Interview with D.G. Torrens

D.G. Torrens is an author that I've been following on social media for a few years. She's very friendly and supportive. Although I haven't read any of her fiction, it's on my to-do list. I've heard a lot of good things about her writing and she also has a bestselling novel to her name.

When I was setting up my author interview blog series, I was keen to invite Dawn Torrens so I could find out more about her writing.

A quote by D.G. Torrens: "If you close your eyes, you can be anywhere you wish to be." 

D.G. Torrens lives by the motto, "The child first and foremost."


INTERVIEW WITH D.G. TORRENS



Hi Dawn! Welcome to my blog. Please introduce yourself.

My name is, D.G. Torrens I am a full time author and an occasional, Headline Reviewer for BBC Radio WM 95.6 FM. I have written and published 13 books of various romantic genres over the past six years, including bestselling Amelia's Story: A Childhood Lost. I was born in Yorkshire, England. I currently live in Birmingham. I am married with a seven-year-old daughter, who is my entire world! My very first book, "Amelia's Story" has inspired people all over the world. And continues to do so. 

I am a prolific writer and in 2013, my works were recognised by BBC Radio WM, where I gave my first live interview on air in the BBC studios in Birmingham, UK. Since that interview I am now a regular on the show… lending my time as a Headline reviewer once or twice a week.

That's very impressive! I'll have to try to listen in to that!


Where does your inspiration come from?

My inspiration comes from many different areas of my life, it could be a dream I had the night before, which sows the seed of a story in my mind. One of my books, Broken Wings, was born from a dream!

That's fascinating. I know another author who has had entire stories come to her in dreams, Julie Elizabeth Powell. I don't think any of my stories have come to me that way, although dreams have featured quite a lot in my books because I sometimes have precognitive dreams and have always been interested in the meaning of dreams. I've occasionally had songs come to me in dreams, but never remember the music or lyrics well enough to do anything about it! :)



What else inspires your writing?

I may read a news article, or take a simple walk in the park, inspiration can come from anywhere or anything if you walk through life with your eyes wide open.

I pay attention to my surroundings and current affairs issues. All of which provide me with inspiration.


What 3 pieces of advice would you give to aspiring writers?

My first piece of advice would be, NEVER GIVE UP! If you have a dream then pursue it regardless of what others think. Remember it is your dream not theirs.

Secondly, no matter how good you think you are at editing your own work – always hire a professional editor and proof reader. Your work will one day be up for public viewing and you want those all-important reviews to be in favour of you not against you. I cannot stress enough the importance of this. Remember, it is your reputation on the line so you want your work to be as word perfect as it can be.

Thirdly, good writers are also avid readers too. Read and read as often as you can. See how other successful authors form their stories, introduce their characters and back stories. Pay attention to the flow and movement of their story. You will be surprised how much you can learn yourself as an aspiring writer by reading great author works.

Great advice, Dawn

Do you have any promotion tips? Any websites that you can recommend?

Ah… Promotion, promotion, promotion – very important. This advice is for new and aspiring authors. If people don’t know about your book or books how will you receive sales? So, use your FB fan page to offer monthly giveaways to your fans. (If you do not have one, create one now even if your book is not yet published). Get the word out about your debut novel, create interest before it is published and get people excited about it… People love giveaways, so offer a special new release giveaway to help generate interest. This will encourage word to spread about your book and your author name too. Your author name is your brand. That is what you have to build on. Offer your Kindle book up for free occasionally (you need to be enrolled into Amazons KDP programme for this) or reduce the price to 99p or 99c. There are many book promotional sites out there, which have thousands of avid readers on their mailing lists just waiting to be notified about discounted and free books. This is a great way to get your unheard of book and name out there into the big world. Sites such as BookBub have millions of subscribers. They are very picky and you may have to be patient and submit your book several times over a period of time before they accept you. They are costly though, so you would need to budget for their promotions, but trust me they are so worth it and can get your book into the hands of 20, 30 and 40 thousand readers in one day. There are other smaller and cheaper sites too, such as: Robin reads, Freebooksy, Bargainbooksy, Booksends, Ereader News Today, Digital Book Today, Kindle Promos, Armadillo Books, Pixel of Ink, Indie Book Today, Adnetwork and many more… Look them up and familiarise yourself with them and their submission process and costs, this will help you once you are published and prepare you for your first promotion. Also, set up your own website, this is your very own promotional platform. Make it interesting and not too cluttered. People want to be able to navigate your site with ease otherwise they will not visit it again. The main important thing to remember is you have to speculate to accumulate, so budget for promotional costs monthly based on what you can afford, even if it is as little at £10 per month. Make sure you promote, whether big or small as you need to grow your brand and get the word out about your brand – YOUR NAME! Hope this is helpful to new and aspiring authors.

That is all very helpful, Dawn. Thank you.

Tell us about your latest book.

My latest release is called FORBIDDEN. This is a romantic suspense novel, which also touches on real life happenings. This book was a challenge for me in many ways as I was writing about two characters from two entirely different cultures who fall in love against their families’ wishes. Jessica, is white British and Ajay is Hindu. The obstacles their parents place in their path is incredible. The parents are both, strict, traditional Hindus and strict traditional Christians. Both sets of parents do not believe in interracial relationships or marriages of any kind. Thus, making the protagonists relationship very difficult. There is death, near death and tragic circumstances along the way in this emotion-charged love story against the odds…






Are there any characters in your books that are based on real people?

Ha,ha… Oh indeed, yes! I know so many interesting characters in my real life that occasionally one or two of them make their way into my books!

How much research do you do when writing a book?

I do tons of research for each and every book I write. If there is a medical condition that my characters get and I do not know much about it, then I research it to death. I also talk to people I know that may suffer from the same condition to get clarity. Research is so important. You have to know what you are talking about. Because if you don’t, some reader somewhere will pick up on it…I spend a third of my time researching. I love it and gain much knowledge from it too. I am learning about things all the time that I otherwise would not know about such as, places, medical conditions, trauma units, investigations and the process of all these subjects. I also have many methods of research. I try to write about things I have much knowledge about, however, when you write a lot of books you do have to broaden your horizon.

That's very true. I like that fact that I often learn lots of new things when writing a novel :)

Who does your cover design? Is there anyone you’d recommend?

I have two cover designers, they are both incredible and each of them has their own special area of expertise and they are, Ares Jun and David C Cassidy. They are truly amazing cover designers and I would highly recommend them. They are the face of my stories and they convey through their designs perfectly what my stories are about…

Apart from writing, what are your favourite pastimes?

My favourite pastimes are: Jogging, walking, spending lots of time with my daughter and family. I take part in a lot of charity runs at least 4 times a year for, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and cancer research, through organisations like, Race for life and The Great Morrison’s Run. Jogging clears my head and I come up with some great ideas while I am out jogging.

Ah, yes, I've seen a few of those pictures of your charity runs on FB! Very worthwhile causes.

Thank you so much for joining me here today, Dawn. It was great to find out more about you.



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Websites and links:

Website: http://www.dawnsdaily.com
FB author page: https://www.facebook.com/dgtorrens/
Twitter: @Torrenstp https://twitter.com/Torrenstp