David Sheppard


Biography

David Sheppard is the author of Novelsmithing, a how-to book of novel writing. He is also the author of the non-fiction work Oedipus on a Pale Horse, and the novel The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis (two volumes). He holds a bachelor's from Arizona State and a master's from Stanford University. He also studied creative writing and American Literature at the University of Colorado. His poetry has appeared in The Paris Review and in England (The 1987 Arvon International Poetry Competition Anthologyjudged by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney). While living in Colorado he was a member of the Rocky Mountain Writers Guild for seven years, participated in its Live Poets Society and Advanced Novel Workshop, and chaired its Literary Society. He founded a novel critique group that lasted ten years. He has attended the Aspen Writers Conference in Colorado and the Sierra Writing Camp in California. He has taught Novel Writing and Greek Mythology at New Mexico State University at Carlsbad. He has traveled throughout western Europe and is an amateur photographer and astronomer.

Where to find David Sheppard online


Where to buy in print


Books

The Mysteries, A Novel of Ancient Eleusis    by David Sheppard
Price: $0.99 USD. 132180 words. Published on July 9, 2012. Fiction.

Available for the first time complete in one volume. Previously published in two volumes as Daughter of Darkness and The Dadouchos. In 480 BC, fifteen-year-old Melaina's biggest worry, she thinks, is wishing to follow Artemis and remain virgin when her mother and grandfather want her to marry and became a priestess. But when the Persians invade, the gods themselves have plans for Melaina.
The Eternal Return: Oedipus, The Tempest, Forbidden Planet    by David Sheppard
Price: Free! 33850 words. Published on March 15, 2012. Nonfiction.

The Eternal Return is Volume II of the Tales of the Mythic World series. This narrative discusses the relationship between Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus (429 BC), Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611), and the Adler/Hume movie Forbidden Planet (1956). It also delves into the relationships between the authors' lives and their work.
The Escape of Bobby Ray Hammer, A Novel of a '50s Family    by David Sheppard
Price: Free! 152300 words. Published on July 28, 2011. Fiction.

Among the 5 finalists in the Faulkner Society Novel Competition. The Escape of Bobby Ray Hammer is a second generation Grapes of Wrath novel. Bobby is just entering his senior year in high school and eager to graduate and go on to college to get out of his rural farming community; however, he must resolve family problems that originated, he believes, with his brother's death.
Oedipus on a Pale Horse, Journey through Greece in Search of a Personal Mythology    by David Sheppard
Price: $4.99 USD. 214800 words. Published on June 19, 2011. Nonfiction.

Anyone traveling to Greece should consider taking this book with them. It contains both archaeological and mythological information on most the major and some of the minor sites throughout Greece and the western coast of Turkey. Painstakingly researched and documented. It's a catalyst for the mixture of all the components of the existential traveling experience.
Introduction to Frankenstein: Origins and Aftermath    by David Sheppard
Price: Free! 18770 words. Published on May 24, 2011. Nonfiction.

In the summer of 1816, five young people came together on the shores of Lake Geneva. It would be one of the most important events in literary history and result in the creation of a work that would never go out of print. That work is the novel Frankenstein. This is the story of how it all happened, and the tragedy that struck in its aftermath. Painstakingly researched and thoroughly documented.
Novelsmithing, The Structural Foundation of Plot, Character, and Narration    by David Sheppard
Price: $4.99 USD. 57890 words. Published on March 31, 2010. Nonfiction.

Novelsmithing provides the beginning novelist, or perhaps even the experienced novelist who has lost his way, with a discussion of the underlying structure and methods of novel writing. Nowhere else can the aspiring author learn the skills necessary to achieve the organic unity of the novelist's divine trinity: character, conflict and theme, so necessary to a fine work of literature.

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