An interview with Author Dennis Bartizal!
I had the pleasure of meeting this fellow author at CodCon (College of DuPage Sci-Fi/Fantasy gaming convention and more!) awhile back and was eager to interview him after reading and enjoying one of his works, What on Earth, a political satire. Take it away, Dennis...!
Hi Dennis - thanks again for taking the time to be interviewed! Let’s begin with telling us a little bit more about who Dennis Bartizal is.
HN: When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?
DB: The seed was planted during my freshman year in high school. I had good, creative and encouraging English teachers. I was shy and wanted to overcome my shyness, so during my freshman year I joined the staff of our school newspaper. Because of the creativity of the writing projects from my classes I began writing a humor column for The Profile, that was the student newspaper at Proviso West High School. I enjoyed our science classes: Biology and Chemistry. I also took active part in our mathematics classes: Trigonometry and Geometry. Civics and History seemed important to me. How could I overcome my own shyness if I could not understand where other people are coming from and how their background is important. I began rock collecting. I began questioning history. I began reading Franz Kafka. Anyway, six months ago, while I was straightening up a storage area at home, I came across a box I saved from my high school years. In that box were fossils I had collected during those years. I also saved many English papers from my various classes. I dug out several of my newspaper columns which I had cut out from The Profile and rubber cemented on sheets of typing paper. On September 27 of 2020 I retyped those columns and English themes and I published them in my 10th book on Amazon. The title of that book is What I Got Out Of High School. Along with that box of what I had written (stories, poems, and song parodies) during high school, I also excavated notebooks and typewritten pages of some of the creativity I attempted during college. I am currently typing them up as word documents and I hope to publish an anthology from my college years.
HN: You have written seven books (What on Earth being my favorite). How did you develop the ideas for your stories? Which are your favorites?
DB: Several years ago, I retired from my career as a computer programmer. With the free time now available I joined The DuPage Writers Group, with hopes to encourage myself to developing more stories. This writers group meets on a monthly basis. We read what we are currently working on. The group critiques what we had shared. Each year this organization publishes a book of short stories, poems, and art work called our Possibilities Journal. Even before I was a member of the writers group, actually since I graduated college, I would occasionally write something for my own enjoyment. I would also, occasionally, attempt to submit something I had written, to various magazines, to no avail. Since I was getting a few of my stories published in the Possibilities Journal I felt encouraged enough to try self-publishing. I use Amazon. My first book Kafka Can Wait was a Trial, on my part, at self-publishing. (Not sorry about the implication.) Along with his novels and short stories, I have also liked Franz Kafka’s aphorisms. I felt a closeness between my short stories and Kafka’s aphorisms. I also felt a closeness to certain people in my past that this collection emoted to me. My novella Thrown In A New Dimension was inspired by the science-fiction works of Brian Stableford, especially his books that were inspired by The Iliad and The Odyssey. My other novella A Chance Of Mars was inspired by Issac Asimov. Over the years I’ve read a lot of Stableford and Asimov. My novel Sticking Your Neck Out came from my love of nature and my want to write about Man learning from animals. Man learns to communicate. The animals taught him, he did not teach himself. When I was in college, I took a Geology Field Camp. Parts of what I experienced about nature and existence is expressed here. My next novel, What On Earth, is my science-fiction look at current days. Sometimes I call it a political satire. Other times I call it political sarcasm. I enjoyed writing it. I have three other collections of short stories. The Photon And The Dog 2017, 2018, and 2019. I have a blog called “The Photon And The Dog.” I write this blog to try to get people interested in reading what I write. I try to have a new post each week. At the beginning of the year I delete all the posts from the previous year and start each year a new. The last year’s posts get published in a book. I’ve tried something new, for me, recently. This fall I also published a children’s book. It is called Why Did The Turtle Cross The Road. It is about a boy, in grade school, saving a turtle from getting run over by a car. The boy takes the turtle home and they both grow together. This book was inspired by my childhood. From when I was six years old until I was a sophomore in high-school I had twenty-seven turtles. Two box turtles, one tortoise, twenty-three mud turtles, and one snapping turtle. I took care of them. I fed them. I brought them down to our basement over the winters. My turtles never died under my care. School got to be too much for me, so I donated my turtles to the zoo when I was a sophomore in high school.
HN: Which projects were the most fun to develop? Which were the most challenging?
DB: My turtle book was the most fun to develop. I took a lot of things that had happened to me and turned them into pieces of fiction. Since this was my first children’s book, I asked my 11 year old nephew to read what I had written many times. Robbie is a good kid and cares about me. I got good advice from him. My anthology of my high school stories was the most challenging. I needed to just type in what I had written years ago and try not to change it (too much). I would correct the grammar, but that’s about all, other than changing people’s names. Several things I said back then I wish I had said or written differently. But, to be honest, I needed to keep the stories the same as when I originally wrote them.
HN: What are your plans long-term for your writing? Do you have additional/different works in mind?
DB: In the long term I would like to write more novels, especially science-fiction novels. Short stories are fun but novels have more dimensions to them. I would also like to write some more children’s novels. I don’t know what to write about in that line, I will ask my nephew about that. Currently I am three quarters of the way finished with writing a science-fiction novel. Also, since the year is coming to a close, I will be putting together The Photon And The Dog – 2020. As I stated previous, I am typing an anthology of my college writings. I have also been making some notes on a sequel to A Chance Of Mars.
HN: As an author, I share the challenge of getting the word out on my books. What have you had to do to win broader exposure and branding for your works?
DB: I need to learn more in this area. I have found a couple libraries that have local authors shelf sections. Some of my books are there. Not only do the local library patrons get a chance to read what you write, your books get listed in the Illinois Card Catalog. I met you at the DuPage Comic Con. I have been getting tables at other Comic Cons in order to get my name out there that way. I also take part in local library Local Authors Festivals. I look for Coffee Houses that have Open Mic Nights. I will read my works to live audiences. Since I do write song parodies, I want to look into making sound recordings. I have a computer programming album in mind. My satirical Christmas songs might sound good. Maybe I could sell them on Amazon.
HN: This question will start off sounding like an old joke – a person walks into a bar (or convention or bookstore) and bumps into Dennis Bartizal – what would be your elevator pitch to showcase your work?
DB: Look at how advanced our civilization has become. We are cloning sheep. We are flying to other planets. We can build computers that talk, act, and think the way that we do. Did you know that there is another planet of people more advanced than we are? They are here! But they are learning too. Don’t worry! They are not trying to take over our world. They are only trying to live among us so they can understand how to live on another planet. They will not stay here and take over. They did not put one of their people in as our president. They are going to leave soon and they will leave us as we are. Or are they?
HN: As an author, it’s sometimes difficult to finally say a product is finished, no matter how many times you review or edit. Is there anything you would go back and change in your completed works? Were there ideas you had in mind and then decided NOT to include?
DB: I feel the need to work on my dialogs more. I hope the different people do sound like individuals. I hope they do not sound the same. One of my characters had a friend who died in outer space. I wish he didn’t die. I may bring him back in a sequel after having gone through a white dwarf supernova explosion, instead of his ship and self being destroyed, his electrons echoed the speeds and cycles of that part of the cosmos. Our physicists have found some evidence that electrons in areas of their clouds move back in time instead of forward. If the supernova divided his elements in monopole space he exists now in a different timeline and I can write about their attempts to reunite. At least with science-fiction and fantasy you are not stuck with permanent changes.
HN: I have an 8 year old son, and structuring time around him can be challenging! I’ve lost count of the times he nearly pressed the delete button on something I was working on…how do you find time to carve out your ideas?
DB: I carry a notebook. At least when I am struck by a fleeting idea I might be able to write enough parts of it so I can get my mind to working that way later. When I get to the computer I have a group of folders with many, many documents of ideas or parts of stories or a small chunk of detailed work that I can hope to find the time later to work on or even just string together. I wake up at one or two in the morning, turn on the computer, and type if I am so mentally pushed. There is never enough time. That is life.
HN: Do you have a certain method you use when you write – i.e., a certain room, music, mood, etc., to help get you in the right writing frame of mind?
DB: For my blog’s flash fictions I try to get a quick story put together on a Tuesday. I’ll return to that story the rest of the week, reading it, correcting it, making it larger, more dimensional, more characters or more activities. Then, Saturday, I post it in my blog. For books I am working on, I write with a goal to have a good part finished by the time The DuPage Writers Group is going to have its meeting. I bring those last few pages with me and share them with our gang so I can get critiques and suggestions. I like to take walks at the zoo. I always have a notebook with me. I walk and think and write.
HN: What are you reading right now?
DB: Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman, The Panda’s Thumb by Stephen Gould, The Year Of The Angry Rabbit by Russell Braddon, Caging Skies by Christine Leunen.
HN: Where can people go to find out more about Dennis Bartizal?
DB:
https://thephotonandthedog.blogspot.com https://www.amazon.com/author/dennisb... http://www.illinoisauthors.org/
Thanks Dennis, for sharing some of your time!
Hi Dennis - thanks again for taking the time to be interviewed! Let’s begin with telling us a little bit more about who Dennis Bartizal is.
HN: When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?
DB: The seed was planted during my freshman year in high school. I had good, creative and encouraging English teachers. I was shy and wanted to overcome my shyness, so during my freshman year I joined the staff of our school newspaper. Because of the creativity of the writing projects from my classes I began writing a humor column for The Profile, that was the student newspaper at Proviso West High School. I enjoyed our science classes: Biology and Chemistry. I also took active part in our mathematics classes: Trigonometry and Geometry. Civics and History seemed important to me. How could I overcome my own shyness if I could not understand where other people are coming from and how their background is important. I began rock collecting. I began questioning history. I began reading Franz Kafka. Anyway, six months ago, while I was straightening up a storage area at home, I came across a box I saved from my high school years. In that box were fossils I had collected during those years. I also saved many English papers from my various classes. I dug out several of my newspaper columns which I had cut out from The Profile and rubber cemented on sheets of typing paper. On September 27 of 2020 I retyped those columns and English themes and I published them in my 10th book on Amazon. The title of that book is What I Got Out Of High School. Along with that box of what I had written (stories, poems, and song parodies) during high school, I also excavated notebooks and typewritten pages of some of the creativity I attempted during college. I am currently typing them up as word documents and I hope to publish an anthology from my college years.
HN: You have written seven books (What on Earth being my favorite). How did you develop the ideas for your stories? Which are your favorites?
DB: Several years ago, I retired from my career as a computer programmer. With the free time now available I joined The DuPage Writers Group, with hopes to encourage myself to developing more stories. This writers group meets on a monthly basis. We read what we are currently working on. The group critiques what we had shared. Each year this organization publishes a book of short stories, poems, and art work called our Possibilities Journal. Even before I was a member of the writers group, actually since I graduated college, I would occasionally write something for my own enjoyment. I would also, occasionally, attempt to submit something I had written, to various magazines, to no avail. Since I was getting a few of my stories published in the Possibilities Journal I felt encouraged enough to try self-publishing. I use Amazon. My first book Kafka Can Wait was a Trial, on my part, at self-publishing. (Not sorry about the implication.) Along with his novels and short stories, I have also liked Franz Kafka’s aphorisms. I felt a closeness between my short stories and Kafka’s aphorisms. I also felt a closeness to certain people in my past that this collection emoted to me. My novella Thrown In A New Dimension was inspired by the science-fiction works of Brian Stableford, especially his books that were inspired by The Iliad and The Odyssey. My other novella A Chance Of Mars was inspired by Issac Asimov. Over the years I’ve read a lot of Stableford and Asimov. My novel Sticking Your Neck Out came from my love of nature and my want to write about Man learning from animals. Man learns to communicate. The animals taught him, he did not teach himself. When I was in college, I took a Geology Field Camp. Parts of what I experienced about nature and existence is expressed here. My next novel, What On Earth, is my science-fiction look at current days. Sometimes I call it a political satire. Other times I call it political sarcasm. I enjoyed writing it. I have three other collections of short stories. The Photon And The Dog 2017, 2018, and 2019. I have a blog called “The Photon And The Dog.” I write this blog to try to get people interested in reading what I write. I try to have a new post each week. At the beginning of the year I delete all the posts from the previous year and start each year a new. The last year’s posts get published in a book. I’ve tried something new, for me, recently. This fall I also published a children’s book. It is called Why Did The Turtle Cross The Road. It is about a boy, in grade school, saving a turtle from getting run over by a car. The boy takes the turtle home and they both grow together. This book was inspired by my childhood. From when I was six years old until I was a sophomore in high-school I had twenty-seven turtles. Two box turtles, one tortoise, twenty-three mud turtles, and one snapping turtle. I took care of them. I fed them. I brought them down to our basement over the winters. My turtles never died under my care. School got to be too much for me, so I donated my turtles to the zoo when I was a sophomore in high school.
HN: Which projects were the most fun to develop? Which were the most challenging?
DB: My turtle book was the most fun to develop. I took a lot of things that had happened to me and turned them into pieces of fiction. Since this was my first children’s book, I asked my 11 year old nephew to read what I had written many times. Robbie is a good kid and cares about me. I got good advice from him. My anthology of my high school stories was the most challenging. I needed to just type in what I had written years ago and try not to change it (too much). I would correct the grammar, but that’s about all, other than changing people’s names. Several things I said back then I wish I had said or written differently. But, to be honest, I needed to keep the stories the same as when I originally wrote them.
HN: What are your plans long-term for your writing? Do you have additional/different works in mind?
DB: In the long term I would like to write more novels, especially science-fiction novels. Short stories are fun but novels have more dimensions to them. I would also like to write some more children’s novels. I don’t know what to write about in that line, I will ask my nephew about that. Currently I am three quarters of the way finished with writing a science-fiction novel. Also, since the year is coming to a close, I will be putting together The Photon And The Dog – 2020. As I stated previous, I am typing an anthology of my college writings. I have also been making some notes on a sequel to A Chance Of Mars.
HN: As an author, I share the challenge of getting the word out on my books. What have you had to do to win broader exposure and branding for your works?
DB: I need to learn more in this area. I have found a couple libraries that have local authors shelf sections. Some of my books are there. Not only do the local library patrons get a chance to read what you write, your books get listed in the Illinois Card Catalog. I met you at the DuPage Comic Con. I have been getting tables at other Comic Cons in order to get my name out there that way. I also take part in local library Local Authors Festivals. I look for Coffee Houses that have Open Mic Nights. I will read my works to live audiences. Since I do write song parodies, I want to look into making sound recordings. I have a computer programming album in mind. My satirical Christmas songs might sound good. Maybe I could sell them on Amazon.
HN: This question will start off sounding like an old joke – a person walks into a bar (or convention or bookstore) and bumps into Dennis Bartizal – what would be your elevator pitch to showcase your work?
DB: Look at how advanced our civilization has become. We are cloning sheep. We are flying to other planets. We can build computers that talk, act, and think the way that we do. Did you know that there is another planet of people more advanced than we are? They are here! But they are learning too. Don’t worry! They are not trying to take over our world. They are only trying to live among us so they can understand how to live on another planet. They will not stay here and take over. They did not put one of their people in as our president. They are going to leave soon and they will leave us as we are. Or are they?
HN: As an author, it’s sometimes difficult to finally say a product is finished, no matter how many times you review or edit. Is there anything you would go back and change in your completed works? Were there ideas you had in mind and then decided NOT to include?
DB: I feel the need to work on my dialogs more. I hope the different people do sound like individuals. I hope they do not sound the same. One of my characters had a friend who died in outer space. I wish he didn’t die. I may bring him back in a sequel after having gone through a white dwarf supernova explosion, instead of his ship and self being destroyed, his electrons echoed the speeds and cycles of that part of the cosmos. Our physicists have found some evidence that electrons in areas of their clouds move back in time instead of forward. If the supernova divided his elements in monopole space he exists now in a different timeline and I can write about their attempts to reunite. At least with science-fiction and fantasy you are not stuck with permanent changes.
HN: I have an 8 year old son, and structuring time around him can be challenging! I’ve lost count of the times he nearly pressed the delete button on something I was working on…how do you find time to carve out your ideas?
DB: I carry a notebook. At least when I am struck by a fleeting idea I might be able to write enough parts of it so I can get my mind to working that way later. When I get to the computer I have a group of folders with many, many documents of ideas or parts of stories or a small chunk of detailed work that I can hope to find the time later to work on or even just string together. I wake up at one or two in the morning, turn on the computer, and type if I am so mentally pushed. There is never enough time. That is life.
HN: Do you have a certain method you use when you write – i.e., a certain room, music, mood, etc., to help get you in the right writing frame of mind?
DB: For my blog’s flash fictions I try to get a quick story put together on a Tuesday. I’ll return to that story the rest of the week, reading it, correcting it, making it larger, more dimensional, more characters or more activities. Then, Saturday, I post it in my blog. For books I am working on, I write with a goal to have a good part finished by the time The DuPage Writers Group is going to have its meeting. I bring those last few pages with me and share them with our gang so I can get critiques and suggestions. I like to take walks at the zoo. I always have a notebook with me. I walk and think and write.
HN: What are you reading right now?
DB: Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman, The Panda’s Thumb by Stephen Gould, The Year Of The Angry Rabbit by Russell Braddon, Caging Skies by Christine Leunen.
HN: Where can people go to find out more about Dennis Bartizal?
DB:
https://thephotonandthedog.blogspot.com https://www.amazon.com/author/dennisb... http://www.illinoisauthors.org/
Thanks Dennis, for sharing some of your time!
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