10 Questions with Deborah Bowman
1. How has your disabilities that you have suffered through in your life affected you as a writer?
Wow, just hit me over the head with this upfront! Best to get it out of the way, I guess. On one hand, it didn’t affect me at all when I first started writing. I would have been a writer, regardless. I started writing poetry, music, and song lyrics in grade school. My first poem was published in a 4-H magazine at 12 years old. When my life was changed by SLE (Lupus) and Rheumatoid Arthritis at an early age, it affected my mobility but not my writing. I have stayed current with cutting edge technology and trends in writing and publishing to present fiction that is geared for today’s society, torn straight from the headlines and global Internet instant information.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
Definitely, my mother. She was a member of the original Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in WWII. She had studied Journalism for at Kent State in Ohio before the war. The Army utilized her skills. At ninety years young (She runs circles around me!), she is my best critic and editor.
3. What was the inspiration for your Denny Ryder paranormal crime series?
Stroke of Fear!—opener for the series—was originally a short story I wrote many years ago as a catharsis for an actual event that haunted me. The first half or so of the novella is factual information that happened to me. It was totally rewritten in 2013 to make it more action oriented than reflective, based on a suggestion by my mother to write a popular thriller series. I become totally involved in the crusade for missing children. I, of course, changed names, cities, gender, etc. I fictionally created a ghastly ending, but the ending also reflects the feeling of being trapped within your body. I wanted to blend the paranormal dreams, which I believe in because I continue to have them and must block them at times, with the crime investigative angle. The two together can work miracles, but only if the individuals involved are sincere and trust each other explicitly. The remote viewing project in Stroke of Midnight! & Stroke of Silence!—I believe is something that exists in many governments, not just the United States. My main motivation is to find the children and get the psychotic serial killers off the street. I write these novellas age/language appropriate for “tweens”/teens and young adults. Children should know what they need to avoid so they don’t become victims, even though the best parents with the most informed, watchful children can be abducted. It is a sad, sick epidemic. The fourth novella in the series is written and should be published in the next couple of weeks—Stroke of Innocence!
4. Who is your favorite writer?
Edgar Allen Poe. I have many favorite writers, but he was the one that influenced me the most. Anyone who could write gruesome passages so that they sound beautiful to the ear and the senses is a genius. I was surprised that I reacted the way I did to his poetry and short stories because of my own sensitivity, but somehow it just works. The cadence of the words and the richness of vocabulary creates a sound like speaking. I want to hear an author or character speak, not just see words on paper.
5. Of the various jobs that you have held, what is the most interesting one?
Fiction author.
6. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
Yes, I write about current and past events that reflect on the future. I believe there is more fact in fiction, especially current fiction, than people realize. If a book isn’t researched and believable, I don’t even finish it. History must be researched diligently as it reflects on current events. My new YA series—Delilah, Astral Investigator Infinity Series, which was just released in February 2015 delves into the past, present, and future. I am also working on a historical fiction full-length novel that was inspired by a hypnotic past-life regression, “Annie’s Story, Blessed with a Gift”. I am a storyteller for all ages.
7. You write in a variety of genres. Which is your favorite?
I actually think my favorite is the one yet to come “Annie’s Story” … historical fiction, which is also a large part of the Delilah, Astral Projection Infinity Series. Both of these books would make excellent screenplays.
8. What made you start writing?
For me to “not write” isn’t an option. My life would not be complete without expressing my feelings and sensitivities in words. It writes itself in my mind, and I have to release it.
9. What is your best quality as a writer?
This is the toughest question to answer. Sustainability and remaining current is what I work at the most. I believe my best quality as a writer, however, is the emotion and realism that bleeds into my fiction. I act out all the dialog and scenes—tears, laughter, silence, hesitation, even dialects, events and responses—to ensure I’m reaching out to my readers with stories that will relate to them, and I am passionately driven to share.
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
• Princess Diana
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Sherlock Holmes
• Ayn Rand
• Charles Dickens
(I’ve changed this numerous times already!)
Wow, just hit me over the head with this upfront! Best to get it out of the way, I guess. On one hand, it didn’t affect me at all when I first started writing. I would have been a writer, regardless. I started writing poetry, music, and song lyrics in grade school. My first poem was published in a 4-H magazine at 12 years old. When my life was changed by SLE (Lupus) and Rheumatoid Arthritis at an early age, it affected my mobility but not my writing. I have stayed current with cutting edge technology and trends in writing and publishing to present fiction that is geared for today’s society, torn straight from the headlines and global Internet instant information.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
Definitely, my mother. She was a member of the original Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in WWII. She had studied Journalism for at Kent State in Ohio before the war. The Army utilized her skills. At ninety years young (She runs circles around me!), she is my best critic and editor.
3. What was the inspiration for your Denny Ryder paranormal crime series?
Stroke of Fear!—opener for the series—was originally a short story I wrote many years ago as a catharsis for an actual event that haunted me. The first half or so of the novella is factual information that happened to me. It was totally rewritten in 2013 to make it more action oriented than reflective, based on a suggestion by my mother to write a popular thriller series. I become totally involved in the crusade for missing children. I, of course, changed names, cities, gender, etc. I fictionally created a ghastly ending, but the ending also reflects the feeling of being trapped within your body. I wanted to blend the paranormal dreams, which I believe in because I continue to have them and must block them at times, with the crime investigative angle. The two together can work miracles, but only if the individuals involved are sincere and trust each other explicitly. The remote viewing project in Stroke of Midnight! & Stroke of Silence!—I believe is something that exists in many governments, not just the United States. My main motivation is to find the children and get the psychotic serial killers off the street. I write these novellas age/language appropriate for “tweens”/teens and young adults. Children should know what they need to avoid so they don’t become victims, even though the best parents with the most informed, watchful children can be abducted. It is a sad, sick epidemic. The fourth novella in the series is written and should be published in the next couple of weeks—Stroke of Innocence!
4. Who is your favorite writer?
Edgar Allen Poe. I have many favorite writers, but he was the one that influenced me the most. Anyone who could write gruesome passages so that they sound beautiful to the ear and the senses is a genius. I was surprised that I reacted the way I did to his poetry and short stories because of my own sensitivity, but somehow it just works. The cadence of the words and the richness of vocabulary creates a sound like speaking. I want to hear an author or character speak, not just see words on paper.
5. Of the various jobs that you have held, what is the most interesting one?
Fiction author.
6. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
Yes, I write about current and past events that reflect on the future. I believe there is more fact in fiction, especially current fiction, than people realize. If a book isn’t researched and believable, I don’t even finish it. History must be researched diligently as it reflects on current events. My new YA series—Delilah, Astral Investigator Infinity Series, which was just released in February 2015 delves into the past, present, and future. I am also working on a historical fiction full-length novel that was inspired by a hypnotic past-life regression, “Annie’s Story, Blessed with a Gift”. I am a storyteller for all ages.
7. You write in a variety of genres. Which is your favorite?
I actually think my favorite is the one yet to come “Annie’s Story” … historical fiction, which is also a large part of the Delilah, Astral Projection Infinity Series. Both of these books would make excellent screenplays.
8. What made you start writing?
For me to “not write” isn’t an option. My life would not be complete without expressing my feelings and sensitivities in words. It writes itself in my mind, and I have to release it.
9. What is your best quality as a writer?
This is the toughest question to answer. Sustainability and remaining current is what I work at the most. I believe my best quality as a writer, however, is the emotion and realism that bleeds into my fiction. I act out all the dialog and scenes—tears, laughter, silence, hesitation, even dialects, events and responses—to ensure I’m reaching out to my readers with stories that will relate to them, and I am passionately driven to share.
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
• Princess Diana
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Sherlock Holmes
• Ayn Rand
• Charles Dickens
(I’ve changed this numerous times already!)
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