Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
My name is Steve Dilks. About ten years ago I began writing the Gunthar of Tatukura stories, first for Steve Lines’ Rainfall Books and then under my own Carnelian Press banner. A little while later I started selling fiction to WeirdBook, Startling Stories, Savage Realms Monthly and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. I’ve had novelettes in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy and Savage Scrolls. More recently I’ve written articles for the Karl Edward Wagner and Brian Lumley special edition issues of Phantasmagoria Magazine.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
Every writer has an influence or two that made them want to write. Robert E. Howard was mine, Edgar Rice Burroughs, too. After that came Michael Moorcock and Leigh Brackett. A well rounded writer assimilates from a variety of sources though, not just from a single genre. A wider read author has a better chance of becoming something unique; the more you hone, the more your style becomes your own. That’s where the real challenge lies.

Many authors say marketing is one of their biggest challenges. What tactics have you found to be most effective for getting your name out there?
I don’t know as I have a tactic. Being a fan of fantastic fiction, social media helped me find like minded people. I formed a social media group based on that then I joined a few others as well. I met a lot of writers, artists and poets—guys that really knew their stuff. I started toying with the idea of putting out a fanzine and asked a bunch of folks if they would be interested in contributing. I met a lot of new and old hands that way. Guys like Jim Pitts, Yannis Rubus Rubulias, Davide Mana, Tony Gleeson, Byron A. Roberts, Kurt Brugel, Charles Gramlich, Tim Marion... It was hard work putting that out twice a year but, other than going to visit my buddy Mario in New York, it’s some of the best fun I’ve had in fandom. I go to conventions and tout my stuff to anyone who isn’t quick enough to get away. I’ve had encouragement from folks like Les Edwards, Stephen Jones, Adrian Cole, Leonard Carpenter and David A. Riley. It helps to understand your market, too. Go to those conventions and paperback/pulp fairs. Talk to the people you admire and tell them how much you appreciate their stuff. The momentum keeps rolling if you’re willing to put the work in.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
If an idea excites me, I’ll go with it. I would never put something out that I wouldn’t want to read myself so I don’t worry about that. Sometimes the writer has to give the reader the story they didn’t even know they wanted.

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
My last published story was “Black Sunset in the Valley of Death” in Savage Realms Monthly #10. I’m currently working on a novel, Gunthar: Sorcerer-Kings of the Lost World, and a collection, Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures. Both are rooted firmly in the sword-&-sorcery genre. One is totally nuts while the other is more grounded.

Name one newer and one older book you have read and enjoyed recently. (“Newer” meaning from the past year or so, and “older” meaning written before 1980.)
I enjoyed Schuyler Hernstrom’s Thune’s Vision. Before that I read The Carthaginian by Ronald Bassett, a historical novel first published in 1963, about the destruction of Carthage in the third Punic War.

Any final words?
A big thank you to all those that have been buying my books and to all those that have contacted me to tell me how much they’ve been enjoying my stories—it means a lot. And to you, the mighty DMR Books, for having me.