In Geek Mafia, Chloe and her criminal crew live an “off the grid” or “underground” lifestyle. Is that based on any particular research you’ve done or life experiences you’ve had?

More than anything, this is a bit of wishful thinking on my part. I find the idea of living underground and dropping out of mainstream society very seductive. I think the central theme of Geek Mafia is really that you’re responsible for creating your own life and your own fate. Chloe and her crew are the most extreme embodiment of that idea. They do what they want and live in total freedom – and that freedom comes with a lot of danger and excitement and, ultimately, deceit. And Paul finds that way of living compelling, but also very frightening. I’m not quite brave enough to do it myself, and so I write about it and maybe I’ll find my way there through my books.

I was inspired by the great documentary, The Weather Underground, which came out in 2003. I didn’t know anything about the Weathermen or their activities and I was just startled at what they managed to get away with for the decade or so they were underground. I don’t necessarily agree with all their actions and tactics, but I do admire their commitment to their cause and beliefs. After I saw that, I started reading more about them and looking for information about other groups or individuals who’ve survived and even prospered outside of normal societal constraints. That led me in particular to Hakim Bey and his essays on Temporal Autonomous Zones and Pirate Utopias, both of which I found definitely inspirational. I suppose that I hope Geek Mafia itself can be seen as contributing to this line of literary exploration and maybe, if I’m real lucky, it’ll allow me to live out the dream in some way myself.

6) Who does Geek Mafia appeal to? Does it fit into any particular genre?

The simple answer is that Geek Mafia is a kind of thriller/crime novel that appeals to people like me. Or, put another way, it’s for people like the characters in the book – geeks of all stripes and creeds. First and foremost it’s a ripping yarn about conmen and pranks and creative crimes, all of which have a very wide audience. Paul and Chloe and the other people that inhabit the novel live in a world that’ll be familiar to fans of science fiction stories, comic books, and of course gamers. But not because it’s a sci-fi setting, but rather because it’s the kind of world fans of those genres live in every day. The book itself is set right in the heart of Silicon Valley, the source of so much cutting edge entertainment, software, and general geeky goodness. One reader said it was a story for Gen X grown up and in its 30’s. Certainly there’s that element to it – the idea of having responsibilities and accomplishments and then having to act when it all comes falling apart around you. My main character Paul just deals with his problems in a way much more exciting and dangerous than most of us would ever dare.

7) Part of the plot of Geek Mafia centers around talk radio and right-wing politics. Without giving too much away, what role does politics play in Geek Mafia?

Well, politics plays an important role in the story as the plot unfolds, but Geek Mafia is not a fundamentally political story. Having said that, there are of course political geeks out there – myself included. Like anything that’s equal parts opinion and arcane knowledge, the world of politics attracts plenty of nerds. I spend a large portion of every day reading political blogs and listening to news and political talk programming on the radio (mostly Air America) and some of that experience/interest has made it into the book.

If there is an overt political stance to Geek Mafia, it’s certainly not one that’s represented by either major political party. The characters themselves are, if anything anarchists for the most part, and I did do a fair amount of research into anarchist philosophies and thinkers like Bakunin, Proudhon, and Chomsky. I think, for a lot of people, these ideas go hand in hand with the “off the grid” or “underground” lifestyle that my characters aspire to. But they’re not hard core revolutionaries – they’re fun-loving and occasionally very dangerous criminals. For them – to paraphrase Clausewitz – politics is just crime carried out by other means. Or, in my case, plot and characterization carried out by other memes.

8) Is Geek Mafia a stand alone novel or part of an ongoing series?

Definitely part of an ongoing series. In fact, I’m well on my way to finishing the first draft of the sequel. I wasn’t always sure about continuing the story. In fact, I’d already started on a completely unrelated novel while I was editing Geek Mafia – but the more time I spent in this world and with these characters, the more stories popped into my head. I knew that a sequel had to happen and hopefully another two or three after that. And once I came to that point, I didn’t want to write anything else, so I dove right into the next book. I’m also considering doing a comic book to bridge the time between the two novels, since there’s about a year’s delay between when Geek Mafia ends and where the next book starts up.

9) Why did you decide to release Geek Mafia under the Creative Commons copyright regime?

I first heard about Creative Commons when one sci-fi author Cory Doctrow released his latest book, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (which is great by the way). I poked around the CreativeCommons.org website and I really liked what I saw. I’m all in favor of authors and artists having protection for their works, but I do think that modern day, corporate controlled copyrights and patents have gotten overly restrictive. As a writer, what I want most is for people to read and like my stories. Anything I can do to make that easier for people just makes sense for me. Creative Commons allows me to distribute electronic copies of Geek Mafia while still retaining the rights to be the only guy who makes money of the book. And eventually, I can allow it to pass into the public domain – something most creations these days will never do as long as big corporations keep lobbying Congress to have the reversion deadlines extended. And last, but not least, Creative Commons is just a such a perfect fit for the kinds of themes and characters that Geek Mafia deals with – it’s what my main characters, Chloe and Paul, would want me to do.

10) You’ve announced plans to hold a contest for first time novelists. Where did the idea to do this competition come from?

When I started seriously looking into indie publishing, I was surprised to discover how straightforward and easy it was to actually get the book printed and available for stores. The hardest part is writing the book of course. After that, the hardest part is finding some way to publish it. I was lucky enough to have the resources to pay for the printing, but most people aren’t. It got me to thinking about all the other great stories out there that don’t see the light of day because breaking into the big publishing houses (and even the small ones) is so difficult. Inspired by shows like Project Greenlight, I decided to share the wealth a little and give someone else the same chance I’ve had.

The contest details will be shown on rickdakan.com, but the principal is very straightforward. I’ll pay to print 5000 trade paperback copies of the lucky winner’s novel. The winner owns all the copyrights and keeps all the proceeds after I recoup the costs of printing. I make no money on the deal at all, but then, I’m not doing much in the way of the hard work. But of course there’s a catch (there’s always a catch). The winner will be judged not only by how great their book is, but also based upon their own plan to market the book. The more inventive the plan, the better. If we’re going to make this indie publishing thing work, we have to be willing to do the leg work and get the word out in the most creative and effective ways possible. I want to support someone who’s up for that challenge.

Author Rick Dakan is available for interviews by contacting Jeffrey Bowen at 800-733-6511 or by e-mailing pubinsider@earthlink.net