Interview with David Rawding, author of Taking on Water

Why did you pursue writing?

I wouldn’t say I pursued writing. I think that writing pursued me. Either way, I let myself be seduced. When I was a young, I remember plowing through comics and novels and after a while I started to see stories all around me. I’d read a book and think, well, what if instead of doing this, the character instead did this? At some point these questions and story ideas bouncing around inside my head splashed onto the legal notepad and then leaped onto
Microsoft Word. I haven’t stopped writing since. Even though I think writing pursued me, I believe the roles have now switched and I’m pursuing writing.

What inspired your book?

I grew up fishing on the family lobster boat in the New Hampshire seacoast (consult a map, I assure you, New Hampshire has a seacoast.) I had a main character, James Morrow, who’s
a social worker, but I felt that there was room in the literary world for a struggling lobsterman as well. There’s something about people that work in hard industries like
commercial fishing. Really, all three main characters have interesting jobs: social worker, police detective, and lobsterman. Add these three characters into a fictional small New Hampshire town and inject domestic violence and a drug epidemic into the plot and I was left with plenty to write about.

How long have you been publishing your work?

I graduated with my MFA in Fiction in 2011 and I’ve been publishing short stories in literary journals and magazines ever since. This is my first novel to be published, but I’m working on more.

Have you been interested in writing the majority of your life?

Yes. Most of my years have been spent reading and writing. I see writing as a lifelong pursuit. There’s so much room to grow and improve and I really don’t see an end in sight.

Do you have a routines to help you write?

I usually write in the morning. A cup of coffee, usually from Dunkin Donuts, and my cheap
laptop with Microsoft Word. That’s all I physically need.

Author Bio

David Rawding has a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in fiction from Southern New Hampshire University. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his short stories have been published in numerous literary journals and magazines. 

David spent three years as a fly-fishing guide in Alaska, worked several years at a non-profit for at-risk youth, was an online adjunct professor, and has a litany of other jobs in his wake. When he’s not writing, he enjoys traveling the world with a backpack and a fly rod.

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