As part of our SFFWorld.com’s Member Spotlight Series, Nila interviews Damon Kempster, avid fantasy reader and a former member of the US Navy.
Hello Damon, thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to chat with me. I promise I’ll make this quick.
Damon: Hello Nila, I feel truly honored to do an interview with SFFWorld.com. This is really rather remarkable for me.
Before going any further, I feel it necessary to clear up any possible misconceptions about my military service. I was a Chief Electronics Technician (ETC) in the US Navy and retired in 2010 after 20 years 2 months and 14 days….not that I was ever counting – LOL. I was a shipboard Sailor, but sadly 2010 was not a great year to get out of the military and into the workforce, even in technical fields. However, I knew that there was a need for CREW (Counter RCIED Electronic Warfare) technicians in Afghanistan. The RCIED acronym meaning Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device. So in order to make ends meet and to keep some of my Marine brothers whole, I ended up working for the Marine Corps in the Helmand province in Afghanistan from 2010 till just a couple of months ago. Basically, I maintained and repaired jamming systems that prevented cell phones and other transmitters from detonating bombs near our Marines in Afghanistan. Some may remember the horrific effect that those systems had against our troops in the early stages of the Iraq war brought to light in movies such as American Sniper and The Hurt Locker. Now, I am a Satellite Communications Engineer at a major uplink center in Arizona. We send the signal up for Hughes, Dish, Slingbox, etc.
SFFWorld: What’s your SFFWorld.com’s forum alias and why did you pick it?
Damon/Kempster: Kempster. I was always Damon or D until 1990 when I joined the US Navy. From that point on my nickname has always been Kempster.
SFFWorld: How did you discover SFFWorld.com and why did you decide to join?
Damon/Kempster: I think I was googling one of the new Erikson books and a googlebot led me your way. What had me join was that there were so many Fantasy books (primarily) that so many people were talking about that I hadn’t heard of…and I was hooked to join and learn more about them. I had thought that I was a pretty well read dude in the SFF genre…Not.
SFFWorld: What keeps you coming back?
Damon/Kempster: Well, let me put it this way….I took a chance on a series that I had heard a ton of feedback about on this site…. and saw that the author was actually active here…so…I sent a PM to the author, fully expecting that he would never deign to reply to some newb on the site, but lo and behold….. the very first PM in my SFFWorld.com inbox was from a dude that goes by the alias of sullivan_riyria. Seriously! Since then, in addition to great interactions with my fellow readers, I have had conversations with several authors including Davis Ashura and Jacob Cooper…. and they are REALLY good. Mark Lawrence posts here. Plus, the community has pretty darned good taste in books that I had not heard of before. The fact that you can get the official reviews from people like yourself, Nila, and Hobbit (to name just a couple) as well as the regular reader opinions like me is great! Here is a short list of authors that I really like but, had never heard of before coming to SFFWorld.com: Joe Abercrombie, Davis Ashura, R. Scott Bakker, Mark T. Barnes, Peter V. Brett, Jacob Cooper, Evan Currie (Sci FI), Ian Douglas (Sci FI), Patrick Rothfuss, Michael J. Sullivan and Brent Weeks…. to name a few. That’s a pretty damned good list. Is it any wonder that I keep coming back?
SFFWorld: What’s your favorite book (genre or not)?
Damon/Kempster: Damn…Does anybody actually have a favorite book that stays the same after a decade or 3? Just to kick out of the genre, a book I can read again and again is Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy. Unfortunately, that was my penultimate Clancy book and I (unfavorably) compared all others to it. I haven’t read Clancy since Patriot Games.
SFFWorld: What’s your favorite author (genre or not)?
Damon/Kempster: Right now it is Erikson…. that can change depending on what happens with Kharkanas.
SFFWorld: What’s your favorite genre (science fiction, fantasy, horror, steampunk, etc)?
Damon/Kempster: Epic Fantasy, but I also really enjoy Sci Fi and a little horror. I was a huge Koontz fan back in the day.
SFFWorld: Where’s your favorite place to read?
Damon/Kempster: Wherever I can get away with it…LOL. Seriously though, after working multiple rotating shifts for years, I have trouble sleeping and I love to read in bed. It helps put me to sleep…that and the narrators from “The Universe” and “Ancient Aliens”. If the book is good, I will be up WAY longer than with the other two.
SFFWorld: Favorite con (convention)?
Damon/Kempster: Embarrassingly…pretty girls in Superhero/villain costumes aside…GENCON. I was a huge Starfire, Star Fleet Battles and Federation and Empire dude back in the day (80’s). I really enjoy tactical and strategic combat games. For those that love Space Combat Books… forget the Honor Harrington stuff from David Weber and read Stars At War!!! (Based on the Starfire Strategic combat Game.)
SFFWorld: What do you do when you are not reading or messing around on SFFWorld.com?
Damon/Kempster: Working, spending time with my family or playing a computer game from time to time. Currently, while working in Arizona, my family is still in California, so I do a lot of traveling back and forth to see them, but while I am here in AZ during the workweek, the reading and a bit of surfing on SFFWorld.com and some gaming tend to keep my out of the doghouse with the wife and kids.
SFFWorld: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, Damon. Anything else you’d like to add?
Damon/Kempster: I just want to say that I really appreciate this website. The books that I have found here really made a difference during the four years I was in Afghanistan. I had never been a fan of e-books, but being able to load several hundred books onto a small portable device prior to going on a long mission was a wonderful thing. There was usually power so I could get a charge. For any authors, the MWR services for the Armed Forces have programs where you can make a difference by allowing Soldiers, Sailors, Marines…and yes…even the Chair Force, to read your work for free. The members, that is. I believe that the actual military pays a stipend for your work, but please don’t quote me on that. They do love their audio books though. My point in bringing that up is that if you are an author looking for some more exposure, it may pay off.
For me, I will just keep working for my family, BUT, I am starting to go back through my old books because one thing that I would really like to do is to actually become an official reviewer. I have recently started to do book reviews on Amazon and what not. I know that I have a ton of work to do to get better at it (I am sure Davis Ashura and Jacob Cooper can attest to that), but that is something that I would love to do. So, I am starting to work on it. And I will be starting with our Indie authors (they are probably screaming NOOOOOOOO). Don’t expect too much too soon…but maybe one day…
Cheers All!!!
Kempster
© 2014 N. E. White / Damon Kemp / SFFWorld.com
Hey, that Theft of Swords book looks familiar! I love living in a day or age when sites like this provide authors and readers the ability to connect. Thanks for reading and enjoying the book!
Definitely. The power of the forum, eh? 😉
Hello, Damon!
As I’m not really a gamer, I didn’t realise that the Weber/White books were based on a game. So I’ve learned something today!
And Thank You for your kind words. They do mean a lot – it’s always great to know that someone gets what we try to do.
Regards
Mark