Tom Davis is CEO of Children’s HopeChest, author of four books, and a passionate advocate for “the Fatherless.” His titles include Fields of the Fatherless, Confessions of a Good Christian Guy: The Secrets Men Keep and the Grace that Saves Them, Red Letters: Living a Faith that Bleeds and his fiction debut, Scared: A Novel on the Edge of the World.
He has traveled extensively in Africa and worked with children in Russia, Swaziland, Ukraine, Ethiopia and Uganda. When Tom is not writing, speaking or traveling, he is likely attending a soccer game of one of his six children with his wife in his home state of Colorado.
Scared’s protagonist, Stuart Daniels, is a conflicted character whose world has crashed around him. Was it difficult to get into his head and write his story? What about Adanna? Did putting yourself in her shoes change you in any way?
It wasn’t difficult for me because I took his character from a real photojournalist named Kevin Carter. Carter took the famous picture of an emaciated Sudanese girl who had fallen on the way to a feeding center with a plump vulture in the background. It’s a haunting picture that won the Pulitzer Prize. For a number of reasons, Carter committed suicide fourteen months later. He and Stuart are very similar but Stuart finds the meaning of life. He discovers something worth living for and goes through a very real process of redemption throughout the story.
One reviewer said parts of Scared are graphic and harsh but also realistic. Did you consider taming some of the scenes or did you feel there was only one way to tell the story?
I wanted to write a story that was honest. It is graphic in places but I can assure you that orphans in Africa and around the world experience things much worse. That was one of the most difficult truths for me to discover as I wrote the book. Thinking about the abuse millions of innocent children go through on this earth every single day is hard to deal with. But it’s what I’m called to do with my life and it’s the mission of the organization I run called Children’s Hopechest (www.hopechest.org)
You are active in organizations that deal with social issues we face today and I’m sure you borrowed from experience while writing Scared. Do you plan to write more novels about the same issues? Have you considered writing in a different genre with a different tone? If so, what would that be?
Scared is the first book in a series of three. The next, Sacred, will be released in the spring/summer of 2010, and is centered around the child sex-slave industry. The story takes place in Russia where the Russian mafia controls this disgusting billion dollar industry. Stuart Daniels, finds himself thrown right in the middle of it and he’s forced with answering this question, “Do I walk away and pretend this doesn’t exist or do I force myself to do something about it?”
What is your writing routine? Do you outline and plan each scene before writing or are you a fly by the seat of your pants kind of writer?
I’m a fly by my pants kind of guy! I know most of the plot before I begin, but I don’t outline it. I want the book to take on a life of its own as I write it. If I outline it, I feel like is stifles my creativity. The more open it is, the easier the story comes to me.
What advice would you give someone who would like to become a published writer?
Always believe in your ability to write. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t be published. Ignore the pundits who say you can’t do it, you’re not talented enough, or you don’t have a platform. Those statements are dream killers. If God has put writing in your heart, be faithful to write consistently and do whatever you can to get in front of agents and publishers. He’ll take care of the rest.
What is your definition of a successful writer?
A writer that writes for the pure joy of writing. Not to sell books, or to make an impression on a publisher, or look good on a proposal. If you write the things that are in your heart, you’ll be successful.
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