An Interview with David Viner
David Viner has had over twenty short stories published in various publications since 2007. He ran a writing group from 2009 to 2022 and edited and contributed to both anthologies released by the group. In 2020, he published two novels, Splinters and Time Portals of Norwich, and has followed the latter with three sequels, Time’s Revenge (2022), Time’s Paradox (2024), and The Sword of Kaskellion (2026). In addition, he has released two collections of short stories, Time Enough for the World to End (2021) and Beyond Between (2023), and has published two other authors via his publishing company, Viva Djinn (Horde) Publishing. He is currently working on two more Time Portals sequels, one of which is due to be published in late 2026, and intends to resurrect a previously shelved but completed novel from nearly twenty-five years ago.
David also plays guitar and keyboards, as well as building websites—the latter is the thing that actually pays the bills!
What inspired you to start writing this book?
Having spent most of my life in Norwich, UK, I wondered if I could set a story there as I already knew much about the city and its history. As one of my favourite sub-genres is time travel, I decided to see if having a character who travels via portals that would take her to any time between the mid-1800s and the present day could be made into an interesting tale.
Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
Very easy! It was set in Norwich, and it featured time portals, so ending up with Time Portals of Norwich was a bit of a no-brainer!
Describe your dream book cover.
Something that grabs the eye, intrigues the eye of the beholder to pick it up and then read the back cover, while also representing an aspect of the story contained within the covers.
What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?
When I found myself selling a good number of copies of Time Portals of Norwich, I pressed on with the sequel. As this involved time travel back to Kett’s Rebellion, which took place in Norwich in 1549, I needed to become extremely familiar with the history of that period. Two books were the main source of that information: Leo R. Jary wrote Kett 1549: Rewriting the Rebellion (Poppyland Publishing, 2018), and Frederic William Russell’s Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk (Longman, 1859).
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
I started in electronics as an apprentice TV engineer back in the 1970s. After a stint in printed circuit board manufacture, I moved into computer programming in the 1980s and, from there, into web development in the late 1990s. Becoming self-employed in 2005 meant that I could dedicate more time to writing as I came up to retirement age (which I have now passed, but people still want websites!).
Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?
I was always an avid reader as a child and had read books such as The Time Machine (H.G. Wells) and The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) before I was thirteen. I started dabbling with writing in the 1970s, before the end of that decade, made my first attempt to write an SF novel. It didn’t get very far back then, though it was shelved and brought regularly over the next thirty years until I finally published it as Splinters, by which time there was very little of the original idea left. I joined a writing group in 2006 (and eventually ended up running it myself) and the originator of that group, Andrew Hook, encouraged me to submit stories to various publications, which resulted in my first published short stories in 2007.
Where is your favorite place to write?
Many of my ideas originate while lazing in the bath! It is where I came up with a short story called Wisdom of the Ancients, which was entered for a competition on Wattpad in conjunction with National Geographic back in late 2018. This story can regularly be found at number one on their SF chart.
What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?
To keep at it more than I did so that I might have become traditionally published long before!
What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?
The feeling of satisfaction that they have encountered a well-written story which encourages them to discover more of my works.
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