Interview: David Burnett

What have you had published?

My first book, The Reunion, was published last year. My second, The Handfasting, will be out this summer.

What genre(s) of book do you write?

Both books are romance novels.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I was listening to a sermon in church. The sermon dealt with the feeling that we have all had at one time or another that we would like “go back” and do something in our lives over.

     The Reunion is about a middle-aged attorney who attends his high school class reunion and decides he would like to “crawl through a worm hole” and return to the time when he was seventeen years old. He cannot do it, literally, of course, but his behaviour does change so that he behaves as he did when he was seventeen, and he enjoys doing the things he enjoyed when he was that age. Things do not work out well!

How long did it take you to write “The Handfasting”?

I wrote the first draft in two months, writing long-hand in a set of spiral notebooks. I would write at least five pages ─ about a thousand words ─ each day. Since I do not keyboard well, writing by hand is faster. In addition, I am not as tempted to revise the text as I go. The point was simply to tell the story.

     The second draft took another two months, as I transcribed the manuscript. After further revisions, I worked with an editor for about two months. I suppose I spent a total of seven to eight months working on The Handfasting.

What is the working title of your next book(s)?

To Love Again. The spouses of the main characters, Drew and Amy, died during the prior year. Neither is sure that they can fall in love again, but they meet, quite by accident.

     Masquerade is a sequel to The Reunion.

When and why did you begin writing?

I’ve always thought that I would enjoy writing.

Do you self publish your books or go through an agency?

I self-publish.

What part of writing books do you find the hardest?

Revisions are horrible! Especially the fifth time that you read the manuscript. And proof reading─ I despise it!

What do you do in your spare time?

I enjoy photography, particularly nature photography. I love to travel. My wife and I have travelled throughout Great Britain, in Europe, and in the United States. This summer, we will be in Asia.

Who is your favourite author?

Deborah Harkness and Susanna Kearsley write excellent time-travel romances. I like romance novels by Michael Baron and Nicholas Sparks.

What’s your favourite genre to read?

I enjoy time-travel. I read romance, the same type of material that I write. I can really get into a good mystery story. Depending on the time period, I enjoy historical fiction.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

I like stories with happy endings. I hate being led to care about a character, only to have something horrible occur at the end of the story.

     A book should be complete unto itself. Sequels are fine, series are fine, but each book should present a complete story. I should not have to read a second book (or third, fourth, or fifth book) in order to have a complete, satisfactory story. A sequel should contain an additional story about the same characters.