Davida G. Breier
Author Interview - Davida G. Breier
Author of Sinkhole
A mesmerizing, darkly comic coming-of-age novel immersed in 1980s central Florida. Lies from the past and a dangerous present collide when, after fifteen years in exile, Michelle Miller returns to her tiny hometown of Lorida, Florida. She’s forced to confront the death of her best friend, but what if everything she remembers is a lie?
Author Interview - Davida G. Breier
Author I draw inspiration from: I admire how James Lee Burke creates a strong sense of place. Attica Locke is also great at creating a sense of place and fashions well-developed characters. Denise Mina shows and doesn’t tell the psychology behind her characters. Joe R. Lansdale is very good at dialog. I love how Tana French draws you into her character’s distorted worlds.
Author Interview - Davida G. Breier | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: Before the pandemic, I loved reading on planes, trains, and buses. No chores to do or emails to answer, just time to sit and read and block out the world for a bit. Now, the bathtub is where I go to relax (and hide).
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: I’d love to be stuck with Thursday Next. Without a doubt, the elevator would just be a start in what I expect would be a very interesting day. I’d get to meet literary characters and maybe even a dodo. Thursday Next features in The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, and The Woman Who Died a Lot, by Jasper Fforde.
Author Interview - Davida G. Breier | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: It has been a gradual process. Working with the editor at the University of New Orleans Press was such an intense process and I put everything I had into the revision. When I was done, I realized I didn’t just want to be an author, I wanted to stay an author. As hard as the process had been, I wanted to do it all again.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Hardback, paperback, and especially audiobook. I started listening to audiobooks when they were still on cassette tapes. There are some books I read on paper and also audio because each experience is different. I especially enjoy audiobooks when there are regional dialects that I would otherwise miss on paper. One of my favorite things to do is work in the yard, lost in a fictional world. I don’t read eBooks. I’ve tried, but I spend too much time looking at screens as it is.
The last book I read: Cruelly Yours, Elvira by Cassandra Peterson and Small World by Jonathan Evison
Author Interview - Davida G. Breier | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: Both. My rough ideas and notes are made with pen and paper. Once I am ready for sentences, I move to the computer.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: I could see being friends with Denise Mina’s Paddy Meehan, the Scottish reporter featured in The Field of Blood, The Dead Hour, and The Last Breath (published as A Slip of the Knife in the US). We’d probably only see each other every six months, but we’d message each other with occasional nonsense and cynical banter about the state of the world.
Author Interview - Davida G. Breier | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: I’ve always worked with books in some way and don’t expect that to change. But if that weren’t an option, I’d want to work with animals or the ocean, ideally both.
Favorite decade in fashion history: I’ve always had a strong affinity for men’s fashions in the 1930s. I favor drab colors and my own style is jeans, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and boots, but I admire people who manage to pull it all together.
Place I’d most like to travel: I’d love to visit my friends in Turkey and Japan and see where they live through their eyes. I also want to explore Australia and swim in any warm ocean.
My signature drink: Café Bustelo in the morning, seltzer during the day, and a shot of whiskey or scotch on a cold winter’s night.
Favorite artist: Malvina Hoffman. She was an American sculptor best known for her work featured in the "Hall of Man" at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. She traveled the world as part of that commission, which was pioneering for a woman in 1931.
Number one on my bucket list: I got my open water dive certification right before the pandemic started. I want to explore the oceans in Australia, Belize, Thailand, and anywhere else with warm waters and interesting fish and invertebrates.
Find more from the author:
https://twitter.com/leekinginc
https://www.facebook.com/davidagypsybreier
https://www.instagram.com/leekinginc/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5810062.Davida_G_Breier
Author Bio: Davida G. Breier is the author of SINKHOLE (May 26, 2022; University of New Orleans Press). She was born in Miami, FL and spent her formative years in Florida, rural Minnesota, urban New Jersey, and suburban Pennsylvania. She’s worked as a youth sports photographer, TV extra, substitute teacher, jewelry maker, bookseller, and ATM cleaner. Davida discovered the world of zines and independent publishing in 1994 and Baltimore’s City Paper awarded her with “Best Local Zinester” in 2000 and “Best Zine” in 2003. She won the Literary Death Match, Baltimore 3.0 event in 2011. She’s spent the last two decades in various roles within the book industry and currently works for Johns Hopkins University Press. Davida lives in Maryland with her family, a pack of wee rescue dogs, a rescue tortoise, and two companion chickens.
