Today we’d like to introduce you to David Probert.
Hi David, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Dave, and I write horror and thriller fiction. Over the years I’ve published a bunch of short stories and multiple novels. One of my short stories was even adopted as a short film that ran several Horror Film Festival circuits.
Of all the genres, I think I landed on horror / thriller for a reason.
When I was about eight years old, I had a teacher who would have the class do show and tell one Friday a month.
Were we a little too old?
Maybe.
Was it a morale booster?
As much as an eight year old could need, I guess.
A friend and I had snuck a copy of Friday The 13th from his parents. We went into his den while his parents were outside doing yard work. We huddled near the the old tube TV and popped that baby in.
Needless to say, we both had a hard time sleeping for weeks to come. Looking back, I have no idea what we found so scary, but as a kid, the ceiling of fear tends to be much lower and easier to reach than it is when you grow up.
I can’t say exactly why, maybe it was my way of trying to explore or make sense of that fear, but an idea popped into my mind. I wanted to write a story of my own that would evoke those same emotions that I experienced while watching Friday The 13h.
The creative freedom was addicting.
Now let’s circle back to show and tell.
I named the story, Crossbow (it was about a serial killer who used a crossbow, very original stuff). I took this story in for our next show and tell. I figured, who cares about seeing my Go-Bots or Star Wars figures. I’m gonna read these kids my story.
And that’s what I did.
Most of the class thought I was a lunatic, but I did have one little fan. There was one kid who loved the story. You could just see it on his face, waiting for me to go to the next page (yeah, this was four whole pages). He asked questions about the story. He even wanted an up close look at the crappy artwork I did for the makeshift cover.
In as kind a voice as she could muster, my teacher said, “good work.”
That was it. I wasn’t just writing for me now. I had a fan who craved more. I couldn’t let him down.
I wrote eight of those stories, and when my family moved from that town, my little fan asked to keep them. I gave them to him and never looked back. Those stories had ignited a spark of creativity that would only grow into a full blown fire.
The long and short of why I do what I do is this. Ideas just keep coming, and it is my obligation to write them. I can’t have this crazy stuff just bouncing around in my mind. I have to get it out onto the page. Share it.
I think in every artist’s work, there’s a piece of themselves they leave behind for the audience to discover. A lot of my characters are, in some way, a reflection of me: my fears, desires, frustrations, and internal hardships.
As a kid, monsters seem cool (as long as they’re not in your closet). As an adult, they’re frightening in a different way, because you discover that they are real, they just don’t have fangs and blood-red eyes. I think that every monster that’s ever been created is in some way a reflection of societal fears. For me, that’s why I write this stuff. At a certain level, I do it to unleash and make sense of those fears.
The romance novelist may see a woman who reunites with a long lost love to rekindle a romance they never got to experience in their youth. For me, that love would secretly be an ax murderer, and one cold, dark night (when she least expected it) she would find out.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Unfortunately, the road traveled in the writing world is not smooth, and it is not without struggles. You bare your soul on the page and immediately open yourself up to every kind of critic there is. Editors will pick apart your work, online critics… well, let’s not even get started there. They can be merciless, and it can really damage your confidence. But there is a solution.
In dealing with rejection letters, I used to write back to editors and ask them what I could have done better. Surprisingly, some of them were very responsive, and this helped me improve my writing a great deal.
As far as critics go, I always try to take away a lesson when I read a negative review. As much as negative reviews can be a gut punch, there’s usually something in there to learn and grow from. If someone goes on about how they hated a book, the characters were one-dimensional, etc. I try to look for improvements. Is there not enough depth to my characters? How can I fix this going forward?
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
In my professional life, I work in IT. Boring, I know. I would say something that sets me apart and that I’m proud of is that I am literally a certified hacker (ethically, of course). I hold certifications for offensive security, ethical hacking, and cyber intelligence investigations. I believe this stems from my creative side. I’ve been into ethical hacking for years. I love figuring out how things work and then how I can circumvent the logic and make them behave in unintentional ways.
I also love to cook and have been playing guitar for several decades. I guess creativity runs in my blood.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The writing world has changed dramatically. I remember having to physically mail manuscripts and await a response, which did not always come. Self-publishing has opened the flood gates for anyone who wants to publish a book or story. I think this is great, because it makes sharing your work more accessible. It also increases the competition, which makes being noticed very difficult. We now live in a world where, as an artist, part of your job is social media (something I am absolutely terrible at).
I think we will see more of a shift toward social media being a necessity to reach readers and gain followings that translate into book sales and fans.
My fear for the industry is AI. I have a hard stance on this. While extremely helpful, when used correctly, AI is also detrimental to creativity. More and more people are using AI as a shortcut to quickly mass produce work, but their ability to be creative and think for themselves is slowly being diminished.
Disclaimer: Just know, I did NOT use AI to answer ANY of these questions. This is all me.
I think we will see a backlash where true creatives will stand out, because their work won’t be so formulaic. It will become easier to tell who is using AI and who has their own voice. That’s my hope, anyway.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://davidprobertfiction.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidprobertfiction
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidprobert
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/david-probert-2bb8748
Image Credits
Grey Machine Films
