Ask the Author: Dallas Denny
Answered Questions (10)
Dallas Denny
I just read whatever comes my way. That keeps me more than busy.
Dallas Denny
I think Tolkien's Middle-Earth. I was tempted to answer Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, but it's a bit too hectic for me.
Dallas Denny
The last person on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
Dallas Denny
I obviously wasn't around in the 1830s, but my ancestors were in the Blue Ridge country early on. I was born in Asheville, NC and lived there or nearby on and off through my 30s. I know the land there, and love it. Chance's indominable spirit and sense of humor mirror my own.
Dallas Denny
I let my subconscious handle the work. I do external things like making sure my writing area is clear and making time for writing, but for me it's all about a considerable problem that must be worked out before the story can continue. I don't worry about it on a conscious level; I just wait for things to work themselves out. One day I wake up with the resolution and I begin writing again.
Dallas Denny
For me it's seeing something I wrote in a bookstore or in a magazine at a doctor's office. That's a warm fuzzy feeling for sure! I love it when people say they can't put my work down. One of the best compliments I ever got was when a reader of a magazine I published wrote they picked up the lasted issue as they were going out the door, opened it to take a quick look, and two hours later were sitting on the floor, weeping because what I had written reverberated within them. That's pen mightier than the sword stuff, at least to me.
Dallas Denny
Write for the love of writing. Write often, and share what you're written. Don't worry your ideas will be stolen. The more you write, the better you'll become. Don't be afraid to put your stories out there. And above all, dazzle them with brilliance. It's much preferable to the baffle them with bull*** alternative. That, unfortunately, seems to be the top strategy these days.
Dallas Denny
I'm working on the third book in the series the Early Chronicles, a memoir I've been meaning to write for ages, a history text (with three others), and I seem to be on a songwriting jag.
Dallas Denny
I wanted to be a writer from an early age. I remember despairing at age seven or eight because I didn't think I would be able to do it. What sort of vocabulary would a person have to have to use words that would make the right-hand column line up so perfectly. It would be more than a decade before I knew there was such a thing as proportional fonts.
The spirit to write is just within me. I get this feeling which I like to think is in my breast. There's no language, just inspiration, and I feel as if I'm about to give birth to something--and generally do. Sometimes it's a song, sometimes a poem, sometimes prose. Once I get started, I just roll along. I stop only when life becomes hectic or there's something complex that requires thought. The problem rolls around in my subconscious for days or weeks or, on occasion, months, and then one day I have the answer and start writing again.
The spirit to write is just within me. I get this feeling which I like to think is in my breast. There's no language, just inspiration, and I feel as if I'm about to give birth to something--and generally do. Sometimes it's a song, sometimes a poem, sometimes prose. Once I get started, I just roll along. I stop only when life becomes hectic or there's something complex that requires thought. The problem rolls around in my subconscious for days or weeks or, on occasion, months, and then one day I have the answer and start writing again.
Dallas Denny
I was born in Blue Ridge Country, in Asheville, North Carolina, and lived there on and off in my earlier years. I was always drawn to the views, range upon hazy blue range, fading into the distance. I found myself thinking about a young man who loved those mountains as I did, forced to leave for the flatlands--and Chance Early was born.
In Chance Down the Mountain and its sequel, Second Chance (not yet published), I draw upon the Appalachian speech of my mother and other relatives and friends, personal knowledge of the places I have lived (Asheville, Knoxville, Nashville) or visited., and the rich historical record.
In Chance Down the Mountain and its sequel, Second Chance (not yet published), I draw upon the Appalachian speech of my mother and other relatives and friends, personal knowledge of the places I have lived (Asheville, Knoxville, Nashville) or visited., and the rich historical record.
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